Agenda item

To deal with written questions submitted by Members under Standing Order 8.1.  Copies of the questions and of the draft replies (which are subject to amendment by the Leader of the Council) will be published shortly before the meeting.

Copies of questions submitted under Standing Order 8.1 together with draft replies had been published in advance of the meeting. The replies were confirmed by Members of the Executive, supplementary questions were asked and replies given as set out below:

1.      Question from Councillor Rob Leach

“How many residents are benefiting from the Meals on Wheels Service?”

         Reply from Councillor Ellen Nicholson

         “During February 2023, we delivered 4,595 meals to 197 customers.  The biggest take-up was hot lunches (3,118 delivered) followed by the tea time bag (1,153 delivered).  As discussed previously the Community Meals Service offers so much more than a meal and is a highly valued service by our vulnerable residents.”

         Supplementary Question

         “Thank you Mr Mayor, yes I do.  A very brief one you’ll be pleased to hear. 

         Are there any trends, I would like to ask the Portfolio Holder, in the need for the meals service and its use?

Thank you.”

Reply from Councillor Ellen Nicholson

“Thank you, Councillor Leach.

I wouldn’t say there are necessarily any trends that we are actually seeing.  I would say that all of our residents who partake in the community meals are vulnerable and actually are needing that service. 

I had the opportunity to go out with the community meals service earlier this week and I was incredibly impressed by the dedication of the staff, both in the Council but also the staff on the ground who are actually delivering the meals. 

It is an essential service for our vulnerable residents, just checking in with them daily to see about their needs and I am really pleased, actually.  As a child I went out with community meals services and actually the ethos and caring remains the same, you know, decades later, so I am very pleased about that.  So nothing further to report. 

Thank you.”

The Mayor

“Thank you, Councillor Nicholson.

I can actually also say that I did too went with the Community Meals and they do more than just deliver meals.  They’re an extra emergency service, as you might say.  Long may it continue.”

2.      Question from Councillor Steve Dorsett

“Considering the recent decision to scrap the Town Centre Buggy, Cllr Forster said the Council would be looking at other methods to replace those services for the residents who rely on them.  Can he update Council as to where we are with that?”

Reply from Councillor Will Forster

“As I stated during the February Full Council meeting in my response to a question from Councillor Colin Kemp, the Council did not make the decision to end the town buggy service.  Although aware of it, the provider did not meet the deadline to submit a full application for funding from the Council's Community Grants budget.

Despite best efforts, the town buggy service had seen dwindling passenger numbers, coupled with increasing running costs in recent years.  The service is sadly no longer financially viable.

The town centre buggy service was just one of a number of offers of support for vulnerable residents in Woking.  Woking’s Town Centre offers accessible shops and facilities and a well designed public realm.  The Council supports Woking Shopmobility services which enables residents to access a range of equipment and specialist transport.  The full offer is published on the Woking Shopmobility website.”

Supplementary Question

“Yes I do, Mr. Mayor, thank you.

I thank the Portfolio Holder for his reply, but he doesn't really answer as to what will be replacing the Town Centre Buggy.  There are alternative services available, but none that do a similar role that the Buggy had for residents.

The loss of the buggy, which I believe has operated for over 20 years now, is deeply upsetting for those who regularly need to use its service. 

I've spoken with the gentleman who's provided the service.  He still maintains that he believed he got the application in on time.  It feels there may have been a bit of a mistake made here somewhere and it seems a real shame if the reason that we're losing this service is down to a mistake.

I understand that it costs £22,000 a year to run which £22,000 pounds is a lot of money but in the scheme of what the Council spend is not the greatest sum.  He feels, and I agree, that this is a step back for social inclusion in Woking.

Could Councillor Forster please advise me as to what I should say to the handful of residents that have phoned me up in tears, not knowing how they're going to be able to get around the town to do their essential shopping.”

Reply from Councillor Will Forster

         “Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Earlier this week, the Council and Woking Community Transport, who provided the Town Centre Buggy, agreed a joint statement to highlight to residents to properly communicate what has happened with the service and a part of it I will read briefly.  ‘That despite best efforts, this difficult decision was made due to dwindling passenger numbers coupled with increasing running costs and loss of grant funding that has meant the service is no longer financially viable. 

