Agenda item - Written questions from members of the public.

A list of public questions received by the due date of 12noon on the 24^th January 2013 will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

75.1         The Mayor reported that four written questions had been received from members of the public and invited Mr. Kemble to come forward and address the council.

75.2         Mr Kemble thanked the Mayor and asked the following question; “When consultation was carried out regarding the installation and location of the communal bins in Connaught Road the building which is now West Hove Infant School was the Adult Education Centre.  Following a serious arson incident involving the communal bins will the Council agree to consult residents again with a view to re locating the Communal bins at the Northern end of Connaught Rd.?”

75.3         Councillor West replied; “The short answer is yes we are very happy to have a look at the locations of these bins and officers will contact you directly.”

75.4         The Mayor noted that there was no supplementary question and thanked Mr. Kemble for his question and invited Ms. Paynter to come forward and address the council.

75.5         Ms. Paynter thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “What planned access to public toilets and disabled public toilets at Hove Town Hall has BHCC organised for people using City Direct after building works are completed, please?  I note that the corridor linking the two areas has now been blocked off with newly installed doors?”

75.6         Councillor Littman replied, “The new Customer Service Centre at Hove Town Hall will be providing both Council and Police services as a result there may be times when one half is open the other is shut, for example on a Saturday.   This requires us to have a secure doorway between the two areas. In addition staff will not be allowed to use the Tisbury Road or Norton Road entrances as these will be for customers only. This is another reason to put a door to separate the Customer Service Centre from the main building which will have security swipe mechanism to restrict access.

            In order to allow this change, a new large external canopy has been provided to the customer service area which gives weather protected level access to the existing Main Town Hall entrance. Customers will therefore still have full access to the existing public toilets as they did before the building works.”

75.7         Ms. Paynter asked the following supplementary question, “It’s my understanding that the Main Town Hall will have locked front entrance as does the Brighton Town Hall and that the Main Town Hall will be unavailable to the public full stop unless it’s for meetings such as this and that the public will only have free access to the area on the other side of that door which is City Direct.  As this door between the City Direct area and the Main Town Hall area is blocked by a swipe only door, how are we meant to use the public toilets? I’m not sure how this is going to work?”

75.8         Councillor Littman replied, “That’s not what I’ve been given to believe but I will certainly investigate and let you know.”

75.1         The Mayor thanked Ms. Paynter for her questions and invited Mr. Barraball to come forward and address the council.

75.2         Mr. Barraball thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, "The reason I was putting this question to the Full Council was that after debate and decisions are made everybody who has participated in the debate whether they agree with the decisions individually or not it has to go forward as a Full Council decision and therefore to stop the sniping between parties once the decisions have been made so that everything be fully supported.

There are many problems pressing our Council as many other Councils across the country and other parties and this Unitary Authority which has a minority Administration but we need to have everybody on side once the decisions have been made, to work together and not to fire from the side lines after those decisions have been made so that is really why I am trying to put forward that we work together after decisions are made to implement those jointly made decisions.

I was thinking of addressing it to the minority parties other than the Green Party so I’m surprised that Councillor Kitcat can answer for everybody because we are a diverse Council as the community is equally diverse.”

75.3         Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “Well as you rightly identify I am not able to speak for every Councillor and I think that’s probably a relief to everyone involved but I my personal view is that every Councillor has to reflect on their conscience and their duty to their residents about how they vote and clearly how each of us vote is a matter of public record and is available on the webcast as well so we can all be held to account on that, but I certainly believe that our conduct should be putting City first and Politics second and I hope that’s how we all come together and there have been many cases in recent times for bids such as on Ultra Fast Broadband or the City Deal where all the parties have come together and lobbied to successful outcomes.

            So I do think there are signs of cross party working for the benefit of this City.”

75.4         Mr. Barraball asked the following supplementary question, “I was mindful of the prayer at the beginning of the meeting which subsumed my intention of this question and also Councillor Kitcat has also summarised it that the Councillors vote according to their understanding and their priorities that they were elected but we have to work together as a community.

            Councillors have to work together to implement the policies that are decided and that is the intention that I am asking that after the decisions have been made then Councillors support the final decision collectively and individually.”

75.5         Councillor J. Kitcat noted the point.

75.6         The Mayor thanked Mr. Barraball for his questions and noted the Mr. Tilley was unavailable to attend the meeting to put his question and had asked that it be withdrawn and therefore this concluded the item.