Agenda item

At this point each of the Cabinet members made a presentation on their respective portfolios which had been circulated with the agenda.

Councillor Woods as Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Partnerships and Improvement submitted his Portfolio update and noted that an Audit Commission Inspector had visited the Council on 15 & 16 January 2009 and the resulting Direction of Travel statement was due in March or April.  Councillor Woods also stated that the Government Monitoring Board had met on 15 January and the Lead Official had indicated that he hoped that that would be its last meeting although a final decision on this was for the Minister to make.  Councillor Woods reported that a meeting had been arranged with the Minister about the Council’s Formula Grant allocation which would take place on 27 January 2009  which the town’s MPs would attend.  In answer to a question from Councillor Hadland, Councillor Woods stated that the public meeting arranged for 29 January 2009 was for Nick Clegg MP to discuss with local people issues of national and international significance.  He further stated that a public budget meeting had not been arranged this year as previous experience had shown that e-mail and other written responses to the budget consultation had proved more successful.  He further commented in these difficult economic times it was difficult to draw a line in the sand in terms of a stable position.  He stated that ideas from any source to help with the Council’s financial situation would be welcomed.  Councillor Clarke queried how democratic the meeting with the Minister would be in terms of those people who had not voted for candidates from the main political parties.  He also queried the representation of Northampton’s position by Councillor S Barnes of South Northants District Council on the Leader’s Board for East Midlands.  Councillor Woods noted that Councillor Clarke could only claim to represent those people who voted for him in Castle Ward but between himself and the town’s MPs all three major parties would be represented at the Minister’s meeting.  In respect of the Leader’s Board for the East Midlands the arrangements were such that without Councillor Barnes nomination the Council would have no representation at all.  The arrangements that had been agreed were for one District Council representative per County area.  Councillor Woods stated that he would ensure that Northampton’s voice would be heard.

In answer to a question from Councillor J Lill, Councillor Woods noted that Councillor Meredith was the Council’s representative on the Northampton Town Supporters Trust and had attended matches when he could and had visited other grounds as well.

Councillor Church as the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration submitted his Portfolio update and in response to a comment made by a member of the public earlier in the meeting noted that the Council had never received a request for funding of the Sixfields Stadium but the issues raised with the Council all related to planning.  In answer to a question from Councillor Hadland, Councillor Church commented that in respect of the works to the Market Square the approach would be to cause minimum disruption to the Market traders.  Comments made by the traders in respect of the wide aisle and demountable stalls had been accepted.  The scheme was designed to allow the Market Square to be as flexible a space as possible and the intention was that the scheme would ultimately boost trade and help the Market to thrive.  In answer to a question from Councillor Clarke, Councillor Church noted that the traders had approached the Council with a scheme that was similar to that of the Council’s but he had never claimed that the traders agreed fully with the Council’s version.  He had had no recent contact with Mr Wilson from the Traders Association except for the Liaison Committee Meeting the previous week.  In answer to a query raised by Councillor Palethorpe, Councillor Church stated that the amendment to the minutes considered by the Cabinet on 22 December 2008 had not been put forward by himself.

Councillor Mildren as the Portfolio Holder for Finance submitted his Portfolio update and in answer to a question from Councillor Clarke noted that the budget consultation document was widely available and that it would not be practical to send it to every resident in full.  The consultation document dealt with major items of expenditure but the public could ask for the more detailed document if they so wished.

Councillor Hadland questioned the use of the tick box approach to the consultation document and that it only contained two figures in it.  Councillor Mildren indicated that he did not feel that this approach to the consultation exercise was unusual.  In answer to a further question from Councillor Hadland, Councillor Mildren indicated that he would write to him with the County District Councils’ comparisons of business rates.  In response to a question raised by Councillor Palethorpe, Councillor Mildren noted that a series of public meetings on a number of issues were scheduled to be arranged but that this would not include the budget.  In response to a question from Councillor Hadland, Councillor Mildren indicated that if lessons could be learnt from the County Council’s approach to their budget consultation exercise then they would be.

Councillor Glynane as the Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement and Safety submitted his Portfolio update and in response to a question from Councillor J Lill noted that car parks’ charges for all day on Sundays was 80p and that off street parking charges had not been increased since 1997.  The County Council had increased on-street parking.  He also noted that there were two free car parks on Sundays along the Wellingborough Road and Bedford Road.  These charges had been agreed to support the market and town centre traders.

