Issue - meetings

There were five questions from three Members.  These and the responses were published with supplementary papers to the agenda.

There were five questions from three Members.  These and the responses were published with supplementary papers to the agenda. Supplementary questions were:

1)    Mr Andrew Povey asked how the design had taken into account travelling to and from the school given that access to the school was on a 90 degree bend, parking laybys were removed from the exit of the school and the whole road had parking restrictions. The Cabinet Member for All-Age Learning explained that there had been a number of consultations with invitations to stakeholders and other interested parties regarding the design and travel plan and that further observations could be added before going to Planning in December.

2)    Mr Andrew Povey asked for the forecast for primary numbers as the recent local committee were told that there would be no increase in numbers.  The Cabinet Member for All-Age Learning stated that the school place planning team would have the numbers but referred to the response given and explained that reception places were near capacity and would potentially be above capacity next year but persistently above capacity for 2022 and beyond.  The forecast reception numbers were slightly above but the biggest impact would be from new homes being built which would impact year groups one to six.  Further details would be provided following the meeting.

5)    Mr Jonathan Essex `stated that he believed there were some factual inaccuracies with the Cabinet Member’s response to his submitted question and requested a private meeting to discuss.  The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families explained that she held monthly drop-in sessions where any Member, including Mr Essex, was welcome to attend and discuss issues.  She would arrange to meet with Mr Essex outside of the meeting. She stated that there had been no changes to the number of staff or budget for the universal youth offer.  She explained that what had changed was that two new targeted youth services had been introduced and the universal team had been retained.  She further stated that equipment, partly funded by local allocations, was agreed to be used temporarily at Redhill until the Phoenix Centre opened in Tadworth.  Mr Essex requested written evidence of this agreement. She also reiterated the Leader’s offer that youth centre buildings could be provided to the voluntary/faith sector where open access youth services could be provided.