Meeting: County Council (County Hall, Durham - Council Chamber - 04/02/2009 10:00:00 AM)
Item: A9 Questions received from the public
Backlog of Repairs to Infrastructure of County Durham
Question
What plans has the Council to deal with the vast backlogs of repairs to the infrastructure of County Durham. In Stanley we have broken roads and paths, old overhead and unsightly electric power supplies, old gas and water services which frequently fail and are patched up instead of being completely renewed. This makes the area looking very drab, neglected and outdated.
Answer
As presented to both Highways Committee and Environment Scrutiny Committee during 2008 there are concerns over the highway maintenance backlog, particularly in a climate of rapidly rising inflation in the civil engineering construction industry over recent years.
Recognising the importance of the highway network as the most valuable asset of the Authority, which is also fundamental to the economic, social and environmental well being of the community, the Authority has not only continued to maintain the level of the highway maintenance budget, but has also provided additional funding to address the backlog through both the Public Liability Fund (£688,000 in 2006/07) and via Cabinet (£1m in 2007/08).
This stance to support the highway network is continuing with the current budget deliberations to ensure a planned long term programme of investment is put in place.
CCTV Cameras at West Cornforth
Question
The Borough Council (Sedgefield) has previously provided CCTV cameras in the Village (West Cornforth), supported by the Parish Council. Will the County Council after the 1 April take over continue to maintain and support this important community safety measure and consider with the Parish Council the possibility of further such provision in the Village?
Answer
In relation to the first element of your question, Durham County Council will maintain current provision of CCTV from 1st April 2009. Arrangements in terms of monitoring and maintenance of CCTV will continue unaffected in the short term. We will, however, be reviewing our approach to CCTV across County Durham in the near future, although I cannot give you a precise time-scale at this stage.
At the moment we could not commit to the deployment of additional CCTV cameras in your village. Any future investment in CCTV would need to be carefully considered with other partners, not least the police and the Parish Council, and be located in the areas where we know we have the most problems.
Climate Change
Questions
Climate Durham is a new local group committed to action on mitigation and adaptation to climate change. We would like to know:
1. What priority the County Council attaches to such action
2. What specifically is it intending to do to reduce CO2 emissions in County Durham and its own emissions in 2009/10?
3. Are additional resources to be devoted to this priority?
Answers
What priority does the County Council attach to Climate Change?
Durham County Council’s Corporate Plan recognises Climate Change as a high level corporate priority.
The Authority’s continuing commitment to tackling climate change is evidenced by the signing of the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change several years ago but also more recently committing to the EU Covenant of Mayors to develop an action plan to reduce carbon emissions across the County beyond the objectives of the EU energy policy in terms of a reduction of CO2 emissions.
This is a very public commitment to tackling climate change with accountability for delivering real outcomes based on the requirement to develop, publish and resource a Carbon Management Plan with an obligation to report annually to the other signatories on progress.
Such commitments are not simply political rhetoric - as part of the Nottingham Agreement the County signed up to the MACC2, making a corporate commitment to reducing CO2 emissions and water consumption by 10% between 2003 and 2007 - a promise which was not only achieved but was also recently recognised by the Audit Commission as an exemplar of best practice.
The political commitment of Durham County Council to tackling climate change is very strong and we have the opportunity offered by the creation of the unitary authority to capitalise on some superb, visionary and very outcome focused staff across the eight councils.
We will utilise
· the fuel poverty agenda
· the health agenda
· the sustainable development agenda
· the transport agenda
· the housing agenda
· the spatial planning agenda
· the built environment agenda
· the economic development agenda and
· the community engagement and empowerment agendas
to not only learn from the best in the County but extend that best practice across the whole County but in doing so will strengthen our leading role on these crucial issues regionally and nationally.
What specifically is the County Council intending to do to reduce CO2 emissions in County Durham and its own emissions in 2009/10?
Durham County Council is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions across its own stock. Work has already been carried out across the existing eight authorities in County Durham and this will also be carried on into the New Unitary Authority.
The Authority has signed up to the local Agreement, agreeing to select the new national indicators, 186 and 188, as a priority to tackle climate change. This policy thrust is in its early development but we are 100% behind its development.
Our commitment to the environment in County Durham was starkly exposed recently in our local area agreement negotiations - Defra were so impressed by the range of environmental indicators our area had identified as priority outcomes in the Local Area Agreement we hosted a visit by their top officials who also brought with them a senior representative from every regional government office across the country. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to influence not only this agenda but also the performance management framework which underpins and drives improvement.
