Issue - meetings

Questions on Notice

Meeting: 21/10/2020 - Council (Item 33)

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 R Hunter

“When will it be possible to make cashless payments at all of the car parks maintained by Bromsgrove District Council?”

The Leader advised that It was currently possible to pay for parking on all the Council’s Pay and Display car parks via the online mobile cashless parking app ‘MiPermit’. The two Pay on Foot car parks by the nature of their operation were not able to be included in this app.

Unfortunately, due to the age of the existing ticket machines the Council was unable to adapt them to offer a cashless card payment option. However, officers would be bringing a 5 year car park maintenance report to Cabinet on 25^th November 2020 for Members consideration. This plan included the staggered replacement of the ticket machines on all the car parks and it was proposed that those replacement ticket machines would have cashless functionality.

Question submitted by Councillor P McDonald

"Would the Leader please inform me of the cost of travelling expenses so far this year compared to this time last year?"

The Leader confirmed that using the mileage and essential car user allowance figures that had been paid via Payroll for the period 1 April to 30 September 2019 the figure was £60,0125.63 and for the same period in 2020 the figure was £39,568.24.

Councillor McDonald asked if he could put forward a supplementary questioned and the Leader responded that, as had been agreed at a meeting between all Group Leaders, there would be no supplementary questions due to the Notice of Motions being debated under the next item.

Question submitted by Councillor S Colella

“Can the Leader confirm that the previously agreed Council position whereby appointees to Outside Bodies submit regular updates on the meetings attended for collation by Democratic Services takes place and that these are available for Members to view.”

The Leader advised that, as had been agreed a number of years ago, at the end of each municipal year Democratic Services contact all Councillors who were representatives of the Council on an outside body. They were asked to complete a form which detailed the work of the body and its implications to the Council. A review of the appointments was also regularly carried out to ensure the appointments were still relevant. The forms were kept in paper format in the Democratic Services Office and if Councillor Colella or any other Member contact a member of the Team they would arrange a suitable time for these to be inspected.