Agenda item

Councillor Cowling, the Leader of the Council, presented the following statement:

 

"As you are aware RDC had a Corporate Peer Challenge in October.  You were all invited to hear informal feedback on the 21st October and have since had sight of the feedback slides.  For me the three most important messages were around improving communication, reviewing our governance model and about shared behaviours for members and staff.  The recognition of the difficulties that member conduct at full council meetings is causing was particularly telling.  The recommendations within the slides will give us an opportunity to continue with our programme of rolling improvement - both for members and staff.  I would also like to thank our partners who attended the Growth and Partnership Working Event for giving their time and also our staff - the three days ran like clockwork and was a credit to them.  Initially I was very apprehensive about the peer review - but have to say I enjoyed the entire three days and I am sure the whole process will be of great benefit to our Council.

 

You will recall that some time ago Members agreed to give a grant towards the creation of a dry stone wall maze in Dalby Forest.  Several Members took up the opportunity recently to visit Dalby Forest and see the work completed to date on that maze.  I wish more of you had been there to see the outcome from the grant you agreed.  The maze, when completed, is going to be absolutely stunning and will, I am sure, become an iconic visitor attraction.

 

You won't be surprised to hear that I have no updates for you on Devolution.

 

Opportunity Knocks was again an extremely successful event held at Lady Lumleys school in Pickering - the enthusiasm of the students is so good to see. Again, many thanks to the employers who attended that event.

 

The good news from the Area Committee meeting was that an experimental weight restriction of 7.5 tonnes is to be introduced on County Bridge between Norton & Malton which will allow us to assess what improvements there are to pollution levels.

 

I was very pleased to be one of the panel of judges for the very first Ryedale Business Awards.  The winners will be announced at a breakfast ceremony at the White Swan at Ampleforth on the 27th of January - starting at 9am. Tickets are only £15.00 for what promises to be an interesting morning.

 

Lastly, I would like to use this opportunity to formally congratulate Clare Slater on her appointment as Deputy Chief Executive of RDC."

 

The following questions were received on the Leader’s Statement:

 

1.    From Councillor Paul Andrews

 

"My question relates to the peer review, first of all when will the full report be received and secondly, it's a question of democracy, democracy is a terrible thing particularly when you have people like Councillor Clark along, you know it really is a problem but it does actually guarantee our freedoms. What I would like to know, it was supposed to be a peer review, a judgement of people of similar authorities to our own and included the Chief Executive of Gloucester City Council, so what I would like to know is and I have asked for this information before, what was the constitution of the Councils for whom the people of the peer review panel came from? Was it from a committee based authority like our own or was it an executive based authority? I would like this information because it does concern me that undue weight may be given to the views of people who come from executive authorities who run their authorities in different ways to what we do and who therefore have different ideas about how a particular Council should be run."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"The make up of the authorities who formed the peer review team  has been sent out. Yours will have been sent out as a paper copy I assume so it might be in your pigeon hole, I don't know. Only one of the peer reviewers was from an authority that had a committee system however having spoken to a lot of the people who were involved in the peer review, they did have experience both of the committee system, not unitaries, they had experience of both executive and committee systems. I don't think that you could say that it was loaded either way."

 

2.    From Councillor Clark

 

      "My question to the leader alongside the comment to start off with  - I            think she's put the weight limit in the wrong place, I don't think the        weight limit is going to be on the County bridge but if it ends up in the           wrong place it's probably better than none at all. In relation to the       selection of the Assistant Chief Executive has the Leader of the        Council considered the following:

1. The presentation was on a subject closely aligned to only one of the candidates.

2. The interview was carried out by one lone member of a company contracted to work for Ryedale District Council on the presentation subject.

3. One of the candidates had introduced the recruiting company to Ryedale District Council and then worked with the company for almost a year."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"Are you asking me whether I've considered that? Yes. I don't really understand the question I'm sorry but I was perfectly happy with the process, perfectly happy with the subject, I thought it was relevant. I don't really understand what you are asking me."

 

Councillor Clark clarified:

 

"The presentation was on Transformation and how we were going to handle it but only one of the 3 candidates had worked on that subject as their work area over the last year. The interview was carried out by a lone member, now that is bad practice if I understand it and I suspect that 3 of the Senior Contracts Working Party probably had in excess of 60 years of recruiting under their belt between them and all 3 of those were uncomfortable with one person doing the interview on behalf of the Council. One of the candidates had introduced the recruiting company to Ryedale now that's just a fact and certainly worked with ...and didn't just say hello Ryedale this is this company....worked with that company for a year. The other 2 candidates had not. What I'm saying to you is had you considered those things, we did ask you in the Senior Contracts Working Party to consider that lot before we started the process but unfortunately off we went."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"I've no intention of answering your question in great detail nor do I think that this is the place to be discussing this. You know that we're reconvening that meeting. I repeat that I am perfectly happy with the process that we went through."

