Questions of interest (to me, anyway!) asked, followed by their proposed answers:
Question from Mr A Wentworth
Why is the Executive Council Member responsible for Health and Well-being, making no public attempts to extol the Health and Well-being benefits plus savings to the NHS, the Longfield Suite provides to the residents of Bury.
R
It is widely acknowledged that all our Civic Venues provide a range of activities which foster health and well being, but we cannot ignore the financial realities of using taxpayer’s money to subsidise these venues to the tune of £600,000 a year. We have to look at what alternatives are available that would retain the strong links with local communities but not require large ongoing unfunded subsidies.
The Task and Finish Group is currently undertaking a wide-ranging consultation to enable a full range of views as possible to be gathered as part of its work. The wide range of dance activity, and the benefits of that to the individuals who visit the Civic Venues, is already understood by the Task and Finish Group, and this will be considered as part of its work.
Q Could the Leader inform me:-
i) What teething problems were encountered in changing the refuse collection rounds?ii) Have they been resolved?iii) How much money do you anticipate saving in a financial year?iv) How many fewer staff are involved in collecting?v) How much money has been spent so far on agency staff?
A
You will all have received the answer that was provided in response to Cllr Smith’s very similar question at the last Council meeting.
Due to the weather conditions and the need to suspend both residual and recyclate collections in recent weeks, it is not possible to isolate issues solely to the changes in the collection rounds. Therefore, I cannot provide an answer in respect of the cost of agency staff that can be compared on a like for like basis.
Q A series of recommendations for the improved efficiency and use of Civic Halls was made in a Best Value Review in 2007. The Leader is on record as saying that he could not act on these recommendations due to the balanced Council which existed at the time. What are his exact reasons for coming to this view?
A As I recall it was clear from the outcome from Scrutiny’s deliberations that more work was to be done on the whole future of Civic Venues. How could any Member reach any decision in the absence of a clear strategy for Civic Venues? It was Cllr Connolly as Chair of the scrutiny panel who ordered a further review.
Under this administration that review has been completed. I am sure Cllr D’Albert and his Lib Dem colleagues will agree that we cannot continue to ask Council Tax payers to pump in - year on year over £600,000 in subsidies.
Q Can the Leader explain what additional and/or emergency provision will be provided for the repairs to the roads of this Borough, following the damage caused by two consecutive snow-bound winters?
A. To date we have received no additional/emergency financial provision to repair damage to the Councils highways after the recent adverse weather. As we identify the extent of the problem from a financial perspective, consideration may have to be given to reprioritising areas of spend to address the matter. Remediation work has begun by a specialised team.
Q Can the Leader explain to the governors, staff & pupils of Butterstile Primary School their policy in relation to clearing snow around this school, to enable the continuing education of the children, and whether or not said policy was enacted and effective?
A The access roads to this school are not on the priority gritting routes although the adjacent roads,
Butterstile Lane
and
Sandy Lane
, both are.
There are over 70 schools within the Borough. To include all of these on gritting routes would require a significant increase in resource. It is not within the policy to grit around schools although we are considering options to provide grit bins to all schools for them to have the opportunity to undertake some gritting themselves.
Q What lessons have been learned so far from the Council’s response to the recent severe winter weather?
A As you are aware the Current Winter has been the worst for some 30 years and as such has presented problems for the Winter Gritting Services. The Economy, Environment and Transport Scrutiny Commission has requested a report to their March meeting detailing actions taken and possible improvements to the current Winter Maintenance Operational Plan. The Scrutiny Commission may make recommendations on how to deal with weather conditions similar to this in the future but we must not lose sight of the fact there is not a limitless budget for winter maintenance and setting priorities must be an integral part of the decision making process. I would however commend the staff who have been out undertaking the services in extremely difficult and hazardous conditions.
Q Can the Leader advice specifically how many personnel from which departments were involved in clearing snow from which areas on which days. It is the view of many of my constituents that it would appear from the results in Prestwich that the response to specific issues as they arose, for instance around the Longfield Centre, was inadequate.
A During the severe weather, many employees from across Highways, Parks and Cleansing were unable to carry out their normal duties.
They were switched to snow clearance duties on footways, shopping precincts, footways adjacent to health and emergency service facilities, cemeteries and the like, in accordance with areas identified in the Winter Maintenance Plan.
Unfortunately it is not possible to provide the detail request by Councillor Garner. More attention was applied to allocating the teams to key areas and managing service requests than to logging numbers, locations and times.
So basically, they are not willing to admit that they put everyone into
Bury
Town Centre or Ramsbottom/Tottington and nobody into Prestwich! Do we have to ask each individual member of staff where they were on each day to get a straight answer?!?
Q Could the leader tell us the approximate time for street lights to be repaired after being reported as not working? Is there any preference given to lights on A roads / streets or lights in our local parks? Does the Council’s performance meet government targets for the speed of street light repairs and how do we compare to other Authorities?
