To consider any questions which may have been received from Elected Members and which are asked pursuant to Standing Order No. 11.
1 Councillor Lodge – Roads in Worsbrough
‘As a gateway to the town, it is essential that roads in Worsbrough can withstand the increased demand on them, and still ensure that residents are as safe as possible. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in Worsbrough, as residents and business owners across the Ward are seeing damage to their properties as well as vehicles being regularly damaged by lorries attempting to use smaller roads. So, will the Cabinet Member responsible, commit to ensuring that all roads in Worsbrough are fit for purpose and if they aren’t, will they invest to improve the safety of all in the areas affected?
2 Councillor Wilson – Speed Indicator Devices
‘Speeding Traffic on our rural roads and through our villages in Barnsley has long been an issue for all our residents. Could I ask when Highways will have purchased the Speed Indicator devices (SIDs) as these were promised some time ago?’
3 Councillor Fielding – Location of new Secondary School in Barnsley
‘Has a site been offered by Barnsley Council to Trinity Multi-Academy Trust for the location of their new 900 place secondary school in Barnsley and if so, where is that site. If no site has yet been offered, which sites have been shortlisted?’
4 Councillor Lodge – Events outside Barnsley Town Centre
‘With the success of Our Dancing Town, will the Cabinet Member responsible look at ways in which the Council can deliver events like this in areas outside of the Town Centre?’
5 Councillor Hand-Davis – Weed Killer Usage
‘Following on from a previous question regarding Glyphosate spraying would the Cabinet Member agree with me that this weed killer is all we have available to deal with pernicious weeds? It is not a banned substance and our operatives need the support and policy direction from this Chamber to continue its usage.’
6 Councillor Fielding – Penny Pie Park Gyratory and Job Creation
‘The Sheffield City Region funding for the Penny Pie Park Gyratory requires that construction of the gyratory will result in the creation of 115 new jobs by the end of March 2021 (18 months’ time) and if that target is not achieved, Barnsley Council will have to repay £10,100 for each job by which it fails to meet the 115 job target.
a) How many jobs currently exist at Capitol Park?
b) How many more jobs can be created at Capitol Park if the gyratory is not constructed?
c) How many more jobs can be created at Capitol Park as a result of the gyratory being constructed?’
7 Councillor Lodge – Missed Bin Collections in Worsbrough Dale
‘Can the Cabinet Member responsible explain the reasons behind the numerous missed bin collections in the Worsbrough Dale area? Residents in Worsbrough ensure their bins are out on time and we should collect them on time.’
8 Councillor Lodge – Establishment of Citizen Assembly in Barnsley
‘There is support across the UK for Citizen Assemblies, to address issues which affect everyone. Our neighbours in Sheffield City Council have supported the idea, establishing their own Assembly to address Climate Change and associated issues, including Public Transport. As such, does the Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transportation) agree with Sheffield Labour Councillor and Cabinet Member for Environment, that it is wrong to think that any one person has solutions for everything and will they agree to establish a Citizen Assembly in Barnsley to investigate issues around Public Transport, Climate Change and other urgent issues?’
Minutes:
The Chief Executive reported that she had received a number of questions from Elected Members in accordance with Standing Order No. 11.
Note: A maximum of 30 minutes was allocated for this item in accordance with Standing order No 11(2)(d).
(a) Councillor Lodge – Roads in Worsbrough
‘As a gateway to the town, it is essential that roads in Worsbrough can withstand the increased demand on them, and still ensure that residents are as safe as possible. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in Worsbrough, as residents and business owners across the Ward are seeing damage to their properties as well as vehicles being regularly damaged by lorries attempting to use smaller roads. So, will the Cabinet Member responsible, commit to ensuring that all roads in Worsbrough are fit for purpose and if they aren’t, will they invest to improve the safety of all in the areas affected?’
Councillor Lamb, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transportation), responded by stating the earlier this year, Cabinet had approved the 2019 – 2022 Highways Capital Programme which detailed how £30.9m would be invested into repairing and maintaining the Highway infrastructure over the next 3 years. This included an additional £6m of capital investment made available by the Council to support the core maintenance allocation.
Investments were determined and prioritised in line with the Highway Asset Management Strategy 2016 -2021 which adopted the principles of whole life asset costs with the aim of maximising the available resources to extend the life of the asset. This was applied to all assets including:
· Carriageways
· Bridges and other structures (retaining walls etc.)
· Drainage
· Traffic signals
· Safety fencing and barriers
· Footways and cycleways
· Street lighting
· Signs
· Roadmarkings and studs
This year, £13.6m would be used to repair, maintain and protect assets with £3.5m invested directly in the local road network (Class B and C roads) and a further £4m identified for the Principal Road network (Class A roads). This £7.5m of investment in footways and carriageways was directed to the areas where it was needed most and was informed by the annual network survey carried out on the Council’s behalf by a third party specialist.
