To follow

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution a brief written report by each committee Chair and the Leader covering their area of responsibility will be circulated with the agenda for each Council meeting.

 

Any member may ask a Chair or the Leader a written or oral questions on:

 

(a)   any matter included in a Chair’s or the Leader’s written report; or

 

(b)   any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affects the Council’s area and which falls within the area of responsibility of the Chair’s committee.

 

(c)   Questions to the Leader’s report, should do not be a question that can be answered by a Committee Chair.

 

(d)  No question should be put to the Chair or the Leader if it relates exclusively to a ward, operational or resident matter that could have otherwise been resolved by reasonable use of the casework system.

 

The period allowed for the Leader’s and Chairs’ reports, written and oral questions and answers will not exceed 60 minutes without the leave of the Mayor and such leave will only be granted in exceptional circumstances.

 

Cllr Poppy put a question to the Leader:

 

This was either in a leaflet or something you said in this Chamber - you are working towards achieving zero carbon and will promote green transport across the Borough, more electric vehicles charging points, on and off-road cycle and pedestrian

routes and Community Bus schemes.  What contracts have you had with Brentwood Community Transport what and did you have a view in the budget or since the budget to increase their grant that we give them.

 

The Leader asked Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities to respond:

 

We had our community grant scheme presented at Monday's Housing, Health and Community Committee where we agreed to continue funding the Brentwood Community Transport.  In this case because Essex County Council haven't come up with their long-term strategy for Community bus schedules so we just continued on from last year matching last year's funding.  We hope that there is actually a work package going on across Essex County and Brentwood and Basildon where we look at this holistically across all three organisations to get people to different hospitals and places but we are funding from Brentwood Community Transport going forward.

 

Cllr Wagland put a question to Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities to respond:

 

What conversations have taken place with the NHS regarding identifying a suitable site for the surgery facilities in Ingatestone. 

 

Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities responded:

 

There has been three member conversations with the Brentwood Alliance that

take over primary care and the output of that was discussed at the Housing, Health and Community Committee on Monday.  Unfortunately it does appear that the NHS across the borough isn't proposing any new GP surgeries apart from the one in Dunton Garden Village and that unfortunately is the situation which is the NHS decision.  We would like to see increased GP surgeries to match the need of the borough but unfortunately NHS is not proposing any additional ones. 

 

Cllr Kendall put a question to Cllr Aspinell, Chair of Clean & Green:

 

Some members have some serious concerns about the litter issues in the Borough and I was checking back in the records and we had a litter bin review at the Environment, Enforcement and Housing Committee in December 2021 and I wondered if the Chair of Clean and Green can tell us what specific action was taken following that review.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Chair of Clean & Green responded:

 

I can't tell him you what happened, it hasn't come to the Clean and Green Committee this year.  There's been no report on that so far - I understand that it did go to the committee meeting Councillor Kendall referred to back in 2021, that committee was chaired by Councillor Pearson and I believe Councillor Russell took over in combining some of those issues into the committee the next year.  I don't know what happened maybe someone could tell me.

 

Cllr Hirst put a question to Cllr Aspinell, Chair of Clean & Green:

 

My residents remain very concerned about the state of the Shenfield Railway Bridge particularly around the pigeons issue which is clearly a health hazard in that area.  I know it was raised at the recent Clean and Green Committee but could I ask the Chair to confirm that the regularity of deep cleaning underneath the bridges will be raised to two twice weekly and can he also confirm when the meeting that he talked about with members and National Rail is going to take place to make sure that the grid work underneath the bridge is repaired.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Chair of Clean & Green responded:

 

This issue has been going on when you were the County Councillor Cllr Hirst for that

Area.

 

Cllr Hirst raised a point of information: When I was County Councillor I did have meetings with National Rail and we did get the situation solved at that time  - this has got worse in the last year - he needs to deal it.

 

councillor Aspinell continued that he would like to understand what Councillor Hirst in his capacity as County Councillor did when he was a County Councillor because I was a County Councillor for the other side, and the other side of this area was covered by Councillor McKinley.  I cannot tell you when the date of the meting unless any officers have been informed today because we're still waiting on a meeting with Network Rail.  I can tell you as you've known and you've read it in the report, a price of £84,000 has been mentioned by Network Rail as to how much it will cost them to put netting under the bridges that County Council as Councillor Hirst knows is responsible for the transport in Essex.  I know we clean the pavements and it was inspected by our officers they were satisfied that it was meeting the standards and they were cleaning it more than once a week - maybe even three times a week.  It was at a standard that they were satisfied with. 

