Agenda item

3 valid questions on notice have been received for a response at this meeting.

Question 1 – from Cllr Matt Wilson

North Tyneside Council is committed to supporting women, working to ensure they can live free from coercion, abuse, and violence. Please would the Elected Mayor update us on progress made on this issue since we first passed our White Ribbon motion in 2021?

Response from Councillor Clark

Thank you for your question.  Like you, and most of us here, I too remember the White Ribbon motion being passed.  We should all take pride in the fact it received unanimous support.  Our message was therefore clear about the level of seriousness with which we take this issue and the values we want to uphold in North Tyneside.

I am pleased to report that significant progress has been made since the motion was passed.

Following its application, the Authority received formal accreditation from the White Ribbon organisation in November 2021 and therefore endorsement for the required 3-year plan we submitted.

We have:

·       Established a growing network of ambassadors - those who have signed the White Ribbon pledge, men from across the authority, across partner organisations

·       Embedded a group of champions – those who have committed to raise awareness, who are women and reflect those groups referred to

·       Ensured we have a strong communications plan,

·       Participated in the annual international 16 days of action commencing on ‘White Ribbon Day’ on 25 November, and there is a whole range of actions in place including the Park Run at the Rising Sun Country Park on Sunday 25 November at 9am

·       On the 16 days the White Ribbon flags will be flown at Quadrant, in Killingworth and the Lighthouse will be illuminated orange

·       There is more ways on the Council website about ways people may want to get involved

·       Engaged in developing the Authority’s overall work on ensuring dignity and respect in working for the council.

We are now at the mid-way point of delivering our 3-year delivery plan and the steering group, chaired by our Director of Regeneration and Economic Development John Sparkes, is reviewing where we have got to and looking to shape the next steps going forward.

Question 2 - from Cllr Andy Newman

Nuclear test veterans have fought long and hard for the recognition they deserve, yet many were left disappointed when their long-awaited medals where unceremoniously sent out in the post, the Government has so far failed to organise any medal ceremonies to honour our nuclear test veterans. Will the Elected Mayor commit to holding medal ceremonies for North Tyneside veterans awarded the nuclear test medal?

Response from Councillor Carl Johnson

Thank you Councillor Newman, much like you I’m very disappointed that the honour this chamber has discussed many times and has received cross party support on, Councillor Gary Bell when he was Veterans Champion brought a number of motions on the Nuclear Test Veterans.  We’ve had representatives from the community in here many times. 

The way this was handled from the Government, the way they have organised it doesn’t sit well with me Chair so I absolutely agree Nuclear Test Veterans deserve a high recognition for their service and we have spoken with the officer team, who will now make the necessary arrangements to hold a ceremony to celebrate those veterans that have been awarded medals.

Councillor Newman asked the following supplementary question.

Councillor Newman advised that due to the nature of the operations we don’t hold any date on eligible veterans and the current policy is that any veteran who believe they are eligible have to apply on line, can I ask that the Council take an active role in advertising how veterans apply and encouraging all eligible veterans to apply for these medals?

Councillor Johnson responded as follows:

Absolutely Councillor Newman we will use all channels that we possibly can to try and promote this as far and wide as we possibly can.

Question 3 – from Councillor Olly Scargill

Will the Mayor provide usage data for Rake Lane, the New York bypass and the roundabout from before and after the introduction of their cycle scheme.

Councillor Sandra Graham provided the following response:

We aim to support people of all ages to take part in cycling as a healthy and sustainable way of getting to workplaces, shops, schools and other local destinations. In our Cycling Strategy we set out how we will support ‘everyday cycling’.

We measure numbers of cycle trips through electronic counters at locations throughout the borough, and a summary of this is reported to Cabinet each year as part of the North Tyneside Transport Strategy Annual Report. This showed that cycling in the borough was 18.6% higher than the Authority’s target for 2022.

Pre-pandemic data is not available for Rake Lane and the New York Bypass. We have recently installed fixed cycle counters on the route to enable us to monitor cycling growth in this corridor.   These fixed counters were installed in April 2023, one just east of the New York by-pass, Billy Mill Lane roundabout works and the other to the west of the Rake Lane Preston North Road roundabout.  Data from the cycle counters indicates that the current average daily number of cyclists using this route is 154, however, it should be noted that roadworks associated with the new housing development are currently ongoing on this route.

The Authority has also been successful in securing £11m of external funding to deliver the Sea Front Sustainable Route, which will encourage families and visitors to cycle to and along North Tyneside’s coast. I look forward to seeing many more people taking part in cycling, which will help to support people’s health, better local air quality and our carbon net-zero goals.

Councillor Scargill asked the following supplementary question.

I don’t think that was an answer to the question, given that we aren’t going to get the data, had the scheme been put to the vote last year as we asked the scheme would never have gone ahead, people would have voted overwhelmingly against its implementation, it’s just another example of an out of touch labour council, splashing our money about like nothing else on big fancy projects whilst getting the basics all wrong.  Is it the case that the Mayor is hiding the data because it shows her beloved cycle scheme hasn’t increased the number of cyclists around New York or how safe they feel, it’s a huge waste of money and caused chaos and disruption like never before.

Councillor Sandra Graham responded as follows:

I have just told you that this data is published and I’ve given you the daily cycling rates of 154 and its published every year in the Cabinet report.  There is nothing hidden, it is all open and transparent, this is Government money, your government who gave us the money that we bid for.  This is government money that we bid for to improve cycling infrastructure to allow the Borough to become a Greener and better Net Zero Borough. Thank You.