With specific reference to roads in Worsbrough, this year’s programme would see investment in Ardsley Road, Briar Rise, Haverlands Ridge and Highstone Lane as well as the full footway construction of Wellington Crescent. The value of this work was estimated to be in excess of £150,000.
In addition, each year the Traffic Team undertook an analysis of Personal Injury data collected by the South Yorkshire Police to determine which locations within the borough attracted the highest rates of road traffic collisions. This year the junction of Park Road and Kingwell Road had been identified as a collision cluster site which would be assessed by Highways Engineers to determine what additional road safety interventions could be introduced to improve road user safety at this location. Thankfully, no other locations in Worsbrough presented themselves as needing intervention at this time.
It was interesting to note that the borough currently had 751 miles of Highway Network the equivalent of a one way trip from here to Switzerland and whilst every effort was made by officers and front line teams to repair, maintain and make safe the network for all road users it shouldn’t be overlooked that the network continued to grow, making this challenge greater every year. The Highway Programmes and strategies reflected the priorities and ambitions of the Council and the Authority would continue to invest the funding that was available in areas where it was needed most (despite the fact that there had been 10 years of cuts in funding).
In summary he asked to place on record his thanks and appreciation to all officers and staff involved in maintaining the road network.
Councillor Lodge did not ask a supplementary question.
(b) Councillor Wilson – Speed Indicator Devices
‘Speeding traffic on our rural roads and through our villages in Barnsley has long been an issue for all our residents. Could I ask when Highways will have purchased the Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) as these were promised some time ago?’
Councillor Lamb, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transport), stated that the Traffic Team were currently evaluating the recently submitted tender responses for the supply of two new Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs). This would be concluded in the coming weeks after which an order could be placed and the devices could be sited at locations across the Borough on a rolling basis.
Councillor Wilson thanked the Cabinet Spokesperson for the response and asked as a supplementary question whether the Council was a Member of the Camera Partnership, which had been undertaking a review of all the cameras across the borough, and he questioned when that report would be completed (as this matter had been ongoing for many years) and how this would be presented to Members.
Councillor Lamb stated that he did not have this information with him but he assured all elected Members that he would take that question away and provide Councillor Wilson with a response and copy this to all other Members.
(c) Councillor Fielding – Location of new Secondary School in Barnsley
‘Has a site been offered by Barnsley Council to Trinity Multi-Academy Trust for the location of their new 900 place secondary school in Barnsley and if so, where is that site? If no site has yet been offered, which sites have been shortlisted?’
Councillor Cheetham, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Regeneration and Culture), thanked Councillor Fielding for his question. As Members may remember when he had responded to Councillor Wright’s question at a previous Council meeting the Council had not reached this stage of the process as yet.
The Trinity Multi Academy Trust had been successful in gaining monies from the DfE (Wave 13 Free School Programme) to provide a new 900 place secondary school in the central area of Barnsley where a need had been established.
A meeting had taken place with the DfE/Trinity Multi Academy Trust/the Council and LocatED to discuss the site requirements for a school of this nature.
LocatED had been commissioned by the Department for Education to source a site for a building of approximately 73,000 sq ft. LocatED were a government-owned property company, responsible for buying and developing sites for new schools in England and was one of the largest purchasers of land in the UK.
LocatED was currently preparing an independent report following a site search across the Borough and would make recommendations to the DfE and Trinity Multi Academy Trust in the coming weeks.
Councillor Fielding thanked the Cabinet Spokesperson for the response and asked as a supplementary question if he could give an assurance to parents whose children were due to move into secondary education in 2021, and for which the extra capacity was needed, that if the school was not built or was not open by then what plans were in place to accommodate their secondary education given that they would be applying for places in 12 months’ time.
Councillor Cheetham stated that he was happy to give that reassurance as it was the Council’s statutory obligation to ensure that there were sufficient school places and the school estate would be able to cope with the influx of pupils at that time. It was, of course, extremely difficult for the Local Authority as the Free School process was designed to exclude Local Authorities from most of the practical measures. If the authority was allowed to build the school itself he would be able to give even greater assurances but sadly it was not permitted to do so. It was not a simple task to build a secondary school of this size and was not something that could be done quickly. From the Council’s point of view it would certainly do all that was possible to facilitate the progress of the proposal if it was suitable but in reality the only input would be at the planning stage when the MAT brought more concrete proposals as to where they would like to site the school. In terms of the assurances, however, sufficient school places would be made available via the current school estate if the school was not open as anticipated.