The service, sadly, was no longer financially viable; it cost £8 to take someone across Jubilee Square.  That isn't viable for anyone.  However, this joint statement points residents to alternative provision, namely Woking Shopmobility and Woking Community Transport’s Dial-a-Ride service.’ Please look at the Council website for further details, as I appreciate you’ll cut me off at some point, but there are alternative provision available, and that's what we state in our response and on the website.  So that's what I recommend Councillor Dorsett to tell his residents who are concerned.

         Thank you, Mr. Mayor.”

3.      Question from Councillor Steve Dorsett

“As part of this Council’s commitment to a greener Woking and a more sustainable environment, the Council would provide blue recycling bins to local events taking place in the Borough.  This service was convenient for event organisers and ensured waste was properly recycled.  I understand the Council has now decided to stop this practice.  Can the portfolio holder update the Council on this and explain the reasoning behind it?”

Reply from Councillor Peter Graves

“The Controlled Waste Regulations categorise waste from a market or fair as commercial waste.  Producers of commercial waste are responsible for employing suitably licensed waste collection contractors and paying for its collection and disposal.  There are a range of local providers able to offer this service and provide a range of bins.  The service can continue to be arranged via the Council’s waste collection contractor.  If an event organiser wishes to employ the Council’s household waste collection contractor (Amey) they are now asked to contact Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) directly to discuss their requirements.  JWS manage the Amey contract on the Council’s behalf and are best placed to oversee these arrangements.  JWS will liaise with Amey and provide the event organiser with a quotation for providing the service (providing/retrieving bins, separate collection of the commercial waste and commercial waste disposal etc).  The event organisers would need to pay this cost to Woking Borough Council (in-turn the Council will pay Amey’s commercial collection and Surrey County Council’s commercial disposal costs).  This arrangement ensures that the full cost of a commercial service is met by the event organiser, which may not have always been the case in previous years.  This arrangement was successfully used for the Surrey Half Marathon Event in March.”

Supplementary Question

“Yes, I do, Mr. Mayor, thank you.

It's disappointing to hear that residents will not be getting the support needed from Council to host events by retaining the blue bin service, considering support for communities is a key part of the Woking strategy.

The end result may be that voluntary groups will no longer be able to host events and that would be a huge loss for us all.  The Pyrford Village Show is one such event and indeed one of the largest events held by the Borough, attracting thousands of visitors to the village, organised by a team of local volunteers.  Both volunteers who have contacted me and asked me to ask Councillor Graves this question in Council, bearing in mind he is also a Pyrford Ward Councillor.

So by supplying this service, the Council was supporting this fantastic event and ensuring waste was properly recycled.  Is the Portfolio Holder sure that he wants to turn his back on the show and the good people of Pyrford?”

Reply from Councillor Peter Graves

“Thank you for that question, Councillor Dorsett, and thank you, Mr. Mayor.

There will be elements of that answer of that question I have to come back to you on because  I'm not fully au fait with all of the details.  But the truth is that the cost of providing the bins, for example, to the Surrey half marathon, was about £600 to the Council, and that comes straight out of the Council Tax income that we take.

The other side of this is that, unfortunately, a lot of the, a lot of the recycling that we collect from events from fairs and, indeed, sadly from the Pyrford Show, sadly that is, is actually virtual recycling.  It ends up in the, it ends up in the black bins, so it is unfortunate that that is the case, and so really it is a service that we'd love to provide, but again it is stretching the Council's finances further.  And it is of the 1,000 or 2,000, I think, people that attended the Pyrford Show last year, it may be that we have to ask them to contribute 20p more or so to cover the cost of those, of those bins.

The other elements of Mr., of Councillor Dorsett's answer I will come back to because I have to refer to the officers.

Thank you.”

4.      Question from Councillor Louise Morales

“How much in repayments does the Council have to find each year to pay back its borrowing?  Please could the portfolio holder provide the figures for the next 3 years.”

Reply from Councillor Dale Roberts

“In 2023/24 the debt service costs charged to the Revenue Budget will be £62m and in the two years following the figure is likely to rise to £67m by 2025/26.  Clearly this will depend on the cost of borrowing which is not in the Council’s control and the extent to which the Council chooses to invest in assets funded by prudential borrowing.”

