Agenda item

Questions

Meeting of County Council, Thursday 13th February 2020 10:00am (Item 48.)

Questions to be asked by Members of the County Council of the Leader of the Council, a Cabinet Member, or a Chairman of a Committee. The question will be answered by the relevant Member and the Member asking the question may then ask a follow up question which will also be answered

Minutes:

Mrs Atkins asked the following question of the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport whose reply is set out below the question:-

Question

What progress has been made in reviewing the provision of school crossing patrols throughout the County? How many posts are currently vacant and where are they located? How many mobile patrols are presently being employed to cover vacancies?

A full review of the School Crossing Patrol (SCP) service was carried out in 2018/2019 to inform MTFS saving proposals. Further to consideration of feedback from consultations with schools, communities and staff, the decision was made not to implement the MTFS savings and to continue with the service on a business as usual basis.

Each SCP site is routinely assessed against national criteria on a biennial basis and, in addition, each site is reviewed when the incumbent Patrol has resigned or retired.

Despite community support for the service, it is often difficult to recruit to vacancies. The number of vacancies fluctuate on a week by week basis but there are currently 32 across Staffordshire (specifically at the locations listed below).

There are currently 12 Mobile Relief Patrols who are deployed on a priority basis across the county to cover predominantly short term and emergency absences of the regular Patrols. Recruitment is currently taking place to increase the number of Mobile Patrols to 15.

Schools are contacted by the SCP service to inform them of any absences and/or vacancies on their local Patrol points, so that parents and carers can be made aware.

In order to promote recruitment to vacancies as they arise, the SCP service utilise a Facebook page and have issued the Mobile Relief team with tabards especially designed to make local communities aware of the vacancy.

Current vacancies as at 07/02/2020

Newcastle and Moorlands

A409 Chesterton

A410 Priory Road/Abbot's Way Newcastle

A315a Pepper St, Silverdale

A435 Knutton Lane / Ashfields New Road, Newcastle

A437 Church Lane, Wolstanton

A614 Alexandra Road, Wolstanton

A614a Alexandra Road, Wolstanton

A491 Leek Road, Church Lane, Endon

A429 - Loggerheads, Newcastle Rd

A606a - Clayton Lane, Clayton High School, Newcastle

A436 Seabridge Lane/Roe Lane Clayton

A541 Wallbridge Drive Leek

A464 Spring Gardens/Burton Street, Leek

Mobile Relief Patrol - Leek

A423 High St Maybank jct Upper Marsh (Zebra]

A423a High St Maybank jct Upper Marsh (Zebra]

Cannock, Rugeley and South Staffs

B386a - Cannock Rd, Penkridge (canal bridge)

B386 - Wolgarston Way, Penkridge

B387a - Marsh Lane, Penkridge

B072 - The Parkway, Perton

378b - Walsall Rd, Norton Canes, for Jerome Primary

B371 New Penkridge Rd, Hatherton

Mobile relief x 2

Stafford and Lichfield

D155 Great Haywood

D161 St Leonards Primary, Stafford

D524 St Filumena's, Caverswall

Tamworth and Burton

E1 Branston Road/All saints Road, Burton-upon-Trent

E021 Church Hill St/Eldon St, Winshill

E206 Main St, Yoxall

E216 Holly Road, Uttoxeter

Mobile Relief - Burton-upon-Trent

Supplementary Question

From your answer, it would appear that the review of the impact of the changes to school crossing patrol provision has not happened and I would ask you to look at this issue along with the methods of recruiting school crossing patrols?

Reply (by Mark Deaville on behalf of Helen Fisher)

I can assure you that we don’t have a half-hearted approach to recruiting school crossing patrols; and I will pass on your comments to Mrs Fisher including your request for an analysis of the service.

Mrs Woodward asked the following question of the Leader of the Council whose reply is set out below the question:-

Question

The Leader’s Advisory Group, set up to oversee the Action Plan arising from the Special Committees to exercise functions under the Officer Employment Procedure Rules, has not met since October 2018 yet many of the recommendations in the Action Plan are still to be implemented. Will the Leader undertake to reconvene this Group as soon as possible please?

The majority of the recommendations have been implemented. I believe that the details are best discussed in the Advisory Group rather than at full Council, and I have asked the Chief Executive to arrange a meeting.

