To receive questions from Members on any matter for which the Council has powers, duties or affects the City.
Minutes:
In accordance with Standing Order No. 8, the following question was put by Councillor Wetenhall to the Leader:
“The Council's Charter says we will publish results detailing the responses received and explaining how we have taken these into account in arriving at a decision.
This does not appear to be happening in a reasonable timescale. What does the Leader believe is a reasonable timescale for the publication of consultation results, after the consultation closes?”
The Leader responded stating that the timing of publishing responses to public consultation would vary according to the nature of each consultation activity and he was guided by officers on this. He would expect consultation responses to be published on our website around the time any related decision was likely to be taken. For example, the results of both the Budget consultation and the new Corporate Plan Priorities consultation which closed in mid-January 2025 were both published on the Council Website on 4th February 2025 to align with the budget setting process.
Consistency in the approach to publishing consultation feedback reports was a priority for the Strategic Director for People and Communities now responsible for ensuring the spirit of the consultation Charter was met. To ensure there are sufficient resources to enable this, the Director had redesigned resources to create a new post of Consultation and Engagement Manager reporting to the Head of Service Customer and Communities and Ben Langston had started in this new role on 10th February 2025. The Director had assured the Leader that a priority for the new role would be to ensure that consultation feedback reports were uploaded on the Council website in a timely and consistent manner.
In a supplementary question Councillor Wetenhall asked how the failure identified by internal audit was taken into account and would this be part of the remit of the new Consultation and Engagement Manager. The Leader responded stating that he was satisfied that the Council would carry out what was in the Charter and that responses would be taken into account in the making of decisions.
In accordance with Standing Order No. 8 the following question was put by Councillor Banyard to the Portfolio Holder for Housing, Homelessness Prevention and Customer Services:
According to the minutes of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Group for South Street and Cathedral Green, a representative from St Petrock’s stated that Exeter has 20-30 rough sleepers on any given night, yet the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) only provides 8 additional beds. When temperatures drop to freezing, how does the council ensure no one is left without shelter in severe weather?
Councillor Asvachin responded stating that the estimates of actual numbers of clients rough sleeping in Exeter on any given night could vary and the figure quoted may include clients who used St Petrock’s services for showers, food etc. and may not be rough sleeping, albeit in precarious accommodation situations. The monthly data the Council return to the MHCLG, the intelligence from our commissioned Outreach services of Julian House and our annual count figure continues to confirm numbers were in the low teens.
SWEP was limited by the amount of accommodation the Council and partners had to offer. Some clients would regularly refuse an offer to come in and some clients with accommodation still chose to sleep rough. If a client wanted to come in during cold weather of course the team would do all they could to try to find them a bed.
In a supplementary question Councillor Banyard asked if there were any plans to increase SWEP beds and Councillor Asvachin responded that the team were hoping to work with St Petrock’s and other partners to see what could be done to ensure no-one was left without accommodation.