Agenda item

Questioner:

Councillor William Stoodley

Asked of:

Councillor Stephen Wright, Portfolio Holder for Property and Major Contracts

[answer provided by Councillor Susan Hall, Leader of the Council]

Question:

“Please clarify your Group's position with respect to Whitchurch Playing Fields."

Answer:

We consider that it is prudent to see what happens with the Town and Village Green application and then we will take a view.

Supplemental Question:

On 30 August on a website called “iHarrow”, a lady said the following:

“I also discovered that when the Corporate Director of Place Shaping was quickly made redundant less than four months before he was due to retire anyway and got his severance before he left, he destroyed all his paperwork and corrupted the hard drive on his computer.”

This is obviously an extremely serious allegation, a grave cause for concern and I should think libel if it is untrue.  What is puzzling me is the fact that the usual brute speed with which the officers of this administration demand that the owner of iHarrow to redact comments to be facetious or libelous, has not happened in this case and yet, I know, our own group, the ILG, have had redactions, I have had redactions, I have seen some others.  The other day somebody got something redacted.

Is this because the Authority believes this comment to be true?  In which case, the supplementary question is what is the Authority doing with respect to Corporate Director of Place Shaping and his behaviour?  If on the other hand, this comment is false, then why has the Local Authority taken no action apparently since 30 August to have it redacted?

Supplemental Answer:

I have asked the Executive Director to double check.  There has been no corruption as far as we know of any hard drive.  The reality is everything is backed up in any case.  For his benefit, Councillor Macleod-Cullinane was given loads of details all about the Whitchurch to go through.

Now, one never knows what you do not know.  So whether there was anything else that was removed that we have not seen clearly.  You do not know what you do not know but the reality is we think that everything that should be there is there, so far as we are aware.  But I will, as the writer of iHarrow is actually in the audience, he may well feel that he might want to take that post down.  It is an old one anyway.  It went out on 30 August. That would have been under your administration.

CllrStoodley:

I was all set to do something about it Leader but we had to defend the coup which we lost.

Cllr Hall:

We can assure you that our Directors do not go around corrupting disks and if you should have taken it down when you were in control; we will sweep that up as we are sweeping up other things. 

Questioner:

Councillor William Stoodley

Asked of:

Councillor Stephen Greek, Portfolio Holder for Planning, Development and Regeneration

Question:

“Now that the Council have exchanged contract on Anmer Lodger, could you explain your administration’s position with respect to Anmer Lodge?”

Answer:

Thank you.

As you will know and for the benefit of those in the audience that may not know, before we took over the Council, two significant things happened on this site in Stanmore which comprises Anmer Lodge and the car park.

Firstly, Harrow’s new development plan was approved which specifies at least 105 new homes on the site.  Secondly, as you have mentioned in your question, the Council committed itself to a land sale contract agreement with the developer, Notting Hill Housing Group, to deliver these new homes, together with a Marks and Spencer Food outlet and replacement new car parking.  It is no secret that we raised concerns at the time about both of these decisions but the fact is, they have now been made and this is the reality in which our new administration finds itself.

The developer has undertaken a first round of public consultation.  It is actually the first time local residents have formally been asked about the proposals in a comprehensive way and I understand that took place in September.  At that meeting three potential development scenarios were outlined and comments were sought.  I understand this is part of a wider consultation process with the local community which we will be following very closely.

As Portfolio Holder, I have made it very clear to officers my commitment to ensuring that the process of developing options for this sensitive site are as inclusive and transparent as possible from this point on.  I am particularly keen to ensure that the concerns that people have already raised surrounding the site’s development are listened to and wherever possible, are addressed as things move forward. 

Officers from the planning service have entered into a Planning Performance Agreement to ensure that the public are properly engaged throughout the process.  I also expect any proposals to be subject to an independent design review to ensure that residents can have confidence in the final assessment of any proposals.

Supplemental Question:

One of your Members, Councillor Marilyn Ashton, has stated that this transaction should not have gone ahead without a Supplementary Planning Document, yet the marketing brief that was published for this transaction was drawn up under her watch.

Do you therefore share my confusion over her criticisms of this development, bearing in mind that she agreed to it in the first place and as you have just said, the first consultation has just taken place in September which I attended?  So for all her calls about consultation, there was no consultation at that time either. 

Supplemental Answer:

I say that Councillor Ashton is an excellent campaigner for her local area, and long may that continue.

