Agenda item

Public Question Time (15 Minutes)

The opportunity is given to members of the public to put questions to Cabinet Members or Committee Chairs provided that a question does not relate to:

 

·            Matters which are the subject of current or pending legal proceedings or

·            Matters relating to employees or former employees of the Council or comments in respect of individual Council Officers.

 

If you would like to ask a question at this meeting, please contact democratic.services@gloucester.gov.uk as soon as possible and by Monday 22 February 2021 at the latest.

Minutes:

67.1    An officer read out the following question to the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources, Councillor Hannah Norman on behalf of a Gloucester resident:

 

          Now we have some of our most vulnerable individuals thankfully in fixed temporary accommodation, will there be provision to get, through their support network, onto the electoral role to vote in our upcoming local elections.

 

67.2    Councillor Norman confirmed that if a person does not have a fixed or permanent address, they could still register to vote. In these circumstances, they could either give an address where they would be living if it were not for their living in temporary accommodation or an address where they had lived in the past.  They could request a form to complete which would be posted to their temporary accommodation address with a pre-paid response envelope.

 

All residential addresses had recently received a letter informing them that there were upcoming elections and that if someone was not registered to vote, that they could contact the Council’s elections team directly to register. Where there were staff employed at an address to support the residents, they could also contact the Council to inform us of individuals who are not registered.

 

67.3    An officer read out the following question to the Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods, Councillor Watkins, on behalf of the same Gloucester resident:

 

          With the forthcoming local elections approaching I would like to ask the council as a resident and Unite Community member of Gloucester if they would support our motion that:

 

“Everyone is entitled to live in a warm, safe environment and live without fear in their own home”

 

67.4    Councillor Watkins noted that housing was a primary concern for the Council as a statutory obligation and that there was both a legal and moral need to ensure that residents had access to a safe and healthy environment. It was a complex challenge for both the Council and the individuals concerned which required a tailored approach to access housing and sustain tenancies. Councillor Watkins praised and thanked members of the housing team who had achieved so much in a particularly challenging year and encouraged the resident to consider the five year Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy.