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.

Each elected member due to ask a question, may ask up to one supplementary question which must be based on the origial question or the answer provided to that question.

the Chairman advised that there had been five Questions on Notice submitted for consideration at this meeting.

Question submitted by Councillor J. Elledge:

“Can we please get a list of all bus shelters in the district along with -

A/ who owns them

B/ which team maintains each one

C/ the current state of repair of each one and example of what each repair status means

D/ the planned maintenance schedule for them?”

The Leader provided responses to each part of the question in turn.

In respect of part (a) Members were advised that a list of all Council owned bus shelters had already been circulated. Currently there was no list available of bus shelters under the responsibility of third parties.  In terms of part (b), the Council’s Minor Works Team maintained Council owned bus shelters.  In respect of parts (c) and (d), Council was informed that bus shelters were inspected every two years to identify any issues which were then prioritised to be addressed.  The last inspection was in 2023 and they were due to be inspected again in 2025. The Council was also looking at utilising software within Environmental Services that would allow the authority to track the condition of bus shelters electronically.

Councillor Elledge subsequently asked a supplementary question which sought clarification as to whether bus shelters that were not owned by the Council were instead owned by Parish Councils.

The Leader responded by explaining that there was a mixture of arrangements in place.  Bus shelters were owned and maintained by Bromsgrove District Council, Worcestershire County Council, Parish Councils and some Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations. 

Question Submitted by Councillor J. Clarke

“I regularly receive comments asking what the Council is doing to reverse the decline of our High street. So, I went on a short walk through the town centre. This revealed 20 businesses are boarded up and with forthcoming closures, including the Halifax and Lloyds, this will soon rise to 23.  

Has this Council explored using the High Street Rental Auctions powers launched in December as a way of tackling this problem?”

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration responded by explaining that the Council was in the process of reviewing the High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) powers alongside the recent Town Centre Healthcheck to explore potential properties that would be suitable for the powers. The authority had the power to hold rental auctions to let qualifying high-street premises that had been unoccupied for the whole of the preceding year, or for at least 366 days in the preceding two years. Should there be qualifying premises, the success of the initiative required willing potential tenants to bid on the vacant properties.

Councillor Clarke subsequently asked a supplementary question which made reference to the availability of funding to support the HSRA process and he questioned whether the Council would be submitting a bid for this funding.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration explained that this was in the process of being investigated further.

Question Submitted by Councillor S. Robinson

“With Worcestershire County Council encouraging residents to cut back hedges in February, do you not agree it is time for residents in the district to have the opportunity to have their brown bins collected from the start of February?”

The Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Community Safety responded by commenting that the Council’s current service operated for nine months of the year from the last week in February until the end of November (40 weeks) to reflect the main growing season when residents were maintaining their gardens and producing the majority of their garden waste. The Council had extended the garden waste service through the winter on a number of occasions previously to support residents with their winter maintenance, most recently during the Covid Pandemic in 2020/21, but saw very low take up by residents both in terms of number of households placing their bins out for collection, and the volume of material inside them. When considered against the cost of operating these vehicles on a weekly basis, and the environmental impact of providing the service, the volume of material collected did not offset the carbon footprint of operating the service in this period.  Therefore, in the Council’s current service model, this had not been proposed as a permanent alteration; and the same concerns would apply to the smaller extension suggested. 

Given the scale of changes in the process of being implemented around how waste was managed nationally and the additional burdens this was placing on the Council, officers had been tasked with reviewing the future arrangements for these services.  As part of that the garden waste service would also be reviewed to determine whether there was a way to further extend the service for residents whilst balancing the financial and environmental costs.

In the interim though, residents were still able to dispose of their garden waste at the County Council’s Household Recycling sites free of charge throughout the year.  When the service recommenced at the end of February, the grass had typically not yet started to grow sufficiently for cuttings to impact on residents’ capacity, so any hedge cuttings that residents produced during January and February and stored in their brown bins could then be collected. 

Councillor S. Robinson subsequently asked in a supplementary question for all Councillors to be provided with the figures relating to the previous occasion when the garden waste collection service operating times had been extended.  The Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Community Safety undertook to provide this information after the meeting.

Question Submitted by Councillor J. Robinson

“Can the portfolio holder update the council what the plans are for Stourbridge Road Car Park?”

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration informed Members that the land was sold subject to contract and conditional upon planning permission being granted.  The planning applications were pending on the date of the meeting.

Councillor J. Robinson subsequently asked in a supplementary question how long the planning status was likely to remain pending.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration responded by advising that she was unable to comment on this matter for legal reasons.

Question Submitted by Councillor S. Evans

“In the last full council meeting the portfolio holder confirmed the council were looking into setting up a Bromsgrove BID. Can you confirm if any businesses have suggested they would be in support of this and what level of tax they would be expected to pay?”

In responding, the Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration referred Members to the portfolio holder annual report that she had presented at the Full Council meeting held in January 2025.  This report was quoted, where a statement had been made that “A feasibility study for a proposed business improvement district for Bromsgrove Town Centre will be undertaken and work will take place with existing networks to establish a BID steering group. The feasibility stage will take approximately 3 months. If it is feasible to move forward, the process to set up the BID will take up to 18 months.”  The detail referred to in the question would form part of this process.