The questions which have been received from Councillors to be put at this Council meeting are set out in the attached report.  A maximum period of 30 minutes is allocated to this agenda item.

The following questions and in each case supplementary questions were put (except where indicated) and were responded to by the Mayor or relevant Executive Member.

9.1 Question from Councillor Asma Islam about a violent incident in the Borough.

The response of Councillor Asma Begum Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Community Safety We are working across the Borough on a multi-pronged approach which includes working with the partnership task force and is focused on the Council’s priorities in tackling violence; drugs and anti-social behaviour; the Exploitation Team within Children’s Services which was launched in April 2018 has a specific focus on the highest risk children and young people; the Rapid Response Team carries out on street outreach sessions with a structured focus on crime and violence and they work with people under the age of 25; the CCTV Suite is proactive in identifying and responding to violent incidents happen, co-ordination of the police response and the gathering of evidence for any subsequent investigation.

Supplementary question from Councillor Asma Islam Councillor Begum and the Mayor have been extremely helpful in working with the Councillors of Mile End to help the residents of Burdett Estate affected by the incident on St. Pauls Way. Therefore, can I get a commitment from the Mayor and Councillor Begum today that they will continue their work to get a long term solution?

Councillor Begum’s response to the supplementary question Yes we do want to work to get a long term solution and I wish to thank the Mile End Councillors for their hard work in this difficult situation.

9.2 Question from Councillor Andrew Wood how much money has been spent since 2010 on upgrading the Raines school sites?

The response of Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People Approximately £1.6 m has been spent on the Raines school sites from 2010-11 and 2018-19 this work was funded from the Department for Education locally Co-ordinated Voluntary Aided Programme and is not a grant received by the Council.  In October 2017 the Cabinet agreed a further £4 m however given the uncertainty over the future development of the school only £1.5 m of this funding has been committed to date.

Supplementary question from Councillor Andrew Wood I understood that the Diocese had put money into the school too?

Councillor Hassell’s response to the supplementary question The Diocese had put money in through locally Co-ordinated Voluntary Aided Programme but I am happy to confirm that in writing.

9.3 Question from Councillor James King has the Council been part of the consultation on the Academisation of Cyril Jackson.?

The response of Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People the Governing Body at Cyril Jackson has consulted the Council in its proposals to become an academy.  We should be clear that whilst the Council should be consulted it is not for the Council to make that determination, as that will be a decision that lies with the Department for Education or the Regional Schools Commissioner.  However, as a consultee the Governing Body must seek our views and we have provided a formal response asking for further information to be provided as the Council did not feel it had sufficient information to make a submission especially with reference to (i) timescales for the academy conversion; (ii) a fuller assessment and exploration of the potential risks by the Governing Body and how they would manage those risks; and (iii) An acknowledgement of the potential conflict of interest between the role of the Executive Head Teacher; the Governing Body; the University Trust; and how this would be managed.  A response has now been provided but it was near the end of the public consultation.

Supplementary question from Councillor James King Will the Council consider proscribing a more rigorous consultation process for primary schools wishing to become academies and will you and the Mayor join me in seeking to campaign against the Academisation of this school?

Councillor Hassell’s response to the supplementary question In terms of the consultation whilst the requirements are not set by the Council, officers made it very clear when they met with the Head Teacher on what were our expectations where on what good engagement should look like.  However, the school is just required to meet the regulations as set out by the Department for Education.  In terms of academies, we will continue to work with any school in the Borough to make sure that we provide the best for our young people.  We believe that the local authority working closely schools will be able to continue to drive through improvements.  We would, therefore, ask all schools considering conversion to an academy to think very carefully about the benefits they would achieve that they cannot achieve as a local authority maintained school?

9.4 Question from Councillor Peter Golds What is being done to reduce emissions from the Council fleet?

The response of Councillor David Edgar, Cabinet Member for Environment the Transport Services Unit has taken steps to replace its older more polluting vehicles with ones that met the requirements of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) which came into effect on the 8th of April, 2019. What it is also doing is aiming to replace the remaining fleet with vehicles that will meet the ULEZ standards and to put in place electric charging infrastructure. These vehicles will be leased for up to 3 years and during that time that will allow the Council to look at replacing those vehicles with other electric or other clean technology vehicles.  We are also going through a similar process with those vehicles that are used for the waste collection service and that will start on April 2020.

Supplementary question from Councillor Peter Golds the Council currently has a vehicle fleet of over 200 vehicle’s many of which are diesel, we should be moving to hybrid/electric vehicles. If the Council is as ambitious as you say could we have any indication as to when we will move to hybrid/electric vehicles and have in place an electric charging infrastructure?

Councillor David Edgar response to the supplementary question As I said earlier the direction of travel with the vehicle fleet is to meet cleaner standards and we are looking carefully at putting in place the right infrastructure needed be it hybrid; electric or hydrogen. Also, we are looking at what options are available to replace those more powerful larger vehicles needed for the waste collection.

9.5 Question from Councillor Val Whitehead How many two-year-old children access early learning in the Borough?

The response of Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People as the Mayor referred to in his report we have 1,000 two-year-olds in the Borough accessing their early learning places doubling the number from 5 years ago.  Also, more than 300 of these children are in Ofsted outstanding settings, I delighted recently with the Mayor to visit recently Lincoln Hall and to see how they have benefitted from our capital investment to expand places and to support the families.  We know that when a child takes up one of these places at 2 years they will be ready to learn at 5 years and gives a chance for every child to have a flying start in life.

Supplementary question from Councillor Val Whitehead Can you tell me what you will be doing to increase that number now?

Councillor Danny Hassell response to the supplementary question Yes we will be developing an action plan around communication and engagement so that parents are aware of their entitlements.  We will continue to invest capital funding to allow providers to expand; we have a package of support for our maintained nursery schools which we agreed in the Budget, and in the autumn term we will be able to give an expansion of many school-based placements which I know is the preference for our parents.

9.6 Question from Councillor Shad Chowdhury What is being done to maintain and improve rubbish collection and recycling.

The response of Councillor David Edgar, Cabinet Member for Environment this is clearly an important issue and the Council’s contract management team is working very closely with Veolia to improve standards of service delivery across the waste recycling and cleaning services.  There are many places where this works particularly well and there are other areas where they could do better. We are putting more resources into monitoring the performance of the contract and the contractor and there are very detailed plans which analyse the way we are applying particular points of pressure to Veolia and making sure that we have the information we need to do it well.  We have also committed additional street washing resources to Spitalfields and Banglatown and that has been put in to take account of the night-time economy and the activity that comes with that.  A lot of work has taken place and I want to see evidence of the benefits where there are still problems.

Councillor Kevin Brady then moved a procedural motion to proceed to the next item of business and that the agenda order is varied to allow Item 10.2 to be heard as the next item of business.

Questions 9.7 to 9.14 were not put due to lack of time and would be dealt with by written responses.