Agenda item

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.

The Chairman explained that five Questions on Notice had been submitted for this meeting.

Question submitted by Councillor H. Rone-Clarke

"In recent years, the A38 roundabout at Morrison’s (Redditch Road) and immediate surrounding area has been subject to much development; new shops, a Costa Drive-Thru and planned improvements to the A38 mean this area will soon be unrecognisable compared to 5 years ago. Local residents along with myself are, as a result, calling for air pollution monitoring so they can be educated as to the air quality around their homes.

I’m aware that studies have been undertaken prior to development suggesting it would not have a negative impact, but given the other changes that have taken place in the area, will the leader write to Highways to request that a survey is undertaken as soon as possible?”

The Leader provided a response to the question and in doing so reported that duties around air quality sat mainly with the District Council in two tier areas, although under the new Environment Act 2021, County Councils did have a duty to work with District authorities to improve air quality where levels fell below objective standards. 

The Technical Services Team at Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) were responsible for discharging the District Council duties for monitoring Air Quality across Worcestershire. It was confirmed that they carried this out for all six partner Councils, including Bromsgrove, to address the Districts’ duties which included reporting on progress with regards to air quality to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Council was informed that in Bromsgrove District there were three Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) declared, as follows:

·                     Lickey End (Junction 1 of M42) - Bromsgrove declared in 2001.

·                     Redditch Road (A38) - Bromsgrove declared in 2010.

·                     Worcester Road - Bromsgrove declared in 2011.

It was stated that details of the AQMAs outlined above, could be found on the WRS website under Air Quality.

It was further clarified that the area around Morrisons/A38 roundabout, specifically referred to in the question was near to the Redditch Road AQMA with two sensitive receptor (SR) locations (i.e. houses,) being located within the AQMA at the junction of Redditch Road and Buntsford Hill. The long-term Nitrogen Dioxide (NOx) tube monitoring locations in this AQMA showed that there had not been any exceedances of the national air quality objectives standard since 2016. In 2022 (the last full year of data), the annual average level of NOx at locations in the AQMA was 25.91 ug/m3, falling below the national objective standard of 40 ug/m3. Residential properties to the north-east of Morrisons area were set well back from the A38 and this, plus the above results, would suggest that pollutant concentrations were likely to be within the air quality objective standard at these locations.

The view of Officers was that the current monitoring network in this overall vicinity was considered sufficient at this time.

However, Members were reminded that additional monitoring equipment had been funded and that once available, would be deployed across the county at priority sites. Whilst Officers were unable to commit to the additional monitoring at this particular location, it would most certainly be kept under review.

Where there were future developments, such as Costa Coffee, WRS did respond, providing advice on specific planning applications on a case-by-case basis, and this would include addressing issues such as air quality. Recent developments in this vicinity did not appear, at this stage, to have had an adverse impact in terms of causing exceedances of the NOx levels.

Question submitted by Councillor S. Evans

"The Liberal Democrat group welcomes the investment of £14.5 million to improve Bromsgrove, however we would like to ensure that the opportunity is taken to regenerate the entire High Street.

Would the Cabinet Member please confirm whether the ruling Conservative and Independent administration agrees with me that the Council should install hanging baskets, flower planters and heritage lighting on Bromsgrove High Street?"

The Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Economic Development and Regeneration provided the response to this question. In doing so it was reported that the Bromsgrove Levelling Up Fund project included approximately £2 million of funding for public realm improvements on both the south of the High Street and Chapel Street which provided the link through to the Windsor Street Site. These improvements would, it was noted include resurfacing and new street furniture. Works were expected to start in April 2024.  Following on from a walkaround the previous year with the Leader and Bromsgrove Centres Manager, several areas were identified for improvements on the high street, such as the removal of tarmac areas which it was confirmed had been completed along with the installation of hanging baskets. Using UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funding, the Bromsgrove Centres Manager was in the process of procuring new planter baskets and associated planting on the lamp columns throughout the high street.

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Question submitted by Councillor R. Hunter

“I understand that members of Bromsgrove Sports and Leisure who were unable to access the pool for an extended period earlier this year due to maintenance issues were given the option to pause their membership. Do you think this is sufficient or do you agree with me that members who were inconvenienced but continued to pay membership fees should be offered recompense such as a limited period of free membership?”

As the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Climate Change had submitted his apologies for this meeting, the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Community Safety provided a response to the question.

Members were informed that the Council and Everyone Active who managed the centre completely understood the frustrations felt by members and casual users of the pool through the unfortunate extended closure earlier in the year of the main pool.

As mentioned in the question, members that felt that the pool closure had impacted their overall membership,were given the option to freeze their membership.  Members were also given the opportunity to use the neighbouring Everyone Active facilities as part of their Bromsgrove membership.  Many sessions were adapted into the teaching pool including lessons, aqua fitness and casual swimming.  Those directly impacted, for example lessons that could not be accommodated or swim only members, had had their payments automatically frozen.

To initiate any kind of blanket recompense for all members would have been very difficult as this was a multi-facility site. Therefore, members that only used their membership for the gym, fitness classes or to use the teaching pool with younger children, may not have felt impacted at all by the closure. 

Both the Council and Everyone Active were acutely aware of the impact that this had had on residents and that was why it was felt that the most appropriate way to provide recompense to those members who felt impacted by the closer was to freeze their membership on request.  Although there was certainly no perfect way to be able to adequately appease everybody impacted by the closure and also not to diminish the impact that those effected would have felt, there had only been a reduction of 8.4% of members from pre-closure until re-opening. The Council would have preferred no reduction in members, but the recompense needed to be through a continuation of high-quality service to users. It was confirmed that the Council was also working with the builders to ensure that an incident such as this did not occur again.

Question submitted by Councillor S. Robinson

“Do you think the A38 BREP will really support the housing needs it is purported to and do you agree with the County Council that the plans, including the closure of the right hand turn into School Lane, are in the best interests of the people of Bromsgrove?”

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and WRS provided the response to the question and highlighted that the A38 Bromsgrove Route Enhancement Programme (BREP), was coming forward to support housing growth, but also critically supporting the economic growth of the town as well as providing much needed additional infrastructure to support increased levels of walking and cycling around the town.

The A38 works were in part being funded by the Department for Transport and Major Road Network funding and as such, the scheme would go througha high level of technical scrutiny in order to secure the funding. All plans, including the closure of the right turn into School Lane would be subject to this scrutiny to ensure the effectiveness of the whole A38 BREP.

It was stated that the Cabinet Member was not aware of anything further pertinent to this point, other than to be assured that the BREP would achieve its aims, and be a benefit and in the best interests of the people of Bromsgrove. 

Question submitted by Councillor J. Robinson

“Could you please update us on what has caused the delay to the old market hall redevelopment site and confirm if it is still being taken forward as the best solution for the area?”

The Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Economic Development and Regeneration provided the response to the question and in doing so informed Members that as part of the project design stage (RIBA 3), a Flood Risk Assessment and River Mapping exercise (FRA) was carried out in April 2023, which identified a potential risk with the existing building design. This had led to the project design team focusing efforts on reviewing the FRA and exploring options to mitigate the risk. Following a period of review and extensive engagement with the relevant statutory authorities, the design team had been able to return to a variation of the original pavilion building design, incorporating additional flood remediation works.

The project outputs had not been impacted by the variation to the original pavilion building design. The design work was on course for completion in July 2023 with a target planning submission date of the end of July 2023.