To receive any questions from members of the Council, of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, to be submitted and answered.
Minutes:
The Mayor advised that there were three questions from members of the Council pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 10.
1. Question from Councillor Chapelard
“Does Tunbridge Wells Borough Council value the contribution of councillors who have full-time jobs?”
Answer from Councillor Jukes
“I’m sure it does. From a personal aspect, I very much prefer that the working members make an addition to this Council and I know you have a couple on your team and I do enjoy constructive opposition, and I think two of your members are quite aware of that from comments I have made in the past. We have working Members on our side and probably one of the best debaters in this Chamber is a full-time worker - Councillor Hastie and I will be sorry to see him go in actual fact. We value everybody for the contribution they make. When I came on this Council I was working full-time. It cost me a lot of time, it cost me a lot of money and a lot of loss of family, which I regret for the time I spent. On the other hand, it’s quite fulfilling and I trust that you will get the same fulfilment out of it that everybody else does.”
Supplementary question from Councillor Chapelard
“Thank you for your answer Councillor Jukes. What practical steps would you like to see for the Council to take to make having a full time job and being a borough councillor more efficient in our way of working.”
Answer from Councillor Jukes
“We’ve had no complaints about the efficiency of the Council and the way it works. We have tried to accommodate one of your previous ideas which was to have Cabinet meetings in the evening so that members of the public could attend. In the year that we held those meetings I think that there were three members of the public that attended. It also puts a lot of pressure on our officers to stay late and officiate at the Cabinet meetings. Most of our meetings take place in the evening – the only one that doesn’t I think is planning and planning is a full day job. You can’t have a meeting that starts at half past six for planning and do site visits, particularly in the winter. I don’t see any reason why we need to change what we have already got. There is an old saying – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
2. Question from Councillor Lidstone
“Has Tunbridge Wells Borough Council received a response from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership to our £5m funding bid for the proposed Civic Development?”
Answer from Councillor Moore
“Thank you Councillor Lidstone for your question. The bid is still under active consideration.”
Supplementary question from Councillor Lidstone
“I have in front of me a technical assessment report from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership that classes the Calverley Square scheme as ‘sifted out’. Basically this assessment report has sifted out our application. So, in light of that, do you still believe that we have a likelihood of winning this funding and will councillors be appraised as soon as a decision is made.”
Answer from Councillor Moore
“Councillor Lidstone, we’ve had exchanges on social media where I have confirmed to you that that was a draft report and shouldn’t have been made public, and there were errors in it, and that we had not been sifted out, and that was an inaccuracy. So just to repeat, the evaluation report was a draft – it was not approved by SELEP as a press release also made clear. Our bid for funding is still under live consideration although it should be noted that the vast majority of SELEP funding has been used for transportation schemes and that the fund is heavily oversubscribed. I would hope that critics of the Calverley Square scheme would still support the Council in trying to achieve external funding for the project and would not criticise us for continuing to do so, and I assure that as long as I am in the Cabinet, I will continue to seek external funding, because I look at other authorities and we’ve had the Turner Contemporary receiving seed funding £4 million and £6.4 million of KCC funding and a recent planned extension that may receive another £3 million from the Arts Council. Don’t forget that we had Heritage Lottery funding and Arts Council England money for the Cultural and Learning Hub, now named the Amelia. While money is more restricted than it was in the days of the Marlowe or the Turner, like I say, it is regrettable that opponents to the scheme are so opposed to it and they would be so opposed to us seeking external funding. I assure that the bid is till live and I will let you know the outcome of the bid, and we will continue to bid for funding.”
3. Question from Councillor Chapelard
“On 15th January 2019 Paddock Wood Town council held a parish poll on the town's proposed community centre. A few days before the poll Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC) issued a statement entitled "£1.4 million funding at stake for the Paddock Wood Community Centre - use it or lose it." Was it ethical for TWBC to issue such a statement given its intention to influence voters to support the scheme?”
Answer from Councillor Weatherly
“I don't think I have anything to add to my statement. I was asked to provide clarity as to what would happen to the Council's proposed funding and the developer contributions allocated to the scheme. I would have thought that referencing a change to the location of the project at this stage would not only jeopardise the funding for the project but meant that delivery for a community centre would become most unlikely. This was considered significant information for people to have available to them in advance of voting in the parish poll called by Paddock Wood residents.”
Supplementary question from Councillor Chapelard
“Do you believe that the information in that statement is entirely accurate?”
Answer from Councillor Weatherly
“Yes I do believe that the information in the statement is accurate.”