Agenda item

(Director of Governance) to consider the attached report.

The meeting received an update on their previous request to Essex County Council Highways, to attend a meeting to respond to any concerns in respect of local Highway services and infrastructure.

The County Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Councillor E Johnson had now advised the committee that it could raise relevant questions of members and officer of the County by using any the means listed below:

a)         If members wish to submit detailed questions, the County Council will ensure the provision of a comprehensive written response to such matters;

b)         A delegation from the Committee could attend County Hall on a Tuesday during February or March 2017 (from 12.00 midday to 1.00pm) to raise appropriate matters with the Cabinet Member;

c)         In the medium term, as a process of education and engagement with districts and parishes, Essex Highways are about to start the roll-out of a programme of engagement to discuss issues, where members have an opportunity to understand the service and ask questions (it is suggested that Epping Forest could be one of the earlier districts to receive a visit in the schedule).

These options were presented to the committee and their views sought.

Councillor Murray noted the difference in the approach of the College that had a bad Ofsted report and the Highways service that were one of the poorest services and did not want to be scrutinised. We would like them here to be scrutinised. What were our County Councillors doing to improve our service?

The Democratic Services Manager noted that officers had made repeated efforts to get them to attend as had the Chairman of the Committee. He also noted that under option ‘c’, county was about to pilot this with two authorities in Essex during March and was then willing to offer us as the first choice after this.

Councillor Bedford asked if the Council could use the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act to elicit answers from County, but he was warned against using this as a tool by the Council’s FoI officer, Mr Tautz.

Councillor Chris Whitbread said that he appreciated the problems with this. It was important to have a face to face meeting with highways and would recommend that we had a delegation (option ‘b’) and that he would be happy to attend.

Councillor Stallan agreed with Councillor Whitbread and also proposed that we ask our County Councillors to attend the meeting.

The Chairman asked members of the committee to indicate by show of hands if they were in favour of option ‘b’ arranging a delegation to go to County Hall. A majority of members were in favour of this. The Chairman noted that we would only be given an hour’s slot.

Councillor Wixley was not sure about having a delegation and would like to know what happens to any complaints made about the highways.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse noted that the Highways Panel’s budget had been cut back and so it had lost its influence.

The Director of Neighbours, Mr Macnab said members could do a combination of things. They could go ahead with detailed questions (option ‘a’) provided before hand to the County and also take up the offer of an early visit (option ‘c’).

The Chairman noted that there was a tight timetable for this. The Democratic Services Manager noted that the Committee had already identified general themes some time ago. He also warned that they should not bring up any detailed, local problems but more general points.

Councillor Gadsby, noted that county was trying to revamp members inquires and they were also having these problems.

The Chairman noted that the Committee were to have a delegation (option ‘b’) and asked for suggestion on who should attend. Mr Macnab said it should be open to members of Overview and Scrutiny and also to some Cabinet members.

The Chairman asked that members nominate themselves to Mr Tautz if they wished to take part. Officers would ask for questions via the Council Bulletin.  We will also have to arrange a date with ECC; officers will negotiate a suitable date for attendance.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Committee would form a delegation to attend County Hall to put forward their concerns on Highway matters;

2)    The delegation is to be made up of Committee and Cabinet members who will self nominate;

3)    A suitable date will be negotiated by officers; and

4)    An item in the Council Bulletin will ask for suitable questions from members.