Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council

Question by George Koowaree to David Brazier, Cabinet Member for Transport & Environment

Recently I witnessed a site employee at the temporary Ashford Household Waste Recycling facility getting into the metal recycling container to rearrange items to maximise the space for additional metal waste apparently because there was no crusher fitted.

Question by George Koowaree to Bryan Sweetland, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste

Would the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste inform the Council of the management and delivery of the Kent roundabout sponsorship programme by way of completing the following table and providing detail of how the income generated has been spent?

Question by George Koowaree to Bryan Sweetland, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste

"With regard to the maintenance and repair of the Shared Space in Ashford, would the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste please tell the Council if he regrets the decision to purchase and ship materials for the shared space from China and Belgium rather than using a UK source and was there any political input in making that decision? Can the Cabinet Member confirm that he will go back to the original scheme that included the expansion of the station forecourt and say how the expansion will be financed?"

At the Kent Liberal Democrat Group AGM on 22nd October, the group positions and spokespersons were agreed:

• Leader [Trudy Dean]
• Deputy Leader [Martin Vye]
• Chairman [Dan Daley]
• Secretary [George Koowaree]
• Treasurer [Ian Chittenden]

Group Spokespeople:

• Democracy & Partnerships [Trudy Dean]
• Finance & Business Support [Tim Prater]
• Customer and Communities [Rob Bird]
• Education, Learning & Skills [Martin Vye]
• Environment, Highways & Waste [Ian Chittenden]
• Regeneration & Enterprise [Tim Prater]
• Adult Social Care & Public Health [George Koowaree]
• Specialist Children Services [Martin Vye]
• Business Strategy & Performance [Trudy Dean]
• Health Reform [Dan Daley]
• KMFRA [Dan Daley & George Koowaree]

Question by George Koowaree to Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children's Services

Is the Cabinet Member for Specialist Children's Services aware of published research demonstrating that:

• child pedestrians can't judge vehicle approach speeds as well as adults. The "speed illusion" problem relates to children's low-level visual detection mechanisms, children's estimates of how fast a vehicle is travelling became unreliable once 20mph is exceeded (Prof. John Wann, Royal Holloway College, London University); and

Question by Mr G Koowaree to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste

Will the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste inform this Council of the criteria for resurfacing deteriorated concrete roads, and provide me with copies of the analysis data reports for:

1. Bond Road, Ashford &
2. Osborne Road, Ashford

Question by George Koowaree to Graham Gibbens, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health

For more than 2 months (since 23 January 2012) I have been asking a relatively simple request* - to be provided with details of the number of KCC funded clients in residential & nursing homes with details of those homes; will the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health give his personal assurance that KCC does know where all our clients are living even if KCC cannot provide me with the details and please inform me what the problems are preventing KCC from providing the information, when these will be sorted and when I will finally be provided with the details I have requested?

Question by George Koowaree to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health

Along with increasing the Blue Badge issue fee from £2.00 to £10.00 KCC has restricted payment to 'payable by cheque only'* - there is no longer provision for applicants to pay by any other payment methods (i.e. postal order, debit card etc.); will the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health inform this council:

Questioning by Liberal Democrat County Councillor George Koowaree on payment methods for Blue Badges in Kent has led to Kent reintroducing postal orders as an acceptable means of payment.

Revisions to the Blue Badge application process by Kent had said that in future payments could be by cheque only. George questioned this, and has been reassured that this has now been amended so that postal orders are again acceptable.

Ashford Councillor George Koowaree commented:

"I'm delighted this change has been made - the team that handle Blue Badge enquiries are now aware of this and the application form and frequently asked questions are currently being updated on the Kent Council website.

"Not everyone has access to a chequebook and bank account, and the extra flexibility of accepting postal orders will make applying for Blue Badges easier for some of our most vulnerable residents. Thank you to the Blue Badge team for thinking about my question and revising their application process."

Question by George Koowaree to the Cabinet Member for Children Services

"Will the Cabinet Member for Children's Services remind the Council of the total expenditure in 2010/11 on commissioning from the voluntary sector of services relating to children's safeguarding and wellbeing, of the planned expenditure on this in 2011/12; inform the Council of the numbers of Service Level Agreements with voluntary organisations working in this field which will be discontinued during this financial year, and of those due to be decommissioned on the 31st of March 2012?"