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Agenda item

Members' Questions

The following question has been submitted by a Member of Council in accordance with the Council Procedure Rules (Constitution Part 5, rule 10). Oral responses will be provided at the meeting. Following receipt of the answer to their question a Member is entitled to ask one supplementary question at the meeting.

 

Question 1.  Councillor MacRae for Councillor Enright (Cabinet Member for Economy).  As a largely rural area with infrequent transport links, theresidents of our District are, in many ways reliant on taxis to enable them to carry out activities such as shopping and visits to medical facilities.  The energy situation we are experiencing has resulted in a massive increase in fuel prices and therefore a very marked increase in taxi operating costs, thus potentially putting some operators at risk of going out of business.  Does the Leader agree that this Council should seek ways to support the licensed taxi trade and thereby support local residents and can he explain what this Council this Council is doing to support our licensed taxi drivers to mitigate against the near doubling of fuel prices in the past year?

 

Question 2. Councillor MacRae for Councillor Arciszewska (Cabinet Member for the Environment). How many times have there been reports of multiple (i.e. involving several or all households in a street) missed bin collections in the last six months?

  

Question 3. Councillor MacRae and Councillor Fenton for Councillor Arciszewska (Cabinet Member for the Environment). How many of the District’s Sewage Treatment Works are due for upgrade within the next two years?

 

Question 4. Councillor Al-Yousuf for Councillor Graham (Leader) and Councillor Rylett (Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainable Development). Do you agree that this Council is in a planning crisis because it cannot demonstrate a 5 year housing land supply and therefore needs an emergency response? 

 

 

Minutes:

The following questions were asked at the meeting, and below are the recorded answers:

 Question 1. Councillor MacRae for Councillor Enright (Cabinet Member for Economy). As a largely rural area with infrequent transport links, the residents of our District are, in many ways reliant on taxis to enable them to carry out activities such as shopping and visits to medical facilities. The energy situation we are experiencing has resulted in a massive increase in fuel prices and therefore a very marked increase in taxi operating costs, thus potentially putting some operators at risk of going out of business. The new rates for fares, which came into effect on 12 October, would help the taxi drivers but would put increased pressure on residents who could ill afford to pay more.

 

Answer: It is recognised that taxis are a very important part of the District’s infrastructure. There are a range of issues that might be considered including licensing which it might be possible to harmonise across a wider area. More discussions were being held with officers to discuss the options. Councillors were encouraged to come forward with proposals.

 

Supplementary Question Councillor MacRae: Following the adoption of the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy, which came into effect on 1 October 2021, it was proposed that a second piece of work would follow in 2021/22.  This would look at the vehicle part of the Council’s Policy and review in line with the Council’s climate change priorities.  It was also promised that a consultation, supporting the DfT’s Statutory Standards for the taxi/private hire trade, would be carried out to identify if there are local circumstances which indicate that the installation of CCTV in vehicles would have either a positive or an adverse net effect on the safety of taxi and private hire vehicle users, including children or vulnerable adults, and taking into account potential privacy issues. What progress has been made on this and when can Council be made aware of the results of the review?

 

Answer: Councillor Enright would ask for an update for Councillor MacRae.

 

Question 2. Councillor MacRae to Councillor Arciszewska (Cabinet Member for the Environment). How many times have there been reports of multiple (i.e. involving several or all households in a street) missed bin collections in the last six months?

 

Answer: 4,729,943 collections have been made in the last six months (1/4/22-30/9/22). The collection accuracy remains high at 99.85%. 25 premises have reported repeat missed collections during this period.

Supplementary Question Councillor MacRae: Whilst I realise that the Cabinet member feels she has more important things to do than chase up missed bin collections, as she advised Cllr Fenton in a recent email,  does she agree with me that providing a waste collection service is one of the most significant services for which all households pay their Council Tax? What steps has she taken to reverse the decline in the service that residents have noticed since the current administration came into office? I can quote a personal example of the unacceptable decline in waste services where I, and some of my neighbours had a missed food bin collection on Friday last.  As we ask, I completed a missed collection report on Friday, had an automated receipt – number 01185727, timed at 1547, advising that the aim was to return within two working days i.e. Monday or Tuesday. The bin was still there when I left to come here Is this an acceptable level of service, I certainly don’t think so?

 

Answer: Officers are saying that the service is improving. Those collections which are missed are the result of human error. There have been some problems with the introduction of in-cab technology but as operatives are becoming more accustomed to using the technology, missed collections are reducing. 

  

Question 3. Councillor Fenton to Councillor Arciszewska (Cabinet Member for the Environment). How many of the District’s sewerage treatment works are due for upgrade within the next two years?

 

Answer: One. Witney Sewage Treatment Works is the only one in the District due to be upgraded in terms of increasing capacity within the current AMP7, which runs from 2020 - 2025. According to information obtained from Thames Water the project is expected to be completed by March 2024.

