Announcements
To receive announcements and business brought forward by the Mayor, Leader, and Members of the Cabinet or the Chief Executive.
4.1 By the Mayor:
4.2 By the Chief Executive:
4.3 By the Group Leaders: Any apologies for absence
4.4 Council Leader and Members of the Cabinet:
Councillor Williams Leader of the Council
Councillor Barratt Neighbourhood Services
Councillor Anderson Place
Councillor Banks Communities
Councillor Elliot Corporate Services
Councillor Griffiths Housing Services
Councillor Williams Commercial Strategy and Delivery
Decision:
4.1 By the Mayor:
None
4.2 By the Chief Executive:
Update given under item 1 - Minutes.
4.3 By the Group Leaders:
Cllr Williams gave apologies for Cllrs Durrant, Timmis, Silwal & Johnson
Cllr Tindall gave apologies for Cllrs Foster, Cllr Wilkie, Cllr Pringle, Cllr McDowell & Cllr Ransley
4.4 Council Leader and Members of the Cabinet:
Full details can be found in the full minutes.
Minutes:
4.1 By the Mayor:
None
4.2 By the Chief Executive:
Update given under item 1 - Minutes.
4.3 By the Group Leaders:
Cllr Williams gave apologies for Cllrs Durrant, Timmis, Silwal & Johnson
Cllr Tindall gave apologies for Cllrs Foster, Cllr Wilkie, Cllr Pringle, Cllr McDowell & Cllr Ransley
4.4 Council Leader and Members of the Cabinet:
The Leader advised he had nothing to update under this particular section of the agenda, but happy to take questions.
Questions
Cllr Symington: Thank you very much. I'd like to ask the Leader of the Council whether he agrees that the democratic process is severely limited if we invite members of the public to come and speak for three minutes and, in less than 50 seconds, we cut them off and ask them to read out a question that clearly is not a three minute question, because they wouldn't have submitted 450 words, a 450 word question to read out, at council?
Cllr Williams: No, I do not. The standing order of the process for public participation is that a person, or any person wishing to participate, submits their question and that question can be 30 seconds or up to three minutes, but when they attend they read that question. It doesn't come with an unprovided statement.
Cllr Symington: Inaudible (no Microphone)
Cllr Williams:I don't think the circumstances make any difference. They've got three minutes and they can submit whatever question they want to us in advance, as Mr Butler did, and then that question is read out. What you can't do is come forward with information or questions which you haven't previously submitted.
Cllr Hollinghurst – Inaudible (no Microphone)
Cllr Rogers: asked a question advising that it's about the number of staff who are actually attending in the forum. Over the past few months on my infrequent visits I've noticed that there are very few officers on site it would appear, clearly many continue to work from home, fully understandable under the circumstances, but now the rest of the world is getting back to normal and I'd like to know how many officers are actually coming into the office, coming into the forum, how many are actually, in percentage terms, how many are available for consultation, not only for residents but also for councillors, because on many, many occasions, I don't know if other councillors and members of the public have had the same level of service, I'd like to know the sort of red or amber and green traffic light systems that we're actually achieving in terms of being available. Many officers have actually turned their mobile phones off as well and made themselves unavailable, so we can't call them back, because they take on the privacy button on their mobiles. Sorry, I was little confused there, but it's just about the level of service that we're achieving from the number of officers who are in the building.
Cllr Williams: I thank Cllr Rogers for advanced notice of the question for me ... view the full minutes text for item 4