Agenda for Council Meeting to be held 4 April 2007
CITY OF SHEFFIELD
METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
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COUNCIL SUMMONS
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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, 4th April, 2007, at 2.00 p.m.
PUBLIC INSPECTION OF DOCUMENTS AND ACCESS TO MEETINGS Council Meetings are open to the public. Admittance to the public gallery can be gained via the First Point Reception, Old Town Hall, Pinstone Street. Details of the business to be transacted can be viewed in advance at the First Point Reception which is open between 9.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. Monday – Thursday and between 9.00 a.m. and 4.45 p.m. on Friday, or you can ring on telephone no. 2734552. A copy of the Council Summons and any reports are also available on the Council’s website at www.sheffield.gov.uk. |
THE FOLLOWING BUSINESS IS PROPOSED TO BE TRANSACTED-
1. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS COUNCIL MEETINGS
To receive the record of the proceedings of the meetings of the Council held on 2nd and 7th March, 2007, 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(6).
(b) Supplementary questions on written questions submitted at this meeting - Standing Order No. A18(4).
(c) Questions on the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities for Fire and Rescue, Passenger Transport, Pensions and Police - Section 41 of the Local Government Act, 1985 - Standing Order No. A18(6).
(d) Questions on the discharge of the functions of the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly – Standing Order No. A18(6).
4. REPRESENTATION, DELEGATED AUTHORITY AND RELATED ISSUES
To consider any changes to the memberships and arrangements for meetings of Boards etc., delegated authority, and the appointment of representatives to serve on other bodies.
5. ITEMS REFERRED TO COUNCIL
ANNUAL AUDIT AND INSPECTION LETTER 2005/06
To consider a decision which was referred by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 14th March, 2007.
REVISION OF CONTRACTS STANDING ORDERS
To consider a decision which was referred by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 14th March, 2007.
AUDIT COMMITTEE – REVIEW OF ARRANGEMENTS
To consider any decision which may be referred by the Cabinet at its meeting to be held on 28th March, 2007.
. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR MARY LEA
That this Council:
(a) welcomes the recent ‘Your Council Your Say’ events which took place last month in the City Centre, Hillsborough and Crystal Peaks, where Sheffield residents were invited to drop in to discuss environmental and other issues with Councillors and senior officers of the City Council;
(b) is pleased that there was an opportunity at the events for people to check their carbon footprint and make a commitment to do their bit to improve the environment by making a pledge;
(c) notes that residents were also asked to fill in a questionnaire to help the Council to understand their views about the environment;
(d) thanks everyone in Sheffield who took part in Your Council Your Say and demonstrated their commitment to making Sheffield a greener City;
(e) further welcomes the recent visit to Sheffield of former Vice President Al Gore who delivered the keynote speech at the high-profile ‘Cooling the Planet’ Conference;
(f) believes that it is excellent for this City to host such a prestigious event which brought together leaders of regional, national and international business to discuss the major climate change challenges and further believes that events such as this put Sheffield on the map as a City committed to tackling climate change;
(g) welcomes the comments made by Al Gore at the ‘Cooling the Planet’ conference, where he stated:
“I am an admirer of the vision and determination that has been demonstrated in Sheffield to
take this issue on. The political and civic leadership and people from all walks of life have made this community stand out in the United Kingdom and around the communities of the World. Your determination to take this on is really very impressive.”
(h) believes that the City Council’s commitment to the environmental agenda is crucial and reaffirms its commitment to working to achieve environmental excellence and a sustainable future for Sheffield;
(i) therefore welcomes the findings of the Scoping and Feasibility Study on Renewable Energy in Sheffield, which was recently presented to the City Council’s Cabinet;
(j) believes that as a City, we must do what we can to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and confirms that one way in which we can do this is through the generation of energy from renewable sources, such as wind, water, biomass and solar;
(k) believes that the Council must show leadership on the issue of renewable energy and therefore is committed to undertaking further work to develop Council-owned land for renewable energy generation;
(l) believes that it is vital for us as a Council to reduce our carbon footprint in order to minimise our impact on the environment;
(m) therefore sets a target of a 30% reduction in the Council’s own carbon emissions within the next six years; and
(n) calls on Council officers to prepare a strategy which outlines how the Council can achieve this ambitious carbon reduction target.
7. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR SYLVIA ANGINOTTI
That this Council:
(a) notes with concern that the present administration is encouraging every secondary school in Sheffield to become either a private trust or an academy;
(b) believes that the proliferation of trust and academy schools in Sheffield will damage local education provision as:-
(i) giving individual schools power to control their own admissions will ultimately lead to schools choosing pupils, not parents choosing schools;
(ii) trust and academy schools control admissions and control the freehold of land and assets of schools but will not be accountable to local parents or the local community; and
(iii) trust and academy schools have no incentive to collaborate with neighbouring schools as they are in competition, this will fragment education provision and make it harder to strategically manage education provision for the good of all;
(c) is therefore against the present administration’s plan to reform education provision in Sheffield which is basically about privatising local schools by the back door;
(d) believes that the trust and academy programme is a policy driven by Whitehall that is not supported by the majority of the public in Sheffield and therefore calls on the present administration to listen to local people and reflect their views rather than push their own Government’s unpopular agenda; and
(e) believes that the solution to the poor level of pupil attainment is not to fragment education provision, but to promote collaboration so that community schools can work together to tackle under performance and therefore calls on the present administration to reform their education policies to this end.
8. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR CHRIS WELDON
That this Council:
(a) wholeheartedly welcomes the recent visit of the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP, who came to the City to meet tenants and residents on the Winn Gardens Estate in North Sheffield to hear how they have transformed the Estate from a troubled area into a popular neighbourhood;
(b) believes that with the right help and support from both the Government and the Council, local people can make a real difference in improving their communities, and further believes that this engagement from local people is vitally important in transforming neighbourhoods;
(c) thanks all the community members across the City who work tirelessly to make their neighbourhoods better places to live;
(d) is pleased that Sheffield’s 10 Safer Neighbourhood Areas (SNAs) are all now fully up and running;
(e) welcomes the SNAs which are Sheffield’s response to tackling neighbourhood priorities, such as anti-social behaviour, in partnership with the local community;
(f) believes that this approach of concentrating resources within the heart of neighbourhoods will empower communities and ensure that people have confidence in raising and tackling issues which affect their quality of life;
(g) welcomes the recent ‘walkabouts’ on estates which have benefited from the involvement of the local community and which have proved to be very popular with local people;
(h) welcomes the Government’s Respect Action Plan which builds on the Government’s current drive to tackle anti-social behaviour and reclaim communites for the law-abiding majority;
(i) welcomes the recent announcement that Sheffield has been designated one of seven Respect Action Areas in the Yorkshire and Humber region;
(j) notes that this announcement recognises the excellent progress the City has seen so far in developing interventions to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour;
(k) also welcomes the recent visit of the Minister for Work and Pensions, John Hutton M.P., who made the announcement about Sheffield’s Respect Action Area status during a visit to the Sharrow area of the City, where he met local traders, visited the new Highfields Adventure Playground and visited the Sharrow SureStart Centre;
(l) notes that Sheffield became the first local authority to develop a family intervention service to tackle bad neighbours and further notes that this scheme has shown excellent success rates so far;
(m) notes that Sheffield’s Respect Action Area status will mean that the City will be recognised for its trailblazing methods in tackling anti-social behaviour and will be in a better position to access more resources; and
(n) recognises that there is much more work to do before we solve the problem of anti-social behaviour and reaffirms our commitment to working closely with the Government as well as organisations including South Yorkshire Police, Sheffield Homes and other local agencies to empower local people to turn their neighbourhoods around.
9. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR BOB McCANN
That this Council:
(a) believes that effective action against anti-social behaviour, crime and the fear of crime is still one of the big issues when talking to local people;
(b) is therefore alarmed that figures show anti-social behaviour, crime and the fear of crime is getting worse in Sheffield under the present administration and Government;
(c) that both nationally and locally the party of the present administration have failed to tackle these issues in our communities and that this is demonstrated locally by:
(i) an unacceptable breach rate of ASBOs, with 100% of ASBOs issued by the Council
being breached in 2005 and one order being breached by an individual a total of 24
times;
(ii) failure to provide all local safer neighbourhood teams with their full complement of staff therefore compromising community safety;
(iii) voting against a proposal to reduce spend on management in order to invest in
additional front line staff to tackle anti-social behaviour on our streets across the City;
and
(iv) the present administration stating that anti-social behaviour is only an issue in certain neighbourhoods and not in areas they consider more affluent;
(d) furthermore, failure on a national level by the party of the present administration is demonstrated by:
(i) violent crime doubling in the last eight years with the Government now proposing to hand out fines for serious offences such as assault and mugging;
(ii) failing to reduce re-offending rates with 92% of young men sent to prison for less than
three months committing another crime within two years;
(iii) the plan to waste billions of pounds on introducing compulsory ID cards when the money could be used to invest in thousands of extra Police officers on the streets; and
(iv) a series of policy gimmicks on crime and anti-social behaviour designed to catch headlines but in reality have little impact;
(e) notes that under an administration of the main opposition party this Council would pursue a different approach to these issues by seeking to address the underlying reasons behind such behaviour, prioritising investment to increase officer presence at street level and concentrating on effective policies of substance rather than spin.
10. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR PETER PRICE
That this Council:
(a) recognises that cycling is good for health and the environment as a means of transport and that its future growth depends upon encouraging a safe cycling culture across the City;
(b) notes that whilst cycle use in Sheffield is below the national average, it is growing rapidly, in contrast to the national trend;
(c) notes that some other hilly European cities have far higher levels of cycling, and therefore accepts the need to do more to encourage cycle use in Sheffield;
(d) therefore applauds the excellent work done by the Council’s Cycle Forum and Council officers in promoting cycling through the City Cycling Map, the one-stop shop for cycling on the City Council web site, school travel plans and work place travel plans pursued through the Planning process;
(e) also welcomes the news that the discounted adult cycle training offered by the City Council is being taken up by a number of individuals and businesses who are now encouraging staff to take up cycling;
(f) welcomes Sheffield's 2006-2011 Cycle Action Plan, based on the recommendations of the English Regional Cycling Development Team established by the Government to ensure all Local Authorities are implementing best practice in cycle planning and provision;
(g) notes that this Action Plan forms part of the South Yorkshire Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 and provides firm foundations for encouraging cycling in Sheffield through:-
(i) the City Council and its partners instigating an on-going and co-ordinated marketing campaign and promoting the health benefits of cycling with the aim of a 50% increase in cycle use in the City based on a 2001 baseline;
(ii) the completion of a planned network of coherent radial cycle routes;
(iii) the development of the planned cycle network to the Upper Don, Lower Don and Blackburn Valley Areas;
(iv) the improvement of cycle facilities including cycle stands in public areas such as car parks, and all new development and transport exchanges;
(v) encouraging Supertram to experiment with off-peak cycle carriages, in conjunction with the SYPTE and other public transport companies;
(vi) measures to improve safety and reduce cycle accidents by providing basic cycle training to residents;
(vii) the promotion of cycle awareness training of Year 6 school children to the new national standard, on-site cycle parking and safe-routes to at least five schools, with the aim of a 200% increase in cycling to school based on a 2001 baseline;
(viii) welcoming the use of Sheffield’s parks and green spaces as places where young people can learn to cycle and where families can cycle together;
(ix) requiring all transport schemes over £50,000 in value to undergo a Cycle Audit to ensure the needs of cycle users are considered; and
(x) requiring the design of cycle routes and facilities to be in accordance with advice and recommendations contained within the Draft Local Transport Plan.
11. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR ALAN HOOPER
That this Council:
(a) is concerned with the increasingly authoritarian and conceited attitude that the present administration has displayed in many aspects of the way they operate and notes this is demonstrated by:
(i) the refusal to listen to local people, for example absurdly insisting that present congestion levels are at the same level as they were in 1993;
(ii) purporting to carry out consultation despite decisions being previously agreed by the present administration regardless of public opinion, as best seen in the consultation on the proposed closure of Wisewood and Myers Grove Schools;
(iii) casually breaking promises to local people as seen by the decision not to commit any extra investment to the last phase of the ‘Cleaner Sheffield’ programme that affects over one-third of local residents;
(iv) neglecting vast areas of the City through their ‘favoured areas’ policy which unfairly deprives many local residents of a decent standard in basic services;
(v) displaying a ‘we know best’ attitude on local issues in spite of public opinion, such as maintaining that the traffic management scheme at Woodseats has helped to ease congestion;
(vi) acting as a puppet of an unpopular Government, pushing their agenda rather than standing up for what local people want as seen by the refusal of any politician representing the Party of the present administration, to publicly denounce the cuts to our local NHS; and
(vii) irresponsibly pitting community against community in order to gain political capital, as seen by their proposal over changes to school catchment areas in the North West of the City;
(b) believes therefore that the present administration are out of touch and have returned to their bad old ways which saw them spectacularly voted out of office in the 1990s;
(c) should note that in contrast, under an administration of the main opposition party this Council would:-
(a) stand up for local people, challenging the Government on key issues if necessary;
(b) be a Council for the whole City, doing away with unfair policies that skew delivery of basic services;
(c) carry out real consultation on important issues ensuring that public opinion is integral to any final decision;
(d) devolve power to local communities in order to let them decide what their priorities are and how available resources should be targeted; and
(e) aim to meet local peoples priorities through agreed ‘citizens’ targets’ rather than just performance indicators agreed by central Government.
12. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR MIKE WATERS
That this Council:
(a) welcomes the improvement to Sheffield's economy in recent years;
(b) notes that Sheffield's economy is now worth £8 billion a year and is growing at a rate comparable with the National economy;
(c) further notes that in recent years an average of 5000 new jobs have been created each year in Sheffield;
(d) welcomes the securing of £18 million for the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative;
(e) recognises the importance of turning the recent improvements in Sheffield's economy into a sustainable economic transformation of the City; and
(f) therefore resolves that:-
(i) officers bring forward a strategy for improving the skills of Sheffield's workforce;
(ii) the drive to attract increased inward business investment is intensified; and
(iii) officers bring forward a report to the City Council on the future of the manufacturing sector in Sheffield, including plans for future development; and that the Council redoubles its efforts to attract more knowledge-based industries to this City.
13. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR MIKE PYE
That this Council:
(a) congratulates the Sheffield Campaign for Access to Moorlands (SCAM) on their 25th anniversary;
(b) notes that it is the 75th anniversary of the mass trespass on Kinder Scout, which first gave prominence to the public demand for the right of access to moorlands whether public or private;
(c) also congratulates Her Majesty’s Government in introducing the ‘Right to Roam’ legislation and reaffirms the Council’s commitment to working with SCAM and the Ramblers’ Association to ensure that the Countryside and Rights of Way legislation (the CROW Act) is implemented within the administrative boundaries of the Council;
(d) calls upon the people of Sheffield to protect, preserve, and defend their ‘right to roam’, but also to enjoy it; and
(e) directs that copies of this resolution be sent to the Sheffield Campaign for Access to Moorlands, the Ramblers’ Association, the Sheffield Members of Parliament and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
14. OBSERVATIONS
To receive observations on the minutes of the meetings of the various Council bodies for the period 17th February to 16th March, 2007.
Dated this 27th day of March, 2007
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