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Agenda item

Questions by Members

To receive questions from Members under Rule 12 of the Constitution.

Minutes:

The following questions were received from Members under Rule 12 of the Constitution.

 

1.            Councillor Eyles asked the following question of the Leader:

 

“Will the Leader or one of his Executive please explain why the accounts filed at Companies House for Heart of Cumbria Limited in December 2018 were those for its ‘parent company’, ie Eden District Council, and not for Heart of Cumbria Limited only?”

 

The Leader responded as follows:

 

“I am advised that the 2017-2018 accounts for the Company were filed by the due date with Companies House. As permitted under the Companies Act 2006, Council resolved in July 2018 to grant the Company an exemption from audited accounts for 2017-2018. The Act sets out that where an audit exemption has been granted for a subsidiary company, the parent’s audited accounts also need to be filed.”

 

Councillor Eyles then asked a supplementary question querying whether the Heart of Cumbria’s accounts could be put into a more accessible format.

 

The Leader responded that he would pass on the comments to the Directors of Heart of Cumbria.

 

2.            Councillor Eyles asked the following question of the Eden Development Portfolio Holder:

 

“Will the Penrith Masterplan be subject to a formal public consultation?”

 

The Eden Development Portfolio Holder responded as follows:

 

“The Penrith Masterplan in its original form was the subject of a public engagement exercise over an eight-week period between September and October last year. This masterplan itself will not be the subject of a formal public consultation. The results of the public engagement are intended to inform a review of the recently adopted Eden Local Plan and it is this review of the Eden Local Plan that will be the subject of a formal public consultation process possibly commencing in the latter part of this year.”

 

Councillor Eyles then asked a supplementary question querying whether the Executive considered that they would receive further criticisms if it were incorporated into the Local Plan without consultation.

 

The Eden Development Portfolio Holder responded that the Penrith Strategic Masterplan had no formal status at this present time, and it was not intended to be part of the Eden Local Plan at this stage. If going forward it were in a position to inform the Local Plan, the matter would be subject to a full public consultation process.

 

3.            Councillor Eyles asked the following question of the Leader:

 

“Has Eden District Council received any complaints from members of the public about the legality of its ‘engagement’ process with regard to the Penrith Masterplan?”

 

The Leader responded as follows:

 

“No such formal complaints have been received through the Council’s Complaints procedure.”

 

Councillor Eyles then asked a supplementary question querying whether letters from solicitors count as formal complaints.

 

The Leader responded that it would not be appropriate for him to comment on any legal challenge, and he re-iterated that no formal complaints on this topic had been received by the Council.

 

4.            Councillor Eyles asked the following question of the Leader:

 

“If the answer to my previous question, 4, is in the affirmative how many complaints have been received?”

 

The Leader did not respond as this was not applicable.

 

Councillor Eyles then asked a supplementary question querying if the complaints numbered two, with one from a firm of solicitors and one from barrister’s chambers.

 

The Leader responded that he was not party to that information so he could not comment.

 

5.            Councillor Holden asked the following question of the Eden Development Portfolio Holder:

 

“Agenda item 8

 

Paragraph 3.6 and 3.7

 

When will I be sent the final reports of both the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and the Saturn traffic Model update for Penrith 2019.”

 

The Eden Development Portfolio Holder responded as follows:

 

It is hoped that the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment will be received in February.

 

The Saturn traffic model is expected to be completed by the end of February by Cumbria County Council. The model would then be used to undertake a modelling exercise of a variety of potential development scenarios to assist in forming a review of the Local Plan which is to take place possibly in the latter part of this year.

 

A review of the Local Plan would involve the creation of a suite of documents which would be publicly available and available for you to access.  I cannot give a specific date as to when you will have access to these two documents.”

 

Councillor Holden then asked a supplementary question querying when the results of the public engagement exercises be made available to the public and Members.

 

The Eden Development Portfolio Holder responded that it would take considerable time to analyse all the results, and that once it was finalised a report would be brought back to Executive who would make a decision on the way forward.