Agenda item

To receive matters of report from the Leader and members of the Executive.

The Leader provided an update on the Local Government Association conference she had attended and said she had spoken to a number of leaders with airports in their authorities with a view of a more joined up approach to issues such as welcoming incoming refugees.; She said volunteers and officers at Stansted Airport had handled the Ukraine and Sudan evacuations magnificently. Furthermore, she noted the written rivers and waters questions and said there would be more time to deal with these properly at a session of scrutiny. She also asked members to complete the training survey feedback forms.

Councillor Reeve provided an update on waste services and said there had been a number of glitches of late with waste collections, attributed to past vacancies, getting new staff members up to speed and structural changes relating to where the waste was processed. He said all vacancies, bar one, had now been filled and he was confident that problems with collections would now be resolved going forward.

Councillor Coote provided an update on Reynolds Court and fire safety measures. He said in recent weeks officers had met with the contractor to ascertain how the issues would be fixed. He said the contractor would now trial safety measures on one flat which would be tested by independent experts. The contractor had agreed to complete the works as quickly as possible and a new tester would be onsite by next week. A meeting was also held on Monday to update residents. Once the work had been complete, the fire service would be notified and the waking watch would be stopped and the contractor would be asked to compensate residents.

 Councillor Dean asked to meet with Councillor Reeve regarding the disruptions to the waste collection service. Councillor Reeve said he was always available.

Councillor Sell requested that each Cabinet member produce a written report for Council.

In response to questions from Councillor Barker, Councillor Evans said he was optimistic about the Council moving out of designation following discussions with the peer review panel and further news would be issued on Friday. He said the major application appeal statistics had gone down below the 10% mark and the council was no longer on the “naughty step”. In regards to the fee for the Stansted Airport expansion application, he said the fees which would have been incurred had the Council not been in designation was £43,590.

Councillor Gooding requested that the Council inform the Fire Service of the issues with compartmentation at Reynolds Court if they had not already done so.

In response to a question from Councillor Criscione regarding the waking watch at Reynolds Court, Councillor Coote agreed that the contractor should be paying for the full costs.

Councillor Gregory thanked Councilor Coote for his honesty; he said he was disappointed with the written responses to his questions from Councillor Evans

Councillor Emanuel said she was reassured by the independent safety assessments at Reynolds Court but felt the contractor should be held accountable and the council reimbursed for associated costs.