October 2011 – Written Question about flooding in St Margaret’s Road

Question

Would the portfolio holder please provide details of any council correspondence with Thames Water over resolving the issue of flooding in and around St Margaret’s Road in Hanwell earlier this year?

Answer

According to our records neither Customer Services nor the Highways department have received any enquiries from residents regarding flooding issues on St Margaret’s Road this year.  

Thames Water have also been consulted by our Network Management Team to verify whether they had any burst water main pipes on this road this year – according to their records, they have not had any on St Margaret’s Road.  

However, on receivingthe question officer have visited St Margaret’s Road and have established that there are two damaged gullies in St Margaret’s Road. Orders have been issued to the Highways contractor to replace these gullies and these works will be completed within the next 4 weeks.

July 2011 – Written Question about Library Hours

Question

What criteria will be used to decide the reduction in opening hours at libraries around the borough?

Answer

Officers have reviewed the:  

• Volume of transactions in the first hour of opening;
• Volume of transactions after 7:00pm;
• A snapshot of visitor and users on the hour every hour which shows the volume of people entering and leaving the building and a headcount of those in the libraries at that time. 
• Take account of the summer exam period and demand for the service at this time.

July 2011 – Written Question about Library funding

Question

Will the Portfolio holder please give a detailed breakdown of how the funds from the sale of the “Birth of Eve” painting will be spent on the Library service? 

Answer

Activity	Initial Estimates
New Computers	20 @ approx £1,500 each  £30k
WiFi in all libraries and community centres	£90k
Upgrade and replacement of out of date Pc’s	£60k
Electronic Readers (compliant with e books)	300 @ £155 each £46,500k
Improved scanning and printing facilities	£15k
Display equipment to enable visual arts and exhibitions	£25k
Arts, crafts and family games for children improved library offer	£5k
Specialist archiving and local History software; improvements to archives storage and access	£25k
Refurbishment of library buildings	£273,500
Total	£570,000

June 2011 – Written Question about traffic-free cycling events

Question

Following the success of last year’s Sky Ride in Ealing and the offer made by the London Mayor at a public meeting in Greenford earlier this year to share the costs of a future event, what progress has been made to plan another traffic-free cycle ride in the borough?

Answer

The Skyride event in 2010 required six months of planning, input and involvement from several Council Departments and cost the Council approximately £20,000 to organise with advanced works, traffic planning, marketing and communication. Even with a shared cost contribution, it is felt that the considerable staff resources required to support another event are not justified at this time. The Council’s transport planning service is instead focussing resources this year on delivering the main action plan priority in the Council’s Cycling Strategy – cycle hubs.  The first of these is being planned for Ealing Broadway.  The Council does however remain open to hosting a future Skyride event in future years.

April 2011 – Written Question about Hanwell station

Question

What progress has the Portfolio holder made in re-opening the southern entrance, more frequent services and step free access at Hanwell Station?

 Answer

 The Transport Planning team has recently begun further work to look at options for a potential southern entrance and possible step free access options at Hanwell Station. The initial work is due to be completed by the end of May 2011.

Additional services at Hanwell Station were considered as part of the Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel. The planned Crossrail service pattern is constrained by the need to accommodate other services on the Great Western Relief Lines. These include the non-Crossrail passenger services, which will continue to run, providing a service beyond Maidenhead and crucially, the need to provide adequate paths for both present and anticipated growth in demand for freight services. Officers continue to have dialogue with Network Rail on this issue who are very aware of the Council’s desire for increased frequency of service.

April 2011 – Written Question about the future of the Library service

Question

Please can the Portfolio Holder outline what consultation the Council has had with the trade unions in relation to the proposal to use volunteers to run libraries instead of professional librarians?

Answer

All staff have been briefed on the consultation and its contents, including the proposal to use Volunteers in the libraries. Senior managers also met with Trade Unions to specifically discuss the consultation process and the contents of the consultation. The results of the consultation will be presented to Cabinet in June / July. If any decisions are made arising from the consultation that have a direct impact on staff, then a formal consultation period with staff and Trade Unions will take place.

April 2011 – Written Question on repairs to Ealing Homes

Question

I have a constituent in Felix Road, West Ealing who has been waiting for over a year for the outside wall to their bathroom to be repaired. Can the Portfolio Holder ensure that the repair works will be completed now that Ealing Homes has been brought back in-house?

How many repairs had been waiting for more than six months at the time when Ealing Homes was brought back in-house?

Answer

The repair works have taken longer than expected due to the construction of the original wall. I can assure Councillor Bakhai that the repairs will be completed.

At 31st March 2011 – 47 repair jobs were outstanding. This is in the context of a total of 43,334 repair jobs requested by tenants.

March 2011 – Written Question on Grimebusters hotline

Question

How many out of hours calls have been made to the new Grimebusters hotline in the three months since its introduction? 

How much has been spent on the new Grimebusters hotline in the three months since its introduction? 

