Agenda item

Three valid questions have been received from a member of the public for this meeting.

 

1.        Question from Mr Christie of Wallsend

 

I would like to thank the Chair of allowing me to bring this question forward to this meeting, which happens to coincide with Road Safety Week.  5 people killed and 76 people seriously injured every day on our roads, every act of road violence has a serious detrimental impact on victims and their families.

 

On the 21 September 2023 during the Meeting of Council, Motion 5 was moved with regards to Road Safety, however, the initiatives provided by this current leadership amounts to nothing more than kicking the can down the road and putting the onus on Northumbria Police to enforce Road Safety.

 

To quote paragraph 3 on the amended motion: 

“Council also notes other than road and road infrastructure design North Tyneside council has little power to enforce on road safety.”

 

Central government allows councils to apply for powers to enforce moving traffic offences, which the current leadership has been approached for by individuals, schools and road safety organisations since they became available in May 2022.  This includes the ability to enforce School Streets.

 

To date, the current leadership have actively refused to apply for those powers.  Whilst it could be argued that the working in the motion is accurate, it does hide the matter that the council has powers available to use, but have yet refused to apply for them.  This could be seen as a neutral observer as being disingenuous.

 

As a result, I am calling on the Mayor to allow the committee to hear evidence from the citizens of this Borough, the road safety groups and organisations that have been raising this with councillors and the Mayor directly to aid in the decision making process.

 

Will the Mayor hear this call and update Motion 5 from 21 September 2023 to include the hearing of evidence to the Committee?

 

Councillor H Johnson responded on behalf of the elected mayor as follows:

 

Thank you Mr Christie for your questions.  Following the road safety Motion and subsequent review at the Green Sub Committee, it was agreed that the Council will undertake discussions with emergency services stakeholders. The purpose of which are to review working practices and processes, establish opportunities to share information, promote Community Speed Watch and to review all moving traffic offences.

 

As part of these discussions, we will also undertake a public consultation exercise to give residents the opportunity to provide comments as how best to deal with road safety and speeding prevention.

 

The public consultation exercise will commence in January 2024 for 4 weeks and be made available through the Council’s website. The results of the consultation will be published and included in the new plan for addressing the Motion.

 

The final report will be presented at a council meeting in March 2024 for approval.

 

We will also include evidence from the public in addressing the motion following the consultation exercise.

 

Consultation on the plan will commence in January 2024, and this will give our residents the opportunity to help shape and influence the plan by providing comments regarding what measures they would like to see being included to address speeding concerns.

 

This plan will be included as an addition to the Travel Safety Strategy that is currently being updated and refreshed. At this stage members of the public will be given the opportunity to submit comments for inclusion in the document relating to improving road safety and preventing speeding.

 

 

Mr Christie asked the following supplementary question:

 

In relation to the planning processes that entrenches a motoring attitude with wide sweeping corners, junctions, massive multi lane roundabouts and pedestrian barriers, not to protect pedestrians but to allow progression of motors without the threat of inconvenience to motorists, you have the opportunity to design the life out of anti-social motoring behaviour, noting the motion to include speed-watch was mentioned, this is just another loose attempt to show progress without actually doing anything on behaviours.

 

Hunter S Thompson US Journalist said, we can’t expect people to have respect for Law and Order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce these laws.  When will the leadership show actual political will, invest in measures to enforce civil motoring offences within the Borough.

 

Councillor Johnson responded as follows:

 

We will be undertaking a consultation and speaking to emergency services which will include Northumbria Police, we will also be consulting with other groups as well, Driving Schools and the British Horse Society to make sure our roads are as safe as possible.  I know that you as well are specifically involved in Denbeigh School and  School Streets and I am actually going to be meeting with the Head Teacher along with officers over the next week or so and going to be discussing that specifically with her as well.

 

2.       Question to the Elected Mayor from Mr Jones of North Shields

 

In 2021 it was estimated 11.6% of people in North Tyneside often or always felt lonely.  This figure puts North Tyneside in the worst 10% of local authority areas, and clearly represents a serious problem.  What action has the council taken since then to address this issue, and how is it monitoring progress made?

 

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

 

I fully agree that loneliness is a collective challenge that requires action. 

 

While the Office for National Statistics survey highlighted that North Tyneside was in the worst 10% of local authority areas, this survey was carried out during a national lockdown and at a time where North Tyneside had additional local restrictions in place.   

 

More recently the Council’s resident survey found that 8% of residents reported feeling lonely or isolated most or all of the time, which is in line with the national average.     

 

We need to note that loneliness isn’t just an individual issue; it’s a community concern that impacts us all.  Loneliness can erode the sense of connection and belonging that is vital for a thriving community. 

 

While the ‘loneliness’ stereotype is often that of older people, we know the main challenge of loneliness is that it can affect anyone at any stage of life.

 

As a Council we provide many direct services to help combat loneliness, promote social connections, and build relationships.  It is clear that health, education, transport, housing, planning, employment, culture, and leisure can all make a dramatic difference to reducing loneliness. 

 

Our Residents’ Survey and national research highlights that there are some circumstances or personal characteristics that can put people at greater or lesser risk of loneliness including life challenges, such as redundancy, retirement, parenthood, bereavement, and caring responsibilities.

 

Many of the Council services available to support our residents can alleviate loneliness at different life stages including our Family Hubs that support new parents,  Adult Skills and Employment service which provide opportunities to learn new skills, gain confidence and gain employment.

