The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is 29 June 2020.
Minutes:
Question from Councillor Mike Cox
Can I please ask the responsible Cabinet Member to review Hedgerow management. After recent cutbacks by the Council in Purewell the scene left behind was one of devastation.
Whilst I accept there was some cutting back required for safety reasons the mechanical flailing left a scene of destruction with twigs and splintered wood scattered everywhere to say nothing of it occurring in the middle of the bird nesting season.
There must be a better way of looking after our environment such as leaving areas for wilding and the planting of wildflower beds on the road verges.
Response from Councillor Felicity Rice, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Climate Change
The works at Purewell were purely operational as the vegetation had started to grow out into the pavement to such an extent that it forced pedestrians close to the road, creating an urgent safety issue.
A tractor mounted flail was used due to the length and thickness of the vegetation which inevitably causes some split ends, which will green up very quickly. Please be assured that staff checked for bird nesting prior to carrying out the work.
The Council, through the Environmental Services Parks team are working towards a new approach to verge management in order to enhance the natural regeneration of wildflower meadows over a managed and sustained period of time. This was outlined in a paper brought to Cabinet in March, 'Grass Cutting, Wildflower & Grassland Habitat Management Policy'
This outlines a range of activities to promote wildlife including changes to mowing regime, frequencies, denitrification via cut & collect to promote natural wildflower development and the seeding and development of additional annual wild flower meadows.
This year’s reduction in grass cutting due to operational restriction imposed on us through Covid -19, has also highlighted how wildlife & wildflowers can take advantage if we are prepared to change our normal working practices.
Question from Councillor Simon Bull
How is the council addressing the perceived, and indeed actual, lack of ethnic diversity within the workforce at all levels, what measures, such as anonymizing job applications before shortlisting, are currently in place?
Response from Councillor Vikki Slade, Leader of the Council
The Strategic Equalities Leadership Group is setting up a working group to review how the Council will ensure effective and long term inclusivity and engagement with our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff, residents and visitors. The group will involve a range of council and community representatives and particularly focus on understanding the barriers to achieving a more diverse workforce. It is expected that the working group, along with the Strategic Equalities Leadership Group, will hold the council to account by monitoring progress against our People Strategy and our Equality and Diversity commitments.
BCP Council’s People Strategy and its Equality and Diversity Action Plan include a number of actions that aim to celebrate diversity and put in place measures that will establish a more representative council workforce. Our current recruitment and selection policies are fair and robust but it is recognised they do not currently deliver a workforce that is truly representative of our communities and that we could do more. We therefore need to look at how we can improve the way in which we attract, retain and develop staff from different ethnic groups in order to deliver a more representative workforce at all levels of the organisation.
There are a number of actions that we plan to take:
· We are establishing more accurate data on our workforce diversity, we have inherited incomplete equalities data so we will address that in order to provide us with the most accurate picture of our workforce from which we can measure change over time
· We are reviewing all HR policies and this will include consideration of anonymization of personal data for shortlisting purposes
· We will introduce unconscious bias training which will be mandatory for all employees
· We will improve and target our communications, including those related to our recruitment activity, to more effectively reach potential candidates from BAME communities who may have deselected themselves as potential BCP Council employees (possibly due to imagery, marketing, social media and the recruitment channels we use)
· We will use the Council’s Equalities Champion’s Network to build employee groups to better represent minority groups
· We will design and develop a BCP Council Talent and Succession process that can support and accelerate the development of lesser represented employees
Question from Councillor from Diana Butler
Why has an “Experimental Traffic Regulation Order” been used to close Poole Quay for 18mths to motor vehicles, without prior consultation with the public, all Councillors, motorbike event supporters and people with disabilities?
Response from Councillor Andy Hadley, Portfolio Holder for Transport and Infrastructure
Thank you for your question Councillor Butler.
On 9th May, the Secretary of State, Grant Shapps made an announcement urging Councils to consider pinchpoints, and locations to assist with social distancing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in particular, given the restrictions on travel by public transport to encourage walking and cycling. This required Local Authorities to follow an accelerated process of 4 weeks to commence work, and 8 weeks to complete temporary measures. This precluded the consultation processes that we are all used to.
So I wrote to all 75 BCP Councillors on 10th May inviting suggestions for widening pavements, giving protected space for cycling, and low traffic neighbourhoods. This was also shared through the Leader’s Facebook Live sessions.
We were not advised until 27th May that BCP Council had an indicative award, based on 2011 public transport to work census journey data, of £280K.
We have had over 1,000 suggestions from members of the public and Ward Councillors, and the officers prioritised 14 schemes based on pavement width and congestion risk. The lower section of Poole High Street and Poole Quay scored highly and was therefore included in the list of priority proposals to the Department for Transport.
The confirmation of the funding granted to us by the Department for Transport was on the 25th June, of £315K recognising a good submission (13% uplift).
The Government guidance proposed the use of an Experimental Traffic Regulation order, which involves 7 days advance notice, but we did additionally write out to many stakeholders. Making the change starts the consultation process, which will be reviewed in the months ahead.
- An Equalities Impact Assessment was undertaken.
- The disabled parking bays by Sea Music are being re-provided across the road with full width bays.
- New Motorcycle bays have been marked at the roundabout, and once events are restarted, the road will be opened for the events like bike night
- We met with a number of the businesses in the week leading up to the change to hear their concerns, and officers made changes to the scheme in response to this.
