Agenda item

To consider any questions submitted by Members of the Council, in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11 (b).

In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11(b) three questions had been submitted by the deadline date for questions set out in the constitution.

 

(A)      Local Plan Modifications

 

Councillor David Levett to Councillor Paul Clark (Executive Member for Planning)

 

In the absence of Councillor Paul Clark, Councillor Ian Mantle (Deputy Executive Member for Planning) gave a response.

 

(B)      NHDC providing help and support for those affected by crisis in Afghanistan

 

Councillors Judi Billing and Ruth Brown to Councillor Gary Grindal (Executive Member for Housing and Environmental Health)

 

In the absence of Councillor Gary Grindal, Councillor Sean Prendergast (Deputy Executive Member for Housing and Environmental Health) gave a response.

 

(C)      Waste Service Disruption

 

Councillor George Davies to Councillor Amy Allen (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management)

 

In the absence of Councillor George Davies, Councillor Claire Strong asked the question.

Audio recording – 46 minutes 30 seconds.

 

In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11(b) three questions had been submitted by the deadline date for questions set out in the constitution.

 

(A)      Local Plan Modifications

 

Councillor David Levett to Councillor Paul Clark (Executive Member for Planning):

 

“Following the public consultation on the Local Plan modifications, could the Executive Members say when those responses were submitted to the Inspector, when the Inspector will be submitting his final report, and more importantly, when Council will be asked to adopt the local plan?”

 

In the absence of Councillor Paul Clark, Councillor Ian Mantle (Deputy Executive Member for Planning) gave a response as follows:

 

“The responses were sent to the Inspector at the end of July. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the mail sorting centre; A few of the representations were not sent until September when this error had been pointed out. They were sent from the Council, but they got lost somewhere in the system. The Inspector originally said he will be reporting to the Council in autumn, whatever that means. We've recently had a letter saying that that's been pushed back and it will now be sometime in November. Whether that will move again is anybody's guess because it's totally in the hands of the Inspector. The Council will convene a special meeting to approve the Local Plan as soon as practical after we do finally receive the answer from the inspector.”

 

Councillor David Levett asked a supplementary question:

 

“Bearing in mind the importance of having a local plan in place and being able to control our development; We've had problems with his inspector right from the very beginning, being very tardy with the way he's responded to anything; Not following his own guidelines, not following his own procedures. And bear in mind how important it is we have a local plan in place. Does the administration have any intention of actually putting some form of complaint in now and finally getting this moved on and get the local plan in place?”

 

Councillor Ian Mantle responded:

 

“I totally agree with what Councillor Levett said about the dilatory and very slow process that has been adopted by the Inspector that was landed on us. We did consider at an earlier stage whether it would be appropriate. There's very limited amount where we can actually do to object by the way, and it was decided at that stage that probably on balance, it would be better to wait until we've actually got the Inspectors report and then consider what action we should take to make representations to the appropriate authorities about how we've been treated in this particular regard. But I totally sympathise with what Councillor Levett said.”

 

(B)      NHDC providing help and support for those affected by crisis in Afghanistan

 

Councillors Judi Billing and Ruth Brown to Councillor Gary Grindal (Executive Member for Housing and Environmental Health):

 

“We're all aware of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, that the world has witnessed in recent weeks, we're thankful that a large number of civilians and members of our armed forces were rescued, and able to flee the country before all troops were removed. However, we also know that many were not so fortunate. And we’re greatly concerned for the safety of those that remain, and particularly fear from the future of women's rights under the rule of the Taliban. And certainly the reports were getting suggest we're right to be concerned about that. We thank the Executive and Deputy Executive Members for Housing and Environmental Health for their recent briefing in our Councillor’s information bulletin, in relation to our position at that time on the Government's resettlement scheme, but we're aware that the situation can change and does change daily.

 

Therefore, as we have quite a lot of members present at Full Council, I wonder whether the Deputy Executive member could please provide any further updates on the support that North Herts District Council is intending to provide as we prepare to help in any way that we can?”

 

In the absence of Councillor Gary Grindal, Councillor Sean Prendergast (Deputy Executive Member for Housing and Environmental Health) gave a response:

 

“I'm sure colleagues across the chamber will have along with the rest of the country sat and watched in horror at the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as the US and UK troops left the country at the end of August. It is of course reassuring to see how quickly community groups have come together to offer help where they can along with local authorities, including North Herts District Council, and we as an authority are committed to helping refugees secure safe and permanent housing where we can and we remain on standby to help those families that come into the UK. That position has not changed. However, like many Local Authorities without a housing stock, the help we can offer in terms of housing is somewhat limited, and very much dependent on the support of our local social housing providers. I am therefore pleased to report that due to the excellent partnerships we have with our local providers, this support is in place. The announcement of the Afghan Citizens resettlement scheme was made on the 13th of September, in which the government declared that UK will expect to provide housing for up to 5000 refugees in the first year and up to 20,000 in subsequent years. Importantly, this scheme also provided details of the funding that would be available to provide the additional support that the families being resettled require and I am therefore happy to report that NHDC has responded to the call for help and has offered two three bedroom homes in support of the scheme this year. Whilst I appreciate this is a small offer, this is in addition to homes already provided in support of the Syrian refugee scheme. This council should be incredibly proud of the support, along with our housing support partners, which is given to providing a new safe life to families who have been forced to flee their home countries in fear of their lives. Sadly, this is not just limited to Afghanistan. This country faces a number of refugees. And we as a Council remain committed to helping all refugees where we can and therefore are pleased that we've been able to provide safe homes in the past and will continue to do so in the future despite our limited resources. I'd like to place on record the sincere thanks of this Council to the housing team at North Herts District Council who continue to find ways of providing homes for those in desperate need.