 

Councillor Clark then asked the following supplementary question:

 

"I am delighted to hear that we're reconvening that meeting as it's now 2 months since it happened, to reconvene it seems hopeful. My supplementary is have the deliberations, decisions, minutes of the Senior Contracts Working Party been kept secret - because they haven't been published in any shape or form - because the process was chaotic, incompetent, biased, illegal or corrupt?"

 

The Leader then replied:

 

            "Are you saying that it was an illegal meeting and it was a corrupt      meeting?"

 

            The Chairman then intervened:

 

            "Councillor Cowling I'm going to call a halt to that because it's getting           into territory I don't like - the Leader disagrees."

 

3.    From Councillor Wainwright

 

"Can I ask the Leader if we're getting a detailed feedback of the peer review and if so when?"

 

The Leader replied:

 

"You will be getting a detailed feedback and I'm sorry I can't give you a date yet. I understand they're working on a draft and you will be getting that feedback, it will be the new year though."

 

4.    From Councillor Jowitt

 

"I welcome the introduction of the trial 7 half tonne limit wherever it is but I wonder if the Leader could advise me whether due consideration has been given where the traffic's going to go and if the County has actually come back to her with information about that? In particular I'm concerned that heavy vehicles are going to be encouraged to travel along Pasture Lane past the primary school, past the narrow bridge and The Croft and through Old Malton by the mini roundabout. I've made a request - I have to admit it was prior to the 7 half tonne limit coming on - to the County Highways. They were quite adamant at that stage that their modelling didn't show any problems but now the 7 half limit's come on I believe that it's fairly important to get some clarification on that."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"I'm sorry but that's not information that I have as yet. We've got several County Councillors who represent us at NYCC and I think we'll have to press them for that information. I think we're all concerned about where the displacement of traffic will be and just how that will play out in the future. It's very difficult to model it and say where it will go. Yes it will reduce pollution at Butcher Corner but will it cause chaos elsewhere and I think that's something we do need to know."

 

5.    From Councillor Thornton

 

"I wonder if the Leader has read the Jacobs report on traffic management and air pollution in Malton and Ryedale, because the concerning information in that is that of the various scenarios of the different potential building areas in the proposed sites document if any of the arrangements, combinations of those areas is developed we will not meet the standards of the AQA and indeed putting in the weight restriction on whatever bridge it is will also not get us into the right territory for the air quality."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"It seems to me that NYCC are damned if they do and damned if they don't. It seems to me that whatever remedial works they do it pleases some people and not others. Whatever measures they put in place will have a knock on effect elsewhere. Our old market towns by their very nature, they are difficult for modern traffic to negotiate and whoever thought that there would be this level of traffic? Somehow or other we've got to learn to deal with it, we've got to find solutions and that is for NYCC to do."

Councillor Thornton then asked the following supplementary question:

 

"To deal with it we  seem to have spent a lot of time, a lot of Committees, a lot of reports and the latest report gives no cause for comfort whatsoever and points out that further development will make air quality worse. I think this needs a very serious sit round a table and work out - looking at all the reports that we've had - because there've been rumblings about this problem right the way through from the start when Brambling Fields was proposed. It is complex but it is very important because you can't learn to live with air pollution given that we are in breach. The government will be chasing us very soon and I think indeed our MP is chasing us on our air quality."

 

The Leader then replied:

 

"I think we're chasing ourselves on air quality. I did not say that we should learn to live with pollution, what we need to do is to manage the traffic and minimise air pollution."

 

6.    From Councillor Burr

 

            "If I could just respond as a County Councillor all those fears have been allayed and urgent meetings will need to take place when we are consulting on this because as has rightly been said, we are not meeting our AQA targets at the moment. So we've got a lot of serious, serious work to be had and that is one thing that needs to be thought about. Yes about the 7.5 tonnes it's where the HGVs are going to go. However my question was and I hope you don't mind me asking I'm sure you were as I was disappointed that the local sites development plan wasn't coming to this meeting. I just wondered if you could update us as to what's gone wrong and when it might be coming."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"The answer is that NYCC have delayed the plan because some information, they are revisiting some information to do with junctions in Pickering."

 

Councillor Burr then asked the following supplementary question:

 

"It's our plan and we know that we've been behind for a long, long time and it's absolutely critical but yet to say that it's a County problem I'm not quite sure that I understand where you're coming from. It's up to us to get a plan on the table, for us to make sure that we ratify it but now we're blaming County that we haven't got our plan."

