Agenda and minutes

County Councillors Bernard Dawson, Jimmy Eaton, Margaret Pattison and Alan Schofield replaced County Councillors Erica Lewis, Peter Steen, Steven Holgate and Paul Rigby respectively.

Apologies were received from County Councillor David Whipp.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None were disclosed.

The Chair welcomed County Councillor Keith Iddon, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport; Phil Durnell, Director of Highways and Transport; Eric Melling, Operations Engineer; Kevin Parkinson, Assistant Operations Engineer; and Chris Nolan, Engineer Traffic Policy and Network Manager to the meeting.

Presenting the case for the Call-in was County Councillor Kim Snape along with Mrs Sarah Annette, Head Teacher at Rivington Foundation Primary School.

The report presented stated that on 5 September, Cabinet received and approved recommendations contained in a report entitled Lancashire County Council (Various Roads, Chorley, Fylde, Lancaster, Preston, Ribble Valley, South Ribble and West Lancs) (Revocations and Various Parking Restrictions November 2018 (No1)) Order 201*.

Cabinet resolved that the making of a Traffic Regulation Order introducing the parking restrictions on the various lengths of road within the Chorley, Fylde, Lancaster, Preston, Ribble Valley, South Ribble and West Lancashire Districts as detailed within the report, be approved.

Following requests from five County Councillors representing more than one political group, in accordance with the "Call In" procedures, the Deputy Chair of the Internal Scrutiny Committee had called a meeting to consider calling in the decision, specifically in relation to parking restrictions to Horrobin Lane, Rivington Lane and Sheephouse Lane (in the vicinity of Rivington Foundation Primary School).

County Councillor Kim Snape felt the decision had breached Lancashire County Council's principles of decision making. She did not believe that the appropriate consultations had taken place and some of the professional advice provided by officers was questionable. She also felt the decision had been made without all the relevant information being made available to the decision makers at the Cabinet meeting.

The Internal Scrutiny Committee carefully considered all the information presented as part of the case for the "Call In" as well as responses from the highways officers.

Following the debate, a proposal was put forward and seconded that the Cabinet decision be paused while the county council's highways officers entered into discussions with Rivington Foundation Primary School. On being put to the vote the proposal was rejected.

A second proposal was put forward and seconded that the Cabinet decision on 5 September 2019 in relation to 'Lancashire County Council (Various Roads, Chorley, Fylde, Lancaster, Preston, Ribble Valley, South Ribble and West Lancs) (Revocations and Various Parking Restrictions November 2018 (No1)) Order 201*' should not be called in. On being put to the vote the proposal was accepted.

County Councillor Keith Iddon, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, informed the meeting that his biggest concern was 'duty of care'. He had a 'duty of care' for all road users and pedestrians in Lancashire and he had to act faced with the evidence before him. He stated he was prepared to send his Highways Team into Rivington Foundation Primary School to help the school with this issue and give any resource the Highways Team could to work with the school to find a solution. He also stated he would instruct the Highways  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next scheduled ordinary meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee will be held on Friday 27 September 2019 at 10:00am in The Diamond Jubilee Room (Cabinet Room B), County Hall, Preston.

The next ordinary meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee would take place on Friday 27 September 2019 at 10.00am in Cabinet Room B (The Diamond Jubilee Room) at the County Hall, Preston.