Members can ask up to two questions to two different Chairs.

Any Member may ask a Chair a written or oral question on 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.

The period allowed for written and oral questions and answers will not exceed 60 minutes without leave of the Mayor.

Cllr Davies put a question to the Chair of Housing.

Thank you Councillor White for organising a review of some of the policies cross party which is very much appreciated. On the agenda in your report on

page 20 you are talking about the kitchen and bathroom Capital replacement program and there's a high level of satisfaction from tenants. Those that I have seen when I've been in the properties, I have to say the work does look very good however I am getting concerns and I'm wondering am I alone because I'm getting quite a few reports on the poor standard of Repairs

Service from Axis. Their response time is probably the biggest problem. Tenants are getting left for quite a long period of time which is unacceptable. When I have reported them back to officers they are immediately reactive and try and get things put in place but I just wondered if maybe we could have a look just from the point of view of the emergency repairs ongoing.

Cllr White, Chair of Housing responded:

Thank you Councillor Davies. First of all, if I could echo my thanks to those members that turned up for our cross party review of the policies. I think it's helpful so that that we've been able to discuss and give officers some effectively informal feedback so they can help review the housing policies before they actually arrive at committee and that was very much something that I picked up from the July meeting. It was a chance to provide input and we could all unanimously agree many of the policies that were coming forward. I hope that's the case going forward in respect of looking at the responses to emergency call outs. I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong but I believe that those are included in some of the KPIs that we have with Axis in the contract and we would expect them to be reported at the Committee - I can certainly ask that at the next committee we can have a look at those in particular but the data should be data that's being captured.

Councillor Mynott put a question to the Chair of Policy, Resources and Economic Development.

In relation to the draft parking strategy at the PRED Committee, I was able to demonstrate and I quoted a specific paragraph in the local plan the fact that the draft parking strategy was directly contradicting what was being said in the local plan. My question is where the draft parking strategy is contradicting the local plan, which takes precedence the draft parking strategy or the local plan?

Councillor Hossack, Chair of Policy, Resources and Economic Development responded:

I don't agree that it does contradict but in the event that it did, the parking strategy would be an informative for the local planning any decisions that were made but if that was the case that's how I see the purpose of the parking strategy. As I say, as an informative to the planning decisions and the plan itself.

Councillor Mynott asked a question to Cllr Tanner, the Chair of Planning & Licensing:

On page seven of the agenda, the minutes of the previous meeting, I asked a question to the previous Chair of Planning in relation to the danger of properties overheating and I got an answer which is which is printed on page seven, and I then asked a follow-up question and I was told I'd get an answer now. This is not intended as a criticism of the previous Chair of Planning who was exemplary, I didn't see an answer come in and I searched for likely subject headings and I couldn't find one I then did a bit of research and as far as I can see the UK Government guidance page from the Department for Leveling Up Housing and Communities says that approved Document O which is what's being referred to on page seven in the answer that I got does not apply to buildings undergoing a change of use. The question the original question had to do with comments made by Mike Davis of UCL in terms of the (his words) “potentially deadly risk of office to residential conversions” and so my question to the Chair of Planning is would he agree that something needs to be done about permitted development conversions of office to residential given that somebody who is a committed for climate change member is concerned about the potentially deadly risk and apparently approved Document O does not cover those conversions.

Councillor Tanner, Chair of Planning responded:

I don't have any more detail on what is written in front of me so I will take it away and get some more detail back to Councillor Mynott. I think that sort of question is a classic question that should be written in advance so that more detail can be provided up on this on the day.

Councillor Laplain put a question to Cllr White, Chair of Housing:

I am in contact with several residents of The Gables in Warley. They have recently been through a lot of installation of doors and a lot of maintenance activity during which time some of that maintenance has been done in a very insensitive manner in terms of the environment with dust as such throughout the corridors in a very tight corridors for people who are quite vulnerable. Additionally the contractors have left doors open etc - it strikes me as a not a very sympathetic method of maintenance. I know this probably should have been a written question I only just recently received an update. Could I have a response to that in terms of how we are supposed to know what kind of policy we have in terms of this.

Cllr White, Chair of Housing responded:

As an operational and Ward matter then I think it probably falls outside of the scope of questions to be answered here and I'd ask that you if you could drop an email to the Director of Housing and copy me in. I'd certainly be interested in following up on the details that you get in response. It is more of a case of the policy in terms of how contractors function.

Cllr Laplain put a question to Cllr Russell, Chair of Community, Environment & Enforcement:

I see that you've added a section on trees within your report, thank you. However it isn't quite extensive - it's not the question I've asked both at last

committee and at previous meetings. I think it's very important that we capture the impact of all of those elements. I know we've lost some trees during the summer but I'd like to see that documented far more inclusively.

