Agenda and minutes

Councillor Azad Choudhry - personal

Councillor Alan Clark - personal

Councillor Corall Jenkins - personal

Councillor Alex Norris - non-Council business

None

RESOLVED to:

1)  elect Councillor Michael Edwards as the Lord Mayor of the City of Nottingham until the next annual meeting of the City Council, as nominated by Councillor Brian Parbutt and seconded by Councillor Eunice Campbell;

2)  appoint Councillor Glyn Jenkins as Sheriff of the City of Nottingham until the next annual meeting of the City Council, as nominated by Councillor Jackie Morris and seconded by Councillor Chris Gibson.

The Lord Mayor informed Council of the appointment of Bishop James Stapleton of the Open Christian Fellowship as the Lord Mayor’s Chaplain.

None.

None.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2017 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chief Executive reported the following:

Councillor Adele Williams

I would like to welcome Councillor Adele Williams, the newly elected Labour Councillor for Sherwood to the Council, following a by-election held on Thursday 4 May 2017.

Hearts for the Arts Award 2017

I am delighted to welcome 3 very special guests who are here to present the Hearts for the Arts Award 2017 to the Nottingham Performing Arts Library Service (NPALS). We are incredibly proud that NPALS has been named the country’s best local authority arts initiative 2017, for its innovative work to provide music and drama groups with an outstanding, cost-effective regional loans service for music scores and play scripts.

NPALS is part of Nottingham City Libraries Service, many of whom are here in the gallery today, and is the culmination of a project between Nottingham and Leicester city councils. The authorities worked together to transform two subsidised music and drama library services into a single sustainable unit supporting amateur groups across both areas. We are particularly pleased that a number of other councils have expressed an interest in adopting the model for their performing arts library services.

We hope in the future that it will form the basis of a new regional or even national way of working, showing that Nottingham is once again in the vanguard of change and innovation in the field of arts and culture.

Our esteemed guests today are, Samuel West, BAFTA nominated actor, director and chair of the judging Panel for the Award, Howard Goodall (CBE)BAFTA award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores and David Brownlee from the Results Group for the Arts which supports arts and cultural professionals. It now gives me great pleasure to invite Samuel West and Howard Goodall to say a few words and present the Award to Councillor Dave Trimble.

UK Housing Awards 2017

Nottingham City Council was named Outstanding Strategic Local Authority of the Year at the UK Housing Awards at the awards ceremony on 26 April 2017. The awards are jointly organised by the Chartered Institute of Housing and Inside Housing magazine. They are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the social housing sector.

Jean Case

Finally and exceptionally at full Council in relation to a member of staff, it’s with sadness that I report to Council the passing of Jean Case who worked as a Youth and Play Co-ordinator, having joined the Council in June 2005. Many of our councillors will have known Jean from her prominent role in our neighbourhoods as part of the Family Community Team.

Councillor David Mellen spoke in tribute to Jean Case and a minutes’ silence was held.

None.

Regeneration of Clifton retail centre

Councillor Andrew Rule asked the following question of the Deputy Leader:

As part of the wider regeneration of the retail centre in Clifton, and in support of the new retail development on the former Fairham House site, will the Deputy Leader acknowledge that removing speed humps from arterial roads in Clifton will increase the appeal and ultimately the patronage of shops from neighbouring areas like Ruddington, Silverdale, Wilford and Gotham amongst others, which will in turn enhance the success of the final regeneration scheme?

Councillor Graham Chapman replied as follows:

Thank you Lord Mayor. It may sound like a frivolous point on the part of Councillor Rule to think that the removal of road humps will be the salvation of Clifton’s shopping centre, but I do believe that road humps in some cases can be a deterrent to shopping in Clifton. A further disadvantage of road humps is that they increase emissions of nitrous dioxide, as vehicles slow down. So, they are not universally a good thing and it would be lovely to live without them.

On the other hand, you do have to weigh up the advantages against the disadvantages and the disadvantages do not just tip the balance, they weigh overwhelmingly in favour of road humps, which is the reason why they were installed in the first place – such as reducing injuries and deaths. I would remind Council that traffic calming measures were introduced in Clifton at the behest of residents and businesses because of the number of accidents and fatalities on Clifton’s roads.

