Individual councillors may ask
written questions of the Leader of the Council and the chairmen of
committees or sub-committees at meetings of
Full Council in accordance
with Council procedure rules. Full details of these rules and
procedures are given in
Part 4 of the Council's Constitution.
The questions and the responses given at the last six month's
meetings of Full Council are given below.
Full Council - 26 June 2008 |
Full Council - 24 April 2008
Full Council - 24 July 2008
Question by Councillor Marion Andrews:
"Why does the Council's performance with regard to combined
deposits of litter and detritus continue to be bottom quartile and
what is being done to improve the situation?"
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Green Environment, Councillor Andrew Nunn
(new window PDF 18KB).
Question by Councillor Michael Ninnmey:
"Why has the Council's performance with regard to minor planning
applications determined within 8 weeks again become a matter for
concern and what is being done to remedy the problem?"
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Planning, Councillor Andy Smith (new window
PDF 17KB).
Question by Councillor Bryan Hall:
"Why is the use of the Council’s leisure facilities in apparent
serious decline and what is being done to reverse that trend?"
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Leisure and Countryside, Councillor Mary
Neale (new window PDF 22KB).
Question by Councillor Barry Slater:
“In response to its own specially commissioned Housing Needs
Survey Council has set itself escalating annual targets leading to
delivery of the required 600 affordable homes over 5 years. Given
that in 2007/8 only 58 were delivered against the first and most
modest yearly target of 90, how will targets for the next 4 years
now be revised?”
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Housing, Councillor Chris Slemmings (new
window PDF 18KB).
Question by Councillor Diana Ball:
"What are the reasons for the Council's poor Housing Benefit
performance with regard to both accuracy of processing and recovery
of overpayment and what is being done to secure an
improvement?"
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Housing, Councillor Chris Slemmings (new
window PDF 19KB).
Question by Councillor Harry Dangerfield:
"Why does Suffolk Coastal's performance with regard to average
length of stay in hostel accommodation continue to be in the lowest
quartile of councils and what is being done to ensure a better
outcome this year?"
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Housing, Councillor Chris Slemmings (new
window PDF 15KB).
Question by Councillor Michael Ninnmey:
"Further to the evidence of the expert panel engaged by Suffolk
Health Scrutiny Committee to advise on the issues raised by the
‘Head and Neck Cancer Consultation’, will the Cabinet Member
support and seek an early referral of the matter to the Secretary
Of State with a request that the reconfiguration panel investigates
the best use of existing facilities to improve outcomes for all
patients within the East of England as well as providing for
surgical training and participation in cancer research?
Response by the Cabinet Member with
responsibility for Community Health, Councillor Sherrie Green
(new window PDF 17KB).
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Full Council - 26 June 2008
Question by Councillor Christine Block:
Question to the Leader of the Council with prior notice which
has been included on the Cabinet report of 26 June Council
meeting.
“Can the Leader tell me whether there are matters put forward by
Government (likely to affect Suffolk Coastal) that are out for
consultation at the moment and whether this Council will be
engaging in those consultation processes.
For instance I believe we responded to consultation on local
petitions and course for action; did we respond to the consultation
on the draft Sustainable Community Act; will we look at the
proposal to move the date of local government elections in 2009 to
coincide with the date of the European election and will we respond
to Community and Empowerment White Paper in due course?"
Response by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Ray
Herring:
“The Council receive a significant number of consultation
requests from a wide range of sources but not all relating to local
government or matters affecting this Council. Already this year the
Council has been asked to respond to over 50 consultations which
from a resource perspective is an unrealistic expectation.
Therefore a judgement has to be made in terms of each consultation
request, ie relevance to the Council and likely degree of influence
that responding may generate etc.
In terms of the specific consultation topics referred to in the
question the situation is as follows:
(a) Local Petitions and Calls for Action.
A report was presented to the Corporate Services Scrutiny
Committee on 13 March 2008 and a response was sent to the
consultation on 18 March 2008.
(b) Proposals to move the date of the local government elections
in 2009.
This consultation was received on 3 June (closing date 11
August) and is currently being considered by the Chief
Executive.
(c) Community Empowerment White Paper.
The Community White Paper due for publication in Summer
2008. The Council received consultation request on 30 May
2008 on ‘Participatory Budgeting’ to which a response has been
sent
(d) Sustainable Communities Act.
The Council did not respond to the draft regulations or
statutory guidance but will be responding to the related
consultation on Local Spending Reports which is part of the
Act.
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Question by Councillor Barry Slater:
“In view of the commitment in this authority’s submission to the
Boundary Committee to ‘a robust Scrutiny structure, aligned to
portfolios’ that ‘would build relationships with portfolio holders
and develop councillor expertise’, when can we expect to enjoy the
benefits of such a system here at Suffolk Coastal?”
