Agenda for City Council on Monday, 5th March, 2018, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council House, Old Market Square

Contact: Laura Wilson, Senior Governance Officer  Email: laura.wilson@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

71.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor Sue Johnson – unwell

72.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

The Lord Mayor informed Council that confirmation had been received from Finance that all Councillors are up to date with Council Tax payments and that no cases fall under section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

 

Councillors Corall Jenkins and Brian Parbutt declared interests in agenda item 13 (minute 83) – Pay Policy Statement 2018-19, as employees of a Local Government Trade Union and left the Chamber prior to consideration of the item.

73.

Questions from citizens pdf icon PDF 4 KB

Minutes:

The Lord Mayor confirmed that one citizen question was received, but based on legal advice the Council was unable to answer parts b and c of the question, as it constitutes a request for personal data which is exempt from disclosure under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

74.

Petitions from Councillors on behalf of citizens

Minutes:

None.

75.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of Council held on 22 January 2018 pdf icon PDF 386 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2018 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

 

76.

To receive official communications and announcements from the Leader of the Council and/or the Chief Executive

Minutes:

The Chief Executive reported the following:

 

Adverse weather

 

Like most of the country the City has been impacted over the last week with severe weather conditions. The extremely cold conditions coupled with the snow and winds has meant our winter gritting service has been working around the clock over Thursday and Friday. This service is essential to keep the main highway routes accessible and safe for motorists and to ‘keep Nottingham moving’.

 

Hand gritting in the city centre and priority locations in neighbourhoods has been ongoing every day.

 

It is circumstances like this that highlights the key advantage of having directly managed and flexible frontline services. Waste Operatives, Street Cleansing Operatives, Parks Operatives, Highways Operatives have all worked together to support the huge effort to maintain frontline services.

 

The Meals at Home Service offered ‘double deliveries’ to minimise the need for our more vulnerable citizens to have to leave the home.

 

School Meals Service has continued to all schools that have remained open.

 

Funeral & Cremation Services have remained fully operational with extra efforts made to ensure safe access and egress to our cemeteries.

 

On a lighter note many parks have been very busy with sledging and snowboarding as children and parents have taken advantage of the late winter snow.

 

I would like to pay tribute to all our operational services – frontline operatives, managers and supervisors, who have all gone the ‘extra mile’ to put ‘citizens at the heart’ and to respond superbly in very challenging circumstances.

 

CPO Fahad Ashfaq

 

CPO Fahad Ashfaq who came to the aid of Janet Scott moments before she passed away at the incident on Peel Street on 29 January 2018, will receive a special Gold Commendation in recognition of his actions.

 

Fahad sustained numerous injuries in the incident and spent three weeks in hospital, and is now recuperating at home. I’m sure you will all join me in wishing him well and a speedy recovering and thanking him for his bravery and professionalism.

77.

Questions from Councillors - to the City Council's lead Councillor on the Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority

Minutes:

None.

78.

Questions from Councillors - to a member of Executive Board, the Chair of a Committee and the Chair of any other City Council body pdf icon PDF 92 KB

Minutes:

Selective Licensing Scheme

 

Councillor Wendy Smith asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage:

 

Could the Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage tell us how the Governments’ acceptance of our Selective Licensing scheme will improve conditions for many of our residents who live in privately rented accommodation?

 

Councillor Jane Urquhart replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor, and thank you Councillor Smith for your question. I am delighted that the Secretary of State has approved the Council’s scheme of selective licensing. He clearly agreed with us that the evidence shows that Nottingham needs a licensing scheme in order to improve our private rented sector.

 

Before I say anymore, I would like to place on record my thanks to all of the officers involved.

 

Councillor Smith is right to say that many of our residents live in privately rented accommodation. This has become more and more the case in the last 10 years or so. The private rented sector (PRS) is now bigger than the social sector in the city. It is providing a home for people from many backgrounds and income levels, from young professionals to people on low incomes who need support in the form of local housing allowance. With home ownership still unachievable for many and social housing difficult to access because of its short supply, the PRS meets the needs of growing numbers of people.

 

This is why we made the PRS a focus of our overall housing objective of a quality home for all our citizens, irrespective of its tenure. Nottingham City Homes has made all of the Council’s homes safe, warm and modern through the Decent Homes programme, and we are working with our housing association partners to ensure that they deliver high standards of management and maintenance in their homes. We already have a licensing scheme for most of the houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in the city, which we are looking to renew. That leaves a very big part of the housing market that has little regulation other than powers for us to intervene if a tenant complains, which they are sometimes reluctant to do. Licensing forces landlords to be proactive in the management of maintenance of their properties, and through its implementation we will see an improvement in standards in the PRS.

 

Many landlords in Nottingham deliver good quality homes and a lot of them are able to demonstrate this by being accredited by either Unipol or DASH under the “Nottingham Standard”. However, the experience of our Environmental Health teams and the evidence we collected to support the scheme shows how badly the selective licensing scheme is needed. A report by the Building Research Establishment estimated that 21% of Nottingham’s private rented properties are likely to have ‘Category 1 hazards’, examples of this type of hazard could include exposed wiring, a dangerous boiler, cold bedrooms, a leaking roof, mould on walls or ceilings and vermin infestation. Our Safer Housing team has dealt with 1,479 complaints about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

79.