(d) Councillor Lodge – Events outside Barnsley Town Centre
‘With the success of Our Dancing Town, will the Cabinet Member responsible look at ways in which the Council can deliver events like this in areas outside of the Town Centre?’
Councillor Cheetham, Cabinet Member for Place (Regeneration and Culture) stated that the Town Centre Events Programme, which included the Dancing Town Event, had been designed and funded to drive footfall to the town centre particularly during the development of the new Town Centre. Following the evaluation of the 2019 Dancing Town event and the resources available, it was proposed that the event duration be contracted and augmented to feature a core high impact town centre offer utilising key venues and locations, with the development of an associated ‘fringe’ events programme to compliment and expand the impact of the core offer.
The Fringe would enable new and existing events and activities to be organised by dance clubs/schools, local communities and other key partners such as Barnsley Museums and Public Health to be promoted pre and post the core festival activity in key locations and venues to create a wider borough ‘Dance Festival’ that would be promoted alongside the core offer.
The Events Team did not have the capacity or resources to directly organise and deliver a borough wide event of this nature.
Councillor Lodge did not ask a supplementary question.
(e) Councillor Hand-Davis – Weed Killer usage
‘Following on from a previous question regarding Glyphosate spraying would the Cabinet Member agree with me that this weed killer is all we have available to deal with pernicious weeds? It is not a banned substance and our operatives need the support and policy direction from this Chamber to continue its usage’
Councillor Lamb, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transportation), thanked Councillor Hand-Davis for his question.
Glyphosate was a broad spectrum (non-selective) weed killer that was fundamentally the key pesticide available and was widely used by local authorities across the country and the world. Currently the Council was still in a position to use glyphosate based products under Health and Safety guidance.
Following the recent Future Council Improvement Review, Neighbourhood Services had this year adopted a targeted approach to weed killing across the borough which now covered primary highway routes and high footfall economic areas including Barnsley Town Centre and the Principal Towns. Nomix Dual was a mixture of Glyphosate and other active ingredients and, therefore, had a lower proportion of Glyphosate in it. This was now used as part of the targeted approach as this product claimed a five month kill, therefore, reducing the need for re-applications. Glyphosate, on the other hand, only acted when it touched weeds and had no residual impact. It was estimated that through the adoption of target-based approaches, Neighbourhood Services would reduce the use of Glyphosate weed killing products by 70% when compared to previous years.
It was important to note that Glyphosate products were assessed in line with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) legislation and could only be used by trained and certificated staff in accordance with the Health and Safety Executive approved control measures which the Council rigorously applied. The move to a pre-mixed residual solution added another level of protection for the operational staff when working with such products.
The Service currently had Blitz Teams working throughout the Borough and every Councillor should have received an email asking them to identify to the Service areas of concern. These Blitz Teams had two operatives in each local area who would manually remove any weed build up. The Service was also currently looking at different approaches for the next season which would limit the use of Glyphosate based products whilst ensuring that local communities were clean, green and attractive places for all residents and visitors.
This was another example of this Labour controlled Council investing in issues that really mattered to people in local communities, things that they saw on a daily basis. The Council had invested in those Teams sand they were now operational in all areas.
Councillor Hand-Davis did not ask a supplementary question.
(f) Councillor Fielding – Penny Pie Park Gyratory and Job Creation
‘The Sheffield City Region funding for the Penny Pie Park Gyratory requires that the construction of the gyratory will result in the creation of 115 new jobs by the end of March 2021 (18 months’ time) and if that target is not achieved, Barnsley Council will have to repay £10,000 for each job by which it fails to meet the 115 job target.
(i) How many jobs currently exist at Capitol Park?
(ii) How many more jobs can be created at Capitol Park if the gyratory is not constructed?
(iii) How many more jobs can be created at Capitol Park as a result of the gyratory being constructed?
Councillor Cheetham, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Regeneration and Culture) stated that the exact figure of current jobs at Capitol Park was not held by the Council. The Council’s Enterprising Barnsley Service directly supported 4 existing businesses at Capitol Court, that between them had 64 employees. Using the standard Homes and Communities employment destinies guide, the total development capacity equated to 1,113 jobs.
Aecom consultants identified that the crossroads, without mitigation, only had capacity for just over 36,000 sq. m of employment space, which, using the Homes and Communities employment destinies guide was equivalent to 946 jobs.
The approved gyratory scheme would enable the entire Capitol Park to be developed to its full potential, which using the same destinies guide, would allow a further 115 jobs to be delivered, however, this was dependent on specific end users, and it was envisaged that this would be much more due to the new NHS blood building which would open in 2020 providing approximately 350 jobs.