Care and Connect provides residents with opportunities to access activities and groups to support wellbeing and reduce isolation. Our Warm Welcome spaces give residents access to free hot drinks, Wi-Fi, and opportunities to do activities such as bingo, crafts and cookery lessons.

 

Our newly approved Connecting Communities strategy will turn four existing Customer First Centres and two community centres into community ‘hubs’, having inclusive spaces that become a focal point for community activity. Working with partners we will be able to join up the wide range of activities that are provided in our communities. 

 

Mr Jones asked the following supplementary question:

 

The ongoing review of polling stations have flagged up areas where polling places have had to be placed outside of polling districts because there’s not a single communal building within the area, meanwhile there is a number of large housing developments being permitted which include no communal amenities setting up the long term future for more of the same.  Does the Council recognise that this is part of the problem and will it commit to finding ways to make sure future developments build communities rather than just maximising the number of houses.

 

Councillor Johnson responded as follows:

 

I absolutely do recognise that some developments don’t have community facilities and shops on, we will work with the master plans in all of our large developments to make sure that is the case.  The reality is that we would need a change in primary legislation in order to enforce that, we would need a change in National Planning Policy Framework in order to ensure that any development built had to have community facilities on, I absolutely think they should, this is something we will continue to campaign on and I hope Mr Jones will join us in trying to make sure we get a change in primary legislation to try and combat loneliness as there is a real issue and we don’t just want large housing estates built that causes huge issues, we need places that are for communities and where communities can thrive.

 

 

3.          Question to the Elected Mayor from Mr Steele of Tynemouth

 

In October this year, ‘Climate Emergency UK’ published their ‘Climate Scorecards for Council’.  North Tyneside Council’s overall score of 27% was below the average of 35%.  In particular, it scores NTC very poorly in the ‘Governance and Finance’ (1%) and ‘Transport’ (4%) categories.

 

My question relates, however, to the area of ‘Planning & Land Use’ where NTC scored only 8% against a national average of 35%.  This section includes scores for using a ‘fabric first approach’ and a requirement that ‘all new homes be built to be operationally (regulated) net zero’.

 

What plans and time-scales doe the council have to improve on this score, and update the Local Plan, given that the efficient use of energy in buildings is not only one of the most affordable ways to lessen the detrimental effects of climate change, but can also have a positive effect on our physical, psychological and financial well-being?

 

Councillor S Graham responded on behalf of the Elected Mayor as follows:

 

Thank you for your question Mr Steele.

We don’t agree with the climate scorecards for councils published by ‘Climate Emergency UK’.

 

The evidence we provided in response to initial scoring via volunteer research, does not appear to have been taken into account. We are therefore currently in the process of challenging the findings in the scorecard, with significant supporting evidence.

 

Climate emergency UK seem to think our net zero target is 2050 when in actual fact it is 2030 as you and the people in our borough know very well.

 

Indeed, I am very proud of the Council’s Carbon Net-Zero 2030 action plan and the positive results this is producing.

 

Only last week, the Council was notified of our recent assessment by the Carbon Disclosure Project.  This is a well-established global assessment of climate action by cities and regions, resulted in the Council being awarded the highest possible grade - which is a grade ‘A’.

 

Of the 939 applicants in 2023, only 119 were awarded the A grade and this places North Tyneside on the “A list” alongside cities such as New York, Tokyo, London, Barcelona, Paris and Sydney.

 

Additionally, this year the Council won first prize in the category of Best Local Authority at the North East Energy Efficiency Awards and went on to finish in second place at the National Awards.

 

In terms of the North Tyneside Local Plan, this was adopted in 2017 following independent examination by an Inspector acting on behalf of the Secretary of State who concluded that it provided policies and proposals capable of securing sustainable development in the Borough.

 

There is work to do nationally, to ensure the climate and carbon considerations are a clear part of development frameworks.  This is currently not the case and a re-working of policy framework is promised by government, when that changes our policies will change accordingly.

 

In the meantime, we continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to tackle this pressing issue that means so much to the Mayor, Cabinet, Council and the communities we serve.  Thank you once again for your question.

 

Mr Steele asked the following supplementary question.

 

A number of points of contention there, a lot of Councils have scored well have welcomed the report, I found Sandra’s response was kind of defensive, wonder if the council would consider collaborating with other councils that have got different scores in key areas.

 

Councillor Graham responded as follows:

 

Responding to Climate Emergency UKs climate scorecards, Councillor Darren Rodwell, Climate spokesperson for the LGA said that as leaders of their communities, leaders of Local Government have a fundamental role to play in tackling climate change, its very complex, bring very unique and inter-connecting and collective challenges to every place.  We don’t support league tables as they often paint a two dimensional picture of the context that Council’s are working within and unfairly compare councils with different challenges.  There are many authorities in this region who are challenging the scores, they have lost points like we have because the local plan doesn’t include the Net Zero target and the target was set after the plan was produced.  We’ve lost points for not reporting on our own emissions and not reducing our own emissions, both are false, we do.  We’ve lost points for not raising income for climate action from any other sources despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary we gave them around a whole range of successful grants, we lost points for not enabling residents to shape the action plan and work programme, despite evidence to the contrary.  We lost points for not having a clean air zone when we don’t need one, we then lost points for not charging private vehicles for entering the clean air zone that we don’t have.  I could go on and on Mr Steele, but thank you again for your question.