Agenda item

Subject to the required notice being given, members of the public can ask questions of the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holders or Chairmen of Committees.

The Chairman shall determine the number of questions to be tabled at a particular meeting in order to limit the time for questions and answers to 21 minutes.

There are two such questions on this occasion.

Subject to the required notice being given, members of the public could ask questions of the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holders or Chairmen of Committees.

The following questions had been received, on notice, from members of the public:

Question One

From Mr James Machin to Councillor Stock OBE, Leader of the Council:

“Pursuant to the motion to council – “PROPOSED TOWN COUNCIL FOR CLACTON-ON-SEA” voted on and lost at the last Council meeting prior to the District Council elections,  I would draw to the attention of the recently elected representatives Tendring that many councillors voted against the motion solely on the grounds that they felt it was not in their gift to vote on a motion which would force the newly elected representatives to carry forward a motion which they had not the opportunity to debate themselves.

I therefore ask the Leader of the Council to remind the newly elected councillors of Tendring District Council of these discussions, and seek an assurance that the question will be put back to the newly elected councillors for consideration at their earliest opportunity.”

Councillor Stock replied to the question as follows:

“Thank you for your question Mr Machin.

This is a subject which has been debated on more than one occasion in the past by the Council – not only at the meeting you refer to in your question.

From my recollection of the most recent debate one or two Members made reference to not binding the hands of a future administration by making such a significant decision at their last meeting, but it was far from being the dominant reason why the Councillors voted against it.

For my part the most compelling point is the almost complete absence of requests for a Clacton Town Council from the public.

 As was explained in that last debate there is provision for a Community Governance Review to be started off by a public petition and I believe we should refrain from debating the issue again until there is clear evidence of a significant public appetite for the idea of a Clacton Town Council to be considered.”

Question Two

From Mr Steve Kelly to Councillor Stock OBE, Leader of the Council:

“In the light of the top scientific research that is predicting more severe heatwaves, droughts and flooding; will the Council Leader agree that we should be spending more money on both amelioration and adaptation in order to prevent spending more money on climate crisis emergencies in the future?” 

Councillor Stock replied to the question as follows:

“Thank you for your question Mr Kelly.

I do believe that we should take steps in the short term to reduce the Council’s impacts on the environment and to reduce its carbon footprint.

But we have very little evidence of what that is in reality so we must start by getting the evidence and the facts to enable us to take the most appropriate actions which will make a real and lasting difference.

You will have seen from tonight’s Agenda that I am proposing that the Council recognises that this is a significant issue and takes decisive action to establish the facts with regard to its impact on the environment and to come up with an Action Plan – including no doubt actions to ameliorate and adapt - in order to address this issue.”