Baseline information is being collated in order to establish targets for the Authority to reduce it’s own emissions as well as to work with partners across the County to reduce Countywide emissions.
The Authority has developed a Climate Change Adaption Risk Register which considers the impact of climate on assets owned by the Council ie highways, schools and other buildings and land. This has been discussed and actions agreed with the Environment Agency and Government Office North East.
Holistic Climate Change considerations such as flooding and energy use are being routinely built into the design of new infrastructure projects and the Authority has adopted the BREEAM toolkit and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment Design Quality Indicator to embed the process.
The new Durham Johnston School has a biomass boiler and incorporates sustainable urban drainage solutions. The new BSF schools will all be designed to a ‘very good’ rating against the BREEAM standard, aiming for an ‘excellent’ rating where possible.
This will take the opportunity offered by a £500 million capital programme to deliver far greater sustainable solutions through use of renewable forms of energy, water conservation measures and recycling, high quality landscape design and outdoor spaces, high thermal/insulation standards, passion solar gain and natural ventilation where possible.
Whilst the County Council will ensure that the opportunity to enhance sustainability through the capital investment in schools is fully realized it was also one of the first authorities to adopt the energy certificate campaign to identify and publish the energy performance of all its buildings.
Together with carbon reduction surveys this information will drive the programme to increase energy conservation and efficiency in the future, an approach which has led to national recognition and award.
Are additional resources to be devoted to this in the future?
Climate Change is no doubt one of the key priorities for the new Council. The creation of the new Unitary brings together a significant body of staff creating a strategic team which has the potential to work together across all policy areas previously split between county and district.
Developing the climate change agenda, both adaption and mitigation will be far easier than with the two tier system previously.
The fuel poverty, housing, spatial planning, transport and other related agenda’s mentioned earlier can be more easily shaped to support the climate change agenda and the powerful political lead the unitary will provide will ensure that climate change is a primary agenda consistently challenging other agenda’s to enhance their contribution.
Resources are a key issue and the following shows some examples of current ideas but the unitary is in its infancy and will no doubt seek to build on these blocks.
£200,000 each year has been earmarked for additional energy conservation measures in buildings with the aim to recoup this investment through revenue savings.
An additional £200,000 has been allocated to adapt street lighting columns to a more efficient option.
This is dwarfed by a possible £3 million investment in a capital programme to reduce the amount of energy used for street lighting.
A fuel poverty pilot scheme is being developed in Easington and the County Council is investigating the possibility of a partnership project with public utilities to develop carbon reduction across the County concentrating on housing. This project would make a significant impact in improving domestic energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty and could result in an investment of as much as £21 million.
The Authority is also to review it’s ‘green estate’ to assess the potential for local biomass production, the intention would be to use this for Council and local community buildings.
The question of what additional resources are planned is a sensible question - but the real ‘prize’ lies in the challenge to influence the new Council’s £1 billion spend - to ensure it is spent in an ever more sustainable way - and I, like I suspect the questioner, will be doing everything I can to achieve that outcome.
Council Spending
Questions
1. Considering the current economic climate, is it prudent for the Council to raise substantially the salaries of senior members of staff? This will be a day to day burden on the taxpayer, not just during the employment of these people, but for tens of years to come while they are drawing their pensions.
2. One of the key messages of the County Council's campaign to become the unitary authority was that substantial savings would be made. Can you explain then why it is now proposing to increase Council Tax rather than reducing it?
Answer
The introduction of a new Unitary Council for Durham will reduce the existing annual costs of the combined County and District Councils by over £20m. Part of this reduction is being returned to the tax payer through equalising council taxes across the County. And part of the saving is being used to invest in Services. However, the medium term plans of existing Districts and the County recognise the prospect of increased council taxes and the need for savings to respond to the demands for improved services and increasing costs. Furthermore, the County Council is not immune to the financial impact of the "credit crunch". As an example we are having to find an extra £10.4m as a result of the collapse in interest rates. (This in itself equates to around 5% of council tax).
Overall, the salaries bill of the new Council will be substantially less than the combined salaries paid to existing Districts and County as we gain economies of scale of bringing the eight authorities together. The ongoing costs of pensions is currently a national issue but of course for these administrative staff there is a pension scheme which requires both employer and employees to make contributions to cover the costs of pensions. These contributions are paid into an investment fund out of which the pensions are paid.