 

“I do feel it's important to mention that members may have seen a recent article in one local online newspaper stating that NHDC had not offered support to the recent Afghan relocation assistance policy. This scheme was in support of the Afghan interpreters and we took this difficult decision after we had already been asked to provide temporary accommodation for up to 50 refugees for 12 months as part of another government scheme, and it was clear that we had no capacity to meet at short notice this additional demand due to our limited resources.

 

One final important point, if I may, whilst we remain on standby to help all refugees where we can it is important that Councillors do not lose sight of the housing crisis we face here in North Herts, and indeed across the country. It is right and proper that we help refugees. But we must also remember the demands of our housing team face on a daily basis in addressing those in temporary or unsuitable accommodation, those rough sleeping, and the 2800 households on our current housing waiting list. These too are a priority for this Council. This government must as a matter of urgency provide adequate funding to enable local authorities to build more affordable homes so we can meet all of those needs. Thank you.”

 

Councillor Judi Billing asked a supplementary question:

 

“At the beginning of this crisis there was an overwhelming desire by residents across the county, and in North Herts just as much to help in many different ways, some of which were not always the most useful. So I would ask him what his advice is to local residents and groups who would like to give the most appropriate and targeted help that will do the most to help the refugees who we want to help to settle in the country as best they can?”

 

Councillor Sean Prendergast responded:

 

“If members of the Council and community groups or members of the public want to help, can I please emphasise recent charity announcements that cash donations are what is desperately needed; at Justgiving.com Herts Refugees, where you can make those donations if you if you want to. This is following charities becoming overwhelmed with other donations such as clothes and household items. So money is what is really needed.”

 

(C)      Waste Service Disruption

 

Councillor George Davies to Councillor Amy Allen (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management)

 

In the absence of Councillor George Davies, Councillor Claire Strong asked the question:

 

“As members will be aware, we are currently experiencing disruption to our waste collection services. Could the Executive Member councillor Amy Allen provide an update on measures to alleviate these issues and restore normal service?”

 

Councillor Amy Allen responded:

 

“I'd like to actually open with firstly sending a thank you to the crews at Urbaser all of whom have been working above and beyond and without whom we would not function. They are doing an amazing job and we appreciate everything they do. Regarding the question specifically, the impact of the national drivers shortage has indeed been affecting collections across Hertfordshire and our contract is not alone. We are also experienced a wider staff shortage on some days with supermarket wages being attractive to some staff. Other Councils have had to suspend their garden waste, they are now having to suspend food waste collections; some residual waste has not been collected for several weeks and has been shown in an article in The Guardian.  

 

We have been working through to keep our general services running as normal as possible. The service area has been updating members of our current business continuity position via MIS and today our preferred solution is in general rolling catch up. This means that rather than suspend collections in their entirety staff have been working overtime and weekends to catch up collections which are running behind their scheduled day.

 

Due to additional levels of sickness absence last week we were unable to resource a rolling catch up plan, but during August, it's worth noting that 97.6% of collections occurred on a scheduled day, with the remaining 2.4 occurring on the next day, the next working day, and sometimes including Saturdays.

 

This specifically is a national crisis. We as a Council are limited in our ability to alleviate these problems. However, the Herts Waste Partnership has been involved in a joint letter to the Environment Services Association Government regarding situation; we've got a swift response response, but no immediate help to alleviate driver shortages. We have committed to paying for the training of two new drivers whose training will begin as soon as backlogs at the DVLA has been managed. We're also supporting one the client officers to refresh their CPD to allow them to drive for Urbaser  when services are pressured. Driver vacancies are now also advertised on our own website.

 

Inevitably, whilst we continue to juggle resources over the coming months, there will be glitches but the staff are pulling out all the stops to get the work done. We have supervisors and the contract manager Urbaser regularly donning gloves and high vis and out driving or loading bins to support the crews. It has been an exceptional show of resilience, and I want to thank them again for all their hard work and their dedication. However, I'm sure you can agree with me that this is not sustainable.

 

A valid point I will include; we were warned, the government was warned that the majority of lost drivers were EU drivers. They were a large proportion of our driving workforce, and they are no longer present.”

 

Councillor Claire Strong asked a supplementary question:

 

“With all these plans that we have so that which will alleviate the problem; When exactly do we think that service will be back to normal as it was? Are we talking one month, two months three months or six months?”

 

Councillor Amy Allen responded:

 

“The industry is concerned that the run up to Christmas is going to see more instances of staff being poached and therefore less resources and more disrupted services.

 

We are continuing to do our garden waste collections and food waste collections and offer the opportunity to have them mixed in with the garden waste where necessary should we miss them.

We hope that with regards to the backlogs at the DVLA being managed and people actually getting their licences that they're waiting to receive so they can go out and drive will alleviate the issues. But as I said before, this is a national crisis.

 

We are actually doing a lot better than some other Councils. Some are really struggling. Just nearby at Bedford they've had to suspend their garden waste; now they have suspended their food collection waste to bring back the garden waste. We aren't at that position yet. We asked residents to leave their bins out if they've been missed. And if they get missed for more than two days they can report it or they can be reported immediately, they can ring, they can report online.

 

And I'm sure everyone to be delighted actually that the website is being upgraded next month to make it a lot easier to log missed bins and to make the service less disrupted.”