Decisions taken under Urgency Procedures pdf icon PDF 217 KB

Report of the Leader

Minutes:

The Leader submitted a report on Decisions taken under Urgency Procedures, as set out on pages 21 to 26 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  note the urgent decisions (exempt from call-in):

 

Decision reference number

Date of decision

Subject

Value of decision

Reasons for urgency

3048

16/01/18

Nottingham Homelessness Reduction Cold Weather Plan: Accommodation for Rough Sleepers

£149,612

Contracts need to be concluded with the provider (Framework) as soon as possible to enable Nottingham City Council to formalise the decision to receive the grant and commit the expenditure to provide services for vulnerable citizens

3051

23/01/2018

Approval for funding and contractual arrangements for the expansion of Glade Hill Primary School and Middleton Primary School

£5,600,000

The Council must be in contract with the contractors from the EMPA/ Scape Regional Framework by the 30th January 2018 otherwise there will be a major delay in delivering the works by September 2018 and there will also be financial implications/ penalties (abortive costs in terms of feasibility works carried out)

3072

09/02/2018

Additional funding for new build housing scheme at former Morley School site

Exempt

The additional funds are required to settle the final contract figure for the development of the Morley School site.  Failure to pay promptly could result in financial penalty for the Council

3081

19/02/2018

Asbestos removal and partial demolition of former Elms School, Cranmer Street, St Anns

£350,000

Contractors are already on-site.  Delays will incur further costs to the City Council, and will delay the removal of hazardous waste from the site

N/A

20/02/2018

Medium Term Financial Plan

£125.651m

The Council’s budget has to be approved at the Full Council meeting on 5 March 2018 (agenda publication date is before the call-in period will have ended)

N/A

20/02/2018

Treasury Management 2018/19 Strategy and Revision to 2017/18 Debt Repayment Strategy

Nil

The Treasury Management Strategy has to be approved at the Full Council meeting on 5 March 2018 (agenda publication date is before the call-in period will have ended)

 

(2)  note the key decisions taken under special urgency procedures:

 

Date of decision

Subject

Value of decision

Decision taker

Reasons for special urgency

20/02/17

Medium Term Financial Plan 2018/19 – 2012/22 – Key Decision

£125.651m

Executive Board

The Council’s budget has to be approved at Full Council in March 2018, which takes place before the March 2018 Executive Board meeting

 

 

80.

TREASURY MANAGEMENT 2018/19 STRATEGY AND REVISION OF 2017/18 DEBT REPAYMENT STRATEGY pdf icon PDF 216 KB

Report of the Deputy Leader

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader submitted a report on the Treasury Management 2018/19 Strategy and the Revision of 2017/18 Debt Repayment Strategy, as set out on pages 27 to 66 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  approve the 2018/19 Treasury Management Strategy document, including the strategy for debt repayment and the investment strategy, as detailed in Appendix 1 of the report;

 

(2)  approve the Prudential Indicators and limits from 2016/17 to 2020/21, as detailed in Appendix 3 of the report;

 

(3)  adopt the current Treasury Management Policy Statement, as detailed in Appendix 5 of the report;

 

(4)  approve the revision of the 2017/18 Debt Repayment Strategy, as detailed in Appendix 9 of the report.

 

81.

Budget 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Report of the Deputy Leader

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader submitted a report on the Budget for 2018/19, as set out on pages 67 to 72 of the agenda.

 

Councillor Andrew Rule proposed an amendment to the budget as follows:

 

In recommendation 2.1 (1) add after “the revenue budget for 2018/19”

 

“subject to the following:

 

Section 1

Net

2018/19

£

Voluntary Garden Waste – offer citizens a two month extension service to the current garden waste collection scheme for £7.50

 

-161,125

Bulky Waste – citizens offered two free collections per annum, charges of £15 apply for further collections

 

-98,181

Reduce the number of SLMG posts by 6 and replace with half the number of non-management posts delivering a part year saving of £202,805 (full year impact £347,666)

 

-202,805

Reductions in payments to Trade Unions £66,282 (full year saving of £88,376)

 

-66,282

Savings on the Arrow through a different delivery method

-75,000

 

Release £437,607 from uncommitted 2017/18 Area Capital reserves

 

-437,607

The redundancy and other associated costs (estimated to be £210,000) in relation to the removal of the above posts be funded from the Service Realignment reserve in 2018/19

 

Nil

Total net financial impact

-1,041,000

 

Section 2

It is recommended that review of the following areas be undertaken:

·  Thorough review of the City Council’s debtor ledger with a focus on developing a centralised collection point and clearing historic position

·  Develop a strategy for increasing the mix of affordable homes and Council Tax D and above properties

·  Review of corporate governance in Council owned companies

·  Identify and pursue commercialisation opportunities with other local authorities

·  Review possible commercialisation of trade waste collection

·  Review processing arrangements for garden waste”

 

In recommendation 2.1 (2) add after the capital programme to 2022/23

 

“It is recommended that a review of the existing capital programme is undertaken to:

 

·  Reprioritise resources to create additional funds to improve pavements. Councillors who use Area Capital fund to improve pavements o main thoroughfares could seek match funding from this fund.

