CQ419 - 11 from Councillor Gerry Ryan

Can the Leader reassure all Elected Members following the recent scandal of phone and email hacking that none of their Council phones or email accounts has been subject to such abuses.

We have no evidence or reported incidents of phone or email hacking.

CQ421 - 11 from Councillor Eddy Arram

If the reserves of the Council were at their August 2005 level would the Council have been in a position to offer help to those residents and businesses that had been affected by the wanton damage caused during the riots to the level that in fact did.

Our reserves for the year ended 2005/06 were £4.530m compared to the current reserves balance of £11.597m. This is clearly substantially better than the all time low of a few hundred thousand created by the Labour Administration.

It is estimated that the full cost of the damage incurred by Croydon will be met by Government funding. The Government has made available, nationally;-

¾ A £10 million Recovery Scheme to assist Councils with the immediate costs of making their areas safe and clean again, and ¾ a £20 million High Street Support Scheme to both assist local firms that were affected by the riots to rebuild their business and to rebuild community confidence and hence trade in the areas in which they are located. Croydon has an indicative allocation of £2m from this fund.

At an early stage the Council identified and put at risk £100,000 to help those families directly impacted by the recent civil unrest in the borough. This Family Support Fund was made available immediately from the Council's reserves, and funds were released to help support those families who were made homeless. It is expected that this can be claimed back from the recovery scheme.

The Mayor of Croydon's Charity Fund accepted donations to help those affected by the unrest.

Croydon Council, alongside other local authorities, joined with a group of high-profile companies and the Mayor of London to create the High Street Fund. Local shops and small businesses that suffered from the disturbances are benefiting from that cash fund.

CQ424 - 11 from Councillor Chris Wright

Would the Leader please outline the plans for Croydon to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in June 2012?

Croydon will be supporting local communities to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

In 2011 Croydon residents celebrated both the Royal Wedding and the Big Lunch, with a combined total of over 80 street parties, events in parks and other council land.

To help residents and groups organise their celebrations for the Big Jubilee Lunch on 3 June 2012, I intend to the reduce the bureaucracy that surrounds the organisation of street parties in particular covering the Traffic Management Order (TMO) cost normally involved in applying for a road closure. To make the process as easy as possible residents will be able to register their events through a single online party event form.

I propose that Croydon takes part in the national Beacon lighting that will be taking place throughout the United Kingdom.

Further details about Croydon’s celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee will be published on our Diamond Jubilee pages shortly: ww.croydon.gov.uk/community/equality/rwbl/dl

CQ436 - 11 from Councillor Adam Kellett

Can Ken Livingstone's announcement that he would cut fares if he was elected as Mayor of London be believed in view of his past history on fares policy?

No, this demonstrates again how the Labour candidate for Mayor of London is out of touch with reality and London’s financial challenges. When Ken Livingstone was in office his inflationary busting increases were greater than under the current Mayor this included an increase of 36.46% on bus fares in his second term.

He has announced fare reductions with no idea of how they will be paid for and what that would mean for the transport infrastructure which is the life blood of the economic recovery.

TFL has labelled the policy “completely irresponsible” and the only way to achieve such reductions would be sweeping cuts across the network- with massive delays to upgrading programme for the underground and reduced spending on buses which would mean cuts to bus routes.

For Croydon this could mean drastic reductions to our bus services and increased risks to safety with likely cuts to police on the transport network directly impacting

As always with Labour politicians it’s spend, spend, spend without thinking of the consequences to our residents and businesses.

CQ453 - 11 from Councillor Tony Newman

On key political issues your Cabinet Member Councillor O’Connell now states he is against the Tory led Coalition Governments planning policy and against Boris Johnson's cuts to police numbers and train station staff, do you share his views?

The Leader of the Opposition has again got his facts wrong. Councillor O’Connell and the Mayor of London are at one on the approach to transport and community safety issues protecting the interest of Londoners and Croydon residents. The Coalition Government is consulting on its draft planning policies listening to communities, planning professionals, developers and locally elected representatives to make sure they introduce a new planning policy framework that supports economic growth whist protecting our countryside and driving our economic recovery.

CQ454 - 11 from Councillor Tony Newman

How many staff is your new Council office designed to accommodate?

The Bernard Weatherill House is designed as a Public Services Delivery Hub which will facilitate integrated services provision with partners to the residents of Croydon. This will include a remodelled Access Croydon provision.

The Bernard Weatherill House is also a key component of the Councils property rationalisation and will enable release of properties around the borough.

The Bernard Weatherill House is planned on the basis of having c1900 workstations plus a meeting room suite, other meeting rooms, breakout and touch down areas throughout the building.

The Council is developing new ways of working approaches to increase overall efficiency of space utilisation and improve services to our customers. This includes the introduction of four new work styles, namely home, fixed, mobile and flexible working.

