This is an opportunity for Members of Council to ask the Mayor, Members of the Executive or the Chairman of any Committee or Sub-Committee a question on notice under Procedure Rule 10.2.

The Mayor reported that 5 questions had been received under Procedure Rule 10.2.

(a)        Councillor Freeman asked the following question for which he had given notice:

“Governing Bodies of Trafford Community Schools are being asked to adopt the Trafford Educational Services Policies on Staff Pay and Conditions and the Staff Code of Conduct. Can the Executive Member please explain why Governing Bodies of Community Schools that do not subscribe to the Service Level Agreement for Trafford Human Resources Services are being denied access to these Policies?”

Councillor Whetton, the Executive Member for Children and Families advised that the autonomy now provided to school governing bodies and school principals meant that schools had the option to buy Human Resources (HR) consultancy services from the Council or alternatively to procure from an external service provider. Those schools that decided not to purchase the Council service would not be provided access to the recommended model policies and procedures contained in the HR toolkit, whilst schools that had recently taken the decision to change their HR provider away from the Council, would not have access to any revisions or new policies that had been developed by the HR consultancy service and would need to seek advice from their new provider.

Councillor Freeman enquired through a supplementary question whether the Executive Member agreed that, since HR policies were consulted upon with the trade unions and as Community Schools also paid into the community levy, it was discriminatory to deny staff access to the policies. Councillor Whetton did not accept that there was discrimination if the school moved away from the Council to go with another provider and confirmed that the Council would welcome back any school with concerns with an appropriate service level agreement.

(b)        Councillor Mrs. Brophy asked the following question for which she had given notice:

“Please would the relevant Executive Member of Trafford Council confirm how many unemployed people there are in Trafford and what areas of the Borough they are distributed in?”

Councillor Hopps, the Executive Member for Housing and Strategic Planning advised that the most up to date Office of National Statistics and unemployment data showed that there were 4300 unemployed people in Trafford in July 2017 which equated to an overall unemployment rate of 3.5% and compared to a Greater Manchester average of 7.5% and a United Kingdom average of 4.4%. Unfortunately, a full breakdown by ward was not available, however, a ward by ward analysis was available for those claiming Job Seekers Allowance and Universal Credit which was a total of 2435. The rates ranged from 3.4% of the adult working population in the Bucklow St. Martins and Clifford Wards to 0.5% of the adult working population in Timperley and the Executive Member was happy to share a full analysis by email.

Referring to the Annual Delivery Plan and the objective for full employment across all Trafford, Councillor Mrs. Brophy asked as a supplementary question why a higher target was being set for the next year compared to the last, given this had not been achieved. In response, Councillor Hopps asked whether Councillor Mrs. Brophy could provide him with the details in writing to enable him to investigate and provide a full response.

(c)        Councillor Adshead asked the following question, the first of two questions for which he had given notice:

“Given continuing problems with services provided by Amey, the latest being the leaf clearance programme in which virtually the whole of Stretford ward was missed off, and most likely other areas of the Borough. Many of the problems appeared to be attributed to the use of, and reliance upon the continuing use of agency staff, could the Executive Member therefore comment on the numbers of agency staff employed as against staff employed by Amey direct and indeed the quality of these agencies involved i.e. would these agencies be ones that Trafford Council would recommend?”

In the absence of Councillor John Reilly, Executive Member for Highways, Parks and Environmental Services who became unwell before the meeting his Deputy, Councillor Shaw assured Councillor Adshead that a written response would be provided to him at the earliest convenience.

(d)        Councillor Adshead asked the following question, the second of two questions, for which he had given notice:

“Again this year we have had problems with the weed spraying programme both in the early part of the summer and indeed the late summer part of the programme, indeed we have photos of weeds growing almost as big as myself, and our town centres as well as residential areas were covered in weeds like I have never seen before therefore please could the Executive Member inform Council when the second part of the programme was actually carried out?”

Councillor Shaw, Deputy Executive Member for Highways, Parks and Environmental Services confirmed that the initial weed spraying programme was undertaken June to September but unfortunately poor weather conditions impacted and delayed the second treatment which started in October and continued until the early frosts in November. Wards that received the second treatment were those that were treated in June and included Brooklands, Clifford, Gorse Hill, Longford, St. Mary’s, Stretford and Urmston.

Appreciating that weather was a factor, Councillor Adshead asked as a supplementary question how monitoring could be improved to ensure that the programme is a success. In response, Councillor Shaw provided an assurance that next year’s programme would be monitored.

(e)        Councillor O’Sullivan asked the following question for which she had given notice:

“Lighting a wood stove in your home is like starting up your own toxic incinerator and people should have as much protection from wood smoke as they do from cigarette smoke,

There are several reasons to ban wood stove burners such as, burning 10 lbs of wood for one hour release as much PAH’s (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) as 6,000 cigarettes, wood smoke is the third largest source of Dioxins, one of the most toxic components known to Science, Wood smoke penetrates homes of neighbours creating concentrations as up to 88% as high as outdoor air, and the very small particles omitted make them 7 time more likely to be inhaled than other particulate pollution.

As there is so much evidence available now regarding the toxicity of wood stove burners and the effect on human health how are the Council monitoring and are there any plans to ban them?”

In the absence of Councillor John Reilly, Executive Member for Highways, Parks and Environmental Services, Councillor Hopps, the Executive Member for Housing and Strategic Planning explained that as Councillor O’Sullivan may have been aware, Trafford was a designated Smoke Control Area, however, certain fuels and appliances, including domestic wood burning appliances, had been approved by the government for use within such areas. The Council’s Pollution team dealt with complaints concerning smoke emissions and would take appropriate enforcement action should the appliance or fuel be found to be non-compliant. For the installation of new solid fuel burners, buildings regulation approval was required unless the appliance was installed by a certified engineer. With national legislation in the place to control emissions from solid fuel burners, the Council currently had no plans to prohibit their use. The legislation in force also ensured that the impact of non-compliant fuel burners was kept to a minimum.

Councillor O’Sullivan asked as a supplementary question, given the perceived dangers of emissions from wood stove burners, whether Trafford could pioneer an approach and introduce a complete ban. Councillor Hopps was not averse to exploring the issue with officers in Regulatory Services but reiterated that the Council did operate within the national legislation to control emissions.