- We now have a live consultation, available over the next 6 months, and by using the Experimental route, we can adjust the scheme in that time, although material changes would reset the 6 month clock.
- The legislation gives us 18 months before an Experimental TRO has to either be reverted, or replaced by permanent measures, including that consultation.
Members of the public can provide feedback via our website
Councillor Butler asked a supplementary question relating to the 18-month period for the experimental order and in particular if the impact on businesses and motorbike events had been taken into consideration for the short, medium and long term. The Portfolio Holder reported that as referenced in his response he would expect that there would be a review after six months and confirmed that all events had been cancelled to the end of August and when they restart we would accommodate special events on the Quay as before.
Question from Councillor Chris Rigby
This meeting marks a full year since we voted almost unanimously to declare a climate and ecological emergency, and six months since the publication of the draft action plan.
Could I please ask the portfolio holder for environment and climate
change to provide an update on what actions have been undertaken in
relation to the deceleration and draft plan, and also what plans
are in place for creating the citizens assembly on this
topic.
Response from Councillor Felicity Rice, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Climate Change
Many thanks for your question.
Overall, I am pleased to say that in the past year, the Council has been commended by both the Local Government Association and the Association for Public Service Excellence, for our response following our climate and ecological emergency declaration. We are also one of 5 UK towns and cities praised as global climate leaders by carbon disclosure charity CDP and we are on their ‘Cities A-List’.
We have also had national recognition that we have redesigned the Wessex Fields development site so that the focus is fundamentally switched towards sustainable and healthy forms of transport, which is of course, particularly relevant given the enthusiasm from the Bournemouth Hospital to enable their staff to be healthy, and for the whole population to be able to breathe cleaner air.
We have a long list of actions which is available on our climate action page, however a few actions to mention are:
· Incorporating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals throughout our Corporate Strategy.
· Climate change presentations to staff and Councillors by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project
· Purchasing green electricity from renewable sources for all our buildings and streetlights, saving over 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, whilst at the same time looking at opportunities to develop our own renewable energy sources in the longer term. Electric Vehicle charging points have been installed at Council Depots and an Electric Refuse Collection Vehicle and road sweepers are to be trialled.
· Schools have been engaged through the Council’s Leave Only Footprints, and the Youth Parliament is leading campaigns on environmental issues. There was a planned Young People’s Summit that was due to be held in June, however this will now be held as a series of virtual events throughout the summer.
You also asked about the Citizens Assembly. A citizen assembly is where a randomly selected proportion of society is brought together, to understand in depth, discuss and debate various aspects of climate change action. By involving a cross section of society, and allowing time for informed decision making, it is similar to the process of Jury Duty, which is recognised around the world as one of the best ways of making important decisions. Originally planned for May 2020, this has been postponed until safe to convene the required sample of residents at a venue over multiple days.
Our community engagement campaign, has also been delayed but this will now be launched at the end of July. This will gather the views of residents on climate change, the proposed actions they would prioritise and the actions they would be prepared to undertake themselves to reduce.
A report detailing all our actions and emission reductions since approval of the draft Action Plan will be presented to Council in December.
As a consequence of Covid 19, we have all seen the dramatic changes that our society has been through and although many of these changes have been forced upon us in a negative way, a YouGov survey found that only 9% of the population wanted life to ‘return to normal’ after lockdown, citing cleaner air, more wildlife and stronger communities. Lockdown was hugely different for everyone, however many of the aspects that the public appreciated during lockdown, were all in keeping with actions on tackling the climate and wildlife crisis. It presents an opportunity for us all to imagine a different future, and we know now that dramatic change is possible, but we need to take charge of that change and manage it in a positive and active way.
Question from Councillor Nigel Brooks
In September 2013 the preceding Councils of Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset commissioned and received a ‘Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Show-people Accommodation Assessment’ from Opinion Research Services.
The report concluded that extra pitches were required in each of the 5-year bands from 2013 to 2028.
Every year since 2013 residents have seen summer incursions of Travellers onto Council owned land across the conurbation resulting in disruption, anti-social behaviour, and extensive waste resulting in an ever-increasing cost to the Council.
The vast majority of travellers are law-abiding citizens but illegal sites often give an unfair, negative image of their community and cause distress and misery to those who live nearby.
What action is BCP Council going to take to put in place ‘Transit Sites’ to tackle the annual influx of travellers to our area?
Response from Councillor Felicity Rice, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Climate Change
The planning needs for transit provision in the future will be reviewed as part of the evidence for the emerging BCP Local Plan. The current evidence, set out in the 2017 Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Show-people Accommodation Assessment, concludes that the need for transit provision should be monitored overtime looking at the numbers of unauthorised incursions and considered against an approach on ongoing management measures. The GTTAA study will be updated to support the BCP Local Plan to consider this issue further and will link up with the ongoing work of the cross party Member Working Group, which was restarting this month, that will continue to consider how best to address this issue for the BCP area.
Councillor Brooks indicated that he appreciated the work being done to address this ongoing matter, asked that this issue was not kicked into the long grass and that Councillors see some positive options on how we can tackle this issue. The Portfolio Holder reported that she takes this aspect of her portfolio very seriously and the Cabinet wants to lead on this work and that she appreciated Councillors support.