In the five years after the introduction of the measures, this was in the early 2000s, I am told that there was a 72% reduction in serious accidents. So, weighing up between deaths/accidents and the marginal benefits to the shopping centres there is no case to answer. On top of that, we have no money for it and I do not need to explain to the councillors opposite why we have no money for that sort of scheme. This leaves us with the issue of shopping in Clifton. What we are doing is taking a whole set of other measures and will be investing £500,000 in the shopping centre, simply to upgrade it, which is being matched by finance from elsewhere. We have developed the Cornerstone in Clifton, which was no coincidence that it was located in Clifton as we felt that Clifton was the place to start. We have developed the tram, which was largely developed to help Clifton, as well as other areas.

There will be a new shopping offer of Lidl, we are upgrading the market and not only are we upgrading Clifton, it is part of a wider strategy where there will be 3000 houses along the boundary built soon and if we do not do something about upgrading the Clifton Shopping Centre those people will not shop in Clifton, they will shop elsewhere. This is one of the reasons why we have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Report of the Leader

The Leader submitted a report on Executive appointments, remits and first meetings 2017/18, as set out on pages 23 – 24 of the agenda, and 3-34 of the Executive Appointments supplementary agenda.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  note the appointment of Councillor Graham Chapman as Deputy Leader;

(2)  note the appointments of the Portfolio Holders, their Executive Assistants, and their remits as below and in appendix 1 to the report, and their responsibilities and remits as detailed in appendix 2 to the report;

(3)  note the appointments and first meeting dates of Executive meetings, as detailed in appendix 3 to the report;

(4)  note the terms of reference for Executive committees and agree the related changes to the Constitution, as detailed in appendix 4 to the report.

Report of the Leader

The Leader submitted a report on appointments and first meetings of committees and joint bodies 2017/18, as set out on pages 25-68 of the agenda and 3-16 of the Appointments and first meetings supplementary agenda.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  agree the first meeting dates of Council bodies and Joint Bodies

as set out in appendix 1 to the report;

(2)  agree the terms of reference of Council bodies and Joint bodies, and any related changes to the Constitution, as set out in appendix 2 to the report;

(3)  agree the membership of Council bodies and the City Council membership of Joint Bodies, as set out in appendix 3 to the report;

(4)  agree substitutes, where applicable, as set out in appendix 3 to the report.

Report of the Leader

The Leader submitted a report on Amendments to the Constitution and the appointment of an Independent Person for Standards, as set out on pages 69-84 of the agenda.

Councillors Georgina Culley, Jim Armstrong and Andrew Rule all requested that their vote against the recommendation 2.1 in the report and (1) listed below.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  agree the changes in the operation of Overview and Scrutiny, as outlined in paragraphs 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 of the report;

(2)  agree the changes to the operation of Licensing and Regulatory and Appeals Committees, as outlined in paragraph 5.5 of the report;

(3)  note the amendments to the Health and Wellbeing Board Commissioning Sub Committee terms of reference, as outlined in paragraph 5.6 of the report;

(4)  approve the amendments to Part 2 and Part 4 of the Constitution required by the above changes;

(5)  appoint an Independent Person to perform the following roles:

·  to assist the Council in investigations into Member conduct;

·  to be invited to act as an Independent Person in cases of possible dismissal of the Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer or Chief Finance Officer, as outlined in paragraphs 3.4 and 5.7-5.9 of the report.

Report of the Leader

The Leader submitted a report on decision taken under urgency procedures, as set out on pages 85 to 90 of the agenda.

RESOLVED to note the urgent decisions taken, as follows:

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

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

To consider meeting at 2pm on the following Monday’s:

2017  2018

10 July  22 January

11 September  5 March

13 November

RESOLVED to hold meetings of Council at 2pm on the following dates:

·  10 July 2017

·  11 September 2017

·  13 November 2017

·  22 January 2018

·  5 March 2018