Agenda item

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

 

(Councillor C Gray returned to the meeting)

 

Question 1 – Councillor L Bones

 

Councillor Bones informed the Chair he would be withdrawing his question in the interests of time.

 

Question 2 – Councillor D Lilly

 

With the confirmed closure of Monkseaton High School what criteria will be applied to allocate future pupils to their High Schools?

 

Councillor S Phillips provided the following response:

 

The Authority has and continues to work closely with the Headteachers of secondary and high schools in North Tyneside to ensure that capacity exists to accommodate displaced pupils from Monkseaton High School, now and in the future. 

 

The Authority has coordinated extraordinary admissions arrangements, for current Year 9 pupils at Monkseaton High School, to identify their school place for September 2025.  The Authority is also coordinating extraordinary admissions arrangements for current Year 8 pupils at a North Tyneside Middle School, for parents and carers who either did not apply for a Year 9 school place for September 2025 or included Monkseaton High School as one of their preferences.  The extraordinary arrangements use the same criteria as our cabinet agreed, annual published admissions arrangements.

 

Councillor D Lilly asked the following supplementary question:

 

As has been confirmed upon the closure of Monkseaton High School, not all displaced pupils will be accommodated at Whitley Bay High School.  Consequently, pupils who would have expected to walk to school will now have to travel the length and breadth of the borough.   This will incur families unexpected travel costs and will place a burden on family finances.  What assistance will be offered to these families to ameliorate this extra expense?

 

Councillor S Phillips provided the following response:

 

There has never been a guarantee that children living in the North East Planning Area would be able to attend a specific school in that area.  Not all parents and carers living in the North East Planning Area apply for schools in that area.  Where there are more applications than places, schools’ oversubscription criteria will be applied

 

Currently, there is more capacity in each year group in the North East Planning Area than there are pupils in each year group living in that area.  Subsequent to the closure of Monkseaton High School, the Council forecasts that the future structure of and capacity in the three-tier system will be more reflective of the resident pupil population living in the North East Planning Area.  The same principle will be applied across the Borough, ensuring that there are sufficient places for all resident pupils to attend their local catchment school.

 

When we have found out what's happening on January 31 2025, we'll obviously be able to look at individual cases for affected students from those schools.

 

Question 3 – Councillor D Lilly

 

Will the Mayor guarantee the future of Monkseaton Middle School in light of the Labour Cabinet’s decision to close Monkseaton High School?

 

Councillor S Phillips provided the following response:

 

The Authority is currently undertaking a Strategic Education Review across North Tyneside, seeking to ensure that a sustainable, sufficient and high-quality educational system is maintained which enables all children and young people to achieve positive outcomes, including those with additional needs.

 

Council will remember that in the Cabinet Report of September 2023, the Authority gave a firm commitment to the three-tier system in the Planning Area and to working together with the schools to ensure it is viable and sustainable.

 

Councillor D Lilly asked the following supplementary question:

 

What assessment has been made of the impact on Monkseaton Middle School when parents rightly decide to send their children to the designated high schools at the beginning of Year Seven ensuring they start the new school with all other new starters thus enabling them to form friendship groups rather than having to break into existing peer group friendships which will be much more difficult if this transfer is delayed until Year Nine?

 

Councillor S Phillips provided the following response:

 

Impact assessments were done in light of all schools, not just Monkseaton Middle School, so we have done impact assessments across the whole of the Northeast plan area for the Schools and we're quite confident that displaced pupils can be given a school place elsewhere in North Tyneside.

 

Question 4 – Councillor Liam Bones

 

Can the Mayor provide an update on the winter fuel voucher scheme, including how many people have now received vouchers, how many incorrect vouchers were issued, how many residents were unable to use the vouchers over Christmas as a result of the error and why no communications took place with local shops to explain the scheme, resulting in many not having enough cash on-site to pay out.

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

I can confirm that 1486 pensioner households have been issued with winter fuel vouchers.  Unfortunately of these, 299 households were issued with vouchers that had a reduced expiry date and 86 households did not redeem all of their vouchers by the expiry date.  However, the other 213 households were able to cash all of their vouchers before Christmas.

