Agenda item

To consider any questions which may have been received from Elected Members and which are asked pursuant to Standing Order No. 11.

 

a)    Councillor Lodge

 

Pavement Parking is of significant concern to residents across the Borough, making it extremely dangerous for those with mobility difficulty, sight or hearing impairments and for pedestrians.

 

Will the Council work with other responsible bodies, to create a targeted awareness campaign around pavement parking and put in place measures where possible to limit the risk to the groups outlined?

 

b)    Councillor Kitching

 

What plans does the Council have to install street based EV chargers in Barnsley to assist residents without off street parking to transition to electric vehicles and what do you consider to be the barriers to their installation.

 

c)    Councillor Lodge

 

In recent weeks, £58,684.31 has been received in Section 106 monies from developments in the Worsbrough Ward, £10,000 of which has already been made available to a local group.

 

With the remaining balance from these first payments, will the Council look to refurbish play areas in the Worsbrough Ward?

 

d)    Councillor P Fielding

 

The Council declared a climate emergency in September 2019. In September 2020 the Council published its first Strategic Energy Action Plan setting out its ambition to reduce the Boroughs scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 65% of its 2017 levels by 2025. The Council also aims to reduce its own carbon emissions by 60% of 2019 levels by 2025. Can the Cabinet Member quantify the current reduction in carbon emissions relevant to meeting these targets?

 

e)    Councillor Lodge

 

Parks and Play areas across the Borough have been subjected to mindless vandalism over several years, which has seen thousands of pounds of damage to parks and play areas in Worsbrough alone.

 

Will the Council work to introduce a Public Space Protection Order, as it has done to cover moorland and the town centre, to protect our parks and play areas from further mindless vandalism?

 

f)     Councillor W Fielding

 

Can the cabinet member inform Council on the number of asylum seekers held in hostels, hotels or refuge centres in the borough?

 

g)    Councillor W Fielding

 

With reference to my previous question referring to asylum seekers, can the Cabinet Member also outline what the council’s role is in working with the Home Office, Mears Group and other agencies, specifically in relation to security and public health?

 

h)    Councillor Hunt

 

An additional £2m of highways investment was included within the 2022/23 budget. This was for highways safety measures including expanding advisory 20mph limits outside schools and schemes suggested by elected members. Please could the cabinet member provide an update on progress on this important road safety initiative?

 

i)     Councillor W Fielding

 

Can the cabinet member outline what the council is doing to provide a safe and secure place for transgender and non binary employees, contractors and partners to be themselves in an open, friendly and encouraging environment free from bullying, harassment and abuse?

The Chief Executive reported that she had received a number of questions from Elected Members in accordance with Standing Order No. 11.

 

a)    Councillor Lodge

 

Pavement Parking is of significant concern to residents across the Borough, making it extremely dangerous for those with mobility difficulty, sight or hearing impairments and for pedestrians. Will the Council work with other responsible bodies, to create a targeted awareness campaign around pavement parking and put in place measures where possible to limit the risk to the groups outlined?

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson Environment and Highways, responded by saying that the Highways Traffic Team were aware of these concerns, and it would be a key part of the safety campaign that is in development. Once this was launched, it would provide messages across the borough through a variety of channels. 

 

From a parking enforcement point of view, if the driver was parked in contravention of an existing Traffic Regulation Order, they may be subject to enforcement by our Civil Enforcement Officers.  

 

When the Council was notified of ‘hot spot’ areas, it would endeavour to provide patrols to change habits and improve safety for pedestrians and motorists. 

 

b)    Councillor Kitching

 

What plans does the Council have to install street based EV chargers in Barnsley to assist residents without off street parking to transition to electric vehicles and what do you consider to be the barriers to their installation?

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways, responded by stating that the council’s role was to facilitate and that it was working to both support and stimulate the market. 

 

The Council had recently been awarded £275,000 of grant funding which would be used to install more EV charging capacity in council car parks. This would provide convenient charging options for both shoppers and people who do not have off-road options for charging.  

 

Plans were at the costings stage, and it was hoped to install a number of charging points in the locations described below (subject to remaining within the budget envelope).  

2 x 7kW chargers at Church Street Car Park, Darton 

3 x 7kW chargers and 1 x 50kW charger at John Street Car Park, Barnsley Town Centre 

3 x 7kW chargers at Mark Street Car Park, Barnsley Town Centre 

3 x 7kW chargers and 1 x 50kW charger at Market Gate Car Park, Barnsley Town Centre (with the possibility of 1 extra rapid charger subject to costs) 

2 x 7kW chargers at West Road Car Park 

 

Installations were due to take place week commencing 21 November 2022 and should be live before the beginning of February 2023.  