Answer

The following number of out of hour’s calls have been received on the Grimebusters hotline.
December – 43
January  – 51
February  – 28

£2,700 per month for additional team to provide additional resource to supply a weekend graffiti service.  (NB this cost will not apply from June 2011 when the new graffiti removal contract commences and the 24 hour graffiti service cost will be absorbed into overall contract value)Emergency cleansing and standard fly-tipping reports via Grimebusters are already covered within the overall contract cost.
Ealing Customer Services (for daytime calls) have absorbed any additional workload as part of standard costs.
Out of hours call handling (evening and weekends) is £1.85 x call.  Total of  £225.70.
General comms/marketing: £10,712
Vehicle livery (grimebusters number): £3,279
This expenditure as well as our focus on keeping the borough clean has resulted in the best results ever for street cleanliness. The month’s monitoring figures show 96% of our streets in the borough received a ‘grade A’ score. In the last eight months there has been a succession of good results. In July, 93.5% of the borough’s streets were grade A, in August this rose to 95.6% and in September 94.6% of streets achieved this result. A 90% score in October and November was also the best ever achieved at that time of year when it is harder to gain good results because of falling leaves in the autumn. In December the results were up again to 95% being grade A.

February 2011 – Written Question on Apprentice schemes for Young Offenders

Question 

Does the council offer apprentice schemes to train ex-youth offenders, and if so, how many ex-offenders does the council currently employ?

 What does the council do to encourage its contractors and businesses in Ealing to give apprenticeships or training to young offenders following their release from custody to aid their rehabilitation?

Answer

The Council’s Apprenticeship Scheme is not specifically targeted towards any particular group. As part of the recruitment process young people including ex-offenders aged 16-24 are eligible to apply for a range of apprenticeship opportunities. When apprenticeship vacancies are advertised (twice a year) information is sent to the Youth Offending Team, which is then circulated to any young people interested in applying for an apprenticeship.

In 2011 the apprenticeship scheme is expanding to become the apprenticeships programme and will now include a ‘pre-employment’ element.  The pre-employment programme will target young people (16-24) who need some additional support in order to be ready to undertake an apprenticeship (or other forms of employment).  This will be a 16-22 week work placement that will include a structured training programme.  Successful completion of the programme will guarantee the young person an interview for an apprenticeship.

The apprenticeship scheme promotes apprenticeships externally with businesses through holding ‘Business Breakfasts’. We are working to amend our procurement policy so that tendering process can be used to ensure suitable contractors take on apprentices. We also work with the National Apprenticeship Service, Ealing BID Company and the 14-19 team to encourage our supply chain to create apprenticeships for 16-18 year old employees; and through S106 planning agreements. The apprenticeship scheme does not hold information on how many ex-offenders are employed across the council.

Ealing Youth Offending Service (YOS) is a multi-agency partnership led by the Council, which undertakes a range of programmes to engage young offenders in education, training and employment (ETE). It regularly achieves the best performance in London in terms of engaging young offenders in positive activities. This includes ensuring they are reintegrated into School, College, Employment and Training options, including the Councils Apprenticeship Scheme.

For the past 2 years, the Council has run a V Talent pre-employment volunteering scheme, which provides expenses to 15 young people who volunteer 30 hours per week, in placements in Children’s services for a year. Young people who demonstrate the skills and expertise required to become an apprentice, can then transfer onto the Apprentice scheme when their V Talent placement ends. A number of young people known to the YOS have taken up V Talent positions as a route into the apprentice scheme. Government funding for V Talent is ending this year. The Council has prioritised investing in a similar in-house scheme from 2011/12, which will increase the opportunities available to young people, including young offenders.

February 2011 – Oral Question on the future of Hanwell & Perivale Libraries

Question

Will the Portfolio holder reassure library users that the Council has no plans to close Hanwell or Perivale libraries or the Mobile Library Service?

Answer

A review of the library service is currently being undertaken to inform our decisons on the future direction for libraries. This is looking at:

* Improving the Service Offer

* Buildings and locations

* Partnerships

* Value for Money

* Organisation and delivery

We are looking at how cost effective the library service is and how the service offer meets local needs. We will need to make decisions in the light of this. This will involve consideration of - fewer but better buildings; deciding how we might continue providing a service in different ways and, in some instances, stop doing things that are no longer cost effective and improve the overall service offer. Currently we operate from thirteen library buildings; a mobile library; home library service; the hospital library based at Ealing Hospital and an on-line access to the library service.

No decisions have yet been made and public consultation will commence at the end of the month.

December 2010 – Written Question on Ealing Arts Centre

Question

Following the statement attributed to a Council spokesperson in Friday 10th December’s Ealing Gazette questioning the viability of the Ealing Arts Centre project, will the Leader give his assurance that he supports the need for an arts centre in Ealing and provide details of the next steps he is planning to take to improve facilities for the arts in the borough?

Answer

Council officers and Members of all Political Parties have put a good deal of time into considering options to increase the provision of space for Arts and Cultural activities in Ealing and remain supportive of this idea. We will continue to work with Arts Groups in Ealing to improve access to space in Ealing Town Hall and other Buildings around the Borough and would encourage Groups to come forward to book space, which is offered at subsidised rates.  We cannot, however, ignore the requirement to cover our running costs and groups will need to accept that their activities will need to run alongside other events that are valued by other parts of the community.Officers are preparing a report to go to the Overview and Scrutiny meeting of 3rd February 2011 and we will be inviting Ealing Arts, together with representatives from University of West London and Questors Theatre to contribute their thoughts. An important first step will be to convert the Telfer room on the Ground Floor of Ealing Town Hall into a Dance Studio.  This was one of the proposals that came forward from a business plan developed by Ealing Arts.  We are grateful to St George, developers of the Dickens Yard site, who have agreed to the early release of s106 funding to fund most of this project.