 

Before the expiry date, the Authority realising the error, wrote to all households who had not yet cashed their vouchers and made them aware of the issue and advised that vouchers would be reissued in January with an extended expiry date.

 

The voucher provider contacted the local shops that use their vouchers and increased cash floats were provided by the supplier to their shops, but the Authority is aware that 10 households were unable cash all of the household vouchers.

 

Apologies to any pensioners who were adversely affected by this error and I will take this opportunity to thank all the pensioners who have taken the trouble to contact me to express their thanks to North Tyneside Council for the introduction of the new scheme that has had a great impact on them.

 

Councillor L Bones asked the following supplementary question:

 

Given that the Cabinet member is seeking resident support to be our next Mayor, and she can't even get a simple voucher scheme right, what makes her think she's qualified to be our next Mayor?

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

I think I'm absolutely fit to stand as the next Elected Mayor, I certainly was swift to act and introduce the new scheme which is providing additional support to 2800 low income pensioner households in this borough.  It may be little in terms of numbers compared to the relative number of households in the whole of borough but it's not small in terms of the impact it has had on the recipients of those vouchers and all of the pensioners I have spoken to and the pensioners who have taken the trouble to contact me.  It's had a big impact on their life so it's not a small insignificant scheme and if I am to be elected the next Mayor of North Tyneside then residents can rest assured supporting their needs and promoting their interests will always be central in everything I do.

 

(Councillors B Clark, K Clark and J Cruddas left the meeting)

 

Question 5 – Councillor Dr Olly Scargill

 

In 2019 Cabinet agreed to the freehold sale of the eastern section of the Innisfree Allotments for the sum total of £1.  How much was the land estimated to be worth and how much rental income has been foregone since the sale in 2019?

 

Mayor N Redfearn provided the following response:

 

In June 2019 Cabinet received a report on a proposal to transfer the Authority’s interest in the eastern section of Innisfree Allotments to a Community Interest Company but the transfer did not progress.  The land is estimated to have a value of £13,000.

 

(Councillors B Clark, K Clark and J Cruddas returned to the meeting)

 

Councillors J Johnsson and F Lott asked if a review of the sound in the chamber could take place prior to the new Council meeting due to a number of members not always being able to hear correctly what other members were saying.

 

Question 6 – Councillor J Johnsson

 

At a recent meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny committee the Mayor said that water problems in Cullercoats bay, which date back to 2017, have “gone on long enough” - please can the Mayor outline why it has taken her so long to come to this conclusion and when residents can expect the water quality rating to go up?

 

Councillor H Johnson provided the following response:

 

The Authority are not responsible for water quality but we have been working alongside Northumbrian Water and the Environment Agency for some time to investigate the concerns at Cullercoats

 

We understand how important this issue is for the people of North Tyneside, and it is for this reason that the Elected Mayor has decided to create a Cullercoats bathing water quality task group.  The purpose of the group is to bring together different stakeholders to help create a shared understanding of the issues and challenges around this situation.  The group will also receive progress updates from partner organisations in relation to ongoing investigations and works to try and resolve the issue.

 

Up until now a huge amount of work has been undertaken to try and identify the source of contamination and to improve the sewerage network as well as fixing private home connection issues.  This has included

 

·       investigating pipework, connections and possible pollution pathways

·       re-sealing gullies and capping off and re-diverting a historic water culvert

·       checking connections to nearby public toilets

 

Actions taken by the partnership to identify the contamination source include

 

·       DNA analysis carried out to identify likely sources of pollution where Bird, human and dog markers identified. Source apportionment not currently feasible using EA method.

