A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions. This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.
To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.
Minutes:
Question submitted by Councillor S Peters
“The former Dolphin Leisure Centre was operated as a charity in order to reduce the business rates liability. Is the new Bromsgrove Sports & Leisure Centre operating under a similar arrangement or is the Council now having to pay business rates either directly, or indirectly through the management company, Everyone Active?”
The Leader responded that as a Community Enterprise Company Everyone Active received similar business rate relief and therefore there were no such costs to the Council for the new Leisure Centre.
Question submitted by Councillor R Dent
Could the Portfolio Holder responsible for Leisure give an update on the progress regarding the options on the Sports Hall?
Councillor P. J. Whittaker, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, responded that he believed he had already provided an answer to this question earlier in the meeting when asked the question by the member of public.
Question submitted by Councillor M Thompson
What provision has the portfolio holder for finance made since the deal to use NBH's sports hall fell through?
Similarly Councillor P. J. Whittaker, Portfolio Holder for Leisure advised Councillor Thompson that a response to this question had been provided earlier in the meeting.
Question submitted by Councillor M Buxton
Noting the collapse of Carillion can the Portfolio Holder tell us of any businesses impacted locally, including those in the supply chain, and how will this Council be supporting them?
The Portfolio Holder for Economic Development responded that she was not aware of any immediate impact to local businesses and that the Council would continue to monitor the situation and work with partners such as the Growth Hubs and Local Enterprise Partnerships to support any affected businesses. If Members were aware of any businesses that had been affected then they should be advised to contact the Worcestershire Business Central (Growth Hub) in the first instance or the North Worcestershire Economic Development Team.
Questions submitted by Councillor S Shannon
With knowledge that this Council has contributed to the cost of the new train station transport interchange project for Bromsgrove, can I assume the Leader of the Council shares my concern for the sudden collapse of Midlands based Construction and Services Company Carillion with the related loss of jobs to the large workforce coupled with the inevitable disruption to essential services and delays to large local infrastructures projects? In particular can the Leader inform Council if the delays to the introduction of an improved electric train service from the new Bromsgrove train station are directly or indirectly connected to the failure of Carillion Rail Infrastructure division.
In particular, can I ask the Leader to exercise his leadership role by calling on those responsible for the delays in energising the electric cables that have resulted in a lengthy delay to the introduction of an improved electric powered train service from the new Bromsgrove train station. Also will he continue to exercise his leadership role in ensuring the promised delivery of this service to our residents is enacted as soon as possible?’
The Leader responded that his County Council colleagues had confirmed that as far as they were aware electrification was still planned to be completed to Bromsgrove in May 2018. County officers would contact West Midlands Rail and Midlands Connect to obtain more details and once received these would be communicated to Councillor Shannon.
To the best of the Leader’s knowledge, the electrification project would be complete and ready for the new train service (extension of the Cross City Line to Bromsgrove) by May this year. He had heard nothing to the contrary and neither had the specialist rail consultant. Nothing had been mentioned at a recent West Midlands Rail meeting either. Richard Dugdale from Network Rail had written to the Leader before Christmas and also stated that May was still on target.
Questions submitted by Councillor C Hotham
The proposed central government negative support grant for Bromsgrove -
The soon to be imposed annual payment demanded by central government of £750,000 amounts to a Bromsgrove Living Tax of £7.75 for every man, woman and child just for living in the district. This cannot be justified or fair. Please could the Leader explain why the residents of Bromsgrove are being asked to pay the BLT and what measures he is taking to stop the imposition of this new form of inequitable taxation?
The Leader responded that as part of the 2015/16 financial settlement a calculation was made to assess the relative need of councils. In Councils with a high tax base like Bromsgrove the amount of resources received was seen to be higher than the relative need and an adjustment was made to return funding back to Government from 2016/17. This was called a “tariff adjustment” or “negative grant”.
During consultation this tariff was removed from 2016/17 – 2018/19 and in the first 2 years a transition grant was provided. The tariff/negative grant remains for 2019/20 of £740k in our budget projections. In December 2017, the Secretary of State confirmed that a consultation would take place in Spring 2018 on these amounts, with the outcome feeding into the 2019/20 local government finance settlement. The Secretary of State stated that “I can confirm that my department will be looking at fair and affordable options for dealing with Negative RSG”. However, for now the negative RSG amounts remained with the 2019/20 individual authority figures.
Questions submitted by Councillor C Bloore
Could the CMR for housing please tell me the current number of 'sofa surfers ' in Bromsgrove District broken down into age groups.
Councillor C. B. Taylor, the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Strategic Housing responded that the Council did not routinely record information regarding the number of sofa surfers in Bromsgrove. This is because the individual circumstances faced by sofa surfers often change on a regular basis, so it is difficult to measure this in a meaningful way. The housing waiting list itself provides the best indicator of the levels of sofa surfing in Bromsgrove, because applicants are able to declare as part of their application that they are staying with family, friends or relatives and do not have access to their own bedroom. I am able to advise that following a check of this list, which numbers 2,186 households, in total, there are 96 households registered as staying with family, friends or relatives who do not have access to their own bedroom. I am also able to break this figure of 96 households down by age as follows:
Under 26 years` 38
26 – 30 22
31- 40 16
41 – 50 11
51- 60 4
61+ 5
The Portfolio Holder confirmed that sofa surfers were not classified as homeless.