(NOTE: Members are reminded that Standing Order No. 3.3 requires that Notice of Question pursuant to that Standing Order must be received by the Borough Solicitor NOT LATER THAN 12 O’CLOCK NOON ON WEDNESDAY 14 DECEMBER 2022 )
Minutes:
There were two Members Questions.
Councillor Burgess to the Leader of the Council of the Council
Gosport has the highest percentage of veterans in the country, many of whom have lost colleagues during their service to this country. Gosport is also unique in having three Memorials in the Borough, one at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital, one at the sunken garden in Lee on the Solent as well as the National Memorial to all those in the Fleet Air Arm who lost their lives at sea.
Gosport has always recognised this and has funded road closures to allow the Act of Remembrance to be carried out at both the Gosport War Memorial Hospital and at the National Memorial to the Fleet Air Arm.
Gosport Borough Council is also due to renew its commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant in 2023.
In recognition of the importance to the people of Gosport of the Armed Forces, will the Leader confirm that funding will be in place to enable both Remembrance Services to take place in 2023.
Answer: The Borough Council are commiteed to supporting the Official Remembrance Event at the War Memorial. There were many others that took place throughout the Borough including Elson, Hardway, Bridgemary and Alverstoke and that these were financially independent from the Council.
The Borough Council could not and should not contribute to the cost of road closures and that as a County Councillor, enquireies should be made to the County Council to waive the fees as it should not be for the Borough Council to fund the County Councillor.
Supplimentary Question:
Will Gosport Borough Council fund the road closures for the
Remembrance Event in Lee on the Solent as it had done for the past
20 years to allow vetrans to parade
safely.
The Council does recognise vetrans at the Council’s official event and that any support for funding the event at Lee on the Solent sould be firected to County Counil, or considered being paid for from the devolved Councillor budget.
Councillor Huggins to Councillor Chegwyn.
In May of this year, you increased parking charges to support the 1-hour free parking scheme for all short stay Town Centre car parks, the scheme was offset by implementing an increase to long-stay town centre car parking charges by an average of 10.6%
At the same time, you changed the chargeable periods for all our
seafront and leisure car parks, increasing the chargeable time by 3
hours and in turn, would assume an increase in revenue for the
council but this was not detailed in the report from May. Can the
Leader confirm an estimated income from this since its
implementation on the 1st of August 2022? If not can he
confirm when he will present the findings and impact on revenue of
the additional chargeable 3 hours to Full Council or the relevant
board?
Answer: No.
Supplimentary Question: At the meeting at which the additional parking charges were introduced a deputation was presented to the Council detailing the damaging impact of the charges on access to the seafront. At the time the Leader of the Council advised that he would meet with Stephanie Suter to discuss the matter further, could the Leader of the Council confirm that this meeting had taken place?
Answer: At the meeting it was confirmed that a meeting would take place with parkrun, not the deputee and that this had taken place.
The impact of the changes on parkrun had been measured and there had not been any complaints or reduction in participants or volunteers.
The Leader of the Council advised that the figures raised from leisure car parks was 10.6% which matched the predictions and would help protect the essential services without making cuts.