Agenda item

The Mayor referred to the Portfolio Holder updates as published with the agenda and advised she would invite questions against each update in turn. 

Before doing so, she invited Cllr England to give his verbal update as Leader of the Council.

To view the Leader’s update and questions posed to Portfolio Holders, please refer to the video minutes.

The following actions were noted;

1.    Cllr Timmis addressed the Leader re. the consultation on new local plan noting that there is a large map in the reception of The Forum of the new plan which includes the towns, greenbelt, villages, areas of manufacture and various alternative green spaces.  Cllr Timmis noted that one thing that appears to be missing and not marked is the AONB and asked the Leader to please explain why that is?

Cllr England responded he is not aware of why and advised he would enquire with officers and will provide a written response.

2.    Cllr Mitchell addressed the Leader and asked; with all the good work happening at adventure playgrounds, would it be possible to consider satellite schemes for areas where residents do not have access to the established playgrounds due to the distance required to get to them.

Cllr England advised he would be happy to take that request away to see what can be done within current resource arrangements and would provide a written response.

3.    Cllr Barradell addressed Cllr Smith-Wright in reference to her update as the Portfolio Holder Transformation (People, Climate & Ecological Emergency) and referred to the work being undertaken with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) to identify electric vehicle charging sites in the Borough and asked; what has happened in the last year and when can we expect to see these on street?

Cllr Smith Wright advised she would follow up with HCC and report back

4.    Cllr Barradell again addressed Cllr Smith-Wright again on her update and this time referred to the installation of charging points as referenced at  6 car parks across the Borough and asked for an update on which of those installations are working

Cllr Smith Wright advise she would seek information on this and provide a written response.

Cllr Hobson addressed Cllr Smith-Wright as the Portfolio Holder Transformation (People, Climate & Ecological Emergency) and advised she has not received any of the official guidance as referenced on how to access emails on mobile devices, asking the Portfolio Holder if it could please be checked that all councillors have received that information.

Cllr Smith Wright confirmed she would follow this up and provide a written response.

5.    Cllr Elliott addressed Cllr Smith-Wright as the Portfolio Holder Transformation (People, Climate & Ecological Emergency) and referred to the solar panels recently installed, asking for details of the country of manufacture of those units.

Cllr Smith-Wright advised that she would seek that information and provided a written response.

6.    Cllr Freedman addressed Cllr Allen, Portfolio Holder of Corporate & Commercial Services and asked if the Portfolio Holder could amend his report to reflect that the parking call-in was reviewed and voted on last week at the Finance & Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee (F&R OSC), of which the minutes and video are available.

7.    Cllr Allen responded that he is not sure that the published update can be amended but requested it be noted here in the minutes that this matter was indeed thoroughly reviewed at the F&R OSC meeting on Tuesday 5^th November 2024.

8.    Cllr Mitchell addressed Cllr Bromham as the Portfolio Holder Neighbourhood Operations and asked; when will refurbishment works start at the Warners End play park (situated in Gadebridge)

Cllr Bromham advised he would need to refer to officers for the timeline and will provide a written response.

9.    Cllr Douris addressed Cllr Bromham as the Portfolio Holder Neighbourhood Operations and referred to a question asked at the previous meeting (action point reference FC12 under tonight’s agenda item 6 business from last Council meeting) in which he was asked to provide a timeline regarding parking options/verge hardening.  Cllr Douris commented that the written response provided was a series of steps, rather than a timeline, and asked; could I please have a timeline with dates and times to fulfil that response, noting that he would be happy to receive a written response. 

Cllr Bromham confirmed he would review the response provided.