 

Barnsley Council did not permit trailing cables on pavements and highways for use in EV charging, at present, even where safety measures had been taken.  

 

The Council was aware that other councils did permit on-street charging, but it had deemed this to be a safety concern locally.  

 

It was proposed that further discussions were required within the Highways Service to evaluate options that may permit the charging of electric vehicles parked on the street from home charging stations. 

 

The Council recognised that this would affect residents with no access to off-street parking and to try and remedy this and were currently installing EV chargers in a number of public car parks.

 

The Council deemed the following to be barriers to the installation of on-street EV chargers: 

• EV Charging was not a statutory responsibility, therefore given the funding constraints and other pressures on the council, other areas of need had been prioritised. However, it was recognised that by supporting the delivery this may help to meet Council objectives in relation to climate change, reducing emissions and pollution. 
   
• Lack of detailed analysis of where on-street charging was needed at a national, regional and local level to meet both existing and future demand. This would also need co-ordination with Northern Power Grid to understand where additional network capacity may be required, including developing below-the-ground cabling and power connections. 
   
• Safety concerns owing to trailing cables and pavement obstructions 
   
• The Payback Period for the installation of charging points could be long; there were various funding models available, however, the revenues from on-street charge points generally did not cover running costs or the upfront costs to install infrastructure.  
   
  Breakeven is estimated to be anywhere between 7-9 years but this was uncertain as it depends on the rate of EV updates during this period. 
   
• The single largest issue for private investment was the low use at present of existing on-street charge points, reported nationally, and the high costs that are associated, when demand, use and investment in charging infrastructure are dependent on each other.

 

 

• Most current contracts were around 5-10 years but typically involved public funding to cover a substantial proportion of the upfront capital expenditure; the Council would need to find a suitable and appropriate delivery model.

 

Councillor Kitching asked the following by way of a supplementary question: would the Council consider accepting the offer made by Ubitricity to provide a number of fully funded street based EV chargers at locations chosen by the Council who would retain ownership and control of the street lighting infrastructure and using installations that do not require parking restrictions or trailing cables? This was an offer that had been taken up by other South Yorkshire councils and remained on the table, but would expire at the end of 2022.

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways responded by stating that he would not like to comment on the specifics as he was unfamiliar, but that it would be looked into in more detail. He added that he, and a number of officers in highways, had held meetings with a number of organisations involved in providing EV charging points and it was clear that there was no one-size-fits-all solution, but would depend on local circumstances in local communities and a broad range of options would be taken to achieve the Council’s aspirations. Ultimately this would form the basis of the Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy, which was expected by the middle of 2023.

 

c)    Councillor Lodge

 

In recent weeks, £58,684.31 has been received in Section 106 monies from developments in the Worsbrough Ward, £10,000 of which has already been made available to a local group. With the remaining balance from these first payments, will the Council look to refurbish play areas in the Worsbrough Ward?

 

Councillor Frost, Cabinet Spokesperson for Regeneration and Culture responded by saying that decisions regarding the use of S106 monies considered a range of areas, including value for money and alignment of a project with the council’s strategic priorities.  

 

It had long been established that Section 106 monies were not ring-fenced to the ward where the monies originated from.   

 

In the Worsbrough ward, there was a small pipeline of potential projects which would be eligible for Section 106 funding. The refurbishment of play equipment would be considered alongside these, as well as any borough-wide projects which would benefit people across the borough including people who live in the Worsbrough ward.   

 

d)    Councillor P Fielding

 

The Council declared a climate emergency in September 2019. In September 2020 the Council published its first Strategic Energy Action Plan setting out its ambition to reduce the Boroughs scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 65% of its 2017 levels by 2025. The Council also aims to reduce its own carbon emissions by 60% of 2019 levels by 2025. Can the Cabinet Member quantify the current reduction in carbon emissions relevant to meeting these targets?

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways replied by saying that the Council’s carbon emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) for 2018-19 were 10,041 tonnes – these carbon emissions to date had reduced by 24% compared with 2018-19 levels, which amounted to a reduction of 2,418 tonnes of carbon. 

 

Borough emissions were based on local authority Greenhouse Gas Emissions data (GHG) which was supplied by the government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The latest data was for 2020 which showed a 13% reduction from 2017 levels and amounted to 166,500 tonnes of carbon. 

 

Councillor P Fielding asked a supplementary question referring to the commitment previously made to publish these figures annually, was there a reason why they had not been? And he asked whether the Council was on target to meet the promised reductions by 2025.

