The Council’s rules provide for questions by any member of the Council to the Leader or any Portfolio Holder, without notice on:
(i) reports under the previous item; or
(ii) any other matter of a non operational character in relation to the powers and duties of the Council or which affects all or part of the District or some or all of its inhabitants.
The Council’s rules provide that answers to questions without notice may take the form of:
(a) a direct oral answer from the Leader or, at the request of the Leader, from another member of the Cabinet;
(b) where the desired information is in a publication of the Council or other published work, a reference to that publication;
(c) where the reply cannot conveniently be given orally, a written answer circulated later to the questioner; or
(d) where the question relates to an operational matter, the Leader or a member of the Cabinet will request that a response be given direct to the questioner by the relevant Service Director.
In accordance with the Council’s rules, a time limit of thirty minutes is set for questions. Any question not dealt with within the time available will receive a written reply. The Chairman may extend this period by up to a further ten minutes at their discretion.
Minutes:
The Chairman informed members that as this was the budget meeting and would like to give emphasis to the budget she would therefore allow only 30 minutes for questions.
(a) Dangerous Structures
Councillor R Brookes referred to the Technical Services Portfolio Holders report and asked under the heading ‘Dangerous Structures’ why the Chigwell Lane to Torrington Drive path had been closed for over a year and could he give an update as to the way forward and when this path might be opened again.
Action: Councillor K Williamson advised that he could not give any further updates this evening and that he would speak to officers and report back to Councillor Brookes.
(b) Council Housebuilding and Regeneration Programme
Councillor J Parsons asked if there were any updates to the Council Housebuilding and regeneration programme around the district.
Councillor H Whitbread stated that members would be aware from previous Cabinet meetings that they were reviewing the Councils Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan to meet the present climate. We were facing new challenges in terms of the cost of living crisis and the cost of building, as a result of inflation, due to the war in the Ukraine.
She went on to assure members that the Council was committed to both Council house building and regeneration in the district. Recently, Harveyfields in Waltham Abbey, had £114,000 investment into regenerating that estate which included, also work was being undertaken in Limes Farm, Chigwell and Shelley in Ongar.
(c) Progress update on the waste management collections
Councillor J McIvor asked if the Leader of Council could give an update on the disruption to the waste management collections and to thank the residents of the district for their patience.
Councillor C Whitbread apologised to the residents of the district for the disruption that had been experienced over the winter months. Council officers and members have had constructive discussions with Biffa, and improvements were being introduced. He took this opportunity to pay tribute to the Council officers who had been instrumental in the discussions and had put in a lot of hard work into getting these issues addressed as quickly as possible. He also thanked the call centre staff have been inundated with complaints during this time and had put so much effort into trying to resolve issues for residents.
He advised, going forward, the Council were looking at finding a place to park the waste lorries with a view to making plans for the future.
(d) New Chairman of Qualis
Councillor S Heap stated that at a recent meeting of Overview and Scrutiny he requested that the new chairman of Qualis be invited to the next Full Council meeting and asked when this would happen.
Councillor J Philip advised that he was not in charge of Overview and Scrutiny and therefore not the correct person to ask. There was a procedure to get things onto the Overview and Scrutiny agenda, by filling in a pick form and Councillor Heap should follow that process.
(e) Ulez Charge
Councillor K Rizvi asked in the Leader of Council agree with him that the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan’s Ulez charge was a tax without accountability on the residents of Epping Forest.
Councillor C Whitbread stated that he was opposed to the Ulez charges that were being proposed and wanted it noted that Essex will have no Ulez signage on any Essex owned highway land. It was a positive stand to take and he would also take that stand in Epping Forest.
(f) Structural refurbishment of the shops and flats in Loughton Broadway
Action: Councillor H Whitbread advised that Loughton Broadway and Limes Farm were two key projects being looked at and that she would put an update in the Members Bulletin.
Action: Councillor J Philip advised that a question like that would have been better if he had some warning as he didn’t keep those details to hand and he would also put an update in the Members Bulletin.
(g) Reviews and Efficiency Portfolio
Councillor J Whitehouse asked Councillor L Burrows to update her on the projects that he was involved in and could he advise why he did not provide a report to Council, like the other portfolio holders did.
Councillor L Burrows advised that he was involved with various projects, the museum and grants therefore there wasn’t much to report back to Council because it was ongoing.
Councillor C Whitbread added that much of what Councillor Burrows did was across all of the other Portfolio Holders reports and that information was therefore integrated into their reports.
(h) DaRT 87 Demand Responsive Transport Bus Service
Councillor C Amos asked in the DaRT 87 bus service could be more widely publicised as he hadn’t seen much advertisement of this service. There were a number of community groups in Theydon Bois and this bus service should be brought to their attention.
Councillor N Bedford advised that in his report on page 39 of the agenda there was an update. This service was widely used during the pandemic when people had to go to the hospital but only six people at a time were allowed on. A new £2 flat fare was recently introduced for a limited time and he was happy to announce some improvements in the service. There had been 400 extra passenger trips between April and December 2022 which had been detailed in his report.
(i) Refuse lorries parking at North Weald
Councillor H Brady asked if the proposed depot for the refuse trucks in North Weald was only for parking of the refuse trucks or would there be any rubbish sorting on site.
Councillor N Avey stated that he had recently had a meeting with North Weald Parish Council to discuss the same issue. The official title of the site was a ‘Waste Depot’ but in reality, it was going to be used only as a vehicle park and there would be no waste stored at that site, it was purely for the parking of waste vehicles and an administration function that went with it.
The depot would be important for our procurement process in attracting a new waste contractor as we have been advised that otherwise the Council would be at a disadvantage and would unlikely to get any bidders in the procurement exercise.
(j) Ownership of the Refuse Vehicles
Councillor D Wixley thought the refuse lorries used by Biffa were owned by the Council but in the Portfolio Holders report on page 55 of the agenda it stated that Biffa were continuing to make progress on replacing and repairing their waste vehicles’. Could the Portfolio Holder advise on who owned the vehicles.
Councillor N Avey advised that all of the refuse lorries were owned by Biffa and they were responsible for replacing and repairing them. The problems which had occurred were finding people to repair the vehicles and obtaining the spare parts.