Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

Councillors Potter and Semlyen declared personal non prejudicial interests in respect of the Called In Item: Winter Maintenance Arrangements for 2012/13 as Snow Wardens.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. The deadline for registering is 5:00 pm on  Friday 12 October 2012.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Sue Galloway made representations on behalf of Foxwood Residents Association. She raised concerns that 50% or 23 salt bins would not be filled in the Foxwood area this year, compared to all those in the Heslington Ward. It was questioned whether Housing Associations and other bodies had been consulted regarding salt bins situated on their land. Reference was made to extensive consultations undertaken for a previous scrutiny review on winter maintenance as opposed to the current decision taken without any. Concerns were also raised in respect of double taxation and it was pointed out that the winter maintenance savings could be found elsewhere.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 13 August 2012.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting of the Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee (Calling In) held on 13 August 2012 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

To consider the decision made by the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services at a decision session held in private on 25 September in relation to the above item, which has been called in by Councillors Aspden, Ayre and Reid in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.  A cover report is attached setting out the reasons for the call-in and the remit and powers of the Corporate Scrutiny Management Committee (Calling-In) in relation to the call-in procedure, together with the original report and the decision of the Cabinet Member.

Members received a report which asked them to consider the decision made by the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, at his private Decision Session held on 25 September 2012, in relation to the Winter Maintenance Arrangements for 2012/13. Further information on the options and results of consultation undertaken in respect of the two options put forward for consideration were detailed in the report.

Details of the Cabinet Members decision were attached as Annex A to the report, with the original report to the Cabinet Member attached as Annex B. The decision had been called in by Cllrs Aspden, Ayre and Reid on the following grounds:

·        The plans would see overall salt bin provision in York fall from around 369 full bins to around 199.  In a bad winter this cut will have a significant and detrimental impact.

·        The report states that a thorough review of salt bin locations will be undertaken for the winter of 2013/14. It therefore seems irrational to withdraw the bin provision before this review has taken place and without thoroughly consulting residents or local councillors. The mistakes made over the removal of 1-in-4 of York’s dog and litter bins seem to be being repeated.

·        Residents will not know which salt bins are full and which salt bins are empty until they need to use them.

·        Leaving the bins out empty is likely to lead to a further deterioration in their condition and make it harder to bring them back into use next winter. Already, due to Labour’s decision to leave out the bins over the summer, a number of bins are in a poor condition with some having been vandalised. Leaving 170 out empty and unused will not help this.

·        No information on the locations of the salt bins was provided in the report – are the remaining (full) bins evenly distributed?

·        We disagree that “there is no longer finance available to maintain 170 salt bins”. The finance has been withdrawn and we believe the relatively small sum of money involved could be found from elsewhere in the council budget. We are happy to provide further information on this point.

·        The future of the Snow Wardens scheme is unclear from this report. We would seek some clarification on this before the report is approved.

Members were asked to decide whether to confirm the decision (Option a) or to refer it back to the Cabinet Member for re-consideration (Option b) as set out in the report.

Councillor Reid addressed the meeting on behalf of the Calling-In members expressing grave concerns at the proposed loss of this basic service. She felt that the cuts were ill conceived. Concerns were raised that if the empty bins were left in situ they would suffer damage during extreme weather conditions. When bad weather occurred it would also be time consuming filling bins and probably too late to address problem areas. She also questioned the discrepancy in the number of bins, particularly with regard to who had already undertaken a review  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.