Supplementary Question

No.

5.      Question from Councillor Melanie Whitehand

“Would the Leader of the Council agree with me that our Residents expect us to attend all Council meetings to fulfil our duties as elected Members.

Obviously circumstances may change at short notice and cause a Member to miss the occasional meeting, but to repeatedly miss meetings may be considered a dereliction of duty.

Would the Full Council attendance by all Members be published as part of the reply please?”

Reply from Councillor Ann-Marie Barker

“I thank Councillor Whitehand for her question and agree that attendance at meetings, whether Council, Committee or Working Group, is an important responsibility of all elected representatives.

Set out below are the attendance records for the meetings of Full Council held in the 2022/23 Municipal Year.  The figures for this evening’s meeting have not been included.

The attendance figures for all meetings are published on the Council’s website, under the details of individual Councillors.

In May 2017 the Council considered the attendance record of Councillors at Committee meetings.  The Council resolved the following, in light of the poor attendance record at some meetings:

“The relevant Group Leader be advised in the event a Member fails to attend two or more meetings of a Committee or Working Group to which they had been appointed with a view to improving general attendance.”

In accordance with this resolution, the Head of Democratic Services notifies the respective Group Leader in writing in the event a Member of their Group fails to attend two or more consecutive meetings of the Council, the Executive, Committees, Working Groups, Task Groups or Panels.”

Attendance at Meetings of Full Council – 2022/23 Municipal Year

Councillor	19/05	23/05	21/7	13/10	1/12	9/2	23/2
Akberali, H	ü	ü	ü	ü	X	ü	ü	6/7
Ali, M	ü	ü	X	X	X	X	X	2/7
Azad, A	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Aziz, T	ü	X	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	6/7
Barker, A-M	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Boote, A	ü	X	X	ü	ü	ü	X	4/7
Brown, J	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Caufield, A	ü	ü	ü	X	ü	X	X	4/7
Cosnahan, G	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	X	ü	6/7
Davis, K	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Dorsett, S	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Elson, G	ü	X	ü	ü	X	ü	ü	5/7
Forster, W	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Graves, P	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Hussain, S	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Johnson,	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Jordan, D	X	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	6/7
Kemp, C	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Kirby, A	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Leach, R	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Lyons, L	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Morales, L	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Morley, J	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Nicholson, E	ü	ü	X	ü	ü	ü	ü	6/7
Oades, S	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Raja, I	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Roberts, D	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Sanderson, J	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Spenser, T	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	7/7
Whitehand, M	ü	ü	ü	X	ü	ü	ü	6/7
Attendance	29	27	27	27	27	27	27

Supplementary Question

Yes I do Mr Mayor, excuse my voice people.

Very pleased to see this table, but I am somewhat concerned that on some of the results, there are just above a 50% attendance, which I think is quite concerning when the residents of Woking expect us to do our duty and attend a Council meeting and in one instance there’s a very, very high percentage of absenteeism.

Could the Portfolio Holder or Leader of the Council determine exactly how many will automatically qualify you for it a disqualification.

Thank you.”

Reply from Councillor Ann-Marie Barker

“Thank you, Councillor Whitehand.

I understand the criteria for disqualification is for not having attended any statutory Council meeting for six months, so there's quite a high barrier and of course it's really important for people to attend Council meetings.

We need to do the business of the Council and it's a shame when people can't do it, but there can be many reasons why people are unable to make Council meetings.  I can see that you missed one yourself this year, I'm sure for a very good reason and you know Councillors do an awful lot of other work in the, in the community as well, so it's not only attending Council meetings that is important.  As is mentioned in the response there, we have instituted something so if Councillors are missing a couple of meetings, a couple of meetings on the run, then that is advised to their, their Group Leaders and the Group Leaders are then able to, to take that, that up.

I realise that it is obviously Councillors from Groups other than your own that are the issue this time but I actually believe that criteria came in when there were several Conservative Councillors that routinely didn't attend meetings, so it happens across the Chamber at times.  It’s unfortunate, but I hope that we can control that and encourage people to attend the meetings.”