Councillors and committees

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room C, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2DN. View directions

Contact: Tom Pooley or Andrew Spragg 

Items
No. Item

72/12

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    Minutes:

    Apologies were been received from Mike Bennison, Victor Agarwal, David Goodwin and Chris Frost. Steve Cosser acted as substitute for Mike Bennsion.

73/12

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

     

    Notes:

    ·    In line with the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, declarations may relate to the interest of the member, or the member’s spouse or civil partner, or a person with whom the member is living as husband or wife, or a person with whom the member is living as if they were civil partners and the member is aware they have the interest.

    ·    Members need only disclose interests not currently listed on the Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

    ·    Members must notify the Monitoring Officer of any interests disclosed at the meeting so they may be added to the Register.

    ·    Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

    Minutes:

    There were no declarations of interests.

74/12

CALL IN: CABINET MEMBER DECISION OF 21 NOVEMBER 2012 pdf icon PDF 40 KB

    To consider the call-in of the Cabinet Member decision of 21 November 2012 to not endorse the Elmbridge Local Committee request for a reduction of the speed limit on the A245 Stoke Road, Stoke D’Abernon, from its existing 40 mph, to 30 mph, between the existing 30 mph limit near Leigh Hill Road to a suitable point just east of the Chelsea Football Club training ground.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

     

    Frank Apicella, Surrey Highways

    John Butcher, County Councillor

    David Hollingsworth, Neighbourhood Inspector, Elmbridge

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1.    The Chairman of the Environment & Transport Select Committee introduced the witnesses and explained how the call-in meeting would be structured. Each witness would be provided with five minutes to provide a statement. The Members who called in the decision would have the opportunity to speak for five minutes between them, and Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment would also have an opportunity to speak for five minutes. The Committee would be able to ask questions after each speaker.

     

    2.    The Chairman of the Environment & Transport Select Committee read the following statement:

     

    “As you are all aware, we are here today to consider a call-in of the following Cabinet Member decision:

     

    ‘That the Elmbridge Local Committee request for a reduction of the current speed limit on the A245 Stoke Road, Stoke D’Abernon, from its existing 40 mph, to 30 mph, between the existing 30 mph limit near Leigh Hill Road to a suitable point just east of the Chelsea Football Club training ground, not be endorsed.’

     

    I would like to make clear from the outset that this call-in will not be considering the actual decision-making process and I will now set out the reasons for this.

    It has been brought to my attention that concerns have been raised as to whether the Cabinet Member has the power to refuse to agree a change in a speed limit that has been requested by a Local Committee. I have been advised by Legal and Democratic Services that this is very much the case.

     

    Under the Scheme of Delegation, the Surrey County Council Constitution grants Local Committees the delegated power to set speed limits on roads in their area. However, the Scheme of Delegation also states quite clearly that the Cabinet Member has the power to determine whether to endorse a speed limit proposed by a Local Committee that is in disagreement with the advice of police and local officers. If the speed limit in such a situation is not endorsed by the Cabinet Member, the speed limit cannot be implemented. The requirement of the Cabinet Member’s endorsement for such a proposal is also detailed in the Council’s Speed Limit Policy.

     

    This was the case with Stoke Road. Elmbridge Local Committee decided that the speed limit should be reduced from 40 mph to 30 mph. However, this is in disagreement with both police and local officers who are of the view that the speed limit should remain at 40 mph. Therefore, the Cabinet Member was required to consider endorsement of the proposed reduced speed limit.

     

    On the 21 November the Cabinet Member decided not to endorse the decision of the Elmbridge Local Committee and it was within his power to do so. The Cabinet Member could have gone against the advice of the police and local officers should he wished, though this would have been in contrast to previous practice that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74/12

75/12

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

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    The next meeting of the Committee will be held at 10am on 10 January 2013.

    Minutes:

    It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be at 10.00am on 10 January 2013.