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways replied by stating that he would reply directly regarding the reasons. With regards to the targets set, the Council was working to improve the carbon and GHG reporting processes to ensure transparency, consistency and accuracy, in line with current practice.  He said it was difficult to say whether the 2025 targets would be achieved, but the 2030 target was achievable with hard work. He added that the Carbon Trust report highlighted steep required reductions in emissions between 2019 and 2025, which would always have been difficult, but if the Council wanted to achieve the 2025 target, then significant and bold steps were required towards decarbonisation. 

 

The attention of Members was drawn to excellent workshops recently organised to bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the borough’s transition to net zero. The views from which would form the basis of the forthcoming Climate Change Strategy and mark the next stage in the borough’s transition to a cleaner, greener and fairer future.

 

e)    Councillor Lodge

 

Parks and Play areas across the Borough have been subjected to mindless vandalism over several years, which has seen thousands of pounds of damage to parks and play areas in Worsbrough alone. Will the Council work to introduce a Public Space Protection Order, as it has done to cover moorland and the town centre, to protect our parks and play areas from further mindless vandalism?

 

Councillor Makinson, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities replied by stating that damage and vandalism in our Parks and Play areas was incredibly frustrating. She added that sadly, a small minority of people thought that this kind of behaviour was acceptable.  

 

The Council was considering all options available to protect parks and play areas across the borough from acts of vandalism and damage.  

 

Money was being invested from the Safer Streets Programme, to improve safety in Locke Park and Wombwell Park, and specific schemes were being developed for Littleworth Lane and Mapplewell Park to improve surveillance capacity.  

 

Other physical measures had also been taken to address inappropriate access and use in several other locations. Public Space Protection Orders were an option which could be considered, however making such an order must be evidence-based, proportionate and subject to consultation. The Council would ensure that the protection of our parks and play areas was fully considered and responded to as part of the Safe Places Delivery Partnership business. 

 

f)     Councillor W Fielding

 

Can the cabinet member inform Council on the number of asylum seekers held in hostels, hotels or refuge centres in the borough?

 

Councillor Makinson, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities, responded that there were no Home Office-designated hostels, hotels or refugee sites in the Barnsley borough.

 

As of 17 November 2022, there were 316 asylum seekers supported under Section 95 (have leave to remain) and Section 4 (awaiting deportation): in dispersed accommodation, managed by Mears. 

  

There were 292 people under Section 95 and 24 under Section 4. 

 

g)    Councillor W Fielding

 

With reference to my previous question referring to asylum seekers, can the Cabinet Member also outline what the council’s role is in working with the Home Office, Mears Group and other agencies, specifically in relation to security and public health?

 

Councillor Makinson, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities,  said that the health screening for asylum seekers was undertaken before dispersal: this included testing for TB. Vaccinations were also given at this point, with an assessment of medical need. This health screening was done in the initial holding centre of arrival.

 

Members were made aware that the council had weekly meetings with the Home Office regarding asylum and Migration Yorkshire had a designated officer for asylum seekers. 

 

The Home Office would also provide on-site security at hostels and hotels. 

The Council had weekly meetings with Mears to discuss any management issues. They provided a monthly update on accommodation and requested background information on accommodation before purchase to make sure accommodation was suitable.

 

The spokesperson stated that Mears had support workers assigned to each asylum seeker, with additional support from the council’s Refugee Integration Service and the Safer Communities Team. 

 

The Refugee Council, Health Integration Team, City of Sanctuary and Red Cross all offered free support and advice on a range of topics including access to healthcare.  Councillor Makinson said she had recently received an email from Migration Yorkshire to promote that there was a film and other resources rolled out following the work of the National Safeguarding Workstream and Home Office colleagues were in discussions with Mears about their use.

 

By way of supplementary question, Councillor W Fielding asked whether the Cabinet Member agreed that those who are elected platforms to demonise migrants and asylum seekers only make life for those people harder and only embolden the far right?

Councillor Makinson, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities, referred to the previous discussion on the No Place For Hate Campaign and the pledge which all Members had been asked to sign.

 

 

h)    Councillor Hunt

 

An additional £2m of highways investment was included within the 2022/23 budget. This was for highways safety measures including expanding advisory 20mph limits outside schools and schemes suggested by elected members. Please could the cabinet member provide an update on progress on this important road safety initiative?

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways stated that following Cabinet approval of the additional investment into 22/23 Highway Capital Maintenance programme, he could report back to members the following update with regard to the School Safety Zones Initiative (the successor to the 20MPH pilot project) and the two phases of the Neighbourhood Road Safety Scheme. 

