Agenda item - Oral questions from councillors

A list of Councillors who have indicated their desire to ask an oral question at the meeting along with the subject matters has been listed in the agenda papers.

78.1         The Mayor noted that notification of 5 oral questions had been received and invited Councillor Wealls to put his question to Councillor Shanks.

Value Added in Brighton & Hove’s Secondary Schools

78.2         Councillor Wealls asked the following question, Do you agree with me that value added, in other words a measurement of the performance of the school; when children arrive with a certain level of attainment and leave with a new level of attainment, is a useful measure of assessing the performance of our cities’ schools?”

78.3         Shanks replied, Councillor Wealls and I have had many discussions about this and of course I agree with him. I think one of the issues and, I’m sure we will be discussing this again, is what measure of value added you use because there are lots of different measures, as you know. We have got one on the connections to the admissions school omissions because I think it is really important that parents are able to look at that information when they’re expressing a preference to schools because it isn’t just what your child ends up with in the end in terms of how many GCSE’s but it depends how much they would have done compared to wherever they might have gone to school.

            So some schools are better than other schools at increasing that value added and doing better with some children when they first come in. In fact BACA is ahead on that value added score even though it’s obviously lower on the actual GCSE score so I do agree with you.”

78.4         Councillor Wealls asked the following supplementary question, “I know we agree and I know that Councillor Pissaridou is interested in this as a measure of schools as well. So we have a cross party consensus on looking more at value added rather than just simply attainment in schools.  My follow up question is what has been done to promote value added as a measure to parents? What would you like the administration and us as Councillors to do to widen the discussion about this amongst not just ourselves but amongst parents? So what has been done and what more can we do?”

78.5         Councillor Shanks replied, “What has been done is we have put the value added measure on the school admissions portal. I think it still needs more explanation. So I think we are hoping to run a workshop for Councillors and Governors that will really explain that to them. Obviously all schools understand these measures and anybody who is a school governor should be asking those questions about their school. About what their value added is, how they’re going to improve that, what their plans are for improving that.

            So I think it’s something that’s a duty on all of us. I think parents need that information and also they need other things like going to see the school, where the school is but I think it’s something we will come back to in future discussions.”

            Lewes Road Scheme

78.6         Councillor Marsh asked the following question, “In the light of the incredible delays that are being faced by residents, by commuters, by people working in the area, by the buses, would you please consider putting some traffic management into all the major junctions along the Lewes Road i.e. the lights at Moulsecoomb Way.  Could we consider the phasing of those and whether they are effective and also the lights at Coombe Road?  Coombe Road residents are saying to me they believe that the phasing of these lights has been shifted detrimentally to residents in Coombe Road and Meadowview who now have to spend in-ordinate lengths of time both getting on to the Lewes Road and back home again.

            In Bevendean at the Avenue, there is no traffic management whatsoever. Roundabouts, traffic lights, I’m not a traffic engineer but please could we consider some traffic management and also as we asked for, some signage, some warnings at bus stops which we know are being done in several phases but at the moment if you are a disabled resident or if you are somebody who’s mobility is not very good and you’re trying to get on to a bus say at Wild Park, you have to actually dice with death with speeding cyclists at the moment.  I’m aware that that is a temporary situation but when you are a very disabled, it’s not very temporary.”

78.1         Councillor Davey replied, “There is traffic management in place and the traffic management in place is designed to minimise destruction obviously there were particular circumstances that took place last week due to the significant snowfall which meant that the Falmer Road was closed and filled with abandoned vehicles and at some point the A27 was closed as well. So clearly the Lewes Road was going to find it very difficult to cope with that.

            If you want to put those specific questions in to an email I’m sure the officers will be able to respond to them very quickly as I know that officers responded to the question that you raised at 16.50pm and you received a reply at 17.01pm. As to why exactly there was a particularly temporary measure in place it’s actually got nothing to do with the improvements that have taken place along the Lewes Road. It’s actual urgent maintenance which has taken place totally separately so I would argue that the existing mechanisms for communicating with the officers and the officers responding to your questions is perfectly adequate.”

78.2         Councillor Marsh asked the following supplementary question, “At Transport Committee in our letter, we asked that you would consider setting up a Joint Resident Councillor Officer Group as was done for AMEX and is still being done for the AMEX in order to monitor and review the ongoing situation in the Lewes Road because there will be hiccups we understand that, we understand that things will need tweaking and what have you.

            I’m also as anxious as Councillor Davey is that poor old Robin Reeds’ time isn’t totally taken up with answering my emails or my residents’ emails and I think that would actually go a great way for residents to feel involved and in charge and able to influence the scheme. He did refuse that at Transport Committee and I am respectfully asking that he will reconsider that on behalf of all the residents in Moulsecoomb, Bevendean, Coombe Road and Meadowview.”

78.3         Councillor Davey replied, “As I said at the Transport Committee, I think it is unclear what this extra group would add and what it’s purpose would be and who indeed would be members of this group given the many thousands of people who actually live along the Lewes Road corridor. So the officers have already attended LAT Meetings, have offered to go to other LAT Meetings and should you wish to respond and take them up on that offer they would do so.

            In the meantime, such as has been explained, if you or residents want to raise issues they can be responded to very quickly as they are clearly being done at this moment in time.”