 

Cllr Hirst responded: to be clear I actually dealt with this a Borough Councillor rather than a County Councillor although I was both at the time.  What we had done was we had the grill work put up underneath the bridge that covered the full level of the pathways, not the roadway in the middle, that is now broken it needs repairing.  It is not impossible to get Network Rail to cooperate and do it. 

 

Councillor Mynott declared in interest as a trustee of Brentwood Community Transport which was earlier discussed. 

 

Cllr Parker put a question to the Leader:

 

The Leaders report was only received 24 hours ago – there had previously been comments about the agendas being late whilst we was in Administration.  Why

when they issued the agenda and it's not a full agenda, although we  may expect one part of it to be late there's always that problem but this was virtually the whole

agenda.

 

The Mayor responded:

 

Your comments are noted and they are fair.  Constitutionally there isn't necessarily that breadth of the exactness but it is acceptable practice that they are delivered in advance.  In this circumstance it was not an acceptable timing that has been noted by Officers and by Chairs as appropriate.

 

Cllr Laplain put a question to Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Housing:

 

I'd like to thank him for assisting one of my residents in The Gables with an urgent issue that they've been waiting on Axis in relation to repairs.  I would like to ask, this particular elderly couple have been waiting on Axis to attend and it's not a trivial matter.  They often get Axis appointments that are failed and for them it causes a great deal of stress and anxiety and I just hope that that's not kind of a general condition of Axis and the way they're approaching this. 

 

Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities responded:

 

At the meeting that we had on Monday with the Housing, Health and Community Committee, this feedback was actually given by a number of members to Axis.  In that meeting we felt that there was an unacceptable number of failed appointments going on with Axis.  They have received that feedback and we look forward to them improving we continue to give that feedback to them.  For any individual cases, you can contact me directly.

 

Cllr Barber put a question to Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Housing:

 

At the Planning Committee yesterday, we had an item Highwood Close where an

application from this Administration brought forward an application with a loss of 19.4% in biodiversity as opposed to the target which is recommended of 10%.  Can Cllr Dr Barrett on behalf of the Administration explain why that application was brought forward in opposition to the stated aims of this Council.

 

Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities responded:

 

I'm afraid I don't have the exact detail of the Planning Committee that happened

yesterday and the biodiversity cost you described - I'll take that offline and reply to you another time. 

 

Cllr Barber put a question to Cllr Aspinell, Chair of Clean & Green:

At the start of the Council year, it was stated that some of the initiatives would have benefits for example an increase in the frequency of grass cutting.  Given that we see around the Borough many overflowing litter bins and back in July of last year there were high number of areas where grass wasn't cut properly, can the Chair of Clean and Green give us any locations in the Borough where either the frequency of litter bins has been increased or grass cutting has been increased.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Chair of Clean & Green responded:

 

I don't want to take up time listing all the roads and the individual bins that have been looked at so I will give you a full update when I get it from Offices of every single one that's been done.

 

Cllr Kendall put a question to the Leader:

 

Does the Leaders share my concerns about the proposed development on the borders with West Horndon on the Thurrock side of the border and the huge number of houses.  There is talk of 8000-10,000 homes being built on that border.  Does he share my concerns and what does he think the implications are for the residents of West Horndon.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Leader of the Council responded:

 

