To deal with supplementary questions arising from the attached questions of which written notice has been given. 

 

Notes:

 

(i)         Answers to written questions shall be circulated at the commencement of the meeting.

 

(ii)        The Lord Mayor will have regard to the list of questions and the political composition of the Council in calling on Members to put their supplementary question to the Leader of Council and Portfolio Holders.

 

(iii)       A period of up to 30 minutes shall be available for supplementary questions to Members of the Executive. 

 

1.    Councillor Marcus Dearden

It’s extremely welcome that this Labour council is committed to investing in parks and play areas in Bingley, an investment which is desperately needed for local families. I will be continuing to push for the best possible investment for the ward and for it to be delivered as soon as possible. Can the portfolio holder outline how much we are investing in the parks plan overall across the district and can I be assured that the funds will be directed to the parks and spaces where they are most needed?

 

2.    Councillor Sally Birch

Given the increasing number of high profile organisations including The Equality and Human Rights Commission, the BBC, the Government’s Equality Office and numerous Government Departments to name but a few, opting to withdraw from the highly controversial Stonewall Equality Index, what benefits does the Council believe will be achieved by continuing to pursue this “accreditation”?

 

3.    Councillor Jeanette Sunderland

The Families First programme in Bradford has been placed on a ‘Recovery Plan’ and had increased Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government intervention and scrutiny due to not meeting its targets of the numbers of families being worked with in a whole family way and the number of family outcomes achieving significant and sustained progress. How much money was lost to Bradford due to failure to meet targets?

 

4.    Councillor Matt Edwards

Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows fly-tipping in Bradford is at its worst level since relevant records began -  with 18,001 fly-tipping incidents reported to Bradford Council in 2020-21 – an increase of 12 per cent increase on 2020.

 

Does the portfolio holder agree that, whilst this is a national problem, exacerbated by the brutal budget cut under successive Conservative governments, that the Council’s current approach does not appear to be working?

 

Would the Council consider setting up a task force to examine new ideas and look at what other Councils are doing to tackle the issue? – for example Wirral Borough Council has invested in new cutting-edge, wireless camera equipment which are easier to deploy and are more resistant to vandalism.

 

5.    Councillor Carol Thirkill

Can you outline the work undertaken by the council to reduce the number of empty homes in the district?

 

6.    Councillor Nussrat Mohammed

The Council closed off Shay Lane in our ward as part of temporary road changes during the pandemic. I’ve been getting lots of feedback from residents on this issue, could the portfolio holder advise what’s going to happen next and whether residents’ voices will be heard?

 

7.    Councillor Geoff Winnard

Could the Portfolio Holder for Healthy People and Places inform members of what the Council is doing to ensure that the health and social care needs of our district will be heard and taken into account in the proposed statutory Integrated Care System for West Yorkshire and will the new arrangements provide an opportunity for joint commissioning of services with the NHS?

 

8.    Councillor Taj Salam

What more can we do to press the government to help with the transition to electric vehicles given the financial burden that people and businesses will face – in particular taxi and other vehicle operators? I’m concerned about the purchase price of EVs but also the cost of charging – surely the government should put in place a price cap on energy firms’ excessive profiteering from charging EVs? Can’t the government also offer better financial incentives to encourage the switch to EVs and reduce the charging costs for small businesses?

 

9.    Councillor Nazam Azam

What are the next steps in Bradford’s bid to be UK City of Culture?

 

10.Councillor Bob Felstead

We note that Bradford Council support the West Yorkshire Mayor’s White Rose Forest scheme which seeks to remove carbon from the air and also to address the issue of natural flood management in the Aire Valley and should be grateful if the Leader of Council would guarantee a similar commitment to support the excellent work carried out by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, which will also remove CO2 from the atmosphere and also fulfils the Council commitments to improve natural flood risk management along the Wharfe Valley, which affects homes in the district.

 

11.Councillor Brendan Stubbs

Can the Portfolio holder please detail the current number of planning enforcement cases broken down by ward that remain unresolved? Further to this can the Portfolio Holder provide information on how many of these are awaiting a date in court following a failure to comply with an enforcement notice?