Councillor Fielding thanked the Cabinet Spokesperson for the response and, as a supplementary question whether it was expected that these jobs would be created within the required timescales, whether the target would be met or whether grant provided by Sheffield City Region would have to be repaid. A condition of the grant was that the Council would demonstrate that these jobs had been created. How would it be demonstrated adequately that these jobs had been created rather than just building warehouses that would remain empty?
Councillor Cheetham stated that the Council was quite confident that these jobs would be created. The site was in an excellent location for businesses to locate and there was a great deal of interest in doing so. Employers and organisations were already lined up for as yet unbuilt units and indeed the NHS facility to be built would more than cover the required number of jobs to be created.
(g) Councillor Lodge – Missed Bin Collections in Worsbrough Dale
‘Can the Cabinet Member responsible explain the reasons behind the numerous missed bin collections in the Worsbrough Dale area? Residents in Worsbrought ensure their buns are out on time and we should collect them on time’.
The Cabinet Spokesperson of Place (Environment and Transportation) thanked Councillor Lodge for the question. To a large extent in relation to bin collections over recent years the Council had become a victim of its own success in that the Service and the staff involved had set a very high bar. The Service had experienced a spike in August in relation to reported missed bins in the Worsbrough Dale area (22 for the month) out of a possible 23,856 bin lifts – one bin was missed for every 1084 collected – so whilst it was accepted that some bins had been missed this was not considered to be a complete disaster. However, a number of issues had been experienced by the domestic waste collections service in the area including gas works and access issues. Delays had been experienced with the delivery of 2 smaller refuse collection vehicles which had limited the ability to access some of the backings to properties and narrow access streets. The Service had now taken receipt of these vehicles and missed bins recorded in September had significantly reduced to three – 1 missed bin in Worsbrough for every 7,952 bins collected which he considered to be a very good standard of service.
The Service was also on the verge of implementing in cab technology in many of the vehicles which would also improve performance and efficiency even further.
Councillor Lamb encouraged Councillor Lodge, and indeed all other Councillors, to visit Smithies Lane Depot to meet the officers and staff so that they could have a real understanding of the enormity of the task that staff faced and how they rose to that challenge on a daily basis.
Councillor Lodge did not ask a supplementary question.
(h) Councillor Lodge – Establishment of Citizen Assembly in Barnsley
‘There is support across the UK for Citizen Assemblies, to address issues which affect everyone. Our neighbours in Sheffield City Council have supported the idea, establishing their own Assembly to address Climate Change and associated issues, including Pubic Transport. As such, does the Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transport) agree with Sheffield Labour Councillor and Cabinet Member for Environment, that it is wrong to think that any one person has solutions for everything and will they agree to establish a Citizen Assembly in Barnsley to investigate issues around Public Transport, Climate Change and other urgent issues?’
Councillor Sir Steve Houghton CBE, Leader of the Council responded to this question and thanked Councillor Lodge for his question. The Council had, for a number of years, been innovative in the way it engaged with its citizens and, more importantly, in ensuring that their voice was heard and that they were able to help influence and shape planning and decision making.
Work would commence shortly in respect of the Borough Plan for 2030 which would see all households in the Borough invited to participate in what would be a significant exercise in ensuring services continued to develop and that there was effective engagement with citizens. There would be an all Member Seminar shortly which would outline how Members and Partners in indeed residents themselves could help shape the future and ensure that the Council achieved its 2030 vision.
Our Area Councils and Ward Alliance initiative, which complemented the Council’s governance arrangements and increased opportunities for community empowerment, were viewed with great envy across the county and beyond. They had been seen as a beacon of excellence by many other Authorities who had sought to model their own neighbourhood arrangements on Barnsley’s. The recent Peer Review had also recognised this point. He had met staff from the Area Councils and Ward Alliances yesterday at their ‘Away Day’ and one Member of Staff had informed him that she had been invited to Sheffield to meet active citizens at their conferences and very complimentary comments had been made to her about the arrangements in Barnsley and suggestions had also been made that other Council’s may wish to learn from us.
On another level, Councillors Surgeries were an important means of ensuring the Councillors, as the citizen’s representatives, remained in touch with local sentiments and help capture citizens answers to the question ‘what do people think should happen’.
The strong area governance arrangements provided for devolved decision making right down to a local level and empowered communities to work alongside the Council to design and deliver local solutions to local issues.
The Council valued these arrangements as part of its neighbourhood engagement. He, therefore, proposed that the town was already, in a wider sense, a Citizen’s Assembly, somewhere every citizen and community group had a voice and the opportunity to use that voice to help shape what should happen.
Councillor Lodge did not ask a supplementary question.