It came as a surprise to me and one of the reasons why some of my Leaders Report  was late was so I could add this to it but I only had the meeting with the Leader of Thurrock and Basildon yesterday.  To have this land on our door step will have a great effect - I'm not normally lost for words but I did ask questions.  I asked what do they hope to get out of the meeting - the meeting was called by the Leader of Thurrock, Basildon and their Chief Executives with our Chief Executive.  There was some developers involved but we were told that this was part of their plan so Thurrock actually put this site approximately 100 hectares of prime Green Belt land

the other side of the Railway line in West Horndon in their local plan for

development.  I was told by the Leader of Thurrock that there needs to be a rapid

results - they're looking for rapid decisions in September this year they are telling us that an application is coming forward for right opposite the station in West Horndon – not only is this green belt but it is one of the most flooded areas in the Borough but it is a flood.  I asked all the relevant questions.  They wanted us to be aware of it and our Officers to have been made aware of it and so that we can have a discussion with our neighbours.  8,000 to 10,000 houses was likely to be the first or second phase of this and there could be up to 20,000 houses in that area with our Dunton Hill project.  I share the concerns of those of the residents of West Horndon but I'd like to ask my colleague Cllr Mynott (Chair of Planning) if he would expand on that.

 

Cllr Mynott, Chair of Planning added:

 

It has been mentioned in the relatively brief Planning report in the Chair's reports the great concerns that I've got is that neighbouring authorities as part of the local plan process have a fundamental duty to cooperate and the situation that we're currently in is that as far as I'm concerned, I'm not speaking on behalf of our Planning team,  but I'm concerned it's very difficult even to see that there has been an insufficient level of dialogue between Thurrock and its neighbours on these sizable proposals.  We have Dunton Hills Garden Village proposal down there which we have gone through methodically over a very long period, worked out detail of that area,

worked out the detail of the potential consequences on local infrastructure and the idea that a neighbouring Authority could drop that on us at the last minute without any proper explanation without dialogue is clearly not cooperation.  Cooperation means working together so as far as I'm concerned at this point not only have they not had a proper dialog in terms of their duty to cooperate, they have fallen down completely because there's been no cooperation and I think it's probably worth Thurrock Council them taking on board the fact that when it comes to their local plan going to an inspector's hearing, if they haven't cooperated with local authorities who are their neighbours local authorities who are raising fundamental objections to their local plan.  And if that's happening, then the inspectors may take a view of their local plan - I'm sure they don't want to be in that situation.  I'm sure they would want to cooperate with Brentwood at the moment.  The consequences for the infrastructure that's been discussed in terms of Dunton Hills are extraordinarily disruptive and problematic so we hope that going forward we actually do get some cooperation - not just dialogue and then we might get to a better situation. 

 

Cllr Bridge put a question to Cllr Mynott, Chair of Planning:

 

On the subject of Thurrock’s duty to cooperate, because we did actually agreed at a planning meeting a couple of meetings back that we were going to send a letter to Thurrock in response to the local plan in which we actually highlighted the failure of the duty to cooperate.  Did we ever get a response back from Thurrock to the letter and specifically addressing the issue of the failure on their part of the duty to cooperate because you're right, it's a complete disgrace the way they've handled it so far.

 

Cllr Mynott, Chair of Planning responded:

 

As far as I'm aware we haven't but that may be my lack of awareness.  The meeting where we discussed that is obviously not that long ago - they're talking in terms of rapidity and all sorts of ways which is curious in terms of the plan process and certainly if their application is coming forward in terms of some kind of timetable that Cllr Aspinell was mentioning, it's very difficult to understand how that would be happening only after a local plan had been adopted.  In terms of the specific question that you've asked, I don't know the answer to that at this point.  I'm assuming that there's been none but on Friday there will be a Strategic Planning meeting with myself and the Vice Chair and we certainly raise it at that point and if we've got anything back from them, we can give that information out - if we haven't we can give that information out as well. 

 

Cllr Bridge put a question to Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities:

 

 

A follow up to the answer he gave to Cllr Wagland, if the NHS have specifically said they are not looking to build any new surgeries in the Borough except Dunton Hills Garden Village, that does raise the question considering the suggestions that have been floating around in the past.  My question to him on that is have the has the NHS ever seriously to our knowledge wanted to build new surgeries in other parts of

the Borough and if they have, when did they change their mind.

 

Cllr Dr Barrett, Chair of Housing, Health and Communities responded:

 

I don't know is the answer to what their Vision was a couple of years ago.  What I can say to now is that they have asked us to work with and look at bookable space - not necessarily GP surgeries but bookable space so this is space that relieves pressure from the GP surgeries.  We are looking at sites across the Borough where we can provide that bookable space for treatment or administration that can take out take pressure away from GP surgery to allow them to use their space more effectively.