Cllr Russell, Chair of Community, Environment & Enforcement responded:

I spoke to Cllr Laplain a couple of weeks ago, I have the data now, unfortunately with the timing of the planting, evaluations took place in September - that's the only way so you can understand that the loss is not definitive so overall planting loss in the borough has been in about the 76% figures which are in line with those of oak land field planting for the whole of the County as ascertained by the Essex Forest initiative partners but where Essex is the driest in Britain with rainfall average of 60 of the western side of the country in the last three years, Brentwood has shown itself to be at the lead in local Authority Agriculture and Forestry with an Essex exploring different establishment methods and so that's in the report is detailed in mulching etc with different ways of planting. I do intend to bring a report to the December committee which will help show and demonstrate with a table with the various failings in different areas of planting so we can analyse and get down to the detail of the loss in certain areas.

Cllr Kendall put a question to Cllr White, the Chair of Housing:

Under Fire risk assessment Capital program, it mentions about Drake House and Chichester House and the sprinkler system installations. Do you have any information tonight to the Ward Members and Members of the Housing Committee an update as to the projected installation dates will happen.

Cllr White, Chair of Housing responded:

I don't have that data in front of me and I am happy to answer that and for information to be passed to Ward Members of an update.

Councillor Fulcher put a question to Cllr Heard, Chair of Audit & Scrutiny:

This is a point of clarification and also a question to the Chair of Audit & Scrutiny. In relation to the formal complaints and performance indicator working group and the point of clarification is the report wasn't available at the time of committee to the committee members, could it be amended in the report. My further question is there's no mention of the Brentwood Leisure Trust working group and the work that they've done. I feel and I certainly hope is pertinent we've got the impending conclusion of the working group.

Councillor Heard, Chair of Audit & Scrutiny responded:

I couldn't actually capture a lot of the question but um I'm obviously new to the role but if you would like to have a discussion afterwards I'm more than happy to get all that information to you through officers.

Councillor Naylor put a question to Cllr Russell, Chair of Community, Environment & Enforcement:

At the last CEE Meeting, I asked a question under the King George's Playing Fields new development specifically about the play equipment and the zip wire and what was causing the delays from Poland and Croatia and I've not had a response from the officers or the Chair, I would have liked it to have been included in this report.

Cllr Russell, Chair of Community, Environment & Enforcement responded:

The zip wire carriages you are referring to are on order they should be with us soon. They should be with the manufacturer now so they are going back to their supplier to find out where they are.

Councillor Aspinell put a question to Cllr Hossack, Leader of the Council:

Several years ago with a previous Leader we had a presentation here from a Conservative Councillor from a Norfolk Council that was Conservative and he was of a mind that they needed an Overview and Scrutiny or a Scrutiny Committee and the Leader of the time said there was no need because they were all conservatives and they all needed to agree to what they were doing so it took him a while but they did get a Scrutiny Committee and it was difficult for the Chair of that committee being of the same party as the administration to actually hold the administration up to account but they managed to successfully do that at the time. Here we had members of the opposition as Chair of Scrutiny but for one reason or another the administration decided that they would take the Chair which is in your right to do so but it takes a certain type of person to be able to hold the administration to account - so would you agree with me the Planning Committee's loss is Overview and Scrutiny's gain?

Cllr Hossack, Leader of the Council responded:

Not wishing to comment or embarrass or cause anyone to blush, what I do is try and structure committees so we get the best possible people applying their skills and expertise and style of doing things to the right committee that suits. I am quite confident that all of the Committees that we've got on this side and members on the other side you do the same thing you'll appoint people with the best skills into the relevant committees. I think we all gain, I think we've got the right people in the right places and wouldn't wish to comment further on who that might be but I'm quite comfortable with all of my committees and the way I've appointed them and who serves them. I think we've got a good set of people.

Councillor Aspinell put a question to Cllr White, Chair of Housing:

Would it be helpful if we had a review of the Axis performance brought to the committee at some stage. Pilgrims Hatch have an overwhelming example of bad practice of bad workmanship. I don't know whether that is from Axis employees themselves or from subcontractors that they may employ but it is getting worse and some of them are very serious incidences.

Cllr White, Chair of Housing responded:

We do review the contracts, I wasn't on the committee last year I remember being present when there was a review taking place. I think it ties in with Councillor Davies’ request earlier that she had an update in terms of response rates. If we're putting something on the agenda for the Housing Committee in the near future I think Housing Committee Members are always welcome to request an update on the performance of Axis or anybody else that we're using and so we can look to give the Committee an update.