Issue - meetings

The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is 31 December 2021

Question from Councillor Mark Howell

How much has the Council contributed in funding to Christmas activities, decorations and events in 2021 whether directly or via funding to other organisations and whether one off contributions or part of longer-term contracts? Please supply total figures for each of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and please further break down this information between each town centre and local centre.

Reply from Councillor Beverley Dunlop, Cabinet Member for Culture and Vibrant Places

A legacy budget of £44K for Bournemouth for the installation, removal, repair and replacement of Christmas decorations is not broken down by neighbourhood centres but is used where necessary to maintain or replace Xmas decorations and lights as and when needed. 

There are two other legacy Christmas budget items, £110k for Xmas Tree Wonderland, in Bournemouth, a contract, which has now completed and £20k from Christchurch for lighting and Christmas trees. 

These are the Christmas budgets that Cllr Howell inherited from the legacy councils when he became portfolio holder in May 2019 and the Conservative administration subsequently inherited from him completely unchanged 18 months later in October 2020, i.e. nothing for Poole Town or any of the district centres. 

Incidentally, the entire Poole events budget that Cllr Howell handed to Cllr Iyengar was less than the Christchurch Christmas budget, the princely sum of £17,200.  

In 2021 we were determined to correct this imbalance and boost events across the conurbation by putting extra funding into the cultural budget.  

And we did with a massive programme of 700 performances right across the three towns in summer 2021. Mr Chairman you may recall that Cllr Howell and other councillors from Poole and Christchurch, in Council, spoke and voted against this proposed increase in cultural spending.  

As part of Festival Coast Live we also obtained CIL approval for £50k infrastructure improvements to decorative lighting and electrical power infrastructure for Poole High Street and Poole Quay, an essential component in developing a Christmas experience for Poole. 

And that is precisely what we’re working on now. As part of our programme for 2022, to deliver on our Big Plan supporting the regeneration of Poole, we are intending to invest further in Christmas activities, working with partners so that Poole residents can enjoy a spectacular Christmas festival!   

And I say the same to Christchurch residents; we will be working with local partners to develop your events programme even further.   

This Conservative administration will continue to be proactive in supporting business and delighting our residents with high quality festivals and events, and Christmas 2022 will see amongst other things the launch of the Christmas Maritime Festival in Poole.

Councillor Howell, as a supplementary question asked that resources were spent equitably across the conurbation. Councillor Dunlop in response emphasised the approach in ensuring that all residents had the opportunity to enjoy the events and festivals that were held.

Note – the meeting was adjourned from 19.32 – 19.37

Question from Councillor Margaret Phipps 

My question relates to the Planning Committee carrying out its  ...  view the full minutes text for item 133

The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is 1 November 2021.

Question from Councillor George Farquhar

As a follow on from the question I asked at Full Council on Tuesday the 5^th January I have waited the Constitutionally required six months before being allowed to ask this question of the Leader of the Council.

Following the discussions with the Department for Transport aided by the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East, will the Council commit to match funding the budgets in the public domain from South Western Railway and Network Rail for the installation and commissioning of the long overdue accessibility lifts at ‘Pokesdown for Boscombe Station’ in the ward I am proud to represent? If so when? And how much?

Reply from Councillor Mike Greene, Cabinet Member for Sustainability and Transport

This is a subject that has been high on my agenda for a number of years, following the excellent and successful campaign led by Cllr Andy Jones, which resulted in the obligation for lifts at Pokesdown Station to be included as a requirement for the South Western Railways franchise.

Several meetings have been held between the BCP Council leadership, South Western Railways, Network Rail and the MP for Bournemouth East to consider the various options ahead and officers are now working closely in partnership with both those organizations towards anticipated improvements to the Pokesdown Railway Station. It is hoped that these improvements will include not only the fully accessible lifts, but other enhancements too.

Over the last few months, at BCP’s request, South Western Railways and Network Rail have been working on a business case that identifies the scope of the project, and the relative funding position for each of them. Technical work is continuing alongside this.

I am delighted to confirm that at the next Cabinet meeting, on November 24^th, I will be asking for approval for up to £2.6m from the Futures Fund set up by this Conservative administration to be allocated as a potential BCP contribution. This is to cover the shortfall from partners who themselves have identified, subject to their own internal approvals, that they will contribute a total of £3.1m.

I understand that Cllr Farquhar is new to this, but sure he will be delighted that after so many years of operator delay, it looks like all the work done by his colleague, Cllr Andy Jones is finally close to bearing fruit.

Question from Councillor Eddie Coope

Can the cabinet member explain why the Long Groyne has been secured to prevent access and how secure is it and can the cabinet member tell me what is happening with the future of the Long Groyne.

Reply from Councillor Mark Anderson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Place

I would like to thank Cllr Coope for his question, The upgrade/replacement of the Long Groyne forms part of the current Poole Bay Beach Management Scheme for which we secured £36m funding last year. Initial structural investigations undertaken to help inform condition assessment and design parameters revealed significant voiding within the existing structure. On completion of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 121

The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is 6 September 2021.

Question from Councillor Simon Bull

Following the recent IPCC report, released on 9^th August, coincidently two years after BCP council declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency, what immediate action and leadership can residents expect from this council that reflects the seriousness and gravity of the situation facing all of us?

Response from Councillor Mike Greene, Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainability

Let me start by agreeing with Cllr Bull about the need for the Council’s leadership on Climate Change:

The IPCC report– described by the UN as a ‘Code Red for humanity’ - evidences critical and unprecedented changes in global weather and climate systems as a result of human activity.

We acknowledge the immediacy that is required to respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency, further emphasised by this recent report.  There is a collective responsibility to work at scale and at pace to protect the BCP area by reducing our own emissions, improving resilience to extreme weather events, and protecting local ecology to safeguard natural systems for future generations.

But before answering the direct question about what actions the Council are taking and should take, I have to let Members know about the huge barrier I found when I took on the Climate Change portfolio. And that is the simple one of resource. 

As Full Council early last year, we collectively approved a budget which allocated £240,000 for Climate Change. That summer, the previous Administration withdrew that vital funding. As a result, when I took on the role 10 months ago, despite the declaration of the Emergency and despite all the worthy words of some of the politicians opposite me, the Sustainability team I inherited for the whole of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole was actually smaller than the one I had in Bournemouth Borough Council alone two years previously:    1.8 Full Time equivalent officers who were supposed to be responsible for everything from an increasingly burdensome support for members and report writing, to finding locations for solar farms and working out how to fund them. An impossible task.  Let’s be clear: when it came to Climate Change, to coin a phrase used recently, the last Administration was all mouth and no trousers.

Yet despite that extreme lack of resource, we have achieved a significant amount and started a number of initiatives over those 10 months.   A few examples:

• We have embarked on developing a Green Infrastructure Strategy
• We have started Local flood modelling and resilience planning
• We are making a £2.4 investment in low carbon improvements to council buildings through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
• We have introduced Carbon modelling and investment planning
• We have introduced electric vehicle charging at our Recycling Centres and are making further low carbon improvements
• We have developed a Sustainable Fleet Strategy and Plan (for which I will be seeking funding approval later this evening), with significant carbon savings already in place and more planned.
• And we have acted as Angel Investor for research at BU / AUB to help develop student  ...  view the full minutes text for item 110