 

Cllr Naylor put a question to Cllr Mynott, Chair of Planning:

 

Do you have any concerns about what Thurrock Council are proposing by West Horndon and can you explain whether this was in their local development plan and whether there has been any consultation between the Brentwood local development plan and the Thurrock local development plan and what this does to the green belt  in that particular area for West Horndon. 

 

Cllr Mynott, Chair of Planning responded:

 

This was discussed at the Planning Committee which Cllr Bridge touched on.  The response that we gave to the consultation that was a regulation 18 consultation was part of their local plan process.  have to say I found that also odd in itself because the regulation 18 consultation is a relatively late stage of a local plan - it's definitely not within a couple of months of a local plan being finalized but it's also normally the case that a local Authority has more clarity than was being expressed by Thurrock and that we were responding to.  The presentation that came to planning we're

talking about nine different and very significant different options in terms of how they would build and what they might do.  It felt like a very early stage of thinking about a local plan process rather than a late stage but to answer the question about as to whether it's in their local plan, it is in that sense in their local plan that's why it's being talked about now, but the sequence of events is very difficult to understand along with the other things I think I probably answered the other aspects of that question already. 

 

Cllr Aspinell added:

 

At the bottom of my report I mentioned the discussions I've been having with the cabinet members for highways.  I've met with both the cabinet members this year for highways and asked them specific things and at this stage I'd like to welcome Cllr Lewis back, because this was I think the Councillor who is very passionate.  I've been speaking to the cabinet members and I I've outlined to the first Cabinet member Cllr Lee Scott, that the possibility that Brentwood could have its own dedicated pothole repair team and we would contribute if the Council agreed to a fund that providing that figure.  It was mentioned by the cabinet member, Which I thought was reasonable but then the cabinet member said he'd take that away and discuss it with his officers.  The Cabinet member has changed, the new Cabinet member came in and I put the same thing to him, he said that sounds like a really good idea - I'll take it away get back to you.  He has sent me an email saying whilst being principle it was great and that it be a good idea that Brentwood would get a dedicated pothole

team if we paid for one, but unfortunately other areas of Essex may not agree with that and that there may be potholes in other areas across the County in greater need so could not provide a dedicated team.  I wasn't in agreement with that but I accepted that.  The information I give you tonight is that this morning I got an email from the cabinet member to say that due to the new undertakings at Essex County

Council, the £12 million has come out of reserves to help in the repair potholes we are going to get a dedicated team for Brentwood and we don't have to pay which is a good news story. 

 

Cllr Bridge put a question to the Leader:

 

Cllr Parker has already alluded to the late arrival of the reports.  There has been a tendency over the last few weeks I've noticed for things to arrive late; for meeting invites for example to a site visit a few weeks ago that was on a Thursday

afternoon only being sent to members on the Monday.  I raised an email question at that point reminding people that we are not supposed to be full-time employees at the Council.  Does he agree with the sentiment that things should be organised to facilitate the fact that some of us do have full-time jobs and it's actually fundamental to proper local democracy and local governance that we don't make the role of Councillor only really accessible to those who are either retired or have independent means of living.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Leader of the Council responded:

 

I could not agree more with those sentiments and as you know when we were setting the budget earlier this cycle, members were talking from your side about members allowances and that there would be no absolute need for raising allowances and you wanted an assurance from us there and then that we wouldn't be doing it, even though we weren't setting it.  I do totally agree with you - I can only

apologise we have had staff shortages and we have had problems that has been

addressed this year and I hope that that area of our Council will be increased

for next year.

 

Cllr Hirst  declared an interest as within the Leaders report due to his role as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex. 

 

Cllr Hirst put a question to :

 

I did not see the funding of four police constables as per the agreement with Epping Forest District Council in the budget that the council has put forward.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Leader of the Council responded:

 

It's not - because I did not receive anything from the Police as to how much we would need to raise.  There are other ways other to raise that funding but

as I did not hear back from the police I had nothing to give to my colleagues when

setting the budget.

 

Cllr Barber put a question to the Leader:

 

Un your role as Leader and as Chair of the Community Safety Partnership, how many meetings have been held since May of last year.

 

Cllr Aspinell, Leader of the Council responded:

 

I don’t have that information in front me.