On the current assumed ratio or 3:2 of staff: desks, we anticipate that a total of approx 2,400 people will be in Bernard Weatherill House on a daily basis.

CQ455 - 11 from Councillor Tony Newman

In light of the need to encourage jobs and business to both stay in Croydon and move here do you agree with me that we should look again at your decision to close down so much of our Towns Artistic offer that used to be based in the Clock Tower complex.

The council is committed to working to enhance the provision of the cultural and artistic facilities within Croydon. It is doing this in partnership with key cultural organisations. In addition the council is directly delivering arts participation for adults, particularly vulnerable groups and young people, through a new youth arts participation scheme.

All opportunities will be sought to provide a sustainable cultural offer in the town centre. This will include exploring opportunities for future uses of the facilities in the Clock tower in addition to the current facilities, the Central Library, the Museum of Croydon, the Riesco collection and the borough archive.

CQ456 - 11 from Councillor Stuart Collins

The estimated cost of full repairs following the riots is higher than our share of the £20 million fund mentioned by the Mayor of London. Will the Leader use some of the Council’s substantial capital reserves, which is of course Council tax payer’s money, to bridge any funding gap?

The Council do not have any capital reserves and therefore could not use these.

The Council has worked very closely with the government to ensure that Croydon can get back to business as soon as possible. The Government has made available, nationally;-

The £20m enterprise and growth package referred to in the question is a separate funding stream provided by the Government but delivered through the Mayor of London and is available to both Croydon and Haringey with the intention “to kick-start economic regeneration, support business and deliver new job opportunities”. The London Enterprise Fund is intended to provide specific, targeted support for Tottenham and Croydon to “arrest and reverse economic decline, provide immediate investment and boost the local economies” and is seen as a longer term initiative rather than funding to cope with the immediate aftermath of the civil disorder.

CQ468 - 11 from Councillor Sherwan Chowdhury

According to financial analysis of this country, government members are saying that as a consequence of the global recession governments and all local authorities are facing significant reduction of funding. Could the Leader confirm this to me explain how Croydon is affected by department?

As a result of the 2010 Spending Review the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2011/12 and 2012/13 (provisional) resulted in actual cash reductions, after damping, of 11.2% and 8.3% respectively in Croydon’s formula grant. Although the Settlement does not go beyond 2012/13 the Spending Review’s figures indicates that for 2013/14 and 2014/15 Croydon’s Formula Grant (or its successor) will be reduced, in cash terms, by a further 1.0% and 6.5% respectively. This 27% reduction (equating to £34.9m in cash terms) compares with the Government’s stated reduction for local government as a whole of 26%.

The Council’s decisions on where spending reductions fall are guided both by local residents’ responses made via the on-line budget simulator and on the feedback received from the consultation processes.

CQ474 - 11 from Councillor Simon Hall

There are concerns in Fieldway-New Addington about plans the Council may have for particular buildings and plots of land they own. It is understood that an assessment has been made of locations but nothing has been made public even though it seems some plans may have been drawn up and this has caused rumours and worries. Will the Leader provide any plans/ proposals for altered use of any Council-owned site, even if they are not firmed up? In particular, will he provide details of any plans for Fishers Farm with the possible re-siting of the refuse and recycling facility from there to Vulcan Way and Addington High to there, as mentioned by Cllr Pearson? In addition, are there any locations where new housing is being envisaged?

The Council is developing a regeneration strategy for New Addington. Key elements include:

1. Central Parade West – the relocation of Council services into the CALAT building. The resultant vacant area will be subject to a revised regeneration plan. 2. Outer London Fund – the Council has been successful in securing £0.56M from the London Mayor to deliver quick-win public realm improvements to Central Parade by March 2012. A meeting has been arranged to discuss this work to which Cllr Hall has been invited.

There are no plans to re-site the recycling centre from Fishers Farm, or any firm proposals for new housing.

CQ480 - 11 from Councillor Matthew Kyeremeh

How well is Croydon Council "challenging their officials to do more with less" (Eric Pickles MP & Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) in Croydon? Is Step Change doing the trick or has it become another way of doing things the same old way?

Croydon Council has set a very clear expectations that the organisation will need to deliver more with less and this is exactly what has been happening through our Step Change programme and related initiatives. These have enabled the Council to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency savings year on year while improving core services, implementing more innovative practice and achieving much better outcomes for local people. Don’t just take my word for it; Croydon has won the national LGC award for efficiency/innovation in each of the last two years, the only Council in the country to do so. Now if that isn’t “more for less”, I don’t know what is!

CQ481 - 11 from Councillor Matthew Kyeremeh

What is the Council doing to bring about "balance in the workforce between highly- paid officers and the people on the frontline, delivering the services" (Eric Pickles MP & Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) in Croydon?

