Agenda item
Questions from the Opposition and other Non-Cabinet Members
Questions to be put to members of the Cabinet in accordance with Standing Order 40.
Minutes:
The Mayor advised Members that this item gave them the opportunity to ask questions of Members of the Cabinet on any matter, which was the responsibility of Cabinet. He confirmed that Members had received written tabled responses to these questions.
The Mayor stated that non-Cabinet Members each had one minute to ask a supplementary question if they so wished.
(i) Councillor Shaw asked the Cabinet Member if she agreed that at the cost of the taxpayer to do a consultation and ignore the results is a costly waste of time and a pretence to be concerned with the majority of residents in Brent and that this sets a dangerous precedent for future consultations which the residents will not trust or participate in in, in the future? Does the Lead Member have concerns that this will come back to haunt this administration in May 2018 regarding this terrible hike?
In response, Councillor Southwood said “no” in short, to both of the questions put. She thought that Councillor Shaw may have been referring to the statutory consultations for amending the traffic orders in order to implement the policy. She said that prior to that, an extensive public consultation unlike any undertaken before had been undertaken on parking, which looked in a more holistic way about what people cared about. Councillor Southwood said that what residents cared about was finding somewhere to park when they needed to; making journeys that were essential easier; easier for their visitors to park; easier for elderly people to have people come to visit and easier for the Council to tackle air quality by making sure that its traffic moved more sensibly around the Borough. She said that the pricing of parking was an absolutely appropriate response to managing demand and managing the very small number of spaces (35,000) the Borough had to serve its 56,000 households.
(ii) Councillor Crane asked the Cabinet Member if she would investigate what powers are available to the Council and how the Council use these powers to adopt the alleyway and report urgently to the Cabinet?
In response, Councillor Southwood said that it was a blight for residents to live with, disgusting and an extra sensory experience the likes of which one would not wish to experience. She said that the key here was finding a solution that resolved the issue in the long-term and which was proportionate and in the public interest. She said that she was very willing to look at different models for funding and resourcing the kind of sustained approach to these alleyways that would actually make it sustainably clean and pleasant to live around. Councillor Southwood said that Officers were already looking into this matter and that she was very happy to commit to bringing back ideas in ways that were in the public interest and which would support a sustainable resolution of this.
(iii) Councillor Colwill asked the Cabinet Member would he join him (Councillor Colwill) and the Mayor of London in objecting to the strike brought on Christmas when people were visiting relatives, as this was not an honourable thing to do?
In response, Councillor Butt said that there was a democratic right for people to strike and it was down to both parties to sit round the table to negotiate and to come up with a solution. He said it had been regrettable that people had been inconvenienced but reiterated that it was for the parties to get together. He said that the Government was actually trying to make things a lot harder for workers in restricting the rights of union members and he thought it was not right what the Government was trying to do in restricting the labour of union members as and when required and when negotiations broke down.
(iv) Councillor Long asked the Cabinet Member whether the Council would be doing anything to tackle funeral poverty?
In response, Councillor Butt said that when a young person died, the resultant costs on an individual were significant and that the Council had mechanisms in place. He said that the local welfare system was one and emergency loans could be provided by the Council to individuals but the Council would work with its community and voluntary sectors to look at further opportunities and ways to support people in these tragic circumstances and to support those individuals in their time of need.
(v) Councillor Nerva asked the Cabinet Member in view of the very detailed answer given, whether the Cabinet and Councillor Hirani in particular, as Lead Member, would approach all parties in Brent to send a serious letter to the Secretary of State urging a proper arrangement for social care funding?
In response, Councillor Hirani said that he could not speak for all parties as only one had responded but he would in any case reach out to all parties.
(vi) Councillor J Mitchell-Murray asked the Cabinet Member how can we make gang members or gang leaders inclusive within our community?
In response, Councillor Miller said that at the Time to Talk event held last week, one thing that came up again and again was the influence that peoples groups of friends had on them and the way that people thought about senior gang members in a cultural sense. He said that these were people that were present in people’s communities who they saw a lot and grew to respect them as part of their friendship groups. He added that taking these people out of that was absolutely key. Councillor Miller said that, as part of the answer he had given you, he had spoken a little bit about mentoring and gang exit strategies to get people away from them but that was very much on the official service delivery side of things of what the Council was doing and would only ever make small differences and small improvements year-on-year and the Council was honest about that and that is what the Council was trying to achieve. He said that one thing he did want to add in terms of what he had already said was that at the event, it became very, very clear indeed that there were a lot of third sector organisations there. He said that young people were organising themselves to provide alternative role models to people in the community and there was a really good project there called “Manhood” which was about masculinity. He said that people were out there doing things about this already, and without funding and that the big question was how could the Council involve them in its work, how could the Council be partners to them and how could the Council support them and to that effect he was going to be inviting some of those third sector groups back into have a further discussion with him on how to tackle that role model issue.
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