·       More than 100 properties checked, and around 20 misconnected pipes repaired

·       3,500m of pipe inspected with cameras and any defects fixed

·       150m of pipe coated with a special lining to prevent leaks

·       Interceptor storm tunnel inspected, and no issues found

·       Dual rising main from local pumping station dug down and inspected with no issues found

·       Suspected ‘pollution pathways’ inspected using a special dye and no trace found on beach

·       80 highways gullies checked for misconnections and pipework failures

·       12 soakaways / gullies sealed to prevent foul water entering the ground

·       Issues at private properties resolved

·       More than 900 water samples taken from both within the bay and locations around the surrounding catchment

·       Further sampling and tracing of old culverted watercourse that was found and capped off from the beach in 2011. Plans to divert into local combined sewerage network in early 2022 at a cost of circa £85,000

·       Understanding the geology and impacts from groundwater with new boreholes drilled and sampled

·       10s of litres of biodegradable florescent dye used for tracing

·       Over £60,000 spent in investigating local drainage and fixing any issues, both public and private

·       Around £110,000 invested in Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) investigations to determine the most likely causes.

·       Ongoing engagement with local community groups, Surfers Against Sewage and Harbour Association. Includes support from local expert in geology, mining workings and tidal patterns.

·       Confirmed toilets at Cullercoats Metro station via Nexus are either decommissioned or flow into sewerage system correctly to the west.

 

We remain committed to doing all that we can to support our partners and the process, until the water quality matches our aspirations.

 

Councillor J Johnsson asked the following supplementary question:

 

In relation to the task force, is there an opportunity for that to be a cross party group  in order for us to have some involvement in that?

 

Councillor H Johnson provided the following response:

 

Stakeholders will include local authority officers, community representatives and partner organisations inclusive of Northumbrian Water and the Environment Agency. 

 

Question 7 - Councillor K Nott

 

As councillors, we all know how much of a priority repairing potholes is for our residents.  Could the Mayor confirm how much additional funding the council has received from the Government following the announcement at the end of last year and update members on the progress of Capita coming back in house at the start of the month?

 

Councillor H Johnson provided the following response:

 

Our North Tyneside Plan includes a commitment to invest additional capital funding in repairing our highway network.  In the last 7 years over £102million has been invested in the maintenance and improvement of our highway network.  This includes an additional £2million each year in the Council’s budget.

 

In 2024/25 £3.2million of capital investment into highways was obtained from the Department for Transport.  This funding provides the Council with opportunities to deliver a targeted approach to addressing potholes and general highway condition.

 

In December 2024 the North East Combined Authority received an indicative allocation of £23 million for investment in highways.  We are currently waiting to see how this will be disaggregated to the regional highway authorities.

 

Highway Services returned to the Council from Capita on 1 January.  This provides the Council with greater control and enables us to undertake more targeted permanent repairs which we know is a priority for our residents

 

It also highlights once again what an absolute disaster the Tories created the last time they ran this Council.  Whether it be the massive failure of the previous Tory Administration when they outsourced services to Capita and ENGIE, when they increased Council debt by nearly £200million over four years despite promising to reduce it, when they threatened to close libraries and Leisure Centres with endless rolling reviews and when they dithered and delayed on all manner of capital investment decisions leaving Labour to fix the Tory’s mess when we came into power in 2013.

 

Question 8 – Councillor M Murphy

 

Our outstanding Children's Services do a fantastic job preparing children for life after care.  Is there any more we can do to increase the number of care leavers who attend university?

 

Councillor P Earley provided the following response:

 

We are incredibly proud that 10% of our Care Leavers are currently studying at university.  This is testament to the robust offer we have in place to improve attainment and progression for the children in our care and care leavers.  Our HIVE team provides direct teaching support and an outstanding and innovative therapeutic offer to help children and young people address the trauma they have experienced and reduce the barriers to learning.  

 

A lot of our work focuses on raising aspirations and broadening horizons for children and young people and this remains ongoing.  To do this we are currently progressing a range of opportunities for young people to observe, visit and experience different job roles and environments.

 

We recognise that the academic route is not the only option for young people and so we provide support for young people to progress in a range of ways.  As a result of this we have seen successful progression in Further Education for many young people taking a vocational approach who then move onto degrees.

 

We also offer additional financial support for university accommodation and young people are supported by their leaving care workers to apply for the bursaries available to care leavers through universities.

 

Councillor L Bones asked to move a Motion Without Notice, seconded by Councillor J Bartoli. 

 

The Motion asked that the meeting proceed directly onto the next Agenda item as Councillor Bones stated that his view that Questions 9 to 13 would be better answered by the Mayor or in writing, rather than as part of the Full Council meeting.  Councillor Bones stated that this Motion Without Notice did not seek to downplay the importance of the items to be omitted.