Supplementary Question

I believe that there are a number of issues to still be resolved and may I have the Leader’s assurance that the issues which remain outstanding will be dealt with as soon as possible?

Yes.

Mr Robinson asked the following question of the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport whose reply is set out below the question:-

Question

Over two years ago, a housing developer went bust whilst building properties on Hurst Close in Talke Pits. The majority of properties were completed and occupied, but the process of adopting the road, pavement and grids was never completed and no funding was secured by the local authority during the liquidation stage of the company. This means the road and pavement on one side of Hurst Close has been left in a shocking state and the grids will get no future maintenance leaving residents exposed to flooding. The community has been unable to find a solution to this matter due to cost and the fact a section of the road and pavement is not adopted means that private companies are reluctant to assist with any resurfacing work. Considering the road and pavement would have been adopted anyway, will the County Council finally step in and support the hardworking taxpayers of Hurst Close by adopting the unfinished sections and carrying out appropriate works to ensure they are in a suitable state to be used?

This is a very localised and complex issue. Please can I recommend that the Local Member meets with me, as the Cabinet Member, and relevant lead officer to go through all the details and potential solutions. For completeness, however, please find a response below.

For clarity Hurst Close in Talke Pits is already adopted highway maintainable at public expense.

Several years ago a developer built 10 new houses on adjacent private land. During the planning approval process the Local Planning Authority consulted the County Council’s highways team.

A series of recommendations were made, including: staged completion of some elements of work to an acceptable standard before occupation was allowed; and the requirement for a legal agreement containing suitable provisions to ensure that necessary alterations and widening of the existing public highway were made.

These requirements were then built into the planning permission. Responsibility for the enforcement of those conditions rests with the local Planning Authority.

Regrettably, the developer carried out the works without securing the required agreement and has subsequently gone into liquidation.

Where the existing public highway has been affected the County Council will continue to manage and maintain the relevant infrastructure. The County Council’s legal team was not able to secure any funding through the liquidation process but is considering whether further enforcement action against the owner of the bankrupt company is possible.

With regards to the area of land that could be considered for adoption this is currently private land and serves as extra width to the existing publicly maintained footway. The affected residents have the option of continuing to manage this as private land or to fund the cost of bringing those areas up to standard and applying for them to become adopted public highways.

Supplementary Question

It is obvious that the County Council is pushing the issue back onto the residents. Will the Cabinet Member do all she can to help to resolve this matter and find a way forward which is fair to our Council Tax payers?

Reply (by Mark Deaville on behalf of Helen Fisher)

This is an unfortunate situation. I will pass on your comments to Mrs Fisher with a view to all the relevant parties meeting with the residents.

Mr Robinson asked the following question of the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing whose reply is set out below the question:-

Question

It has recently been highlighted that thousands of people in Staffordshire have not taken part in their free NHS bowel cancer screening tests. People aged between 60 and 74 years in England are sent a home test for bowel cancer every two years. It has been reported that 9,237 people out of 22,779 in the Cannock Chase CCG area and 9,894 people out of 27,065 in the Stafford and Surrounds CCG area had not taken up the test in the two-and-a-half years to March 2019. Will the Deputy Leader of the council and Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing ensure Staffordshire County Council does its bit to highlight the importance of eligible people taking part in this screening to diagnose disease early, hopefully leading to positive outcomes following treatment?

Bowel cancer is a common type of cancer with about 1 in 20 people developing it during their lifetime, and we may all know someone who has the disease. Screening can detect bowel cancer at an earlier stage, when it is more likely that it can be treated effectively.

There are two types of bowel cancer screening. The first is a home testing kit to collect a stool sample to test for blood, which is sent to people aged 60-74 every two years. The second is a thin, flexible camera used to examine the bowel, which is being rolled out as a one-off test to people aged 55.

In 2019, 62% of eligible people in Staffordshire took up bowel cancer screening using the home testing kit. This compares favourably to the national average of 60% and is an increase on the 2015 figure of 60% for the county.

The Council would like everyone who is eligible to take advantage of bowel cancer screening and we are happy to do our bit to raise awareness of this important screening programme.

More information for the public is available here:

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/sites/default/files/downloadable-resources/bowel_cancer_screening_leaflet_-_file.pdf

Supplementary Question

Thank you for the response. We do however need to do more to encourage our residents to take-up the offer of screening.

Thank you for raising the issue.

Supporting documents: