To receive any requests for Deputations, Presentation of Petitions or Public Questions.
Minutes:
(i) The Council received the following Public Questions from Mr Smith. Mr Geering and Ms Ridehalgh were in attendance for this item. Councillor Barnes-Andrews, Cabinet Member for Resources and Leisure, gave the following response:
Question 1.
Following the 25% cut in funding for the Council Tax Reduction Scheme what is the current status of the Scheme?
Answer
The 25% reduction in the Council Tax Reduction Scheme was implemented with effect from the 1st April 2014. In March 2014 the Council Tax bills were sent to all households in Southampton, and where a tax payer was entitled to receive CTRS, their bill was reduced to reflect their entitlement.
Question 2
What details does the Council possess on non-payment of Council Tax in Southampton?
Answer
The Council is aware of all tax payers who are in arrears of Council Tax, and maintains a full record of the action taken or underway to collect their outstanding payments
Question 3
What is the current state of the Council’s Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Fund?
Answer
A sum set aside for the 2014/15 financial year for the discretionary fund is £200,000. As at the end of August, the number of successful applicants is 935, and there remains a sum of £37,000 in the fund.
(ii) The Council received the following Public Questions from Mr Geering. Ms Watts, Mr Tudor, Ms Field and Mr Jukes were in attendance for this item. Councillor Rayment, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, gave the following response:
Question 1
How did the Council ensure that you adequately gathered and considered information about the disabled people affected by the cuts to local bus passes to enable a proper, informed view about the impact on equality and the risks of discrimination? What evidence did the Council use to properly assess the full impact on disabled people? For example, did you seek information from Spectrum or other local representative disability groups?
Answer
To assess and understand the direct impact of reverting to the national concessionary bus pass scheme for Disabled People, information gathered as part of the application process to assess eligibility based on disability was used. Additional information requested included age, gender, ethnicity and postcode. This information was used to inform the Equality and Safety Impact Assessment and the Cumulative Impact Assessment completed at the time.
Question 2
Regarding the impact on disabled people, how has the Council given proper consideration to the extent, nature and duration of that impact?
Answer
As per the previous response, the information gathered as part of the application process provided a profile of those currently in receipt of a pass and therefore directly affected by the proposal. This customer profile information, alongside local statistics on health and disability, was used to understand and consider the direct and wider impacts of the proposal on existing customers and to enable the identification of actions to help mitigate any negative impacts. From this we were able to identify the number and profile of disabled people affected by this proposal. The cumulative impact of the budget proposals on disabled people was also considered in the Cumulative Impact Assessment.
Question 3
Where there is a negative impact, how have you given consideration to how that could be eliminated or at least mitigated and can you detail what mitigation is offered to the significant number of disabled who do not meet the national criteria?
Answer
Given the financial context, the proposal was to revert to the national scheme and therefore the mitigating action of signposting individuals to the national scheme reflected our conclusion that in this case and for this proposal, the negative impacts were likely to be limited and where such impacts occurred, we considered them to be justified in the wider social and resource context having regard to the need to prioritise key and essential services within Council resources. We considered these actions to be reasonable and proportionate. As the consultation feedback did not identify any specific issues or concerns about the changes to the disabled bus passes, we did not amend the mitigating action.