 

Votes for the Motion Without Notice:

 

Councillors J Bartoli, L Bones, J Johnsson, D Lilly, I McAlpine, C McGinty and Dr O Scargill.

 

Votes against the Motion Without Notice:

 

Councillors T Bailey, Linda Bell, Louise Bell, P Bunyan, B Burdis, B Clark, K Clark, S Cox, J Cruddas, E Darke, L Darke, J Day, S Day, D Drummond, P Earley, S Graham, C Gray, I Grayson, T Hallway, J Harrison, AHoldsworth, J Hunter, N Huscroft, C Johnson, H Johnson, J Kirwin, F Lott, W Lott, L Marshall, A McMullen, J Montague, J Mudzingwa, T Mulvenna, M Murphy, A Newman, K Nott, O’Shea, S Phillips, B Pickard, N Redfearn, W Samuel, J Sharp, J Shaw, A Spowart, J Walker and J Webster.

 

The Motion Without Notice was rejected with 7 for and 46 against.

 

(At this point, Councillors J Bartoli, L Bones, J Johnsson, D Lilly, I McAlpine, C McGinty and Dr O Scargill left the meeting)

 

Question 9 – Councillor J Montague

 

Child poverty in the North East has increased by 44% during the last Conservative Government.  Last year on taking office, the Mayor of the North East, Kim McGuiness made tackling child poverty her number one policy priority.  How will the Elected Mayor work with Kim McGuiness and the North East Combined Authority to tackle child poverty in North Tyneside?

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

North Tyneside is already leading the way across the region through our work to tackle child poverty – including through the Poverty Intervention Fund.  By being part of the new North East Combined Authority, we can do even more.  As part of the North East Combined Authority’s Cabinet, our Mayor plays a key role in developing and shaping the region wide strategy to tackle poverty.  That strategy now includes setting up an innovative regional Child Poverty Reduction Unit to develop new ways to tackle the issue.  This will be the first child poverty reduction unit in the UK and we will be working very closely with the North East Combined Authority around this key priority which I believe is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of children.

 

Work will focus on four key areas – ensuring the best start in life, maximising family income, supporting people to be able to get into work and sharing of best practice across the region.

 

North Tyneside families have already benefited directly through our regional work including 42 schools which have had support including after school clubs and family learning school Improvement support staff professional development and different bespoke Grant funded projects.  We've also had 128 baby boxes provided to families to ensure Essentials are in place for newborn babies.

 

I also take the opportunity to welcome the Labour government's groundbreaking children's well-being in schools bill that includes a range of policy areas that will support poverty reduction aiming to break the link between a young person's background and their future success.

 

Question 10 – Councillor C Gray

 

After 14 years of austerity, the NHS is really struggling while millions of people don’t receive the care they need and deserve.  The winter flu season has demonstrated the consequences of underfunding the NHS by successive Conservative governments, will the Elected Mayor explain what North Tyneside Council is doing to protect public health in North Tyneside?

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

A short answer would be - an awful lot across all areas of life.  We know the NHS is currently facing a major crisis and major challenges, both now and looking ahead into the future, and in fact we were just discussing that at this morning's Health and Wellbeing Board.  In North Tyneside we know we are very fortunate our residents are served by an excellent NHS service, but we also know that going forward we need well-funded Health Services and we need to reduce the demands on those health services and that can only be done through preventative measures and further investment in prevention.

 

That's where Public Health comes in because Public Health is essentially about protection and prevention.  North Tyneside Council is a Public Health Organisation which utilizes its functions powers and

Expertise, its understanding of and relationship with our communities, our extensive Partnerships across all sectors to promote and protect our residents Health. 

 

The local Authority receives a significant Public Health Grant from central government.  I’m sad to say that the value of that Grant has actually decreased in the past last 10 years, it was 10% less in 23/24 than it was in 2013/14 and per person that spending cut is even greater.  I think taken in the context of increased demand through the impact of Covid and the cost of living crisis that has had an impact.