 

12.Councillor Vanda Greenwood

Can the portfolio holder outline the key points from the social care white paper and what it means for the people of our district? Also do you share my concern that the government’s approach shockingly puts the burden on the least well off and fails to deliver the real reforms we need?

 

13.Councillor Shakeela Lal

Does the Leader join me in congratulating the University of Bradford’s business school for being named best in the country at the Times Higher Education Awards?

 

14.Councillor David Heseltine

Given that young people want to feel safe and be able to use play facilities such as Skateparks and MUGAS in the dark days of winter, would it not be sensible, while upgrading our street lamps to LED, that BMDC consider lighting play facilities to allow them to be used for more of the year?

 

15. Councillor Nussrat Mohammed

Double parking is an ongoing problem raised by a number of constituents and it is a worry that emergency vehicles could struggle to get past. Can the portfolio holder outline what powers local authorities have on this and what actions are we able to take to tackle the problem?

 

16.Councillor Taj Salam

The government is finally catching up with Bradford Council’s approach on EV charging points. The Prime Minister has announced plans for all new-builds to have EV charging points. Can the portfolio holder confirm how many years we’ve had this policy in Bradford and what successes it’s achieved so far?

 

17.Councillor Mike Pollard

As a result of performance shortcomings in respect of years prior to 2020/21, the Council’s delivery of the ‘Families First’ programme was placed on a ‘Recovery Plan’ with increased MHCLG (as then named) intervention and scrutiny, due to not meeting its targets of the numbers of families being worked with in a ‘whole family’ way and the number of family outcomes achieving significant and sustained progress. Could the Portfolio Holder please quantify the monetary resource lost to the Council over the period of the underperformance identified (the benchmark to be used in that calculation being the 100% achieved in 2020/21)?

 

18.Councillor Caroline Firth

Can the leader explain what communication the council’s emergency response team had from Northern Power grid after power was knocked out in various areas across the district due to Storm Arwen? What help did they put in place for residents and what offer of support was made to the council from Northern Power grid to aid our residents? What is the learning from this incident? Will she join me in thanking and praising residents and council staff who stepped up and helped those affected?

 

19.Councillor David Warburton

Can the portfolio holder give an update on Wyke Sports Village?

 

20.Councillor David Heseltine

Further to the last Council meeting what progress has been made on the "priority" that is resolving the ventilation and now flooring problems, to allow Bingley Youth Cafe to open again and as Bingley Pool is destined to close due to Bradford Council being unwilling to offer up a serviceable facility for a CAT, what plans are there to ensure Bingley Youth Cafe has a permanent home in the town?

 

21.Councillor Kevin Warnes

Would the Leader of Council agree to use her position as Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee to ensure that the committee’s ‘Forward Plan of Key Decisions’ includes a comprehensive review of the carbon emissions implications of the transport projects being managed by the combined authority, bearing in mind that a review of this sort does not feature among the 51 items on the committee’s published current plan despite WYCA’s declaration of a climate emergency in June 2019? [see ‘Forward Plan of Key Decisions from 1 December 2021 (01/01/2022 to 30/04/2022, Forward Plan of Key Decisions).

 

22.Councillor Paul Godwin

I welcome that the Leader has called on government to bring an end to the environmentally damaging practice of heather burning on our moorlands. Has the Leader had a response yet from government and what are the next steps?

 

23.Councillor Hassan Khan

We have badly ageing hospital buildings in the Bradford district and yet we’ve not seen the same government grant funding here that other parts of the country have seen. I know the Leader has lobbied strongly on this and is supporting our district’s bid for brand-new hospitals to replace Airedale, Lynfield Mount and the BRI. When will we hear back from government?

 

24.Councillor Kyle Green

Could the Portfolio Holder for Healthy People and Places advise when the council will look to invest in Ilkley Pool and Lido to provide adequate family changing facilities, modern equipment including gym facilities?

 

25.Councillor Jeanette Sunderland

The Government has announced a workforce retention fund. Has the Council received any funding and what are the Council’s plans to ensure it reaches the pay packets of staff?