·  Reprioritise to fund repairs to roads across the City”

 

And amend the following recommendations as indicated:

·  In recommendation 2.1 (3) substitute £109,365,220 for £110,406,220;

·  In recommendation 2.1 (3) (a) substitute £991,156,796 for £991,766,948;

·  In recommendation 2.1 (3) (b) substitute £881,791,577 for £881,360,728;

·  In recommendation 2.1 (3) (c) substitute £109,365,220 for £110,406,220;

·  In recommendation 2.1 (4) substitute £1,672.53 for £1,688.45

 

And amend the following sections as indicated:

·  In section 5.2 substitute £109,365,220 for £100,406,220 and £1,672.53 for £1,688.45

·  In section 5.3 and 5.6 substitute the following basic amounts of Council Tax for the ones shown in the report:

 

Band

Basic amount of Council Tax

A

£1,115.02

B

£1,300.86

C

£1,486.69

D

£1,672.53

E

£2,044.20

F

£2,415.88

G

£2,787.55

H

£3,245.06

 

·  In section 5.6 substitute the following aggregate council taxes for those shown in the report:

 

Band

Basic amount of Council Tax

A

£1,296.95

B

£1,513.12

C

£1,729.27

D

£1,945.43

E

£2,377.74

F

£2,810.07

G

£3,242.38

H

£3,890.86

 

Councillors voted on the proposed amendment.

 

RESOLVED to reject the proposed amendment.

 

Councillors voted on the recommendations in the budget report as follows:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81.

82.

NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL PROCUREMENT STRATEGY 2018-2023 pdf icon PDF 127 KB

Report of the Deputy Leader

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader submitted a report on the Procurement Strategy for 2018-2023, as set out on pages 73 to 96 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  approve the Nottingham City Council Procurement Strategy, attached as Appendix 1 to the report;

 

(2)  note that the outcomes of procurement activity undertaken under the Procurement Strategy will be reported to the Commissioning and Procurement Sub Committee on an annual basis.

 

Councillors Corall Jenkins and Brian Parbutt left the Chamber prior to consideration of the next item.

 

83.

PAY POLICY STATEMENT 2018-19 pdf icon PDF 245 KB

Report of Portfolio Holder for Community and Customer Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Community and Customer Services submitted a report on the Pay Policy Statement for 2018/19, as set out on pages 97 to 158 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  approve and endorse the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for 2018/19;

 

(2)  note that the statement may need to be amended in-year for any necessary changes the Council may wish to adopt, and any such changes will be presented to Council for approval.

 

Councillors Corall Jenkins and Brian Parbutt returned to the Chamber.

 

 

84.

Delegation of Commercial Waste Service by Derby City Council to Nottingham City Council pdf icon PDF 196 KB

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Energy and Sustainability

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Energy and Sustainability submitted a report on the acceptance of a delegation of Commercial Waste services by Derby City Council to Nottingham City Council, as set out on pages 159 to 162 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to formally accept the delegation from Derby City Council of the functions to facilitate the collection and disposal of commercial waste in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

85.

NOTTINGHAM CITY LAND AND PLANNING POLICIES DEVELOPMENT PLAN DOCUMENT, SUBMISSION TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE pdf icon PDF 150 KB

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage submitted a report on the Nottingham City Land and Planning Policies Development Plan document for submission to the Secretary of State, as set out on pages 163 to 172 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  approve the submission of the Nottingham City Council Local Plan Part 2: Land and Planning Policies Document, along with the Schedule of Changes, and accompanying submission documents, as set out in paragraph 5.11 of the report, to the Secretary of State for independent examination;

 

(2)  request the Inspector to recommend any modifications which are necessary to make the draft Local Plan sound, under section 20(7C) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended);

 

(3)  grant delegated authority to the Chief Planner to approve any necessary amendments to the submission draft Local Plan of the types outlined in paragraph 6.5 of the report.

 

86.

Dates of future meetings

(1)  To agree to hold the Annual General Meeting on Monday 14 May 2018 at 2.00pm at the Council House.

 

(2)  To note the proposal to meet at 2.00pm on the following Mondays:

 

9 July 2018

10 September 2018

12 November 2018

21 January 2019

4 March 2019

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  agree to hold the Annual General Meeting on Monday 14 May 2018 at 2.00pm at the Council House;

 

(2)  note the proposal to meet at 2.00pm on the following Mondays:

 

9 July 2018

10 September 2018

12 November 2018

21 January 2019

4 March 2019

87.

Extraordinary Meeting

To agree to hold an Extraordinary Council meeting at the rising of the ordinary meeting, or at 5.00 pm, whichever is earliest, on Monday 14 May 2018 to consider granting Freedom of the City to HMS Sherwood

Minutes:

RESOLVED to agree to hold an Extraordinary Council meeting at the rising of the ordinary meeting, or at 5.00pm, whichever is earliest, on Monday 14 May 2018 to consider granting Freedom of the City to HMS Sherwood.