To receive any questions, statements or petitions from the public in accordance with Council Procedure Rules 14, 15, 16.
The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.
For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.
Minutes:
(a) Mr Alan Debenham asked the following questions:-
(i) As was unanimously agreed by the ex-Taunton Deane Council in October 2018,the name of the new merged council was wrong and an insult to Taunton, our County Town and Principal Urban Area, and the undemocratically determined “Somerset West and Taunton Council” name, demoting Taunton to secondary and inferior status, should be changed as soon as possible to the obvious “Taunton Deane and West Somerset Council”. To stop this ill-conceived mistake living on in history any further, could this new merged Council now take this necessary name-changing action forthwith?
(ii) Previous to the establishment of the new Council, regarding the undeveloped Firepool site in Taunton, the building of a hotel there using Council funding to the tune of a mooted £16 million was strongly opposed by all Liberal Democrat Councillors, most other non-Tory Councillors and many local residents and businesses, despite which the ex-Tory administration ploughed ahead regardless. Can I assume, as do many local residents, that his newly elected Council will now revoke this whole ex-Tory hotel proposal forthwith and replace it with a much more positive and meaningful alternative? In line with the recently resolved declaration of “Climate Emergency” by the Shadow Council, could this be the construction of a visitors’ centre for “PEACE” ( People’s Environmental Action for Climate Emergency ) which would incorporate lively hands-on educational experiences, backed by a full library of publications and displays etc. like the WeTheCurious centre in Bristol Harbour Side - of course, plus a visitors ‘promotional’ vegetarian cafe-restaurant overlooking the river, a cycling centre, and a general repair and waste reduction-recycling large workshop?
(iii) Until the onset of Westminster Tory mania for local government to adopt the very anti-democratic organisational practice of cabinet and mayoral single-party domination, in Taunton Deane and for other councils we had the far more democratic and easily run committee system – with every councillor involved in spending decisions relating to their chosen field of interest or speciality. Surely now is the time to fully consider a return to this well understood, easily managed, and far more democratic committee system, giving every Councillor a distinct fairly equal role to play? Equally, within this renovated committee system the overall strategy-setting and financially controlling Executive Committee should comprise multi-party representation, as it used to, with seats allocated roughly pro rata to whole Council totals commanded by each party/group.
(iv) The massacre of staff by the ex-Tory administration has left several departments struggling to efficiently fulfil their duties, especially in Planning and Building Control, and therefore, in the name of good management, I ask the new administration to conduct a thorough staffing review ASAP to redress these failings.
Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts thanked Alan Debenham for advance notice of his questions. She replied as follows:-
(i) With regard to question (i) and the name of the Council the Leader appreciated the comments that had been made and that they had also been raised with her separately by others. However at present this administration had a lot to achieve and there was a need to focus on ensuring residents and businesses were receiving the services they expected.
(ii) With regard to question (iv) in relation to Staffing, it was recognised there had been teething problems in the establishment of this Council and the staff were doing a brilliant job in the circumstances whilst services had been affected. The new administration was going to be working with the Chief Executive and his team to stabilise those services and ensure that residents received what they expected.
(iii) With regard to question (iii) the ‘committee system’ way of working was going to be looked at but under the establishment of this new Council this could not be implemented within the first twelve months regardless.
Councillor Farbahi replied in relation to question (ii) on Firepool and assured the Council that the Hotel Venture on Firepool would not be progressed. He did not believe in playing monopoly with taxpayers money and that there was a belief that the sums were too tight and the money could be better used elsewhere.
(b) Mr Sigurd Reimers made the following statement:-
Chair, Councillors, Officers and members of the public. Taunton Extinction Rebellion welcomes this opportunity to address you on the urgent issue of climate disaster. We are aware that a number of other local environment groups share our concerns. Today it is just eighty days since your predecessors declared a Climate Emergency, and the clock is ticking. We have three simple demands of governments, including yourselves. First, to tell the truth about Climate Change. Second, to act now. Finally, to establish a Citizen’s Assembly, to enable us to deal with the climate disaster that we are all facing. Our request of you today is to declare your intent to form a Citizen’s Assembly and rapidly to take the necessary steps to achieve this. We realize that for such a motion to be passed by this Council, might require you to move beyond conventional ways of working. However, now that you, in common with many other Council’s across the country have declared such a Climate Emergency, we believe it falls to you to take this further step. We consider that establishing a Citizen’s Assembly represents a unique opportunity for you as our Council to establish a clear pathway for governing, and for ensuring that this area faces up to its responsibility, indeed our climate disaster and other linked environmental issues.
Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts thanked Sigurd Reimers for his question and responded that as the questioner was aware that the Council had declared a Climate Emergency, which was cross party and proposed by Councillor Mansell and seconded by herself. The new administration had taken that and put this issue at the core of what we do by appointing a Climate Change Executive Member. The Leader was interested in the Citizens Assembly proposal and would discuss this further with the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change.
(c) Mr Jefferson Horsley asked the following questions:-
(i) Can I congratulate all successful councillors on winning the newly contested wards on the revised boundaries? I have in mind especially the Leader of the Council who has the daunting challenge of implementing the Liberal Democrat manifesto against the background of even further diminishing resources and increasing responsibilities thrust upon it by central government and the continuation of austerity for public services making the delivery even more difficult?