A There are two different standards for repair of street lights dependant upon whether it is within the Councils control or it is an electricity supply fault. The former was in the past a national indicator but is now a local one. The average time for us to repair a fault that is our responsibility last year was 4.82 Days. Currently this year we are averaging 4.23 Days. The target in the Street Lighting Code of Practice is 5 days for most types of routine faults. The electricity is supplied by United Utilities who have a target of 15 working days to repair a supply fault. However this is not statutory and whilst doing their best, street lighting is a lower priority than house and business faults that need repairing. Last year they averaged 15.86 days to fix an outage and this year they are averaging 10.03 Days.
So it appears it has nothing to do with Mr Grosskopf of Sedgley, and a lot to do with the efficiency of our Engineers and Streetcare Inspectors!!! (Oh, and Local Councillors alerting the Council to problems as they pass by whilst delivering their Focus leaflets!
Q Will the Leader of the Council please explain why no action was taken to implement changes at the Borough’s Civic Suites following the production of a report by Bury MBC in October 2007 that highlighted the suites needed improvements in advertising, website capability and more modern box office facilities?
A As I recall it was clear from the outcome from Scrutiny’s deliberations that more work was to be done on the whole future of Civic Venues. How could any Member reach any decision in the absence of a clear strategy for Civic Venues? It was Councillor Connolly as Chair of the scrutiny panel who ordered a further review.
Under this administration that review has been completed. I am sure Councillor Shori and his Labour colleagues will agree that we cannot continue to ask Council Tax payers to pump in - year on year over £600,000 in subsidies.
Q As there is no direct bus route from Bury New Road Prestwich to Bury, is the council going to urge its representatives on the GMITA to lobby the bus companies to provide one?
A Thank you for your question. As this is an issue that the GMITA should respond to can I ask that Councillor Baum passes his concerns to Councillor Creswell who, as the Councils spokesperson, can forward the issues to the GMITA.
I think this adequately shows Cllr. Bibby’s lack of concern for the electorate, and disproves any idea that he may have an ounce of a clue about how to improve public transport in our communities. But why would it bother him? He had his new Lexus delivered to the town hall car park during the negotiations on employee pay – how sensitive! Oh yes, and he lives in Bacup, so wouldn’t have need of public transport in Bury!
Q Can the Leader explain who is responsible for the purchasing and proof-testing of gritting wagons, fitted with sophisticated (& presumably expensive) satellite navigation monitoring, which failed to provide the data promised, and enabled the practice of “ghost gritting” in many areas of this Borough?
A. At the outset, I would strenuously contest Councillor Garner’s comment about ‘ghost gritting’. We do not and have not used such a practice. The Department leases its gritting vehicle fleet and this year purchased satellite navigation equipment for each of the vehicles (at a total cost of £3,500).
Unfortunately the equipment, whilst in place, is still being developed and refined to provide us with accurate feedback on the routes, locations and timing of grit runs. Once it is up and running, we will have excellent detail and data on which to base future decisions.
On occasion some of the priority routes were not accessible even to a gritting vehicle either due to the conditions or because of congestion. It is also important to note that the spreading of grit does not always provide an instant result in improving conditions. Grit is only effective in certain conditions and changes in temperatures of only a few degrees can render recently spread grit as ineffective.
So we bought something that doesn’t work, but we’ll have it ready by the summer – very useful on a gritting wagon! This is the kind of clever strategy and operation you get with a Tory Council! And over 4% Council Tax to pay for it too! (Oh – or was that Bob Bibby’s office refurbishment you paid for? He spent nearly four times more on that than he did on the sat-nav equipment for the gritting wagons!)
GMITA:Cllr Richard BaumA number of people in my ward were forced to walk several miles home from
Manchester during the snow after being let down by Metrolink. The service was frequently disrupted and reduced, and trams were vastly overcrowded if they turned up at all. What measures are being put in place to ensure this situation will not happen in future years? What gestures of apology are they planning to give to local people?
A The heavy snow and freezing temperatures experienced during the first two weeks of January caused considerable disruption across the transport network, including on the Metrolink system. On the Bury line, best efforts were made to run a 12 minute service between Bury and Atrincham via Piccadilly, complemented with direct services when sufficient number of trams were available. However, the service was subject to delays and varying frequency. The cold weather led to faults with brakes, suspension and door opening mechanisms rendering some trams unsuitable for operation. As a result an engineer from the supplier was brought on site to assist in the identification and repairing or faults, which led to the fast repair of some vehicles.
To minimise the impact on services, heaters were used to reduce the number of points freezing, and the points themselves were operated every 20 minutes. Technicians were also deployed at key points at peak times in the event that points failed. Staff were also deployed to remove snow and ice from stops, ramps, stairwells and platforms on the Bury line. Access areas were prioritised at each stop to ensure that, as a minimum, one safe access point was provided at each stop. In addition, trams were run throughout the night to ensure that the track and overhead lines were kept clear of snow and ice.
