Questions on notice received in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11.9(b)

Questions may be asked of the Lord Mayor, a Member of the City Executive Board or a Chair of a Committee.

The full text of questions must be received by the Head of Law and Governance by no later than 1.00pm on Monday 24November 2014.

Full details of all questions, and written responses where available, will be provided in the briefing note.

Questions were asked of the Board members and Leader and responses given.

Board member for Sports, Events and Parks, Councillor Lygo

1.    From Councillor Wilkinson

At Council on 14 July, the Board Member announced there would be a joint event held at the end of September when at least four new flower meadows would be created across the City. Please could the Board Member give a brief progress report on this and outline the action plans and timescales for each of the flower meadows?

Written response

Work undertaken to improve the biodiversity in the city’s parks includes:

•      The Kidneys planting schemes (undertaken by the Friends Group)

•      Cutteslowe Park - we have left large areas of grass to go long this year, next year we will cultivate these areas and add more wild flowers seeds.

•      Blackbird Leys – we are introducing wild flower areas.

•      Hinksey Park – new wild flower areas are now in place.

We have also introduced wild flower beds at Florence, Bury Knowle and Cutteslowe Parks.

A number of meetings have also been undertaken with partners to look at how we can best use the city’s parks to encourage bees; actions from these meetings include bee hotels being constructed in some of the city’s parks.

Board member for Leisure Contract and Community Partnership Grants, Councillor Rowley

2.    From Councillor Wilkinson

The Council announced recently that the Blackbird Leys pool's wood chip boiler would be fuelled with waste wood from its Parks operations. Can the Board Member please confirm:

(a) the quantity of waste wood generated from its Parks operations per annum over each of the last 3 years

(b) the amount of waste wood it estimates will be needed to fuel the Pool each year?

Written response

(a) We generate approximately 500 tonnes each year; further work is being undertaken to see how much of this is suitable for use in a biomass boiler.

(b) Approximately 151 tonnes per year; this needs to be good quality dried wood chip.

Supplementary question

If there is insufficient good quality wood chip from parks, what is the contingency?

Response

Roughly 75% of wood chip should be useable and the boiler can use a wide range of material qualities. Officers will be asked to respond with more detail.

Board member for Culture and Communities, Councillor Simm

3.    From Councillor Simmons

Given the unacceptable levels of food poverty in Oxford, will the portfolio holder join me in helping to support and promote the event being run by the youth volunteering charity vInspired in Oxford on 7 December to both raise awareness of the issue of food poverty and collect non-perishable food items for our local foodbanks?

Written response

I welcome the fact that Councillor Simmons has raised this important issue.

I never thought that I would live to see the day when individuals and families had to rely on charitable handouts from food banks In order to survive. To me this is resonant of the 1930s and soup  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69

Questions on notice under Council Procedure Rule 11.9(b).

23 questions submitted by the deadline and responses are attached to this Briefing Note.

Questioners can ask a supplementary question of the Board member. Questions and responses can take no longer than 3 minutes each.

Questions on notice under Council Procedure Rule 11.9(b).

27 questions and responses are attached to this Briefing Note.

Questions on notice under Council Procedure Rule 11.9(b) may be asked of the Lord Mayor, a Member of the City Executive Board or Chair of a Committee.

Questions on notice must, in accordance with the Constitution, be notified to the Head of Law and Governance by no later than 1.00pm on Monday 22^nd September 2014.

Full details of any questions and responses will be provided separately prior to the meeting.

1.    To the Board member for Sports, Events and Parks (Councillor Mark Lygo) from Councillor Jean Fooks: Cutteslowe Park trees

Volunteers, many of them children, have planted hundreds of trees in Cutteslowe Park and in other parks in the city. It is heartrending to see that many have been destroyed when nearby paths are mown; this has happened more than once. What steps are you taking to prevent this destruction?  And what replacement trees are being planted to make up for those lost in this way?

Written response

Having received this question the parks operations manager has undertaken an audit of Cutteslowe Park. None of the planted trees within Cutteslowe Park have been cut down and the staff are aware of the location of the trees. Pathways are cut infrequently due to the heavy footfall.

Supplementary question

Could the Board member please investigate to ensure that it was indeed the case that no trees had been lost?

Response

This would be confirmed with Cutteslowe parks staff when the portfolio holder met with them later in the week.

2.    To the Board member for Sports, Events and Parks (Councillor Mark Lygo) from Councillor Jean Fooks: Cutteslowe Park rangers

There have been several incidents in Cutteslowe Park which might have been prevented if the park rangers had been on site. What are you doing to ensure that the rangers are able to spend more time in the park, not just in the office?

Written response

The team covers 266 hectares of parkland and also support the countryside rangers to manage 387 hectares of countryside. We have a seven day patrol service and undertake a range of tasks that help to make Oxford’s green spaces vibrant, active and safe.

The team plan and change their patrols based on feedback from stakeholders and the public.

With the parks team being based Cutteslowe the park has by far the highest level of presence from the parks team and we are not aware of an increase in incidents at Cutteslowe park. 

As such we are not planning to increase the patrols at Cutteslowe park. If Councillor Fooks has any feedback on incidents then the team are always very keen to receive this as soon as possible so we can take the appropriate action.

Supplementary question

Why were park staff not aware of the pollution in the pond and other damage?

Response

Councillor Lygo agreed to look into Councillor Fooks’ concerns.

3.    To the Board member for Housing and Estate Regeneration (Councillor Scott Seamons) from Councillor Sam Hollick: Cuts to homelessness services

Will the Leader join me in condemning the planned cuts to homelessness services recently consulted on by the County Council? What has been the City’s response to this consultation?

Written response

Yes, the City Council are deeply concerned about the impact of the proposed cuts to Housing related support budgets by the County Council. Detailed below is the City Council’s detailed response to the consultation.

‘Oxford City Council strongly  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50