The Chairman of the Council, Chairs of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.
Minutes:
21.1 Question 1 Councillor Otton to Councillor Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance
I am very concerned that approximately 8000 Mid Suffolk residents still have not received their £150 energy grant; what is the council doing to make sure they are able to receive this money and avoid having to use pawn brokers or similar financial organisations that charge a fee?
Response from Councillor Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance
As at 17June this year, the Council had paid out £4.2M to 28,273 households. This is around 82% of those identified as potentially eligible. The majority of these council tax payers pay their council tax by direct debit and have been paid. Those remaining are either where there is a mismatch between the account name and the bank account name, or the first direct debit is still to be collected for council tax which is part of the pre-payment assurance Those cases where there has been a mismatch, which the Council has been unable to resolve, will be written to this week. For those 6,741 who still do not pay their council tax by direct debit, a letter was issued on 10 June. The letter signposted to a secure online form where there are two options; either to provide bank details so that the Councils can credit the £150 to a bank account, or elect to have the money payable to their council tax accounts reducing future payments. A three week window was given for completion of this form. At the end of the three week window any council tax payer who has not completed the form will have the £150 allocated in full to their council tax account. As at 19 June, 46% of caseload have completed the form.
Supplementary Question
Will Mid Suffolk be involved in establishing the criteria and the mechanisms for assessing the upcoming government hardship funds and energy grants?
Response from Councillor Whitehead
My understanding from general reading is that the future rebates are going onto either electric or gas accounts and I think this will be cause some for confusion for people who use oil for example rather than gas accounts will be paid but it’s something which is being looked at very closely at the moment.
The Chief Executive advised that the District Councils would not be involved in these payments.
Question 2 Councillor Davies to Councillor Burn, Cabinet Member for Planning
Why can't CIL funds be used for feasibility studies for community infrastructure projects?
Response from Councillor Burn, Cabinet Member for Planning
There has been a cross-party, cross-Council, Member working group ever since CIL expenditure first started in 2018 (following the introduction of CIL in 2016). This Member Panel has developed the CIL Expenditure Framework, which Council has adopted. It has been revised each year since 2018 and indeed has been meeting in June this year to agree a revised CIL Expenditure Framework, which will come to Council in July.
It has long been the view of the member group that CIL funds should be spent on the infrastructure itself, which is also required by the legislation, not on feasibility studies for community-led projects. Of course, in many communities where development has occurred, those Parish Councils receive Neighbourhood CIL themselves, which they can use to develop projects through the feasibility stage ahead of making a bid to the Councils CIL funds. There is also an opportunity for Parishes to receive support through our Community grants system and together with the prospect of other external funding, Parishes and other local community projects enjoy the potential of different funding streams to support their feasibility studies and start-up costs for their infrastructure projects.
The Member Working Group includes myself, Councillors Mansel and Field, as well as Councillor Brewster so if you would like a more detailed discussion with any of us, or indeed with Christine Thurlow who leads on CIL from an officer perspective, then I’m sure any of us would be happy to talk.
Supplementary question
Why have CIL funds been used to pay for feasibility studies to Network Rail on two occasions at the same site.
Response from Councillor Burn
I would need to look into that to give you a proper response. If you wouldn’t mind giving me some time I will get back to you.
Question 3 Councillor Mellen to Councillor Flatman, Cabinet Member for Communities
What progress has been made on the electric bus project which was agreed earlier this year?
Response from Councillor Flatman, Cabinet Member for Communities
Following a discussion with my fellow Cabinet Members regarding the research and development which has taken place so far in respect of the electric bus funding project, we would like to invite all Councillors to a briefing about our steer to Officers so far and our planned approach to decision making including the formation of a cross party working group. Councillors will receive an invitation to this meeting later this week. In addition, we have an intern in place for the summer who is tasked with and has commenced evidence gathering specifically in respect of other regional and national schemes and their short and long-term viability and sustainability.
Supplementary question
Since the main limiting factor in getting this project started is the long lead time for delivery of an electric bus should we not quickly decide which model to choose and get one ordered?
Response from Councillor Flatman
There will be a lot of viability studies and a lot to decide on. If you are a County Councillor, you will know that the County are leading in a pilot at the moment on Catch and they have extended this pilot to December and I think we would be absolutely mad to go down a road that we may have answered for us as well.
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