Council Summons 2 June 2004
CITY OF SHEFFIELD METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
COUNCIL SUMMONS
Notice is hereby given that a Meeting of the Council of the City of Sheffield
will be held in the Council Chamber within the Town Hall, Sheffield, on
Wednesday, 2nd June, 2004, at 2.00 p.m.
THE FOLLOWING BUSINESS IS PROPOSED TO BE TRANSACTED-
1. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS COUNCIL MEETING
To receive the record of the proceedings of the meeting of the Council held on 5th May, 2004 and to approve the accuracy thereof.
2. PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
To receive any questions or communications from the public, or communications submitted by the Lord Mayor or the Chief Executive and to pass such resolutions thereon as the Standing Orders permit and as may be deemed expedient.
3. MEMBERS' QUESTIONS
(a) Questions relating to urgent business - Standing Order No. A18(4).
(b) Questions on the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities for Fire and Civil Defence, Passenger Transport, Pensions and Police - Section 41 of the Local Government Act, 1985 - Standing Order No. A18(4).
(c) Questions on the discharge of the functions of the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly –
Standing Order No. A18(4).
(d) Supplementary questions on Written Questions submitted at this meeting - Standing Order No. A18(1).
(e) Verbal questions to Cabinet Members and Chairs of Scrutiny Boards and Regulatory Boards - Standing Order No. A18 (3).
4. REPRESENTATION
To consider any changes to the memberships of Boards etc., delegated authority, and the appointment of representatives to serve on other bodies.
5. ITEMS REFERRED TO COUNCIL REVISION OF STANDING ORDERS
To consider any decision which may be referred by the Cabinet at its meeting on 26th May, 2004.
6. OBSERVATIONS
To receive observations on the minutes of the meetings of the various Council bodies for the period 17h April to 14th May, 2004.
7. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR CHRIS WELDON
That this Council:
(a) is committed to creating better homes and better neighbourhoods, and places where people feel safe and proud to live;
(b) notes the acceptance of Sheffield’s submission to be included in Round 4 ALMO;
(c) believes that local people know what’s best for their area;
(d) therefore welcomes the conclusions of the Neighbourhood Commissions;
(e) thanks the people of Sheffield for the hard work they have put into deciding how best to bring extra investment to their area;
(f) believes that Council housing never is and never will be a priority for the minority group;
(g) notes that the minority group still lack any credible housing policy; and
(h) fears that recent leaflets circulated in Hillsborough suggest that “Whole Stock Transfer” is still the minority group’s preferred policy.
8. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR HARRY HARPHAM
That this Council:
(a) welcomes:-
(i) £1 million of extra investment in parks;
(ii) £1 million of extra investment in street cleaning;
(iii) new measures introduced to tackle graffiti, fly posting, fly tipping and abandoned cars;
(iv) the tripling of the City’s recycling rate; and
(v) the £1.5 million green bin pilot in the south of Sheffield;
(b) particularly notes the remarkable increases in recycling that Sheffield people have made possible by their efforts; and
(c) thanks the people of Sheffield and Council staff for their efforts to make the City cleaner and greener;
9 NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR JAN WILSON
That this Council:
(a) welcomes the fact that Sheffield is ‘on the up’ and that Sheffield City Council is rated as good and heading towards excellent;
(b) is delighted that Sheffield’s growth in jobs is outpacing the national average;
(c) believes that ‘closing the gap’ is an important part of ensuring the continued economic regeneration of this City;
(d) notes Sheffield First Partnership Board’s support for closing the gap;
(e) further notes the support for the closing the gap strategy across a wider political spectrum;
(f) is therefore shocked by the minority group’s promise to scrap the strategy “on day one”;
(g) believes that this would be unfair, damaging to the reputation and economy of the City and a decision that would not be supported by a party who believed in social justice;
(h) therefore agrees with the majority group’s vision of a successful City for everyone.
10. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR PAUL SCRIVEN
That this Council:
(a) supports a policy of social justice which raises the expectations, aspirations and life chances of the whole City, but notes that this must be based on dealing with all aspects of deprivation and exclusion, at ward level and below, and with both geographical areas and groups of people, and furthermore believes that for a policy of social justice to be truly successful it must be linked to the economy; and therefore;
(b) regrets this administrations flagship policy of “closing the gap” as it is fundamentally flawed and it fails to take into account all aspects of deprivation and exclusion throughout the whole of the City and is not connected to the economic agenda;
(c) believes that to use the single indicator of income support take-up to measure deprivation and exclusion is inappropriate, crude and fails to address the wider problem of deprivation and exclusion;
(d) believes that this administration’s flawed flagship policy of “closing the gap” is detrimental to the level of social cohesion within Sheffield;
(e) believes that continued support of the “closing the gap” policy will damage Sheffield and encourage the perception of Sheffield being a divided City;
(f) notes comments from the OPDM report “The English Indices of Deprivation 2004” and the ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee report “Social Cohesion”:-
(i) “Neighbourhood initiatives can be effective and avoid rivalries between communities if they are part of a wider strategy which is widely understood and subject to widespread consultation. However, they must be part of a wider strategy”;
(ii) “Guidance underlines the importance of full and meaningful involvement of neighbouring communities in the development of area based initiatives, flexibility in the application of scheme boundaries, and meaningful consultation with recipient communities, and that the funding rules should not become a barrier to interaction between communities”;
(iii) “Despite recognising income deprivation in its own right, it should not be the only measure of area deprivation. Other dimensions of deprivation contribute crucial further information about an area”;
(iv) “England is being described in much finer detail. This means that areas that were presented as large wards in the ID 2000 have now been broken down into small components for the ID 2004. Where such large wards contain pockets of deprivation, this is now better captured”;
(g) in light of the recent ODPM report “The English Indices of Deprivation 2004” and the ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee report “Social Cohesion”, determines that this administration’s flawed flagship policy of “closing the gap” be abolished and instructs the Chief Executive to report back to Council in two months with the main findings from the reports so that a new policy of social justice for the whole of Sheffield, that takes these reports into account, can be formulated.
11. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR GRAHAM OXLEY
That this Council:
(a) is against all proposed Post Office closures in Sheffield, which have been brought about by Central Government policy, and supports all local residents in their campaign to keep their local office open;
(b) believes that the Government backed closure of Post Offices in Sheffield will damage the affected communities and reduce the quality of life for many vulnerable people;
(c) rejects the Government backed closure programme, as Post Offices are an important element in encouraging the elderly to get out and about, and can be a critical element in their social intercourse;
(d) condemns the Government for the modernisation of benefit payments and plans to modernise pension payments, as it is anti-choice and has led to the prospect of nearly 20% of Sheffield’s Post Office network closing;
(e) condemns the party of government’s MPs in Sheffield for failing to vote for a motion in the House of Commons, on 13th January 2004, which deplored the Urban Post Office closure plan;
(f) notes that the same MP’s who failed to vote for the aforementioned motion appeared in the local press calling for the Post Offices in their constituency to stay open;
(g) believes that this administration should join the opposition party in campaigning to keep Sheffield’s Post Offices open and reject Government plans that will lead to Post Office closures;
(h) therefore instructs the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the Rt. Hon. Patricia Hewitt, and the Minister of State for Energy, e-Commerce and Postal Services, Stephen Timms MP, and inform them of this Motion; and also
(i) instructs the Chief Executive to write to Mr. David Mellows-Facer, Post Office Ltd Head of Area, to convey the Council’s concern over the proposed closures in Sheffield.
12. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR PAUL SCRIVEN
That this Council:
(a) notes the views of the Local Government Minister that in many areas of the Country, Council Tax levels are reaching the limits of acceptability;
(b) notes that Council Tax represents 5.1% of income for the poorest tenth in society and 1.2 % for the richest tenth in society, even after the effects of the Council Tax Benefit system, and is thus the most unfair and regressive tax operating in the United Kingdom today;
(c) notes that across the Country, 2 million households qualify for Council Tax Benefit but do not claim it owing to the process being complex and demeaning;
(d) notes that significant sums of money are spent on collecting Council Tax that would be better spent providing front line services;
(e) notes that those who lose out most on Council Tax are amongst the most vulnerable people in society, particularly many pensioners;
(f) is sceptical of the one-off £100, offered by Central Government to pensioners over 70, as it is a crude bribe that fails to address the problems that the unfair Council Tax creates for all those on low and modest incomes;
(g) believes that taxation should be fair so that hard-working families on ordinary incomes do not have to pay higher percentages in tax than the very rich, as the Council Tax system obliges them to, and accordingly calls on the Government to axe the Council Tax and replace it with a Local Income Tax which would provide a fair way of raising Local Government funds; and
(h) directs that copies of this Motion be sent to the Balance of Funding Review Group, established by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Local Government Association to examine Local Government Funding, and to the Minister for Local Government and his opposite numbers in the two main opposition parties in Westminster.
13. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR ANDREW SANGAR
That this Council:
(a) notes that the people of Sheffield are significantly less satisfied under the current administration compared to when the major opposition were in control of the Council, from 1999 to 2002;
(b) believes that the previous administration made unprecedented progress in improving people’s satisfaction with the Council;
(c) notes the widespread praise that Sheffield City Council has received due to the actions of the previous administration and points to the following in particular:-
(i) the one stop shop at Howden House; and
(ii) the contract agreed with Kier;
(d) condemns the current administration for allowing satisfaction levels to drop since they came to power in 2002; and
(e) notes that the current administration has wasted two years in administration by failing to improve Sheffield City Council in the eyes of the Sheffield people and not providing customer focused services.
14. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR ANDREW WHITE
That this Council:
(a) believes that Sheffield's pensioners deserve to be treated with dignity;
(b) believes that they should have a decent income as of right instead of being forced to claim means-tested top-ups just to get enough money to live; and
(c) therefore calls on the Government to build up the value of the state pension and reduce the need for means-testing.
15. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR ANNE SMITH
That this Council:
(a) deplores the way in which democracy and the effective scrutiny of the decision making process have been eroded and replaced by the petty squabbles and party-political games which have dominated the behaviour of both the major parties on the Council, particularly in recent months, and which have done nothing to enhance the reputation of the City, but rather, served to bring the Council and its services into disrepute; and
(b) requests whichever party should form the majority administration for the ensuing year, to:-
(i) instruct the Chief Executive to bring forward proposals, for the Council to hold full
monthly meetings based on the general business format, which shall include Members’ questions and Notices of Motion at each monthly meeting; and
(ii) arrange for agreement to be reached on the order in which business should be taken at such meetings in order to ensure that one particular group does not dominate the whole proceedings.
16. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR JAN WILSON
That this Council:
(a) welcomes the attendance of representatives of the Post Office at a recent meeting in the Town Hall, to discuss the proposed closure of 16 Sheffield Post Offices;
(b) notes that the majority group will continue to work with the Post Office by submitting information supporting the importance of Posts Offices;
(c) further notes that the majority group are prepared if necessary to approach the Government directly to put proposals forward to maintain services, particularly in deprived areas, where research shows Post Offices are a vital community resource;
(d) welcomes the efforts of the members of the majority group who have worked with local communities on petitions and representations to the Post Office, with regard to 10 of the 16 closures;
(e) is surprised that the Leader of the Council did not receive any representations from the minority group following her ‘all Member’ request;
(f) notes that in the interests of the people of the City, the Leader of the Council invited the Leader of the minority group to attend this meeting;
(g) is therefore disappointed that the Leader of the minority group;
(i) would not join in a press release committing the Council to fighting the closures;
(ii) preferred to press release criticisms of the Government, rather than work together for a
solution for the people of Sheffield; and
(iii) leads a group who have issued material which claims that the minority group are leading
the fight against closures, when the evidence indicates otherwise; and
(h) thanks the many citizens who have worked hard to collect petitions against the closure.
Dated this 24th day of May, 2004
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