The Council uses recognised factor-based job evaluation schemes to determine the grade and salary of its posts. These schemes systematically rank jobs logically and fairly by comparing different elements of each role against a validated scale to determine the relative size and value of the jobs to the organisation. Generally, the Council uses the Hay job evaluation scheme for posts at tier three and above whilst the trade union endorsed Greater London Provincial Council (GLPC) scheme and pay spine is used for posts at tier four and below.

The salary levels of roles at tier three and above are carefully benchmarked by periodic comparison to market rates, the principle tool for doing so being the London Council’s pay survey.

Some of the savings made include ¾ Salaries for chief officers have been frozen since April 2008. ¾ Reduction in senior manager posts saving £1.35mil

The above mechanism for determining pay is robust and it is not considered that that there is an imbalance between senior staff and those at the front-line.

CQ483 - 11 from Councillor Shafi Khan

May I thank the Leader for coming to Norbury and facing the questions from residents in September? During that meeting, in his speech Leader claimed “we are a listening council”. Can the Leader tell us on what occasions he changed his mind or change the direction of policy to show that he is leading a listening council?

The Question Time events have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience – getting out there and talking to hardworking residents about their priorities, issues and concerns.

This council demonstrates consistently that it listens to its residents. In our allocation of resources and the budget setting process we have used the on-line budget simulator to ensure all our residents and customers have a voice. We have listened to what they said ensured we prioritised and protected the services they most valued. This was reflected in the budget for 2011/12.

We listened to the 20,000 people who told us they didn’t want to see a single library closed and developed the approach of going to the market to see if a provider could maintain all branch libraries.

We listened when residents responded to the consultation on parking restrictions around the hospital and stopped the scheme.

We listened to traders when they told us they needed more support to recover after the riots, we gave out almost £200,000 in interest-free loans and gave every affected business £1,000 immediately to help them with repairs.

We listened when New Addington, residents told us they wanted to see council investment in the Central Parade area – and we set aside £500,000 of government funding to achieve it.

We listened during the Secondary School Review when New Addington residents told us that they wanted to keep Addington High open; we listened.

And it’s not just the big issues we have listen to, throughout the Question Time events we have responded to what we have been told – from replacing or removing benches to moving bins and filling potholes.

CQ494 - 11 from Councillor Karen Jewitt

Can the Leader of the Council please pass on to the Condem Government this councils absolute disgust that the health department are on their third set of talks with the company Netcare. These meetings are regarding the intention of this disreputable organisation running our NHS organ donor programme. This abhorrent company was found guilty and fined a large amount of money earlier this year for selling organs of poor African children to the highest payer.

There has been no national decision on the provision of the NHS organ donor programme or the development of formal relationships with potential provides of such a service.

Procurement and contracting processes within the public sector are heavily regulated and defined, ensuring there is an accountable and transparent process for the selection of partners and contractors. This includes an evaluation process that ensures all partners and companies are fit for purpose.

CQ507 - 11 from Councillor Raj Rajendran

Would the Cabinet Member supply, how much amounts the Complaints Resolution Team (CRT) levied during the financial year 2010/11, for failing to resolve complaints within time limit on Stage one, Stage two and LG Ombudsman with the break down of each Department of i. Adult Services and Housing (DASH) ii. Children, Young People and Learners (CYPL) iii. Community Services (CS) iv. Planning, Regeneration and Conservation (PRC) v. Resources and Customer Services (RCS)

The Complaint resolution team (CRT) make an internal recharge to departments for stage 2 and Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) complaints. This includes an additional charge for stage 2 complaints of £50 a day when a response is not received within 8 working days of the initial request from CRT. For LGO complaints this is £100 a day for every day it is overdue.

The recharge reflects additional effort and resource in chasing and supporting departments who are unable to respond within the required deadline, and which will then potentially result in a delay to our residents.

Details of when re charges for 2010/11 have been levied are below:

Stage 2

Month Dept Amount £ Number of Days overdue cases November DASH £50 1 1 PRC £50 1 1 December DASH £150 1 3 DASH £400 1 8 CS £300 1 6 RCS £150 1 3 January CS £200 1 4 RCS £100 1 2

LGO

Month Dept Amount £ Number of Days overdue cases November CYPL £100 1 1 March RCS £400 1 4

CQ512 - 11 from Councillor Pat Ryan

How much ahead of any sale or transfer to your CCURV operation has Taberner House been valued at?

Taberner House was committed to CCURV at Commercial Close on 17 November 2008. However, the site will not be transferred to CCURV until defined readiness for development criteria have been met by both the Council and CCURV. The final transfer value will be determined at that time.

CQ513 - 11 from Councillor Pat Ryan

Have any of your Group taken any increase in their Council SRA in the last twelve months.