A Jeremy Corbyn-style question time has been held for the first time at Hull City Council. Questions were submitted from members of the public on a range of issues around the city. All 36 are listed below. Scroll down to submit your own question to the council and to see Angus Young‘s report from the meeting on how the new format went down.
The questions:
1) When is the council going to resurface and in some places level the public pavement on the golf course side of Wymersley Road?
2) I would like to know if the opening hours at the Ferens Art Gallery and the museums can be changed on Sundays? Whenever I go into town to visit them I find I end up wandering around waiting for them to open, along with many other `people. The we end up queuing outside along with a large crowd waiting for them to open.I think that at weekends when people are visiting from other cities or countries it is unacceptable to not be able to visit these places earlier.
3) Why is everything being to improve the town centre but the estates are left? The streets are a disgrace with litter all over the place. The cutbacks on the gardening side means grass isn’t cut properly and weeds are left to grow all over the place. Roads are full of potholes which cause damage to cars as you can’t avoid them all the time.
4) When you came into power you made a solemn promise that you would not touch funding for the elderly, infirm and vulnerable for the city but yet you have done. How do you manage to sleep at night knowing you lied so convincingly to the people that you represent?
5) Is commercial sponsorship being sought for some services such as libraries?
6) I’m really concerned with the state of Holland Street / New Bridge Road / Holderness Road. The amount of rubbish and household goods left outside terraces and properties is both unsightly and a health hazard. The council should not stand idly by as the properties recently renovated to a good standard are not being looked after. The field has been totally ruined – the trees have been removed leaving nowhere for birds and wildlife to nest. As for both Newbridge Road and Holderness Road, if the city centre’s drinking ban were to be extended into these areas it would make these places much safer and much more pleasant as well as encourage more people to shop there as I know many people mare put off currently by these problems. Are there are any plans to do anything about these issues.
7) What is being done about the amount of traffic caused from all the new houses built off Saltshouse Road?
8) Has any provision been made regarding more schools in the Spring Cottage area as the existing school is certainly not big enough to cope with the number of extra families moving into the area?
9) Why would anyone think it would be a good idea to build houses on Haworth Park playing fields in north Hull?
10) Why is the council not tackling the state of the roads and footpaths in this city instead of spending millions of pounds on pet projects, all based in the city centre?
11) What more could the council be doing to make improvements to Pickering Park ?
12) When will the various potholes in the tenfoots in Laburnum Avenue be fixed?
13) What is the council doing to make Holderness Road a safer environment to shop in? In particular, what is being done to tackle cyclists on the pavements?
14) What work is being done to ensure that damage caused by trees to the pavements is being fixed in Anlaby Park?
15) What is going to be done about the state of Beverley Road from Beresford Avenue into the city centre?
16) My question relates to the subject of fluoridation as I am sure it does by many thousand others. Why are they so keen on going ahead? How are Yorkshire Water agreeing to this? They are our water supplier, not the council! We pay Yorkshire Water to provide us with their best quality and purist product at a reasonable price. We don’t want to be paying more for an added substance which we really can do without. In addition, what about products manufactured and containing this water? Will they be highlighted as containing fluoride, like toothpastes, so that people can decide whether to buy or not? As for the piped water supply, why should we have to buy and use bottled water to avoid the contaminant when we are already paying for the piped supply?
17) Will council tax be put up next year?
18) Why has the council closed the very popular motorcycle and go-kart facilities and other youth projects, leaving many young people with little to do?
19) I would like to know why the council allows the people of Rockford Avenue, Brendon Avenue and Lamorna Avenue to suffer the worst bus service in the city?
20) Why is there no crossing anywhere near the casino in George Street? Our son goes to Trinity Academy and walks there but we would like a crossing of some sorts so he could cross safely. Traffic is very bad and fast on this junction and I do not want any accidents to happen before anything is done.
21) Can street lighting in Melbourne Street be upgraded as this has not had much attention over the years?
22) I would like to ask why the council still insist that the former Birds Eye site should be used for light industrial use and not housing? As a former employee of Birds Eye for 30 years and a resident of Monmouth Street for the same number of years, why do I have to look on this eyesore for any longer? I am sure that if (council leader) Mr Brady would have a look at this dump every day from his windows planning for housing would have been granted years ago. There are empty light industrial sites that have been empty all over Hull for years. This tells me that there is no call whatsoever to keep insisting that the site has got to be for industrial use only.
23) What effort is being made to improve the quality of roadworks in the city? Look at the quality of the Bellfield Avenue and Saltshouse Road area.
24) Computer courses being run at the Lonsdale Centre which are under-subscribed and yet individual libraries are trying to run their own helpful advice on the site. The liaison is clearly non-existent.
25) I have been retired over three years now. I often ride a cycle down to the Corporation Pier. In all this time I have been going the place is a mess. A large section is cordoned off with loose planking all over the place. What improvements will the council be making to the area?
26) Why was Cllr McCobb bypassed for the position of deputy mayor? He qualified for his position in 2015 and the position instead was given to a Labour councillor with fewer qualifying years. This is a slap in the face for Beverley ward residents.
27) Like many other people I wonder how Hull can be called a city of culture when it a) cuts the size of the tourist office b) tries to fill in Beverley Gate and c)has a go at old railway tracks on the Marina. Do you not realise that heritage is culture and, correctly publicised, these attractions would pull in far more people to offset the cost of maintaining them?
28) I would like to ask the council when they are going to look at the traffic problem down Welwyn Park Avenue? It has now become a rat-run due to the traffic build-up on Beverley Road.
29) Is the council planning on tearing up more of the old railway lines and cobbles from the Marina area, (below) or have they stopped this permanently? Quite ironic that in preparation for the City of Culture they are destroying the history and culture of the city.
30) Could the council sort out the grates outside the bus stop on Beverley Road on the corner of Greenwood Avenue? It’s right in the middle of the cycle lane and has dropped considerably. Often there is no way to avoid it as the traffic is close to my bike. I have had to replace my front wheel because of it. Also could they look at making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Dunswell roundabout? At peak times it is very difficult to cross two or three lanes at the roundabout road to Kingswood and the road onto the Beverley bypass.
31) Please sort out what to do with the derelict property and the old boathouse on the Beresford Park riverbank and when is the council going to do something about the old Co-op/Romeos and Juliet’s building, (below)?
32) When will the council sort out the football pitches across the city? Many are uneven and need adequate drainage.
33) Does the portfolio holder feel that police and crime commissioner Matthew Grove should have been invited to attend this meeting and explain why since his election has the local police force been rated as inadequate?
34) Why does the local council appear so intent on becoming part of a suburb of Leeds in the Northern Powerhouse model? Surely we would be better linking with our natural neighbours East Riding and North Yorkshire.
35) Why has the highways department not answered an email regarding the zebra crossing at the top of Summergroves Way?
36) What is the council doing to get regeneration of the Edwin Davis building?
By Angus Young
THE new style question time at the full city council meeting ended in a predictable war of words.
New Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s move to give people the chance to quiz David Cameron during Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament was adopted by the opposition Liberal Democrat at this week’s monthly council meeting at the Guildhall.
Before the meeting, Lib Dem group leader Councillor Mike Ross said: “I hope Labour councillors treat the questions with the respect they deserve and dignify them with meaningful answers rather than party-political point-scoring.”
But the first question, submitted on behalf of an anonymous resident asking when a pavement in Wymersley Road was going to be resurfaced, drew a cutting response from Labour Councillor Martin Mancey.
He accused Cllr Ross of “juvenile behaviour” and “abusing his position” by allowing the meeting’s agenda to be flooded with questions that could easily be dealt with by other means.
“While I welcome the fact Cllr Ross is trying to be the Jeremy Corbyn of the Lib Dems, I’m afraid he has failed miserably.
“Jeremy Corbyn’s questions on behalf of citizens were carefully selected and prioritised to elicit answers of wide relevance and significance.
“For example, his first question, from a woman called Marie, was on the chronic lack of affordable housing and the extortionate rents charged by some private sector landlords – something Corbyn said will be his top priority.
“Is resurfacing the pavement in Wymersley Road the top priority for Cllr Ross?
“Corbyn has not used PMQs to ask questions like when will the potholes on the inside lane at junction six of the M62 be filled in?”
Cllr Mancey said having 61 questions tabled just two days before the meeting meant it was impossible to get all the answers in time.
“I was not prepared to request officers with heavy workloads and tight deadlines to drop everything to organise site inspections to produce the operational detail required to address some of these questions.
“I have to register my disgust at his juvenile behaviour in abusing this chamber when, as leader of the opposition, he should surely be focussing his time on issues of policy and strategy.”
However, other Labour councilors were happier to reply.
Asked if commercial sponsorship was being considered for the library service, Councillor Terry Geraghty offered a single line answer.
“No,” he said.