 

The local authority also provides and commissions a range of services through that nationally allocated Public Health grant.  These services include stop smoking services, drug and alcohol services, children's public health services, sexual health services, the NHS health check programme, programmes to prevent obesity and the national childhood measurement programme, all of which improve health outcomes for our residents.

 

We also work closely with our NHS to improve the take up of vaccination programs such as the flu as this remains the best defence against catching the virus and as we may recall throughout the pandemic, the Local Authority works highly effectively with local Regional and National Partners to prevent and protect residents from infectious diseases and outbreaks.  Public Health is also about tackling the wider social and economic determinants of health conditions in which we live and work and live our lives. 

 

We need to help stop people getting ill in the first place and reduce the pressures on health services and reduce the gap in health inequalities and premature deaths.  The North Tyneside Health and Wellbeing Board ensures there is an integrated approach to Public Health bringing together colleagues from across the authority in housing, planning, neighbourhood social care to collectively improve outcomes.  The Health and Wellbeing Board is responsible for the joint Health and Wellbeing strategy which tackles Health inequalities across the borough; it's a long-term commitment a high level strategic plan and approach and it has an annual implementation plan to monitor progress against all the key themes of that strategy.  In general, we're working across the board across wider and beyond Council services with a wide range of multi-agency partners to protect and prevent illness among our residents of North Tyneside.

 

Question 11 – Councillor M Thirlaway (Taken as read in his absence)

 

Would the Elected Mayor tell us how many children in total have benefited from the work of the Poverty Intervention Fund since it was first established?

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

The Poverty Intervention Fund was set up in 2020 by this Labour Administration and whilst it is vitally important and highly Innovative, it is just one of the ways this Council continues to support children and families who are experiencing the harsh effects of poverty. 

                    

The fund is supplemented by other funding including the Household Support Fund and funding from the Department of Education for the

holiday activity and food program.  An additional match funding has also been secured from local Partners which has maximized the impact locally and enabled the offer of additional spaces to children not on income related preschool meals, it's quite a complex thing to determine the exact numbers because some children may have access to more than one source of support through the funds available, some children might be in receipt of food vouchers and they might attend holiday activity programs.  What we can say with certainty is through ‘poverty proofing’ the school day 12,834 children have benefited and that was funded directly through the Poverty Intervention Fund so that's one example of where that fund has actually supported literally thousands of children in this borough.

 

We're also tackling holiday hunger providing Supermarket vouchers directly to families with children eligible for income based free School meals. These have been provided to every child during every school holiday since December 2020 at a value of 15 pound per week per eligible child.  The number of children benefiting in 2020 was around 7,300 but the number has increased since covid-19 and the cost of living crisis, and at the last count was 8,652 in the Christmas holidays benefitting from those vouchers.  That was originally set up to be funded through the Poverty Intervention Fund though now it is funded through the household support fund. 

 

Our children have also benefited indirectly through a range of wider support interventions not directly targeting children but targeting families including food pantries, social supermarkets, cookery sessions etc and in addition the holiday activity food program has supported 8565 children with meals through the DFA holiday activity and match funding from local Partners.   Uniform grants have been given to 803 families and winter clothing grants have been provided through vouchers to 997 families, those are funded through the household support fund.  I think what's been a really exciting development since the introduction of the Poverty Intervention Fund is there's been a much sharper focus on tackling poverty here within North Tyneside and we've set up multi-agency Poverty Intervention Partnership Board, we have the community and voluntary sector partnership Network as well as the Elected Member Poverty Intervention Steering group and all of those structures feed into identifying priorities and directing targeted resources to where they’re most needed.

 

Question 12 – Councillor S Day

 

How can we work together with our regional Mayor Kim McGuinness and the Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, to create a situation where women and girls can have increased trust, confidence, and perceptions of safety when walking our streets?