Questions
In view of the current economic downturn why is the Council spending so much money on overheads for example -
1) Large increased salaries to Council leaders and senior officers
2) Hundreds of thousands of pounds to each of the 14 AAP's
3) Increased funding to every Councillor
and does this mean we will have increased Council and business taxes, with even less money for services?
Answers
1. The County Council is in the process of establishing an Independent Remuneration Panel (made up of people from across the County area) who will recommend to the County Council the levels of allowances to be paid to Members. No decisions have yet been made.
The total wage bill for the County Council will be significantly less than the current wage bill for the County and the Districts taken together. Substantial reductions by bringing the 8 authorities together are being made.
2. Similar to the response to the earlier question, the allocation of locality budgets for Members to recommend allocation was a key element of the Unitary Council submission and is in line with national best practice. Members will be working with their local AAPs to ensure these resources meet local priorities and result in clear improvements in issues affecting neighbourhoods.
3. The amount to be allocated to each AAP formed a key element of the bid for Unitary Status, which was evaluated by government as a high quality submission. The allocations of resources to AAPs is not only inline with national best practice, but also was widely supported in the extensive consultation that has been carried out since last Summer. It is critical that AAPs do lead to action and clearly they will need resources to ensure this is achieved.
Funding for Capital of Culture Bid
Question
Newcastle/Gateshead spent millions of taxpayers' money on their unsuccessful bid to become European Capital of Culture. How does the Council propose to fund the bid to make Durham the Capital of Culture and, if successful, what costs will the area be committed to?
Answer
Durham's intention to bid for the inaugural British City of Culture title is a bold statement of vision and ambition by all partners in County Durham. Our partners have already signalled their strong support for the bid, and the County Durham Partnership has demonstrated this commitment by contributing funding from the County's Performance Reward Grant - a fund that we will receive from Government having successfully achieved Local Area Agreement targets.
Evidence from elsewhere suggests that such bids, successful or otherwise in terms of winning the competition, can have a hugely beneficial impact.
Most recently, Liverpool's year as European City of Culture generated an increase in visitors worth £176 million, whilst Glasgow's 1990 European title resulted in 53,000 residents being employed in tourism - more than shipbuilding at its height. In Newcastle and Gateshead the transformation of the quayside, a visitor economy worth £2 billion and a host of national iconic cultural symbols are partly the legacy of a cultural bid.
Regardless of the competition's outcome, I am therefore both proud and confident that the concerted effort we are putting into this bid will have a long-lasting legacy, and firmly put Durham on the map as a gateway to culture in the North East region.
Unadopted Road at Quebec
Question
Having lived down The Fold at Quebec for 34 years, we have an unadopted road which leads down to the houses. We have had to put up with the state of the road all this time and it has got worse over the years. We have really bad holes which are all over the road which is really bad for the suspension on your car. You are unable to come down with a wheelchair or a pushchair as it is so uneven. We now have taxi's which are refusing to come down the road as it is so bad and also the other day the oil man nearly refused to deliver oil because of the state of the road. We have had people who have had injuries on the road and as a result of this have had to be taken to hospital.
We would just like someone to come and have a look at the state of the road and you will see how bad it is and even though its suppose to be an unadopted road, I think something needs to be done before someone really gets hurt and for all our own safety.
I am speaking on behalf of everyone who lives down the fold as we all feel the same way and just don't know how much more we can take of this.
Answer
The Fold, Quebec is a row of 6 terraced properties fronting the end of an unadopted highway (or private street) which is approximately 135metres in length. The nearest adopted street is Rear of Front Street. As a private street, it is not maintainable at public expense. The owner of a property which fronts onto a private street is liable to maintain the section outside the property, although most owners are unaware of this. As a consequence of this many private streets have deteriorated and are in a poor condition. It is estimated that there are over a thousand such street in the County.
Durham County Council recognises that the cost of bringing unadopted roads such as The Fold up to adoptable standard is very high and could not be met from public resources in the short term. However the Council recognises that bringing unadopted roads up to adoptable standard would be of great benefit to wide sections of local communities. The Council agreed a policy objective for the longer term to bring unadopted roads up to adoptable standard and resolved at their meeting on 5th November 2008, to commit to further developing innovative mechanisms to promote private investment by utilising ‘housing’ style approaches to renewal and regeneration (equity share and equity loan schemes) aiming to generate levels of personal investment previously unattainable for such projects and thereby draw in additional public funding.