 

The Leader then replied:

 

            "We do have a plan on the table and we were about to press the button        sending that out so that it would have been on this agenda but NYCC    at the very last minute decided to pull some information around traffic             information around junctions in Pickering."

 

7.    From Councillor Paul Andrews

 

"On the question of pollution and traffic where you said Leader that who would have thought it that there would be so much traffic. Will she recall the many times in which I made this point before the Ryedale Plan was confirmed. Would she recall the times when I brought statements by Mr Alan Martin, the former Highways Surveyor of Ryedale District from the County Council's point of view is ... the Development Manager Highways Surveyor that is ... who produced evidence for the inspector that was simply dismissed by both the planning... by all the planning officers present at the enquiry and also by the inspector himself. Will she agree that actually once again I was right?"

 

The Leader replied:

 

"It must be really nice to be always right Paul, I wish I was."

 

8.    From Councillor Ives

 

"Are you able to confirm how much has been saved by making the previous post holder of the Corporate Director position redundant?"

 

The Leader replied:

 

            "Off the top of my head No but I think you've had that information       previously."

 

Councillor Ives then asked the following supplementary question:

 

"The reason why I asked that question is that when we made that decision we were told it was going to be I think about a 17 month pay back period but that was dependent on the post not being replaced. It was replaced and then we were told it would be about a 20 odd month pay back period if it was replaced by one of the existing Heads of Service. The problem is that that post has been filled by one of the existing Heads of Service and there have been two new people appointed to the equivalent Head of Service. The question is how much has been saved by making that post redundant because if that position is just going to be filled by another person and that person's position is going to be filled by 2 new people I don't see where the savings have been achieved."

 

The Leader replied:

 

            "I'll get you a written answer."

 

9.    From Councillor Clark

 

"The immediate answer to Councillor Ives is that we warned him that this would be happening at the time and he then voted to go ahead with the redundancy but that's a side issue. Could I please have the answer to my supplementary question in some shape or form rather than being ignored."

 

The Leader replied:

 

"No."

 

Councillor Clark then asked the following supplementary question:

 

"Under which standing order does the leader of Council, when asked a question that is clearly embarrassing, is she in a position to say no when we're talking about a Members' appointment in this Council."

 

The Chairman then intervened:

 

            "Councillor Clark I listened to that and am not sure I heard a question in      what you said but the wording that you were using in it was quite          disturbing and I really feel that Councillor Cowling has given what she          wants to say to that and that is fine by me."

 

            Councillor Clark responded:

 

"You may see a copy here, I read it out word for word... it is clearly a question. I'm not insisting on an answer now. I am saying under what standing order, because it is embarrassing to her or to any other leader, can she just not answer a question? Because we've enough things that they can consult with expert advice, they can give written replies etc. I do not remember where they can say no when it is serious responsibility, closely aligned to Councillor Ives question on the savings of this Council and how this whole process has been handled. If it is embarrassing and you want to put it in writing that's fine. If you want to ignore it, then I will drag it out even more into the public until I do get an answer because this is  public money and it is a public appointment and therefore we are entitled to some answer rather than I'm not going to answer it. You should be enforcing an answer Chair. I don't mind how it's done, it doesn't have to be done now, give her time to consult and get all sorts of wonderful ideas from others but there needs to be an answer to questions."

 

10.From Councillor Burr

 

"We've been talking tonight about HGVs and relocation etc and I wonder, I didn't want to have to ask you and I've been trying to find out myself previous to this meeting. Have you got any idea of how the livestock market negotiations are taking place. I'm hearing lots and lots of different stories and I've tried to get to the root of it to know exactly how we are going to roll out what we said that we would do because obviously we've allowed a lot of houses to come forth in Malton on the back of this development, we've got a possibility of the livestock market not having anywhere if the lease is terminated and the new build isn't built. I wondered if you would tell me what's happening please?"

 

The Leader replied:

 

"There are some things which I'm not free to report obviously because this is a negotiation between other parties. It is an aspiration of this Council that the livestock market in Malton should move to the new site and that we do continue to have a livestock market. As far as I know the developer will be building a livestock market. As yet I don't know who will be running that market."

 

Councillor Burr then asked the following supplementary question:

 

"We have allowed an enormous amount of houses to be built in Malton and that was on the back of that I supported for all good reason. I am watching the houses going up and the people moving in and then I'm thinking what's gone wrong? Have we done something, made sure that these houses get built and then we're not going to have our livestock centre. I would like to be reassured by you that everything's going to be fine but I have some good reasons to think that maybe everything's not going to turn out  fine."

 

The Leader then replied:

 

"It sounds as if you know more than me. This Council  - that is their aspiration to have a livestock market on that site and so far as I know I've no reasons to think that that isn't going to happen."