Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council

Question by Mr T Prater to the Cabinet Member for Finance & Procurement

In view of the damming KPMG report of governance of the Laser scheme and the lack of any committee scrutiny of the setting up of Kent Cultural Trading, will the Cabinet Member for Finance agree to a review of the Governance of all KCC Trading Companies & Business activities to ensure they all represent best value for Kent's residents?

Dear Darren,

I'm writing to you regarding your decision on the objection to the Kent County Council accounts from Mrs Kathy Harrigan that you issued on 5th March.

In that decision (which was reported to the Selection and Member Services Committee of 14 March https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=143&MId=4066&Ver=4), you state (page 5) that:

Question by Tim Prater to Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance & Health Reform

Given the Information Commissioner's concerns about Kent County Council's awareness of its responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act, the Regulations, and the undertaking with the Information Commissioner's Office recently signed by the Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance & Health Reform; can the Cabinet Member please say what additional resources and training, at what additional cost, are to be provided to meet those undertakings with the ICO; and when will these resources be in place to ensure we meet our undertaking, avoid formal action by the ICO and clearly demonstrate to Kent's citizens this council has embraced the culture of openness and transparency the legislation seeks to promote?

Question by Tim Prater to The Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways & Waste

Given the Government announcement of charging foreign lorry drivers to drive on Our roads, and the long term stated aim by this Council of seeing such a scheme pay for a long term solution to Operation Stack, what reassurance has been received that Kent will see additional funding from this scheme to resolve Operation Stack and remove this long term burden on businesses, hauliers and residents?

Kent Lib Dems are delighted that their annual Christmas dress-down day at Kent Council Council raised £608.62 for the Kent Fund for Children.

Over the last few years, over £7,000 has been raised from Kent County Council staff and Councillors for this good cause through the Dress Down Day. You can find out more about the Kent Fund for Children at http://www.kent.gov.uk/news_and_events/news_archive/the_kent_fund_for_children.aspx.

Lib Dem Kent Finance Spokesman Tim Prater has welcomed news that Kent county Council should now recover the large majority of money from its investments in Icelandic banks, but has pointed out that losses and costs over recovery of the funds will still have cost Kent CC around £1.5 million.

The Icelandic Courts ruled on 28 October that Kent County Council and other UK Councils are "preferred creditors", and as such should shortly see the large majority of funds held in Icelandic banks Landsbanki and Glitnir when they crashed in 2008 starting to be paid back to Kent. A third bank, Heritable, has been making staged payments back to Kent for a year and is expected to pay back at least 85% of the total deposit of £18 million Kent County Council had with them.

Question by Tim Prater to Trudy Dean, Chairman of Cabinet Scrutiny Committee

Will the Chairman of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee say what lessons have been learned on the operation of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee since her last report in July 2010?

Answer

In our July 2010 report we called for the Forward Plan to be improved, and that more Scrutiny work should be carried out by the Policy and Overview Committees. We therefore welcome progress on both issues being made, and in particular welcome the proposal for Scrutiny Committees to examine impending decisions before they are approved by Cabinet.

County Councillor Tim Prater has welcomed a reassurance from Kent County Council Leader Paul Carter that the Council "had no plans" to follow other local authorities in making large numbers of staff redundant and offering jobs back on a reduced salary.

The commmitment was made in response to a question from Tim Prater to Paul Carter at Kent County Council's meeting on 21 July.

Question by Mr T Prater to the Leader

"Can the Leader of the Council reassure this Council and its staff that Kent will not use the approach of making large numbers of staff redundant and offering jobs back on a reduced salary, a practice recently used by a number of other authorities?"

Answer

I can confirm that we have no plans to use such an approach.

Councils have been told how they will benefit from the doubling of funding available for repairing potholes as announced in Wednesday's Budget. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has written to all English local highway authorities to inform them of their share of £200m.

To promote greater transparency and accountability, all local highway authorities have agreed to publish information on their website by 30 September 2011 showing where this extra money has been spent.