Councillor Clarke queried whether Councillor Glynane would now answer the question he had posed at the Council meeting on 8 December in terms of providing the evidence to support his statements that the Christmas lights had proved more successful than those of recent years.  Councillor Glynane commented that in 2007 there had been no budget provision for Christmas lights and the existing lights were old and not safe.  The Council had provided five Christmas trees.  However, this year fifteen trees had been provided and in his opinion the public had been impressed by them; positive comments had been received from the Youth Forum.  He noted that some members of the public had had their photographs taken by the trees as backdrops.  He noted that it was common practice to use existing trees and cover them with lights.  He also stated that the public would not want the Council to spend large sums of money on Christmas lights in the current economic climate.  In a question from Councillor Reeve, Councillor Glynane commented that the Council would support Northampton Town FC and that sponsors were being looked for to support the Shoe Festival.  Councillor Glynane was pleased to accept the thanks expressed by Councillor Hill as trustee of Workbridge in respect of the help offered by staff at Danes Camp Leisure Centre to the workers from Workbridge and stated that he would pass those comments on.  Councillor Hadland asked Councillor Glynane to provide the evidence that the previous Administration had cancelled the Christmas lights.  He also enquired what contribution the Portfolio Holder had made to the improvements he had alluded to in Leisure Services.  Councillor Glynane repeated that for Christmas 2007 there had been no budget line for Christmas lights and that he had already spoken to the appropriate Manager and asked for congratulations to be passed on the staff at the Leisure Centres.

(NB Councillor Clarke declared a personal interest in Councillor Glynane’s Portfolio Holder report in so far as the discussion referred to Northampton Town Football Club of which he was an employee).

Councillor Clarke moved and Councillor Woods seconded “That the Council’s Procedural Rules be suspended to allow full questioning of Portfolio Holders”.

Upon a vote the motion was carried.

Councillor Beardsworth as the Portfolio Holder for Housing submitted her report and congratulated the Private Sector Housing Solutions Team for the conference they had arranged with other agencies in order to discuss disability grant work.  She also commented upon the success of the Temporary Housing Team in reducing the numbers of people requiring their services and referred to the reduction in Council house rent to £1.46m by using a firm but fair approach.  In answer to a question from Councillor Palethorpe, Councillor Beardsworth agreed that expectations needed to be managed in respect of the PFI interest and that a long consultation period would be involved.  Councillor Clarke referred to the sheltered housing wardens service and expressed his thanks to the staff for their dealing with the New Year’s Day incident.  He further commented that the incident had shown up the weaknesses in the service and he noted that elderly neighbours had had to assist each other and that there had been 20-30 minute response times from Call Care.  He also noted that wardens wasted a great deal of time travelling between schemes.  He requested that there should be a review and rethink of the service to vulnerable people.  Councillor Beardsworth stated that a review was underway and that anyone who had experienced a fall should contact the ambulance service direct, wardens, even if present, were not able to help in those circumstances.  If sheltered housing tenants had issues then they should contribute them to the review.

Councillor Crake as the Portfolio Holder for Environment submitted her Portfolio update.  Councillor Malpas displayed some photographs showing uncollected trade waste in the Wellingborough Road and querying what action was being undertaken to deal with it.  He also referred to the horse chestnut trees in Abington Park that were suffering from bleeding canker and asked which trees would be removed and what species would replace them.  Councillor Crake commented that if the uncollected trade waste represented a health and safety issue then this should be referred to the Health and Safety Team.  If nothing subsequently happened she would be happy to take the issue on.  Generally speaking Street Cleansing were working with the public to reduce side waste issues and in appropriate cases people would be prosecuted.  Proof was needed to prove dumping of rubbish.  In respect of Abington Park, Councillor Crake commented that notices had been placed on those trees that would be removed.  Councillor Malpas then queried what action was being taken against businesses who might be leaving out side waste.  Councillor Beardsworth commented that Councillors should refer these matters to the Councillor Contact Centre and that the Street Cleansing Team worked hard to keep Northampton clean; it was the public that caused the problem.  Councillor Flavell asked Councillor Crake if she would attend a site visit along the Wellingborough and Kettering Road to examine the issues that had been raised by Councillor Malpas.  Councillor Crake agreed to this.

Councillor B Hoare as the Portfolio Holder for Performance submitted his Portfolio Holder report and welcomed the Lexcel award achieved by the Legal Services Team.  Councillor Clarke commented that he generally approached Council officers directly for answers to queries and noted the 60% increase in Freedom of Information requests; Councillor B Hoare commented that the figures were what they were and that the Contact Centre was available for a purpose i.e. to handle comments, thanks and complaints and the intelligence gained from that would help to improve the Council’s services.  Councillor Hadland queried whether the increase in the use of Freedom of Information mechanism actually represented a vote of no confidence in the other ways information could be supplied.  Councillor B Hoare noted that use of Freedom of Information was probably a tactic.  Councillor Simpson queried how much each Freedom of Information request cost and noted that only 7% of responses were challenged and that no references had been made to the Information Commissioner.  Councillor B Hoare commented that he was not aware of the cost per Freedom of Information request but that such requests were handled within the spirit of the Act.  Councillor Palethorpe queried whether or not Councillor B Hoare was now saying in respect of use of the contact centre was in fact contrary to a previous report he had made.  Councillor B Hoare was pleased to accept Councillor Woods congratulations on the good service provided by the Councillor Contact Centre.