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

I think whilst we're very fortunate that North Tyneside comparably is a safe place to live, work and visit I firmly agree we must absolutely continue to find ways of ensuring women and girls always feel safe in all locations across the borough and this is an issue I feel extremely strongly about on a personal level.  We are working in numerous ways with the Regional Mayor and the Police and Crime Commissioner around this particular agenda as reflected in our various documents, strategies and plans including the Safer North Tyneside Partnership plan, the Police and Crime Commissioner Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the White Ribbon Delivery group, Domestic Abuse partnership etc

 

In addition, the council receives a grant from the Police Crime Commissioner’s office to support the work of our Community Protection team in carrying out patrols across the borough that provide a visible reassurance to the community.  This work is carried out through the Safer Streets Fund Round 5 programme, “Woman Safety in Public Places”.

 

The programme aims to change attitudes and behaviours towards Violence Against Woman and Girls, in line with the Mayor McGuinness’s manifesto, with the long-term goal of reducing crimes in public, and to Improve the feelings of safety for women and girls in public spaces and the nighttime economy.

 

The Community Protection Team have carried out over 150 patrols and engaged with or supported 117 people providing additional reassurance in our communities between April 2024 and December 2024 as part of that particular initiative.  I'm really pleased to see that the safety of women and girls is a key area of focus for the new draft local transport plan for the North East combined Authority area which is currently open for public consultation.

 

Question 13 – Councillor T Hallway

 

As we welcome the regional government’s commitment to deliver a zero-tolerance policy towards hate crime and harassment on public transport, what sorts of new measures can women in North Tyneside expect to see when they travel on bus and Metro?

 

Councillor K Clark provided the following response:

 

One of the core aims of the Our North Tyneside Plan is to deliver a secure North Tyneside and we have made a commitment through our Hate Crime Policy Statement to work with all key partners to prevent the occurrence of hate crime.

 

As stated earlier, the Safety of women and girls is a key area of focus for the new draft Local Transport Plan for the North East Combined Authority area, which is currently open for public consultation.  The draft transport plan sets out a number of proposed actions, including:

i.          raising awareness of channels available to report concerns, e.g. by telephone or text message;

ii.         targeting resources at areas identified by women and girls in the region as feeling unsafe; and

iii.        enhanced training for staff on the transport network to help prevent and manage violence against women and girls.

 

There will be a wide range of improvements mentioned in that draft plan including on public transport but also at stations and inbetween stops.

 

The Authority has worked together with Northumbria Police?and Nexus through Operation Coastwatch and Operation Maple to help prevent anti-social behaviour on the Metro and in the coastal areas, and all Metro stations are now alcohol exclusion zones and are covered by Nexus CCTV. 

 

Our Community Protection teams are working alongside Nexus and neighbouring local authorities to carry out targeted patrols at interchange hubs where females may travel alone or are returning from an evening out with friends and may be vulnerable.

 

The situation will further improve as the new Metro Fleet is brought into service.  There are 44 high definition digital CCTV cameras on each of the new Metro trains, the carriages have an intercom system on board which allows customers to speak to the driver at the push of a button.  They also have brighter clearer lighting, a more open layout with linear seating which offers visibility right down the length of the carriage.

 

The Authority also co-ordinates meetings with public transport operators through the Local Bus Board. Our plans for the North Shields Transport Hub were developed with safety in mind and, before finalising the design, we held a consultation event focused improve public safety, specifically for women.

 

Based on the feedback received, changes were made to the design and operation of that building to further improve Public Safety.  Both the Authority and Nexus are also signed up to support White Ribbon,  which is a partnership to prevent violence against women and girls.  Following the public consultation period on the new draft local transport plan, I look forward to welcoming the final plan and to see further improved safety measures to protect women and girls and indeed all of our residents across all of our Transport Systems.

 

A member asked that, following the withdrawal of the Conservative group from the meeting, for clarification from the Monitoring Officer about which members are able to ask questions and whether the Mayor is able to decide who answers them.

 

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the Council's Constitution sets out the opportunity for members to ask questions of the Executive or of the Authority in relation to matters relating to the Borough and / or the Council.  Those questions must be submitted in a particular time frame and provided that they are not otherwise improper, such as being defamatory, then they will be come through to the Council meeting and be included on the agenda.

 

In terms of who responds, the officer confirmed that it is a matter for the Elected Mayor whether she wishes to respond or whether she wishes to ask one of her Cabinet members to respond.  The officers stated that the questions asked for this meeting fell within the framework of the Constitution and were not improper.