(ii) However, can she reassure me that as I was one of the co-sponsors to the Climate Emergency Motion unanimously passed at the Shadow Council on 21 February 2019, she will use all her endeavours to ensure that the new administration will focus on this as its top priority? Since 21 February the Extinction Rebellion has highlighted that there is no alternative than to act now against Global Heating. Will she therefore bring forward the goals of both lowering Carbon Emissions and the burning of fossil fuels? Will she bring forward the use of Renewable Energy targets by a combination of lower demand for consumption of damaging products and the acceleration of the targets for the use of sustainable energy from 2050 to 2035? Can she confirm that Recommendation 7 of the original motion namely to set aside a budget of £75,000 with £50,000 coming from general reserves and £25,000 from the HRA Maintenance Budget will be used for this purpose? Does she agree that hope is needed to attain these goals as has been pointed out by the extraordinary work undertaken by Greta Thunberg if we are to avoid the possibility of Global Heating making Planet Earth becoming uninhabitable for humans by the year 2070?
(iii) Can she also explain to the public why so much money is still being spent on the Firepool site by grassing over areas when it could inhibit the attainment of the wider goal of becoming the centre of excellence for Taunton to continue its leadership on becoming a centre of learning for reducing our dependence on Plastic and the damage it is doing to the environment as highlighted by the Blue Planet series on BBC by David Attenborough? Has she considered putting all these items on hold especially when the sums involved of some £750,000 as per an officer report sent out on 15 March 2019 could well hold back the ambitious plans for Taunton to triumph as the county town of Somerset which all councillors should aspire to?
Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts thanked Jefferson Horsley for advance notice of his questions. She replied as follows:-
(i) With regard to question (ii), the questioner was assured that the Leader held a strong environmental stance personally, and in the manifesto this was at the core, and we have now brought in a Climate Change Executive Member. We would now need to develop a Strategy to implement that and put the environment at the core of everything that the Council undertook. If it was a case of requiring more funding, then that would be brought back to Council for a further decision.
(ii) With regard to question (iii) on the Firepool site, a Strategy was being developed and the detail was being worked on for the long term aspirations there. In the meantime, the funding given under the previous administration to build the access road and early works. The grassing over was a temporary community space whilst this detail was being developed.
Councillor Pilkington replied that Climate Change was going to be taken very seriously and everything would be looked at with that focus, and plans would be forthcoming.
In relation to Mr Reimers statement, he felt that Councillors were all citizens as well and he would be willing to work with existing and new groups in Somerset going forward on this policy, but the input of the people would be particularly important.
(d) Mr Nigel Behan asked the following questions:-
In the Somerset West and Taunton Constitution - Access to Information Procedure Rules Part A – General
It is stated that:
“3. Rights to Attend Meetings
3.1 Members of the public and media are welcome and encouraged to attend all meetings, subject only to the exceptions in this Constitution.
3.2 The rights at 3.1 are without prejudice to the Council’s power to suppress or prevent disorderly conduct or other misbehaviour at any meeting.
3.3 Third-party recording (including filming, audio recording and photography) is permitted of the public sessions of formal decision-making Council meetings subject to any reasonable protocols that may be in place.”
And the Agenda of the meeting points out:
“Please note that this meeting will be recorded. At the start of the meeting the Chair will confirm if all or part of the meeting is being recorded. You should be aware that the Council is a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act 2018. Data collected during the recording will be retained in accordance with the Council’s policy. Therefore unless you are advised otherwise, by entering the Council Chamber and speaking during Public Participation you are consenting to being recorded and to the possible use of the sound recording for access via the website or for training purposes. If you have any queries regarding this please contact the officer as detailed above.”
“The Openness of Local Government Regulations 2014, which apply to England, give rights to members of the press and public to:
And in the Summary and Explanation of the Council’s Constitution it is noted:
“The overriding duty of Councillors is to the whole community, but they have a special duty to their constituents, including those who did not vote for them.”
(i) Does the New Council intend to post the audio recordings of meetings on the website and retain the recording - after the minutes of meeting(s) are agreed – on the Council System’s and the website? There was some controversy at Somerset County Council last week about Audio Recordings of meetings. The Somerset County Gazette reported on it.
(ii) How will Citizens, Electors, Residents and Council Taxpayers etc. who don’t have access to private transport and live on Bus Route 25 (Taunton-Milverton-Wiveliscombe-Dulverton) for example, be able to attend Meetings like this one – the last bus from Taunton Rail Station is at 17:52 to Dulverton? This meeting was scheduled to start at 18:15.
(iii) Will/ how the New SWT Council webcast Council Meetings to make them more accessible, inclusive, transparent and improve democratic accountability?
Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts thanked Mr Behan for advance notice of his questions. She replied that she wholeheartedly agreed that if you want an honest, open and transparent Council and if you wanted greater public engagement audio recording and livestreaming was the way to go to show people the background to the decisions we take. At the moment the Local Democracy Reporter scheme was one way for people to have that insight. The Leader confirmed that the procurement process for the provision of the Audio-visual Kit to enable this Council to webcast. In terms of the bus route she could not comment as this was outside of this Council’s control, however if the aforementioned measures were brought in this could lead to greater engagement.