In terms of the marketing brief, my understanding is, and this all took place around March 2010 and we were not around to see that through as we would have liked to have done.  That would have been the beginning of a consultation process which really should have taken place before the contract was signed because that was a more productive time to have had that.  That would have been the beginning of the consultation process and then we would have seen what would have emerged from and would have informed a planning brief process.  But as we know, a different path was chosen and the consequences of that are now apparent.  We now have to move forward with that in the best way that we possibly can.

Questioner:

Councillor William Stoodley

Asked of:

Councillor Stephen Greek, Portfolio Holder for Planning, Development and Regeneration

Question:

“Could you please state your administration’s plans for the old Gayton Road Library site?”

Answer:

Thank you.

The Gayton Road Library site is a key, strategic development site in Harrow.  This was confirmed in Harrow’s new development plan which was approved in July before this administration took office and specifies at least 350 new homes on the Gayton Road site.  Last year a planning application was submitted to extend the previous planning permission on the site which was agreed under very different circumstances.  That application has not been determined and instead, in line with the aspirations in the adopted development plan, the Council has been engaging for some time with a potential development partner on an alternative design solution for the site.  I have asked that the process of design be as inclusive as possible, whilst keeping in mind the objectives of the Local Plan.

Officers from the Planning Service have met with the developers to discuss a Planning Performance Agreement between the Council and the developer setting out key milestones in the process of developing this new scheme.  I have asked that this process include appropriate public engagement at the pre-application stage.  As Portfolio Holder, I am committed to ensuring that all strategic development proposals are subject to good process and I look forward to such a process taking place in this case.

The Gayton Road site, alongside all other sites allocated for development in the Local Plan, plays an important part in the delivery of new homes to meet the borough’s current and future housing need.  I therefore expect that as the economy improves, demand for additional homes will require that the Council and developers play their full part in delivering new homes on these allocated sites.

Supplemental Question:

That is great news.  I am really pleased to hear it but how hopeful are you that businesses will take advantage of these plans, bearing in mind that the Divisional Director of Planning when I had your role, informed me that the feeling amongst business in general and Dandara, in particular, is that Harrow has become toxic for business, thanks to the Conservative Group Planning Committee Members voting against almost every commercial planning permission that officers have recommended for grant in recent times?

Supplemental Answer:

Well, they are entitled to that view.  As you know, as Chair of the Planning Committee, we look at each application on its merits. 

When businesses come forward with a planning application that we consider to be appropriate we vote in favour.  If we think that it will not work for local residents and we consider the needs and amenities of local residents to be very important; if we feel that those are not met then we take a view and we vote against. 

Businesses are very entitled to infer from that if they like but we will continue to look at each application on its merits.   

Questioner:

CouncillorNizam Ismail

[asked by Councillor Mano Dharamarajah]

Asked of:

Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Adults and Housing

Question:

“Independent Labour Group administration pledged to work on building additional 1000 new houses– over and above what was in the Local Development Framework and already agreed by the Council/Cabinet - to boost the Harrow’s housing stock which needs an urgent investment.  What and how will your administration undertake to push forward our administration’s idea to build further additional new houses in Harrow, over and above what is already in the pipeline already?”

Answer:

Thank you.

Like yourself and like colleagues around the table, we are all mindful of the need to build more housing.  There is a chronic shortage in Harrow; in many ways, it is impossible to try to get onto the housing ladder.  My colleague, Councillor Greek, has already outlined that we are seeing what we can do around development on things like the Gayton Road site.

Now, it falls to me to look at what we can do on our Housing Revenue Account land - and we have got a track record of pushing for innovative change.  As Portfolio Holder up to 2010, I was able to push forward and work with residents neighbouring the site on Mill Farm Close, for instance, where we saw a transfer to Catalyst Homes who have regenerated that site and have actually taken what appeared to be a very forbidding, and turned it into a quite attractive, new, development with actually more homes.  Decanting people out of existing blocks as they built new houses and actually have given a new lease of life to that estate, as well as creating new homes within that. 

I am very pleased that Councillor Ismail as former Portfolio Holder for Housing, started picking up the reins on “Hidden Homes”.  This was something that I had been pushing for as Portfolio Holder, which fell into abeyance after 2010.  “Hidden Homes” is a scheme that Wandsworth pioneered a decade or two ago, where they looked at undeveloped land around their borough, generally under places where you would not think of putting homes, turning them into real dwellings to actually give people homes, and often to larger families. That has been a really good piece of work by them and Wandsworth reckon about 10,000 homes across London could be built.

