Venue: Council Chamber - County Hall. View directions
Contact: Heather Bowers
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Chicken, Daley and Dunbar. |
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Minutes of the meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington & Seaton Delaval Local Area Council held on 23 November as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.
Minutes: The Minutes of the Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley Local Area Council, held on 23 November 2022, as circulated, were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair. |
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PUBLIC QUESTION TIME To reply to any questions received from members of the public which have been submitted in writing in advance of the meeting. Questions can be asked about issues for which the Council has a responsibility. (Public question times take place on a bimonthly basis at Local Area Council meetings: in January, March, May, July, September and November each year.)
As agreed by the County Council in February 2012, the management of local public question times is at the discretion of the chair of the committee.
Please note however that a
question may possibly be rejected if it requires the disclosure of
any categories of confidential or exempt information, namely
information:
And/or: ? is defamatory, frivolous or offensive; ? it is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of this or another County Council committee in the past six months; ? the request repeats an identical or very similar question from the same person; ? the cost of providing an answer is disproportionate; ? it is being separately addressed through the Council's complaints process; ? it is not about a matter for which the Council has a responsibility or which affects the county; ? it relates to planning, licensing and/or other regulatory applications ? it is a question that town/parish councils would normally be expected to raise through other channels.
If the Chair is of the opinion that a question is one which for whatever reason, cannot properly be asked in an area meeting, he/she will disallow it and inform the resident of his/her decision.
Copies of any written answers (without individuals' personal contact details) will be provided for members after the meeting and also be publicly available.
Democratic Services will confirm the status of the progress on any previously requested written answers and follow up any related actions requested by the Local Area Council.
Minutes: No questions had been submitted.
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PETITIONS This item is to:
(a) Receive any new petitions.
(b) Consider reports on petitions previously received.
(c) Receive any updates on petitions for which a report was previously considered.
Minutes: This item was to:
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LOCAL POLICING UPDATE Inspectors J Caisley and W Daniels will be in attendance to provide an update on policing issues in the area.
Minutes: Inspectors Jon Caisley and Paul Davis from the Cramlington, Seaton Valley and Bedlington Neighbourhood Policing Teams were in attendance and provided an update on policing issues and crime statistics within those areas.
Inspector John Caisley, Cramlington Neighbourhood Policing gave an overview and answered questions about policing and community safety matters in the Cramlington and Seaton Valley command areas which he was responsible for. The key points were:
(Councillor Ezhilchelvan joined the meeting at 4.05 pm).
In response to questions/comments, the following information was provided:
Inspector Paul Davis, Bedlington Neighbourhood Policing gave an overview and answered questions about policing in the Bedlington area:
In response to questions/comments, the following information was provided:
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LOCAL SERVICES ISSUES To receive a verbal update from the Area Managers from Technical Services and Neighbourhood Services in attendance about any key recent, ongoing and/or future planned Local Services work for the attention of members of the Local Area Council, who will also then have the opportunity to raise issues with the Area Managers.
The Area Managers have principal responsibility for highway services and environmental services, such as refuse collection, street cleansing and grounds maintenance, within the geographic boundaries of the Local Area Council.
Minutes: Mick Carle, Neighbourhood Services Manager, provided the following information:
Larger Tarmac Patching had been carried out in the following locations;
Drainage Improvements:
The area teams were continuously looking and programming future planned works both patching and drainage improvements.
LTP - Carriageway Resurfacing
LTP Carriageway Resurfacing schemes were being programmed and all affected members would be notified in advance.
Winter Maintenance
Since the cold snap during the early to midpart of December winter had quietened down. There was still have half of the Winter season ahead. These were often the harshest few months. They were currently working with suppliers to carry out a mid-season salt restock of 10,000 Tonnes. This restock with the existing 6000 Tonne strategic store at Powburn should give the service more than sufficient levels to see it out till the end of the winter season.?
During the last period of bad weather, over 11 days in December, the Winter Services Team had worked 20 hours during a 24 hour period, travelling over 41,420 miles of road network.
In response to members comments, Mr Carle responded as follows:-
Tony Gribbin, Local Services Area Manager provided the following information:
Refuse crews had worked across the entire Christmas period, including bank holiday Tuesday and their efforts had been recognised and praised.
Waste Service
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BUDGET 2023-24 AND MEDIUM-TERM FINANCIAL PLAN This presentation will outline the Council’s strategy to the 2023-24 Budget within the context of the Corporate Plan. The presentation will provide details of the approach to setting the budget for the next financial year and the broad impact this will have on the delivery of services.
Minutes: Councillor Sanderson, Leader provided information on the State of the County reflecting on the work the Council were undertaking based on the Council’s priorities of providing value for money, tackling inequalities and delivering growth and jobs. A copy of the presentation would be filed with the signed minutes of the meeting and uploaded to the Committee papers on the Council’s website.
He firstly informed members of the news of British Volt and the Devolution Deal outcome for the North East.
The Council continued to invest in education and skills with a number of capital projects coming forward including schools within the Astley and Berwick Partnership, the Port of Blyth; Energy Central Learning Hub in Blyth; Seghill Construction Training Centre and the new Northumberland College.
Following consultation with residents a number of park commemoration schemes had been announced to form a countywide celebration of the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Information on what the Council was doing to help address inequalities in health and education, with the belief that all children should be offered the same opportunity in life to flourish, and the financial support being offered to those people most in need were outlined. The response by residents and communities to an appeal for donations to support Ukrainian nationals had been tremendous. The Council’s current Capital Programme included over £806m investment in 2022-2026 to ensure that the infrastructure and facilities were provided to drive future growth and job creation within the County along with further investments through the Borderlands Partnership and North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The commitment to maintain frontline services had remained with increased funding for highway maintenance in 2022-23, however the recent bad weather had impacted on the number of defects on the road network being reported. The Council had been praised for its work in supporting people requiring care packages after being discharged from hospital and was grateful for staff who provided this service. There was always a need to attract more care workers and travel allowances had been increased to try to encourage more people into this sector.
A new Chief Executive was to start at the Council on 8 February 2023 and recruitment was also underway for a new Executive Team. The Corporate Plan was to be refreshed to drive improvements in all services and a Strategic Change Programme developed to deliver the things that were most important to residents in a cost-effective way. It was hoped that compulsory redundancies could be avoided, but this could not be guaranteed. The recently announced Government settlement had been better than expected and new legislation would give the Council more power to address issues related to second or vacant homes and the pressure this put on some communities. There would still be inflationary pressures on the budget going forward in relation to pay and other factors. Details of the proposed budget would be released at the beginning of February and all Members would be invited to the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview and Scrutiny ... view the full minutes text for item 73. |
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LOCAL AREA COUNCIL WORK PROGRAMME PDF 156 KB To note the latest version of agreed items for future Local Area Council meetings (any suggestions for new agenda items will require confirmation by the Business Chair after the meeting).
Minutes: RESOLVED that the Work Programme be noted.
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DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington & Seaton Valley Local Area Council is scheduled for Tuesday 21 February 2023 (planning only).
Minutes: The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 21 February 2023. |