Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Offices, Shute End, Wokingham, RG40 1BN

Contact: Madeleine Shopland  Principal Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

36.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence

Minutes:

An apology for absence was submitted from Councillor Charles Margetts.

37.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 134 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 1 February 2017.

 

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 1 February 2017 were confirmed as a correct record subject to the addition of Councillor Barrie Patman to the attendance list, and signed by the Chairman.

38.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made.

39.

Public Question Time

To answer any public questions

 

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

 

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

 

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

40.

Member Question Time

To answer any member questions

Minutes:

There were no Member questions.

41.

School Crossing Patrol Service Changes pdf icon PDF 92 KB

To receive a report reagrding school crossing patrol changes.

Minutes:

The Board received a report regarding proposed changes to the School Crossing Patrol Service.

 

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

 

·         The HR Business Partner for Environment indicated that there were currently eight school crossing patrollers on sites in the Borough where pedestrian crossings already provided children and others with a safe crossing point.  It was proposed that the School Crossing Patrol Service at the eight locations should cease at the end of the academic year in July 2017.  If this was to proceed there would be workforce implications with the relevant patrollers being placed at risk of redundancy.

·         There were a further seven sites with school crossing patrols which had no formal crossings.  These were exempt from the proposed changes for this year but it was suggested that they be reviewed in future.

·         The School Crossing Patrol service was not a statutory service.

·         A consultation has started that day and would continue until 19 April.  The Organisational Change Policy was being followed.

·         Councillor Ferris expressed concern at the process and questioned where the decision had been made to review the service. 

·         Councillor Ferris questioned what grade the posts in question were and was informed that the majority were Grade 4 and one at Grade 6. 

·         The Service Manager, Transport and Road Safety encouraged Members to respond to the formal consultation with any concerns that they might have.  Any consultation responses received would be collated and considered by the Executive. 

·         Councillor Helliar-Symons questioned whether the Council could provide training if the individual schools provided the patrollers.  She also referred to a difficult crossing point near a school in her ward and commented that the Council was encouraging children and their families to walk to school.

 

RESOLVED:  That the proposed School Crossing Patrol Service changes being undertaken, the potential workforce implications and the process undertaken to mitigate redundancies, be noted.