 

I view this upgrade inadequate in terms of both quantity and quality, given the scale of pollution occurring in our rivers. With that in mind, I will give you an update of the actions we are taking and the progress we have made to date:

 

  1. We’ve been working closely with WASP to query TW’s stated population data per STW. This is important as the population of a STW catchment area is a key input into calculating the necessary capacity of a STW. If the population data is false, so will be the STW’s capacity calculation.  As a result of this work, TW have now admitted publicly that they use two different sets of books to calculate population. This is deeply concerning and needs to be fixed. We have asked for both sets of population data for each of the last ten years by each STW catchment area. We will compare these datasets to our own population data calculations.

 

  1. We’re seeking confirmation of the exact formula and inputs that TW uses to calculate STW capacity. With all of this data in hand, we will be able to draw our own conclusions as to which STWs are most under-capacity. We’ve also asked TW to provide their own views as to which STWs are most under-capacity.

 

  1. We’ve asked TW to provide the make and model of the volume flowmeters it installs to measure volume flows into the environment from STWs ranging in size from Witney’s down to a 15l/s size. We’ve asked them to outline what data can be captured from the magflow volume flowmeter at Witney STW’s outlet and whether all data that TW receives from this flowmeter be made publicly available by year end? 

 

  1. We’ve asked TW to provide a list of all phosphoric strippers either already installed at STWs in our area, or planned to be installed during AMP 7 (i.e by Dec 2025). We’ve asked for TW’s views as to which future installations they view as representing the best bang for their buck.

 

  1. We’ve asked TW to provide an overview of TW leak fixing activity in West Oxfordshire and upstream on the Evenlode and Windrush catchments. Over the past year, how many people days have been spent fixing this, fixing how many leaks, over the past year? Plus a summary of what works are planned going forward in the area.

 

  1. TW have confirmed that all STW sewage spill data will be available in real time online by year end. We intend to hold them to this commitment.

 

We met with TW on Friday 7th October and have another meeting with them on the 4th November to run through the above data, which they will be providing us ahead of the meeting.

Supplementary Question Councillor Fenton: What action can the Council take if Thames Water’s performance fails to improve?

Answer: The District Council has no legal powers and so must work with Thames Water to motivate them to improve their performance.

 

Question 4. Councillor Al-Yousuf to Councillor Graham (Leader) and Councillor Rylett (Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainable Development). Do you agree that this Council is in a planning crisis because it cannot demonstrate a 5 year housing land supply and therefore needs an emergency response? 

 

Answer: Whilst I  acknowledge that the District Council cannot currently demonstrate a 5-year supply of deliverable housing land, this is not a planning crisis that requires an emergency response – rather it is a common issue faced by many local authorities and requires a measured and robust plan of action.

Whilst the final figure is still being verified, the total number of housing completions for 2021/22 is expected to exceed 1,000 units which is a very strong performance and would mean that nearly 6,500 new homes will have been built in West Oxfordshire since the start of the Local Plan in 2011. This is a significant uplift in housing delivery compared to long-term past trends.

Looking forward, the Council is currently in the process of finalising a new Housing Land Supply Position Statement for the period 1st April 2022 – 31st March 2027 which will set out the number of homes expected to come forward over that 5-year period. In preparing the statement, Officers have been seeking additional information from landowners and developers to provide clearer evidence to support any assumptions made. It is anticipated that the updated position statement will be published later this month.

Officers are also seeking to identify suitable opportunities to increase the capacity of sites where the principle of residential development has already been established and have started a review of the Local Plan which will consider future housing needs and provide an opportunity to identify additional housing sites in a plan-led manner in consultation with local communities and other key stakeholders.   

Supplementary Question Councillor Al-Yousuf: When will the Council issue an updated public position statement? It is important to regain public confidence in the planning system.

Answer: Councillors have already received advice and a more detailed statement will be issued by the end of the month. This issue is not unique to West Oxfordshire with 37% of other planning authorities in a similar position. Government has recognised that planning legislation is not working and that more control needs to be given to local councils.

 

At this point the Chair advised that the time allowed for Members Questions had expired but that he would allow a further question which had been tabled under the Urgent Question procedure.

 

Question 5:  Councillor MacRae for Councillor Graham (Leader of the Council).  Councillors received the following advice from Democratic Services on 13th October – “The postal strike will affect delivery of the following Committee Papers: Council 19 October, Audit and Governance 26 October and Economic and Social 24 November.  It is highly likely that these will get caught up in the backlog so we will not be posting these papers.  Electronic versions will be sent to you once published and paper copies will be available on the day of the meeting.” 

 

When accessing the papers on my PC, I am provided with the ‘Public’ version that does not include sensitive ‘green’ pages as I am not on the internal intranet system.  It is important, for me, and I am sure others, to have all papers in advance of meetings in order that they can be fully considered. If the disruption to postal services continues as advised above and perhaps beyond, how do Councillors access ‘green pages’ other than by driving into Woodgreen to collect them in person.

 

Answer: Members can register for restricted papers on the Modern.gov app. Andrew Brown, Business Manager, Democratic Services has circulated instructions on how this can be done and I have asked him to recirculate this. Members can also access private papers via the Intranet. A link is included when the papers are published. For Members unable to use either of these methods, Democratic Services will, on request, email restricted papers. The private pack for the Performance and Appointments Committee meeting on 26 October was circulated to members of that committee by email.

 

Councillors reported that the Intranet link was not working. Democratic Services was asked to investigate.