 

26. Councillor Zafar Iqbal

What actions are we taking together with the police to help women stay safe on nights out and in other public spaces?

 

27.Councillor Mohsin Hussain

Does the portfolio holder have an update on timescales for delivery of the Towns Fund projects in Keighley?

 

28.Councillor Rebecca Whitaker

Please can the Portfolio Holder confirm what strategic plans are being put in place to resolve fixing the numerous street lights which are not working across the Bradford District? What conversations are being held with Northern Power grid to speed up the process in situations where they are involved? The current position is becoming increasingly more concerning. In particular, for residents in Silsden who have had to spend the last few months navigating the new road changes at the bottom of Keighley Road including negotiating the unlit islands and those crossing the notoriously busy and dangerous A629 in such poorly lit conditions that it is putting public safety at risk. Please can you provide a definitive date when the street lights will be fixed? 

 

29.Councillor Taj Salam

As we are in the cold winter months will the portfolio holder outline our current actions to support rough sleepers off the streets and into accommodation.

 

30.Councillor Aneela Ahmed

Can the portfolio holder give an update on how the Darley Street Market and Bradford Live regeneration schemes are progressing and how many jobs they are expected to create?

 

31.Councillor Debbie Davies

Would the Leader of the Council inform colleagues why, instead of spending £27.5m on One City Park for 56,000 square feet of office space, the council doesn’t just buy The Interchange building which is £4.2m for 60,000 square feet of Grade A office space and available now?

 

32.Councillor Mohammed Shafiq

Can the portfolio holder update me on the progress made in children’s services?

 

33.Councillor Nussrat Mohammed

Will the portfolio holder give an update on how we are progressing with delivery of the new streetlights programme, the main benefits in terms of maintenance, cost savings and the environment and how it’s being rolled out across the district?

 

34.Councillor Sally Birch

In Bingley Rural we are working with local schools, the polices and parish councils to reduce parking issues and residents’ complaints due to school parents struggling to access free and safe parking. In Wilsden there is a car park which used to offer 30 minutes of free parking. This is no longer the case. Wilsden Primary School have asked if they could be offered a small number of “Parents Parking Permits” which would allow a 30-minute free parking slot in the car park on Main St both at the start and end of the school day. They would only allocate these passes to parents who live the furthest from the school and have little option but to use their car each day. Can this be considered as a scheme which would reduce traffic congestion near the school, allow those parents who have to use their car to have free access to safe parking and would be administered by the school?

 

35.Councillor Rebecca Whitaker

As it is becoming increasingly apparent that the various Council Enforcement Teams are struggling with onerous workloads resulting in huge backlogs of work, making it increasingly difficult to be effective when reacting to complaints from members of the public, can the Portfolio Holder explain what immediate measures are being put in place to assist the Enforcement Officers to execute their work in a more effective, timely fashion?

 

36.Councillor Alun Griffiths

Of the 582 cut down lighting columns listed in the answer to my question at the last council meeting, how many have been replaced in the 15 weeks since then? How many of the 19 in Idle and Thackley Ward? In addition, can the Portfolio Holder please provide details of the number of streetlights awaiting bulb replacement or repair (excluding the cut downs) broken down by ward? Please can the portfolio Holder also provide current waiting times for these street lights to be restored to full working order?

 

37.Councillor Matt Edwards

Following the Schools Street Pilot, can you provide a breakdown of each school site and whether the pilot has been deemed to have succeeded or requires improvements, or indeed has failed?

 

38.Councillor Debbie Davies

During to the easing of Covid 19 related restrictions, most libraries in the district re-opened significantly earlier than Baildon Library, which continued for some time with a click and collect service, purportedly because of structural problems with the building, yet it somewhat later re-opened for limited visitors, despite Council Officers having confirmed that there have been no material changes to the condition of the building, thus can the Portfolio Holder confirm that it was not kept closed unnecessarily for six months?

Council Document “Item 10” details the questions from Members to the Leader of Council and Portfolio Holders and the answers given.