 

School Safety Zones 

 

Following the recruitment of a dedicated project lead in July 2022, and working with the School Crossing Patrol Co-ordinator, all 74 Primary Schools within the Borough had been assessed, baselining the existing provision of road safety initiatives and identifying areas for improvement.

 

Using the existing School Crossing Patrol risk assessment process and tailored site visits, 12 more schools had been earmarked for the second phase of the 20mph signage scheme, which also included changes to the existing Traffic Regulation Orders (yellow zig-zags). 

 

Recommendations for further road safety improvements had also been made but these were unique to each location considering specific local factors. 

Detailed consultation with the 12 schools was set to start before the Christmas break and the service was currently tendering for the additional 20 mph signage.

 

Following the learning that had taken place as a result of the pilot 20MPH scheme, the long-term agreements for maintenance of the current and existing signage were also under review. It was reported that issues around the programming of current advisory signs installed in phase one had been rectified.  

 

Members were advised to consider the initiative as something greater than a prescriptive rollout of advisory speed signs. Improving road safety outside of  Primary Schools was a priority but the interventions must address the local issues if they are to have the desired effect. The introduction of 20 MPH advisory speed signs was only one of the tools being deployed by our officers to improve road safety outside our schools. 

 

Neighbourhood Road Safety Schemes 

Following the initial Phase one shortlist of schemes, both the crossing improvements to Park Street and Hough Lane in Wombwell had been ordered. The schemes for Shaw Lane, Cudworth; Pontefract Road, Hoyle Mill; and Sheffield Rd, Penistone would be delivered in the new year. 

 

A number of additional member requests had also been brought forward as a result of the additional investment in the Neighbourhood Road Safety Scheme. These included:

Broadcarr Road, Hoyland, where initial investigations had been completed and safety designs were in production. The target completion date was the end of the calendar year 2022.  

New Street, Mapplewell where investigations were now complete and the associated Traffic Regulation Order process was underway. 

Gilbert Hill, Langsett where investigations were underway including meeting with National Highways and Yorkshire Water. A scheme to provide additional parking protections was in design. 

Paddock Road, Mapplewell where three options were being considered and would be consulted with Ward members in the coming week, the intention being to finalise one option for detailed design before the end of the calendar year. 

A616 Hazlehead to Victoria, where investigations were underway and an initial design would be completed by end of the calendar year. 

 

The remaining 10 schemes within the phase two programme were currently under initial review and an outline design would be produced for discussion with Ward councillors by end of the calendar year. Final design and construction would follow with delivery taking place before the end of March 2023. 

 

Councillor Hunt posed a supplementary question, which was how often Members could expect to receive updates, as that provided was welcome but overdue, and would Members receive more detailed feedback on the suggestions they provided in response to Councillor Lamb’s request in February 2022.

 

Councillor Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways referred to his previous response, which was that where schemes in development they would be reported back to relevant Members by the end of the calendar year.  If Members had issues with specific schemes, they were encouraged to get in touch with Councillor Higginbottom and the traffic team.

 

i)      Councillor W Fielding

Can the Cabinet member outline what the council is doing to provide a safe and secure place for transgender and non binary employees, contractors and partners to be themselves in an open, friendly and encouraging environment free from bullying, harassment and abuse?

 

Councillor Lamb, Deputy Leader, responded stating that the council valued diversity and inclusivity and was committed to creating a positive environment where everyone was treated with dignity and respect. This included recognising and supporting all protected characteristics, including gender identity for employees, contractors and partners. 

 

The Council had produced Gender Identity Guidance which provided employees with a set of organisational principles to help manage and support workplace transitions.  

 

The Equality and Inclusion Action plan was linked to the Council’s People Strategy and was currently in the final stages of agreement. The plan was centred around working towards an inclusive workplace where people feel able bring their whole selves to work. Some specific areas from the plan included; strengthening the equality and diversity training offer, the creation of staff networks for protected characteristics as well as a review of equality implications in the recruitment process.

 

The Council’s PROUD staff network (LGBTQ+) had been successfully established, providing a safe space for those who identify as LGBTQ+ and received really positive feedback. The network was planning a series of activities linked to promoting understanding of a variety of related issues. The Council tackled any reported bullying, harassment and abuse promptly in line with our organisational policies.

 

In the recent employee survey a number of questions were asked in relation to inclusion and areas for improvement. The results would be available in January and would inform action going forward. The Council had also an established Equality Impact Assessment process, which was required when any new service or change in service was being proposed and was designed to identify and negate negative impacts on protected characteristic groups.