            Council Housing - Gardens

78.4         Councillor Barnett asked the following question, “During recent estate inspections visits in my ward I was shocked by the state that some Council tenants have left their gardens in. Letting them get completely over grown and in some cases dumping unwanted household furniture and items in them. It’s extremely unfair to residents in neighbouring properties and also drags down the look of the whole area. Does Councillor Wakefield agree with me that the Council should be enforcing the upkeep of Council properties and their gardens much more strongly than happens at present?

            I’m sure that many families on the Council waiting list would give their eye teeth to have a house with a decent garden.”

78.5         Councillor Wakefield replied, “I think that, having been brought up in a Council house myself, the size of the gardens is absolutely amazing and I think the people in them are extremely lucky to have such large gardens. I do share your concern about the state of some of the gardens.  There are checks, there are estate inspections and things that happen, I’ll certainly raise with officers the possibility of being a little bit more stringent on them.  There are sanctions that are put in place and the biggest sanction is that if, once given warnings, the tenants don’t tidy up their gardens, the Council sends somebody in to tidy them up and then the tenant is charged for that.

            Obviously lots of things before that happen and we try to put in place because we don’t want to be dealing out sanctions we like to offer help as well.  The help that is offered is that if for some reason you are unable to cope with your garden or it’s getting too much for you, you can get free help through a gardening scheme which you can sign up to. I’ll certainly have a word, Councillor Barnett, with officers and check that perhaps we can be a bit more stringent.”

78.6         Councillor Barnett asked the following supplementary question, “Please will you give me some commitment to review the ridiculous rule which stops the Council installing handrails to help elderly residents access their back gardens, it’s completely stopped, I have elderly residents who would love to get into their gardens and unfortunately they were being refused a handrail.  We are supposed to be giving the elderly a quality of life not depriving them of access.”

78.7         Councillor Wakefield replied, “I was unaware of this and I apologise for that fact.  I’m well aware of how having gardens and having access to a garden can enhance somebody’s life so I will certainly give you a promise that I will talk to officers about that and then get back to you and the officers will get back to you to find out what‘s going on and if we aren’t doing it, it could be due to finances; I don’t know but we shall try and find out why and see what can be done because if you’ve got a garden you should be able to get into it.  Certainly my elderly mother in-law who is disabled, she gets a lot of enjoyment from going out in to her garden and she has to use two handrails to get out into her garden so I do appreciate the need.”

Career Pathways

78.8         Councillor Hamilton asked the following question, “Developing Career Pathways is part of the People’s Strategy and I first raised this in a question over two years ago.  I was informed that a meeting was to be held last October at which the next steps were being agreed.  I’ve had no updates since then, please could you give me an update on any progress?”

78.9         Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “As you know this was part of the People’s Strategy and the feedback from the Staff Consultation in that was that a highly increasing proportion of our employees feel that opportunity for progressions were not clear and that’s with the exception of specific areas like social care and finance where there are clear defined paths.  In general the feedback was such that they didn’t feel the opportunities were clear, so more broadly what we’d like to do in response to that is to create job families so that there’s clarity about the options and the requirements of the job roles so that the individuals understand what’s needed of them to progress in to a higher level post or laterally in to a different service area and so that the Council can have a more flexible workforce.   Unfortunately you voted against that at P&R but thank you for your interest.”

78.10    Councillor Hamilton asked the following supplementary question, “Can you please give me some information, the answers I’ve been receiving over the time all seem to be what I would call holding answers.  Can you give me some realistic idea which I can convey to my constituent who keeps asking about this?   Can you give me some ideas as to a time span as when it’s likely that this policy will be in place?”

78.11    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “Yes the time span is in the report to P&R which you voted against.”

Value for Money in the HRA

78.12    Councillor Mears asked the following question, “In a recent Housing meeting, at the Housing Management Meeting we asked as Opposition Councillors quite some intense questions to get answers around why we were showing a £286,000 pressure within the budget.  I would like to thank the Director who has sent me a detailed reply and I will be responding.  We were  finally told that through the HRA bearing in mind it’s made up of tenants’ rents which nearly £46,000,000 is tenants’ rents.  We are proposing to spend another £250,000 on the head of City Regenerations post 30% from the HRA.

            It’s showing as a pressure what we now hear is that actually it’s an on-going revenue cost after more questions. Bearing in mind the post has already been filled can the lead member of Housing confirm why this new arrangement was not included in last year’s budget and also when she agreed this without any report first to Housing, bearing in mind we are now operating a Committee System?”

78.13    Councillor Wakefield replied, “A lot of posts have already been funded out of HRA, it’s my understanding that with Jugal Sharma, Head of Housing, Nick Hibberd, Head of Regeneration that their salaries have almost reversed, if you like, because of where the amounts of money have come from.  So it is my understanding that no more money is coming out of the Housing Revenue Account than came out previously.  If I’m incorrect, I accept that. I think the best thing, because I don’t have an amazing knowledge of all the finances, would be for me to give you a written response from officers.  I’m quite happy to share that.”

78.14    Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “Can the Lead Member also confirm that unlike last year’s budget where the homeless budget was cut, she will ensure that it is properly protected so that any money given for pressures will not be taken back as savings and real extra money will be added to mitigate the devastating effects created by the cuts to the Homeless Budget last year?”

78.15    Councillor Wakefield replied, “The amount of money that we are putting in to the Homeless Budget, we’ve actually recently just put a lot of extra money in because of an increased demand and increased need.

78.16    The budget as you well know when you’ve seen the figures, will be protected as far as possible, I certainly have no intention of taking money out of the Homeless Budget. There are ongoing savings which are to be made which are to do with value for money.”

78.17    The Mayor noted that this concluded the questions from Members.