Agenda item

To receive members’ questions under procedure rule no.11.  The procedure rule provides that any member may ask the Chairman of a board or group any question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the District, provided that three clear days’ notice in writing has been given to the Head of Legal and Commercial Services.

Two questions had been received.

The Chairman invited Councillor R Johnson to ask his question addressed to Councillor R Ashman.

“Could the Portfolio holder for Planning and Infrastructure please tell me how many housing developments in my ward of Hugglescote St. Johns and Donington le Heath, have wheel washing facilities on their sites that are being used to clean HGV'S wheel before leaving their sites onto the highway.

As this is a recognised condition on all planning permissions.”

The Chairman invited Councillor R Ashman to respond.

“The following development sites either under construction or with planning permission are subject to conditions requiring the provision of wheel washing facilities:

South East Coalville Consortium site (Bloor Homes, Davidsons Group, Harworth Estates and SECP Ltd)

Wainwright Road (Davidsons / David Wilson Homes)

Lower Bardon site (Davidsons)

Land South of Grange Road (Taylor Wimpey)

115 Station Road (Lychgate Homes)

The Green, Donington Le Heath (Williams Builders)

I can confirm that not all planning permissions are subject to a condition requiring the provision of wheel washing facilities. These conditions will only generally be attached where the County Highway Authority has requested them and they only tend to do so on the larger development schemes.

If wheel washing facilities have not been provided on any of the sites I have mentioned, this could be the subject of an investigation by the Council’s Planning Enforcement scheme.”

The Chairman invited Councillor R Johnson to ask a supplementary question.

He thanked Councillor Ashman for his response and asked:

“The list you have supplied may have this condition in their planning permissions but are they used or never been used.

Davidsons on the former Louella farm site with some encouragement from me have a bowser on site.

The Harworth Estates civil engineers, Newline openly admitted in not having any facilities on site but with encouragement from me through their agent have complied.

Wainwright Road Davidsons have none on site.

Taylor Wimpey have never had wheel washing facilities on site.

115 Station Road is on a call in, so nothing happening there.

The Green have no wheel washing facilities on site.

And finally, the important one you missed out was the Barratts/DWH Grange Road who have no wheel facilities.

When this planning authority gives permissions for development, We expect a duty of care from these house builders to do their part in having wheel washing facilities at hand within the working site hours to stop mud and stones going onto our roads and blocking gullies.

There have been numerous times I have had to call both LCC Highways and our own planning enforcement team to intercede, to encourage developers to comply with their duty of care

What can be done Councillor Ashman, as you see, it in protecting the Council tax payer in my community from uncaring developers.”

Councillor R Ashman noted that not all sites were covered in the response and that if sites were not following conditions then the issues needed to be raised to the relevant department to be investigated. He also asked that he be copied in to ensure that the issue was followed up.

The Chairman invited Councillor M B Wyatt to ask his question addressed to Councillor R D Bayliss.

“A number of council tenants from Greenhill, Broom Leys and Measham contacted me recently expressing their concerns that they were continuing to pay an additional charge which covers other services like grass cutting and cleaning of communal areas. In some cases, tenants have seen a reduction or no service at all during the corona virus lockdown.

I light of this can the portfolio holder for housing give an update on my request for a rebate to council tenants who have received a reduced or in some cases no service at all.”

The Chairman invited Councillor R D Bayliss to respond.

“Thank you for your question Councillor Wyatt.

964 of our 4,250 tenants pay some form of service charge in addition to their basic rent, and as a result of the Corona Virus response we have not been able to provide all the services funded from these charges.

Officers have carefully examined the options available to compensate tenants for this reduced service, and we will be adjusting the weekly amounts due to reflect this in the 2021/22 budget setting process.

Any adjustments made during this financial year would require the recalculation and reduction of Housing Benefit and Universal Credit entitlements for any tenants claiming, making it impractical, particularly given the current position in response to the Corona Virus.

This will be communicated to tenants through the July edition of the tenants’ newsletter, InTouch.”

The Chairman invited Councillor M B Wyatt to ask a supplementary question.

Councillor M B Wyatt thanked Councillor R D Bayliss for his reply and he had no supplementary question. He thanked the administration for its positive response concerning an important financial issue that affected a number of Council tenants.