Agenda item

in accordance with Standing Orders, written answers to the following questions will be circulated on a supplementary agenda.

(A)         Question from Councillor Peter Wilkins

Does the council have a strategy to limit or manage the number and siting of HMO’s (Houses in Multiple Occupation.)  For private development and for use by the public sector?

(B)         Question from Councillor Phil Bibby

Would the Cabinet Member please inform us as to what sporting and leisure activities, currently provided by the Leisure Centre, will not be accommodated within the planned new Leisure Centre, and how many residents will be affected?

(C)         Question from Councillor Robin Parker

Reference the charges for routine domestic garage forecourt maintenance which SBC introduced, please let me know:

The start date of the charges; the reason why the charges were introduced and which cabinet member(s) or committee made the decision to introduce them; whether tenants and owner occupiers pay the same; the way the charges are collected; the percentage collection rate for (a) tenants (b) owner occupiers; the action taken against (a) tenants and (b) owner occupiers, who fail or refuse to pay the charges; the process by which (a) tenants and (b) owner occupiers know for certain that the work that they have paid for has in fact been done; and what physical checking and monitoring there is to make sure that the work paid for has been done.

(D)         Question from Councillor Stephen Booth

Can you please inform Council when the current IT system used by councillors, involving Microsoft Outlook and Civica’s ModGov application, will be improved? Will councillors be consulted ahead of changes?

(E)         Question from Councillor Andy McGuinness

What is the cleaning regime for high foot fall destinations like neighbourhood and shopping areas across the Town?

The Council received five questions from Members to Committee Chairs/Portfolio Holders. 

The Mayor reminded Members that Standing Orders allowed for one question with a supplementary question only.  She advised that she had used her discretion this time to allow for a question with multiple parts but would not allow this at future meetings.

The responses to the five questions had been published in the supplementary agenda for the meeting.

(A)      Question from Councillor Peter Wilkins re: Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO’s)

Supplementary question – Will the Council do all it can to stop the indiscriminate use of HMO’s to house asylum seekers when the hotels are closed as this is not an appropriate form of housing in terms of monitoring or support for asylum seekers and would be unpopular with local residents?

The Portfolio Holder advised that the future use of HMO’s in Stevenage was currently not known and Councillor Wilkins had been provided with the information relating to the practical planning policies in place to restrict the use of HMO’s in terms of ASB, parking and noise.  The Portfolio Holder agreed to provide a more detailed answer outlining the Home Office’s policy on rehousing people in an asylum situation into communities when he could.

(B)      Question from Councillor Phil Bibby re: Sports and Leisure Centre

Supplementary question – Is the Portfolio Holder disappointed that the new leisure centre does not accommodate as many sports as the current one does and does not include emerging sports such as pickle ball and padel tennis.

The Portfolio Holder advised that it had been fifty years since the original arts and leisure centre had been built separate from the original swimming pool and a new facility was needed and that this would be a much improved offer for more people in the Town.  He would be happy to meet with anyone particularly dissatisfied with the range of activities in the new leisure centre and had already arranged meetings with a number of interested parties.

(C)      Question from Councillor Robin Parker regarding: Garage Forecourt Maintenance.

Supplementary question – can buying a small sweeper be considered to ensure all parts of the garage forecourts could be cleaned.

The Portfolio Holder advised that she would ask officers to look at the possibility and price of the suggestion from Councillor Parker.

(D)      Question from Councillor Stephen Booth regarding: IT

Supplementary question – Could Members be given the opportunity to provide some input into the current software used at the Council

The Portfolio Holder for Resources advised that the software used was used across the Globe and it appeared that most Members managed to use it with no real issues.  Additional training was available if Members felt this was needed.

(E)      Question from Councillor Andy McGuinness regarding: the cleaning of shopping areas around the Town

Supplementary question – Could there be some consideration that due care and attention be given to our much loved and much used local shopping centres.

The Portfolio Holder for the Environment advised that the Stevenage Direct Services (SDS) staff did a good job with the resources they had. The issue was allocating resources effectively to try and keep the neighbourhood areas as tidy and presentable as possible.  Local residents and local businesses were also key in maintaining and monitoring the areas and must ensure issues were reported to the Council for SDS to respond in a timely fashion.