I was really pleased that when I took over the Housing brief that plans were in train to look at some of our garage estates and that we could actually turn some of these derelict pieces of land, unused pieces of land, old garages that no one uses that are too small for putting cars – where we could we bulldoze those garages and actually put in good housing stock.  So I was very pleased to be able to take that on and carry that forward and you have my absolute guarantee that I will be working to try to find innovative ways of building more on our stock.

We are constrained by finances and we have got one of the smallest council housing stocks in London and, also we cannot really borrow much more as a result of the government changes on the Housing Revenue Account; we are right up against the borrowing cap.  So we literally cannot get any more money to borrow out of the Housing Revenue Account. 

I would be more than happy to work cross party to lobby around raising or abolishing that cap.     

Questioner:

Councillor Krishna James

(not present so written answer sent)

Asked of:

Councillor Susan Hall, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Environment

Question:

“You were quoted in the Harrow Observer on 19 September, stating that “we must look after the disabled in the borough” – how does your administration intend to put this idea into practice, and have you got any timeframe for your ideas?”

Written Answer:

When we were last in administration we pioneered personal budgets and Reablement.  This included the setup and development of the first online marketplace for social care and the introduction of a new service delivery model to support Personalisation. 

My colleagues Councillors Macleod-Cullinane and Williams will this year ensure we:

·                     focus on maximising the independence of disabled people by supporting Adults’ new innovative My Community ePurse solution to ensure that they have greater choice and control;

·                     develop a modern, progressive Day Service for clients who have a learning disability and who are on the autistic spectrum that promotes social inclusion, healthy lifestyles, independence, friendships and relationship;

·                     take forward 5 exciting projects with the CCG for vulnerable people including a new Dementia service; Carers Support Programme providing priority GP appointments and annual health checks; Frequent Flyers project supporting people who have frequent hospital attendance and projects to support children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities;

·                     improve transitional arrangements for disabled children moving to adult services;

·                     stimulation of new services – such as culturally specific alternatives.

Questioner:

CouncillorAsad Omar

Asked of:

Councillor Susan Hall, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Environment

Question:

“What is your new idea to reinvigorate the Neighbourhood Champions Scheme?”

Answer:

It is to put passion into it, which is what it has been missing for the last three years.  Thank you for letting me speak at the Champions Conference before the change of administration.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, speaking to the Champions, listening to what they wanted to happen; they want a change on the website, which we are working on now.  We are arranging dates now so that 250 extra Champions, that are waiting to be Champions, can be trained up.  I shall make sure that happens before Christmas.  We are getting the Police far more involved than they have been for three years because that is a good thing too.   I am very grateful to you to keep it going along until I was back but I am back now, completely responsible for my Neighbourhood Champions.  So I shall invigorate it, I promise you.

Supplemental Question:

Now what you have said has already been tested and tried before but the number of Neighbourhood Champions has been constant around 1,000, as you know.  You were the one who introduced this and your aim was to have at least one Champion in every street.  That was what you were hoping but it has been constant.  Everything has been tried – papers, Harrow People, SNT – but nothing has changed. 

What I want to ask you because you have raided Harrow Council’s budget by £500,000 and 10% of that you have used for Neighbourhood Champions, which is £50,000.  Rather than using it for that, don’t you think it would be better to use that money for our residents - some of whom are going hungry?  They cannot feed their families and also, they cannot afford to heat their homes.  Don’t you think that that money should be used for that?

Supplemental Answer:

Okay, first of all, cleaning the streets and keeping everything right is what the Council should be doing and the ones that raided the budget were actually the Labour Group by starving those particular departments. 

Every single resident in this borough benefits from the streets being clean and from us all being safer.  Our three priorities are quite firm – to be cleaner, safer and fairer and it is fair that we actually do the job we should do which is clean the streets properly.  They will be cleaner and safer, of course they are safer if everything around looks better.  The Neighbourhood Champions fit into all of this and they will do an awful lot of work for us to save the money. 

What you do not know is about £500,000 has gone into Children’s Services to get more children’s workers, social workers, and there is a lot going on. 

I assure you we do not raid the budget because the Director of Finance and Assurance would not allow that under any circumstances.  We are looking at many ways that we can make things better and invest to save. 

