Questions on Notice (to be circulated at the meeting)
To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.
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.
Minutes:
Question submitted by Councillor S. Shannon
“Recognising that August can be a difficult time for waste collection, can you please expand on sudden disruption and withdrawal of collection service in recent weeks particularly in the Charford / Aston Fields areas where residents observed normal collection service for the optional garden waste (brown bins). Surely the potentially hazardous grey waste should have been made a priority for collection, with available staff switched to collection of grey bins. Why was this not enacted?”
The Leader explained that several factors had combined to cause the disruption but collection of grey bins had indeed been a priority which enabled clearance of grey backlog within days. By the next set of planned waste collections the problems had been resolved. The Leader thanked the Council’s employees and the crews who had worked incredibly hard over the last two weeks to get things back to the status quo.
From Councillor K. Van der Plank
“With Universal Credit now being rolled out in Bromsgrove, and the widely accepted issues around the delay of payments, and resulting financial hardship of claimants, what plans do the Council have to mitigate against these?”
The Leader responded that there were two funding steams available to members of the community who were facing financial difficulties.
The Hardship Fund was used to support those residents who were finding it difficult to pay their Council Tax. This fund was promoted on the Council’s website and currently there was a budget allocation of approximately £25k per annum received from Worcestershire County Council. Officers considered individual applications to the hardship fund. There was a reserve of approximately £82k remaining in relation to this funding.
The Essential Living fund was a funding allocation to support the Council’s residents who were facing crisis in their financial arrangements. This could be due to benefit delays or suspensions, relationship breakdowns or debts. Individuals were referred to the Financial Support Officers by partners; including DWP, Social Services and the Job Centre. In addition the Council’s officers may identify residents who needed support through their discussions on benefits or other issues.
It was highlighted that staff worked with residents to understand their need and support them in ways to address their current crisis including utility tokens, food and white goods. In addition, residents who were seen to consistently require support were also given additional advice and assistance in managing their finances through the Financial Independence Team and the work the Council did with BDHT. The current reserve for this fund was £58k.