Cabinet Members will answer questions from Members on their Portfolios.
Minutes:
Addressing the Cabinet Member for Housing and Property Services, Councillor B A Moore speaking on behalf of Councillor R L Stanley stated that he understood that 5 of the active ‘Tenants Together’ had resigned on block and bearing in mind that the group took many years to establish, assisted in the early years by the current Leader, he asked the following questions:
· This Council would be interested in hearing reasons for these resignations?
· Bearing in mind that the Tenants Together acted as formal tenant consultee for all housing policies, what is in place to deal with the changed circumstances?
· The Tenants Together was formed as a scrutiny group, during their time they researched and identified significant savings for the HRA, what is in hand to continue their processes
· The Housing Improvement Board was established to review ‘value for money’ and performance against agreed budgets and targets. It is worthy of note that Tenants Together, along with, in the early days other political representation were invited to attend this to ensure transparency, is it the intention to continue this monthly meeting and will invitations for other representatives be forthcoming? If the intent is not to continue with the format, how is performance going to be reviewed?
The Cabinet Member voiced his total surprise and upset by the resignations, he was struggling to meet them individually as were officers in order to restructure the organisation which benefits this council greatly. He could not update the council anymore on that position apart from saying that things were ongoing and he was hoping to be able to give some positive news in time.
Councillor C J Eginton addressing all members of the Cabinet present and seeking individual answers stated that following decisions made on the Devon Climate Declaration at the full Council meeting in June 2019 could the members of the Cabinet give him a simple yes or no answer as to whether they supported Extinction Rebellion?
The Chairman ruled that members personal views on the issue were not relevant and therefore that the question need not be answered.
Councillor C J Eginton addressing the Cabinet Member for Finance referred to the leaflet focussed on the Taw Vale Ward when Councillor White was the District Council candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 elections standing against himself and a Green candidate. Under the heading “bin the garden tax”, it stated that the Tories want to charge £50 to have our garden waste collected and by voting for Alex White you can get a local voice opposed to the garden tax, furthermore it tells us that a petition would be presented to the Council, so my first question is that for a 240 L brown bin the cost is £49 for the current year, can you now accept that under the previous Conservative administration at no point has a £50 charge been levied?
The Cabinet Member responded stating that during the campaign Councillor Eginton had told him that he had been sold a pup as there was no way in which they were going to charge residents £50 and what was the charge £49, you are correct, it wasn’t £50, so yes I can accept that the charge was not £50.
Councillor Eginton continued stating that as no petition was formally presented to any meeting of the Council on this subject, in retrospect were you incorrect to make this assertion in the leaflet.
The Cabinet Member responded stating that we did collect signatures online and we also collected signatures on paper and there was a big movement in favour of not charging a tax for that collection, we collected about 3000 signatures so it was quite a lot of people, whether or not it was presented to the Council, I am not aware as I was not the person leading the petition, if you say it wasn’t presented to the Council, then it wasn’t presented to the Council.
Councillor Eginton continued stating that since the scheme was introduced in September 2015 the income to this Council had been £1.364m, will you now admit that you were wrong to oppose the garden waste charge scheme or if you were not wrong how would you have replaced this income to the Council over the last four years and in the future?
The Cabinet Member responded stating that the scheme had raised funds for the Council and times have been extremely tight. Unfortunately as we have been dealing with Tory austerity for the last 4 years and that the Council does need to raise tax to balance our books and it is important that we are fiscally responsible and this Cabinet is going to be so and having reviewed the financial situation that we are in, we do need to continue charging the green tax, which for me is a great regret as I would have liked to have seen no charge for it, in order to see more people recycling their garden waste.
Councillor Eginton again addressing the Cabinet Member for Finance stated that the Audit Committee on 25 June 2019, 15 July 2019, 27 August 2019 and 8 October 2019 all have one thing in common, Councillor Alex White finance portfolio holder was not present. This being despite 3 of the 4 meetings being evening meetings, can I therefore ask Councillor White if and when he intends attending the Audit Committee meeting for the first time?
The Cabinet Member responded stated that it is not possible for councillors to attend every single meeting, I think that it is quite obvious tonight, you cannot be everywhere at all times. If you want to drive working people from standing as councillors then you are going the right way about it. If you want to promote people who have jobs and young people and others to stand as councillors and take the reins and stand up for their local communities, this is not the way to promote it, I have a 100% attendance for this council at the meetings that I have been required to attend, I am extremely proud of that, I work extremely hard as a ward councillor to represent people and I continue to work extremely hard as a Cabinet Member for our residents here in Mid Devon and I will attend meetings as and when I can.
Councillor Eginton addressing the Leader asked whether he would expect his portfolio holder for Finance, in this case Councillor White to attend meetings of the Audit Committee, yes or no?
The Leader responded stating that he would be happy after this meeting to sit down with him and go through the record of the Cabinet Member for Finance for the last 4 ½ years and it might be interesting to see what information that elicits.
Councillor Eginton again addressing the Cabinet Member for Finance continued, stating that given that Councillor White had been adopted as the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for the North Devon Parliamentary Constituency could he categorically assure us that he would immediately resign his position as councillor for Upper Yeo should he be elected as a Member for Parliament?
The Chairman ruled that he would not allow the question.
Councillor Eginton asked the Leader if he could categorically confirm that Councillor White would no longer hold a position in his Cabinet if elected to Parliament.
The Leader responded that should Councillor White be successful on 12 December, then he was entitled to remain as a District Councillor, he as Leader would make a decision on 13 December, if he needed to, in terms of who was in the Cabinet, specifically obviously in respect of Cllr White, although he felt that this was a hypothetical question, until 13 December he did not know what the outcome would be for the North Devon constituency elections.
Councillor Evans addressing the Leader and referring to Armistice Day on 11 November and details outlined in the members weekly newsletter where it stated that the Chairman, the Vice Chairman and a representative of the Leader would be present in various locations, could he ask what the Leader would be doing, as he was clearly being represented.
The Leader stated that he would be on holiday.