Minutes:
Question 1 from Councillor Castle to the Leader
Councillor Sanderson, we all recognise that increasing economic pressures will hit the poorest in our community hardest. I commend our recent approach to identifying inequalities and possible solutions but ask that you inform the Council what measures the Council is able to implement promptly that will support those most in need of help
The Leader replied that addressing inequalities in Northumberland was an immediate and longer-term challenge. The current economic situation required the Council to work collaboratively and at pace to best support households most in need. Anyone looking for support was encouraged to contact Northumberland Communities Together. A lot of help had been given to those who had needed it particularly during the pandemic and this work continued.
In addition, officers were finalising a poverty and hardship action plan with a robust communications strategy and training tools – simple resources for everyone to use to support residents and for residents to support themselves. The Council would be pulling its business intelligence to ensure the resources available were where they were needed the most.
Councillor Castle asked if members identified any residents who needed help should contact NCT in the first instance. The Leader confirmed this was the approach which should be taken.
Question 2 from Councillor Fairless Aitken to Councillor Horncastle
Since the beginning of the year Hexham, along with other towns and villages across the county, has seen a distinct rise in instances of anti-social behaviour. From serious acts of vandalism, like the attack on Hexham’s bandstand, to the damaging of cars lawfully parked on our streets.
Will the administration undertake to work with Town and Parish councils to facilitate the positioning of CCTV, where appropriate, and to allow Members small schemes money to be used to purchase equipment?
Will the administration also undertake to lobby the PCC to allocate more resources to rural policing and arrange for a meaningful meeting with senior police officers and the LAC’s to explore how better they can deter and respond to the scourge of anti-social behaviour? I despair of our rural police stations being '9-5' rather than round the clock as they used to be and should be.
Councillor Horncastle replied that anti-social behaviour remained of concern and unfortunately there had been a small increase within the Hexham area, but he was pleased to be able to advise that those responsible for the damage to the bandstand had been apprehended by the police, and the level of ASB had reduced in Hexham. At a local level, ASB would continue to be monitored through the Hexham Victim Offender Location meeting, where it was a standing agenda item.
As part of the recent Strategic Needs Assessment undertaken by the Safer Northumberland Partnership, ASB had been identified as one of the key priorities, and officers were actively working with partners to develop interventions to reduce the impact of ASB on communities. A pilot had also recently been launched with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the other five Tyne and Wear local authorities, to improve understanding and access by residents to the Community Trigger process.
With regard to CCTV:
• Officers were exploring the deployment of overt CCTV to monitor parts of the Sele.
• The Council was happy to work with Parish and Town councils on the siting of CCTV, but under the current arrangements, whilst the County Council had and would deploy mobile CCTV in response to specific concerns, the cost of any fixed public space CCTV, would need to be met by the Town or Parish Council.
• He confirmed that members small scheme could be used for the capital purchase of equipment, subject to the cost being greater than the minimum level of £2,000 set out within the scheme.
• The scheme could not be used to fund maintenance and revenue costs, which would need to be funded by a different means.
When he next met with the Police and Crime Commissioner, he would raise with her the issue of resources to support rural policing and hopefully come back with more information.
Councillor Fairless Aitken responded that when she had asked about the mobile units to be used at Wentworth car park she had been told that the lending library was quite busy and it was difficult to get them to come down even after an incident. She asked if this could be looked at.
Councillor Horncastle replied that recently he had visited a private CCTV scheme in Ashington which was very up to date and monitored 24 hours a day. Set up and running costs had been very small and he would speak to Councillor Fairless Aitken about this after the meeting.
Question 3 from Councillor Fairless Aitken to Councillor Riddle
At Hexham Town Council we have been working towards being a Dark Skies Town with the International Dark Skies Association and have adopted their responsible lighting guidance in our Planning Committee.
Will the Administration undertake to work with the Planning and Highways departments to adopt this innovative and ground-breaking set of guidelines as council policy? Not only would it be fabulous for Northumberland with its Dark Skies National Park to have this rolled out for Astro-tourism and the health benefits to humans and the non-pollution of our natural environment, it would also be beneficial to energy saving costs.
Councillor Riddle replied that this was one of the areas of specific policy that would be formalised in Supplementary Planning Guidance documents, along with policy areas such as open play space, developer contributions and climate change. These would be attached to the Local Plan to set out NCC policy for determining planning applications.
The cross-party Member Local Plan Steering Group would be presented with the draft Supplementary Planning Guidance documents during the next 12 months, and would be subject to public consultation.
Question 4 from Councillor Hill to the Leader
The Queen’s Garden (sometimes pluralised to the Queen’s Gardens) in the West End of Tweedmouth is situated in the shadow of the Royal Tweed Bridge with stunning views across the river. It’s magnificent backdrop also includes the Tweedmouth War Memorial and the iconic Berwick Old Bridge.
In 1956, Queen Elizabeth ll visited The Queen’s Garden with the Duke of Edinburgh and was presented with a salmon by the Mayor. Do you agree that this would be an ideal spot for a permanent memorial to the late Queen?
The Leader agreed this was a good suggestion, to go alongside lots of other suggestions which it was hoped would be submitted in response to the public consultation. A memorial in Berwick would be a good thing and he would support that.
Councillor Hill asked if the Leader agreed with the appropriateness of Berwick being a memorial to the late Queen given all the work she had done to support the Union and thereby cross border co-operation. The Leader agreed this was a valid point. The re-naming of the Union Chain Bridge which was due to open shortly could possibly provide an opportunity for this recognition.
Question 5 from Councillor Dale to Councillor Pattison
Complaints have been raised about the delivery of social care services in Northumberland. Please could you confirm what the Council is doing to respond to these concerns?
Councillor Pattison confirmed that it was proving challenging to secure sufficiency of some social care services in Northumberland currently, particularly home care (although there were now some indications that residential and nursing care may be affected as well). This situation was not unique to Northumberland and regionally and nationally it was the case that most Local Authorities were having similar issues to varying degrees. It was understood that some were facing significant worse pressures than were being managed in Northumberland currently.
There were about 220 clients in Northumberland where the teams could not immediately secure packages of home care to meet assessed need and the figure had remained above 200 for several months now. A number of measures were being put in place for those individuals and families who could not cope in the short term, including amongst other things, short term temporary residential placements, support from Northumberland Communities Together, and the use of Council internal rehabilitation services away from their normal core business.
The key issue was lack of available workforce which appeared to be linked to competition for labour from other markets. The issues began almost immediately the restrictions on covid started to lift late last summer and providers started reporting staff leaving to take up posts in other sectors including pubs, restaurants, retail and leisure. The pressure was being felt most acutely in the North and West of the county, but there were issues right across Northumberland.
A number of things had been done to try and assist the market including support with recruitment, advertising and training for providers and this support was ongoing. There had been some financial support as well, the most significant being the Council offering funding to support providers to pay the “real living wage” from 1st April 2022.
Aside from the continuation of the various types of support mentioned above, senior officers were considering possible further options in relation to support for travel costs for home care workers. This could significantly benefit the more rural areas where recruitment and retention issues were the most challenging.
Councillor Dale asked whether the extra funding put into social services had been spent and hoped that no voluntary redundancies would be taken from social services. Councillor Pattison assured Councillor Dale that she would do all she could to ensure residents were looked after.