Looking at the Fraud Team, I was with the Fraud Team this morning in relation to the Blue Badge fraud.  When we stop people from fraud then they actually have to start paying to park and measures are being put in place stop people doing things that are bad.  That will mean we have got more money for looking after those that are disabled, etc. 

So there are very many different things we could do with our money but I do assure you, judging by my very extensive mailbag, people are extremely pleased that the Blitz Team has gone out already.  We have got 21 new cleaners starting to make this borough to look somewhere to be happy in again and that will also help the Business Portfolio.  Councillor Chana is very pleased about that because you cannot run a business when the streets outside your shopping centre are filthy. 

So no, it is money very well spent.  It is no less than the residents here deserve and any money going to Neighbourhood Champions, do not forget, does go back to the residents in those roads.  The reason it stalled was because there was no passion from previous administrations into the actual scheme.  They will have passion back with abundance and we will get to our target as quickly as possible and you will notice the difference. 

Questioner:

Councillor William Stoodley

Asked of:

Councillor Susan Hall, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Environment

Question:

When Councillor Thaya Idaikkadar was the Leader, he gave clear instructions to the Corporate Director for Finance, which he can confirm, to commence budget preparation process with a view to achieving zero or 0.5% reduction in the Council Tax for the next financial year. Given that you have also indicated this to the press, re-confirming the Independent Labour Group’s instructions to the officers, to either work on the basis to freeze or decrease the Council Tax for next year, can you please confirm whether you will now be freezing or decreasing the Council Tax next year?

Written Answer:

When, in February, Council put forward its two year balanced budget and approved its MTFS for 20014/15 the assumption was a Council Tax increase of 2%.

Subsequently central government has announced there will be a Council Tax freeze grant made available for 2014/15, at the equivalent rate of a 1% Council tax increase.

In order to accept the Council Tax Freeze grant approximately £1m of additional savings will need to be identified.

Officers are working to refresh the MTFS to check that the savings identified for 2014/15 are still deliverable and the budget is robust.

The date of the grant settlement for Local Government remains subject to confirmation.  Last year the settlement was announced on 19 December 2013.  It is planned to take a draft MTFS to Cabinet in December.

Members will then be able to take a view on the appropriate level of Council Tax, at Council Tax setting night in February 2014.

Questioner:

Councillor Margaret Davine

Asked of:

Councillor Susan Hall, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Environment

Question:

Do you fully support the Cabinet Member for Adults and Housing, Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane, who recently publicly stated that he was supportive of the Housing compensation scheme whereby tenants will be offered £38,000 to move out of the Borough?

Written Answer:

I am fully supportive of the ‘Housing Grants to Move’ scheme.  This is an Invest to Save scheme which offers tenants the opportunity to move out of council housing, releasing homes for those families in more need and reduces the costs of B&B and temporary accommodation.

£38,000 is the biggest award that can be made and applies to the home ownership option where a four bedroom house is vacated which can then be offered to another family requiring that size accommodation.  This could save as much as £20,000 per annum in B&B or temporary accommodation costs to the Council.  I am sure you would agree with me that if £38,000 gives a family who previously occupied the property a fresh start, helps the family moving in by giving them a much better quality of life than living in B&B and saves money long term for the Council – everyone wins - What is there not to support?

I only have one point of clarification in your question in that there is no requirement to move out of the Borough.  This scheme is about offering choices which may or may not result in the family wishing to move out of Harrow, but if they do that is their choice.

Awards start from about £3000 for downsizing moves and moves to private rented properties and there are a number of conditions and safeguards built into the process.

As you know Harrow has only 5,000 rented council properties and we have about 4,000 people on the waiting list.  Unfortunately, numbers in B&B are still increasing and this year we hit the 100 number.  The cost of B&B is also increasing.  We had to do something creative to help reduce these numbers, help families in desperate need, and save money longer term.

Questioner:

CouncillorSachin Shah

Asked of:

Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Adults and Housing

Question:

The Council is facing significant financial challenges to its budget with the Council having to find £75 million so far and recent announcements that further savings of £60 million will need to be made over the next few years.

Sir Merrick Cockell, Chair of the Local Government Association, has stated that:  A shortage of funding and increasing demand is making it impossible to maintain adult social care services at current levels let alone trying to raise standards.

The new Leader of the Council recently announced that she will increase spending within Public Realm by £500,000 to clean up the streets, which most notably comes at a time when many local people are struggling to provide for their families and having to rely on food banks.