Response by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Ray
Herring:
"I refer Cllr Slater to his previous questions submitted at the
last two Full Council meetings and to my responses”
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Question by Councillor Barry Slater:
“What protocols exist with regard to responses on behalf of this
authority to public consultations, in order to ensure such
responses are appropriately formulated, disseminated and
delivered?”
Response by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Ray
Herring:
“The Council receives a significant number of consultation
requests from a wide range of sources. Already this year the
Council has received over 50 requests to respond on a diverse range
of topics. It is impractical and unreasonable to consider
responding to every consultation request because of the impact on
resources.
Given the growth in frequency; volume and diversity of
consultation requests a review has been undertaken to assess how
relevant consultation requests are recorded as received, assessed
and actioned.
A consultation page has been set up on DORA (the Council's
intranet site) which is accessible on the homepage and the relevant
links are shown in the table set out in the printed version of this
response. All latest consultations will be detailed on this site
and, where available, will link to the consultation document. If
any member has particular views on any consultation received and
would like the Portfolio Holder to take these views into account
when considering if and how to respond then please contact the
relevant Portfolio Holder or Head of Service.
Cabinet Members have also been reminded that when responding to
any consultations on the Council’s behalf, that they (or relevant
Committee Chairman) should follow the following process:
1. Consult with the relevant Head of Service to ensure the
response has the benefit of professional advice, and notification
of the response is recorded and can be fed into communications at
Corporate Management Team.
2. Liaise with officers and ensure they are involved in
administration of the response in order that documentation may be
appropriately dated, filed and a record kept on the consultations
spreadsheet published on DORA. This includes recording decisions
taken not to respond to consultation.
3. Use a suffolkcoastal.gov.uk email address wherever
possible.
4. Ensure copies of the response are sent to the Leader of the
Council, relevant Head of Service and Strategic Management
Team.”
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Question by Councillor Michael Ninnmey:
"What response was made by Suffolk Coastal District Council to
the 'Head and Neck Cancer Consultation' for Anglia Cancer Network,
5 March 2008 to 4 June 2008?
Was clarification of 'Area', number of patients, type of cancers
treated, urban or rural, patient outcomes obtained within the
consultation document?
What future action/engagement is planned?"
Response by the Cabinet Member with responsibility for
Community Health, Councillor Sherrie Green:
“Suffolk PCT has carried out a formal consultation, on behalf of
the Anglia Cancer Network, on a proposal to transfer specialist
surgery for head and neck cancers from Ipswich Hospital to Norfolk
and Norwich University Hospital. This is presented in the
consultation document as the preferred option by Anglia Cancer
Network following the guidance from NICE on Improving Outcomes in
Head and Neck Cancers. This option meets national guidance
requirements based on the minimum population served and the minimum
number of cases treated per year. At present the service provided
at Ipswich Hospital does not meet either standard and the National
Cancer Plan requires all services for head and neck cancers to be
compliant with the national guidance by 2008.
Although the proposal is to transfer surgical services for these
rare cancers to Norfolk and Norwich university Hospital, all other
aspects of care, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy and post
operative care, will continue to be delivered by Ipswich
Hospital.
To support the consultation a number of open discussion sessions
were arranged and I attended the meeting held at Felixstowe. In my
response to the consultation I raised three issues:
Firstly, the confusion over the figures regarding the number of
patients treated at Ipswich as this was queried by many people at
the meeting I attended together with John Gummer who was not
convinced about the reliability of the published figures.
Secondly, there has been no reference to the actual surgical
outcomes at Ipswich Hospital regarding this service and I strongly
suspect that there has been an issue with the level of success in
head and neck cancers such as survival rates. This could be due to
the level of surgical expertise but also due to other variables
such as age of patient and at what stage they attend for
treatment.
Thirdly, I queried the transport support that would be available
for patients and relatives to travel up to Norwich for a distance
of some 60 miles, if travelling from Felixstowe, because at one
meeting Anglia Cancer Network stated they would be looking at
funding this, but the question is for how long and in what
format?
At the open discussion sessions many of the points raised by
Cllr Ninnmey were put to representatives of the Anglia Cancer
Network including clarification of the population figures given in
the document, classification of the area as urban or rural and a
request for further information on patient outcomes. The
notes from those meetings can be found on the
Suffolk PCT website (new window).
Not all of the questions were adequately dealt with at the
meetings and in addition to my response to the consultation I will
be writing to the Anglia Cancer Network seeking clarification on a
number of these points.
In terms of future engagement, the outcome of the consultation
will be reported to the Suffolk Health Scrutiny Committee and
public meetings of the Board of Suffolk PCT and Ipswich Hospital.
In my letter to Anglia Cancer Network I will be asking for
notification of the dates of these meetings which will provide a
further opportunity to question decisions taken on the future of
head and neck cancer services in Suffolk.”
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page.