Keeping customers informed was of paramount importance and rolling announcements were made over the public address system informing them of expected delays. However, the number of announcements required to cover the system and the limitations of the PA system resulted in some passengers commenting that the frequency of announcements could be improved. In light of the disruption to services passengers in Bury were able to use their Metrolink tickets on the 135 and 98 bus services, additional Travel Safe officers were deployed in key areas to provide customer care and a temporary Severe Weather homepage was created on the PTE’s website to provide up to date information - it received 92,000 hits - 10 times the normal peak of visitors.
I am satisfied that the PTE and Metrolink did all that they could to keep the network running in extremely difficult circumstances. That said, the PTE will be working with all transport operators, including Metrolink to review the procedures in place to manage the transport network and to take into account the lessons learned over those two weeks.
So, as you can see, she waffled on and on, and answered part of Cllr. Baum’s question in the last paragraph, but failed to note any form of apology or recompense (how surprising for a Tory!)
Police Authority:Cllr Donal O’HanlonWhat are the sickness absence statistics for the most recent year, and the mean average age of retirement for serving Officers?
A Sickness absence - the force has an internal target of 8 days lost per Officer/Staff for the period April 2009 - March 2010. The figures below show how the Force is currently performing against this target year to date.
For the period April - December 2009 the year to date target for sickness is 5.99 days lost per Officer/Staff
Officers - 5.99 days lost per Officer (on target)Staff - 7.33 days lost per Staff (currently 22% over target)
Average retirement age for Officers year to date is currently – 51.
Cllr Richard BaumGreater
Manchester Police have taken the DNA of 5,000 innocent people since the European Court ruled the practice illegal in December 2008. Why have they done this?
A. In terms of taking DNA/Fingerprints following arrest. It is lawful to take fingerprints and non-intimate and intimate samples from persons who are lawfully arrested in connection with the investigation of an offence. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) deals with fingerprints at s61, non-intimate samples at s62 and non-intimate samples at s63. S63 (2A) PACE provides that non-intimate sample may be taken without consent from a person if that person is in police detention in consequence for his arrest for a recordable offence and either he has not previously had an non-intimate sample taken or a previous sample was taken but was insufficient (for identification purposes).I think it is prudent to point this out since, in effect, if the taking of those samples is Cllr Baum’s point, it is the Government whom he should approach.
If however Councillor Baum wants a response to the fact that some people who are arrested in connection with an offence but who subsequently are never charged or against whom no further action is taken (and therefore in his eyes are “innocent”) still have their fingerprints and DNA taken and retained, I advise as follows:-
Simply because an individual is not later charged in connection with the offence with which they were arrested or no further action is taken or indeed is acquitted when the matter goes to court, does not necessarily mean they are “innocent” of that offence and it never occurred. Innocent is a vague term that does not adequately deal with the various stages in a criminal case. A simple example could be for instance, where a criminal offence has been committed, but an individual is not charged with that offence since the CPS do not feel that a prosecution would be in the public interest, or indeed where is insufficient evidence to charge.
As long as an individual is lawfully arrested, their DNA / fingerprints can in the first instance be taken, as set out in PACE above. S64 PACE deals with the destruction of fingerprints and samples. In essence, it allows for the retention of fingerprints and DNA taken from those people suspected of being involved in an offence regardless of the outcome of criminal proceedings, so that the same can be used in the prevention and detection of crime. Primary legislation has not been changed following the decision of Marper. Therefore, the Force is acting lawfully and in accordance with the direction given by the Director of Information at ACPO who advised that the current retention policy on fingerprints and DNA was unchanged following Marper. A copy of the letter from Ian Readhead dated 28 July 2009 is attached.
Fire Authority:Cllr Tim PickstoneWould the Council’s representative to the GMFRS join me in congratulating all GMFRS staff who have been involved in work in
Haiti following the recent terrible earthquake there.
A. Following the terrible earthquake in Haiti on the 12 January 2010, 9 of our colleagues travelled down to
Gatwick
Airport as part of the UK Fire Service International Search and Rescue Team, preparing to fly out and assist rescuers from other Fire and Rescue Services around the country with the rescue efforts. The team members were;
|
Deputy Borough Commander Peter Stevenson
|
Rochdale Borough |
| WM Simon Cording |
Sale |
| WM Andy Roughley |
Eccles |
| WM Martin Fisher |
Training Centre |
| FF Martin Foran |
Chadderton |
| WM Vic Kopicki |
Eccles |
| SM Dean Nankivell |
FSHQ |
| CM Mick Dewar with Echo |
Fire Investigation Unit |
| FF John Hughes |
Salford |
Deputy Borough Commander Pete Stevenson, who led our team, was designated as Operations Commander for the
UK contingent. Some of the team members had previous experience of dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes in
India,
Turkey,
Algeria and
Pakistan and will utilise everything they have learned previously.
As well as our team members the UK team was made up of personnel from West Sussex, Kent, West Midlands, Lancashire,
Lincolnshire, Hampshire as well as Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Services. A total of 61 personnel were mobilised, assisted by two search dogs, one being Echo from GMFRS, and equipped with 12 tonnes of equipment. The answer goes on for 3 more pages, but suffice to say we all thought they were wonderful!