In the forthcoming debates around setting the Council’s future budget to cover this massive half a million pound black hole in council finances what are your plans as the Portfolio Holder for ensuring that the Council meets the needs for the vulnerable and destitute people in Harrow to prevent their needs from becoming critical?

Written Answer:

Our new Conservative administration’s goal is to deliver a cleaner, safer and fairer Harrow – and that, of course, includes adult social care services. We are committed to supporting our most vulnerable residents and to tackling abuse and making them safe.

The very tightness of budgets, the very necessity of meeting extremely challenging savings targets means that we have to be even more innovative, even more creative, even more careful about what we do in Adults.

For the last 6 years, Harrow’s adult social care has not only delivered a balanced budget whilst achieving ambitious MTFS savings but it has also become a national leader when it comes to social care.  Our service is known for its innovation and systems development; indeed, Harrow is now at the forefront of the personalisation of social care agenda, extending to our users, their carers and their families greater choice and control over their care packages, enabling happier, healthier, more empowered lives – and, importantly, significant savings to the public purse as a result.

We have striven hard to provide real, meaningful choices to personal budget holders; there are now over 700+ companies and organisations supplying services via our online web portal, www.Shop4Support.com.  Far from sitting back, we are constantly pushing forward, to use technology to promote even greater choice for our care users and to enable greater competition to drive down social care prices.  We are now starting to roll-out our exciting new venture, My Community ePurse, and have a path breaking partnership with PayPal.

At the same time, safeguarding of our vulnerable residents is a key consideration in all of our work.  Whilst we have stripped out cost and inefficiency, safety has not been sacrificed.  If anything, tighter budgets and the need to deliver greater value for money has helped achieve improved quality and safety in this service.

The greater integration and collaboration with health will see further efficiency savings, service improvements and improved choices and outcomes for our care users.

I should also note that Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell is the Chairman of the LGA, not “chair”.

Questioner:

Councillor Bill Phillips

Asked of:

Councillor Janet Mote, Portfolio Holder for Children and Schools

Question:

The Council is facing significant financial challenges to its budget with the Council having to find £75 million so far and recent announcements that further savings of £60 million will need to be made over the next few years.

In the forthcoming debates around setting the Council’s future budget to cover the massive half a million pound black hole in Council finances caused by the new Leader of the Council coupled with the policies of the coalition government  who have shifted the burden from them to local government without resourcing them to provide.  As the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services, what are your plans to manage cuts in areas where inspection regimes are being tightened and demands on services being increased?

Written Answer:

In October 2012 Children’s Services produced a comprehensive strategic commissioning document for the Commissioning Panel for 2013-2015 outlining the services statutory functions and proposals for service reductions and savings to contribute to the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.  Savings which were agreed through this process have been implemented this year or are being implemented in preparation for 2014-15. The service will review and update this document to contribute to the cuts that the Council will be facing over the coming years.

Questioner:

Councillor William Stoodley

Asked of:

Councillor Paul Osborn, Portfolio Holder for Communications, Performance and Resources

Question:

How much has the Council spent on Legal Advice this financial year, in particular, how much was spent overall on legal related work pertaining to the meeting of 16 September and was all the advice obtained from Bevan Brittan?

Written Answer:

The Council incurred a cost for legal advice, responding to the threat to apply for an injunction to prevent the Extraordinary Council meeting on 16 September going ahead.  For reasons of commercial sensitivity, I will provide you with the figure in a Part II answer.  External advice was sought from Bevan Brittan and barristers from 11 Kings Bench Walk. 

Under the previous administration, the Council has spent approx £600k so far this year on legal advice to support its various functions.

Questioner:

Councillor William Stoodley

Asked of:

Councillor Paul Osborn, Portfolio Holder for Communications, Performance and Resources

Question:

“How much work has Bevan Brittan received from this Council over past five years and do you not think this takes away any 'independence' they may have when they give advice?”

Written Answer:

Bevan Brittan have acted for Harrow on a number of matters, including the shared legal practice with Barnet, some preliminary work on PRISM, and in some employment matters. 

I have absolute confidence that their relationship with Harrow does not affect the integrity of their advice.  If you think otherwise, I would suggest you raise the matter with the appropriate regulatory authorities.  Or, if you wish to make a specific allegation, I would be happy to discuss it with you.