Agenda item

Two valid question has been received from a member of the public for this meeting.

1.  Question to the Elected Mayor by Ms Graham of North Shields

As part of the government's strategy to clean up the high street (in an announcement made on 16 March this year) £35,844.00 was allocated to North Tyneside Council from central government.

The government's intention was that councils, in partnership with existing community groups, will be able to use this one-off funding to support volunteers.

As a resident of North Tyneside with a keen interest in the environment, I would like to know how the council intends to use this extra funding.

Councillor C Johnson responded on behalf of the Elected Mayor as follows:

Thank you for this question.

While we welcome this funding, it is important to note that this is a relatively small amount of money. Therefore in my role as Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, I have been working closely with the officer team to develop options to maximise the impact of this grant, at the same time developing more of a community-led approach to cleaning up our high streets.

Some of the initiatives we are looking at include:

·         Purchasing two new state of the art mobile CCTV cameras so that we can work with communities to monitor litter hotspots in and around our town centres.

·         Purchasing tools such as litter pickers, gloves and brushes for those volunteers who are keen to get involved in clean ups.

·         Working with schools on an exciting new project involving the design and implementation of unique litter and recycling bins for our town centres.

·         Promoting positive behaviours and educating communities on environmental issues which are important to them such as littering, dog fouling and fly tipping.

I hope this gives you a feel for some of the initiatives we’ll be introducing with this funding.

2.     Question to the Elected Mayor by Mr Wynn of North Shields

Why is North Tyneside Council not making provision for electric charging points to be installed in council run independent living apartments? I asked this question of the housing officer 6 months ago and was told nothing was planned for this. The government is banning petrol and diesel cars in 2035; surely steps should be taken now to install charging points so that residents can start planning for electric cars only?

Councillor C Johnson responded on behalf of the Elected Mayor as follows:

I would like to thank Mr Wynn for this very important question.

This Council is certainly committed to expanding the provision of public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points to support the shift to electric vehicles. In fact we are currently working with other authorities in the North East to examine bidding opportunities and other potential means to expand EV infrastructure.

However, I think it’s important to highlight the EV charging infrastructure required to achieve this shift cannot be the sole responsibility of the Council. Whilst we will continue to expand our public charging estate, we expect individual residents and tenants living in the borough who are making the shift to electric vehicles to ensure that domestic charging arrangements are considered at the point of vehicle purchase.

This will also require the vehicle owner to pay for the electricity they use to charge their vehicle.

I do know that the government offer a grant, which is available from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles towards the cost of purchasing and installing a home charging point. I believe up to £500 is available. I’m sure your electric vehicle dealer will be able to point you in the right direction.

In relation to our North Tyneside Independent Living schemes where car parking is of a shared nature, we are more than happy to work with tenants to explore potential solutions for the location of their charging points.

We will continue to explore options to support the introduction of public charging points across the Borough as we are well aware the demand for electric vehicle charging points will continue to increase.