Minutes:
In accordance with Standing Order
No.34 (9), the following public questions were submitted to the Board by email:
QUESTION 1 - Mr Millea
– Minute No 30
Why was the temporary cremator allowed to run unattended
overnight on Monday 31 January 2022 during gale force winds which could have
resulted in catastrophic incident and what was the result of the incident
investigation as my complaint re this has not yet been addressed by the Council.
RESPONSE:
The temporary crematory was not knowing left
active during the night/early hours of Monday 31 January and Tuesday 1
February.
The fact that it was active was only
discovered by Council staff
at 07:30am on Tuesday 1 February when they arrived on site and discovered that
the unit had not shut down correctly and was running in idle.
We have put measures in place to ensure that this does not happen
again.
The cremator software has
been updated so that it will automatically shut down after one hour of
being in idle mode.
As a further safeguard, the gas is shut off
at the end of each day.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION:
When
and on what date is the “temporary” cremator going to be removed, and if no
firm date is available – why not It should be an
agenda item on this committee meeting until the temp cremator is removed?
Why
the temporary cremator is sited less than 50 metres from the local housing
which is in breach of the Government regulations for siting and positioning of
182 metres minimum 17. The Cremation Act 1902 (Section 5) provides that no
crematorium shall be constructed nearer to any dwelling house than 200 yards
(182.880m)*, except with the consent in writing of the owner, lessee and
occupier of such house, nor within 50 yards (45.720m) of any public highway,
nor in the consecrated part of a burial ground.
RESPONSE:
The installation of the new replacement cremator is scheduled to take
place in June 2022 and after it is installed and fully commissioned, we will be
in a position to consider its removal.
Due to factors beyond our control, we are not currently in a position
to advise how long the installation and commissioning period may be.
Arising from the
discussion, it was agreed that an update report would be provided to the next
Board meeting if the temporary cremator had not been removed.
QUESTION 2 – Mr Ferguson – Minute No 32
With reference to
the Annual Road Traffic Collision and Casualty report, section 4.3 Halton's 2021 Programme.
I applaud the
Council's efforts in working with Cheshire Police to improve the safety of
pedestrians, particularly around schools. The 'Show you care, park elsewhere'
scheme is especially welcomed.
However, as noted
in the Halton 2000 Traffic Collisions Review, poor driver behaviour and the
difficulty in educating drivers remains a serious concern.
The Halton Castle Ward
includes 5 Primary schools, serving over 700 children.
St Mary's Primary feels the need to install parking buddies to remind drivers
to park safely, and Halton Castle Police regularly have to take enforcement
action around St Mary's, The Brow and Bridgewater Park Primary Schools. Local
residents close to Astmoor and St Augustine's Primary schools have also raised
concerns to me about dangerous parking around those schools.
No home in Halton
Castle is more than 10 minutes-walk from the nearest Primary school, and over a
third of our residents do not have access to a car. This combined with the
safety concerns noted earlier, indicate that Halton Castle would be the perfect
place to use as a testing ground for School Streets.
The School Streets
programme brings a collective approach to road safety around schools. It brings
together the school, parents and children, local residents, the Police and the
Local Authority, to develop practical and local solutions that reduce or
eliminate road traffic around schools at the start and end of the day. As well
as road safety benefits, headteachers report that
children are much more alert and their learning experience improves when they
walk, scoot or ride to school.
Will the Council
consider implementing School Streets in Halton Castle, using this as a testing
ground for the possible wider implementation across the Borough, if the
benefits can be demonstrated?
RESPONSE:
Regarding the possibility of trialling a School Street initiative in the
Halton Castle Ward.
Firstly, the possibility of installing a School Street at a Primary
School in Halton was explored recently and was discounted for a number of
reasons. Halton Borough Council, unlike the overwhelming majority of Local
Authorities, does not operate Civil Parking Enforcement and we are totally
reliant on Cheshire Police to undertake all enforcement action. As such, we do
not operate residents’ only parking schemes anywhere in the Borough (Cheshire
Police are unwilling to enforce these restrictions) and given that some form of
residents’ permit is a requirement of any new Traffic Management Order, it is
difficult to envisage how such a scheme could operate in Halton.
We are also constrained by a lack of resources and from a financial
perspective, the use of rising bollards and ANPR cameras is not something we
could fund from existing budgets. We also don’t have sufficient staff to deploy
at School Street sites to install temporary signage and barriers. Likewise, the
school where this type of initiative was explored indicated that they do not
have enough staff available to put out and take in temporary traffic barriers,
or space to store them. I imagine that this would be a similar picture at other
schools.
Looking at the collision statistics for the five Primary Schools in
Halton Castle, there have been no recorded injury collisions on the approach
roads to four of the schools in the previous five years. There has been one
recorded injury collision (a slight) on Kingshead
Close, adjacent to Astmoor Primary School. This collision occurred in January
2017, at 12:49pm and not during the school run.
Supporting documents: