Agenda for City Council on Monday, 14th April, 2014, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - at the Council House. View directions

Contact: Rav Kalsi, Constitutional Services, Tel: 0115 8763759  Email: rav.kalsi@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

98.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor Liaqat Ali – leave

Councillor Alex Ball – non Council business

Councillor Jon Collins – other Council business

Councillor Emma Dewinton – non Council business

Councillor Pat Ferguson – non Council business

Councillor Sue Johnson – leave

Councillor Carole-Ann Jones – leave

Councillor Neghat Khan – other Council business

Councillor Toby Neal – leave

Councillor David Mellen – other Council business

Councillor Brian Parbutt – illness

Councillor Sarah Piper – leave

Councillor Michael Wildgust – leave

99.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

No declarations of interests were received.

100.

To receive:

101.

questions from citizens; pdf icon PDF 19 KB

Please note that questions to Council are received after the agenda

has been published. Questions will be uploaded to this agenda by

5pm on Friday 11 April 2014.

Minutes:

Stonebridge Park Estate

 

The following question was asked by Mr Richard Pearson to the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transportation:

 

The Stonebridge Park Estate is located in St Ann’s Ward where the Regeneration Scheme began in January 2006. Phase one was an £11m scheme partly paid for by the Department for Homes & Communities which was completed in January 2013. With a change of government & problems surrounding the credit crunch, it was extremely difficult to obtain kick start funding to allow Keepmoat Homes Ltd to go ahead, and submit a planning application to begin constructing 111 new homes in Jersey Gardens beginning July 2013. I personally wrote to several government ministers highlighting the Stonebridge Park scheme which urgently needed kick start funding at the time.

I am dismayed that Nottingham City Council, which is a Labour run authority, put the Keepmoat Scheme in peril by demanding £12,000 from the contractor under the Parking Levy program, and made a serious attempt to restrict the number of parking spaces for construction workers to 10. The Regeneration Scheme is already delayed by eight years, and this decision to cream off £12,000 from the contractor will put off future interest from developers wanting to build on the Stonebridge Park estate or other planned housing development projects in the future.

How do you justify your decision to penalise construction companies by making them pay the parking levy, and imposing restrictions on the number of parking spaces they can have for their construction workers, at a time when new social houses are urgently needed to be built here in the city of Nottingham?

Councillor Urquhart replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you very much to Mr Pearson for this question and for his concern about this important project. Firstly, can I reassure Mr Pearson that the Stonebridge Park scheme is of course a very important regeneration project to us at Nottingham City Council and the Keepmoat development has received very strong support from the Council in terms of provision of the land, support and obtaining external funding and the additional works the Council are completing through Nottingham City Homes to some of the retained properties adjacent to the development site.

 

The development itself is raising the overall character of the Stonebridge Estate and supporting the desirability of the new homes being built and sold by Keepmoat. Nottingham City Council have spent a large amount of time supporting Keepmoat both in meeting planning application issues and meeting funding deadlines. I can confirm that the Keepmoat development is progressing well and to the timescales that were originally planned. Officers have spoken to Keepmoat only last week and Keepmoat have described sales at Stonebridge as going extremely well. The development commenced in September to October 2013 and there has already been 12 properties completed and sold with the new owners already moved in. A further 22 properties have been reserved by buyers prior to completion.

 

This development has built on the success of the earlier redevelopment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101.

102.

petitions from Councillors on behalf of citizens.

Minutes:

No petitions from citizens were received.

103.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of Council held on 3 March 2014 pdf icon PDF 108 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2014 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Lord Mayor.

104.

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

Minutes:

City Council by-election

 

First of all I would like to welcome Councillor Patricia Ferguson, the newly elected Labour Councillor for Clifton North following the bi-election that was held on the 6 March. Unfortunately, Councillor Ferguson cannot be with us this afternoon because she is having planned surgery.

 

Energy Services

 

The City Council’s Energy Services team have won a coveted Local Government Chronicle Award, recognising the team’s dedication to improving energy efficiency across the city. The Council were presented with the award on 12 March. Our winning submission was based around two main themes – the Green Deal external wall insulation project that is expected to reduce energy bills by £400 a year in treated homes and for the work the team has done to improve energy efficiency in the Council's own property portfolio, by providing a range of improved monitoring, lighting, heating and cooling measures.

 

Museums and Galleries

 

The Council’s Museums and Galleries Service has won two local awards for the Universal Roots project. The schemes which won the universal awards will now be presented to a national announcement for the Tenant Participation Advisory Service Awards on 10 July. 

 

The Volunteer Programme has also been nominated for the National Diversity Awards which will be announced on the 26 September. Universal Roots is funded by the Community Learning Innovation Fund, Nottingham City Council and Arts Council England in partnership with Nottingham City Homes. 

 

105.

To receive:

106.

answers from the City Council's lead Councillor on the Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority to questions on the discharge of that authority's functions;

107.

answers from a Councillor from the Executive Board, the Chair of a Committee and the Chair of any other City Council body to questions on any matter within their remit. pdf icon PDF 26 KB

Minutes:

Full employment

 

Councillor Mohammed Ibrahim asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Jobs and Growth:

 

Given George Osborne’s commitment to full employment, what level of employment and what kind of jobs are required to meet full employment in Nottingham, and by how much would Nottingham’s economy have to increase to support this?

 

Councillor Nick McDonald replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Ibrahim for your question. Yes, it was quite interesting to hear the Chancellor make a commitment to creating full employment in his recent speech in Essex and actually Mr Osborne’s words were weasel ones, the commitment he made was to secure the fullest possible level of employment. But, he also used the term full employment, what he described as a modern approach to full employment and that approach carries with it a number of important implied commitments that I don’t believe this Chancellor has any intention of making. So, let me just explain what I mean by that.

 

As economist in the room will know, a commitment to full employment has quite a technical definition. It is, what is essentially defined as structural unemployment, sometimes called the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. What that means is that essentially, temporary or cyclical causes of unemployment are cut out. Now, economists from John Maynard Keynes through to Milton Freidman have argued about what that rate is, or should be. William Beverage put it at 3%, the Office of Economic Co-operation and Development defines it currently at 6.9% but, actually it is not a constant. It is defined by other important economic factors, interest rates, inflation rates, food and commodities prices and this is an important point actually, because what is full employment in technical terms isn’t actually what we would understand as being full employment.

 

So, when you start to un-pick the Chancellor’s commitment it starts to melt away. There are no figures to back up what he meant by full employment in his speech unlike the last Labour government’s commitment to 80% employment. It was deliberately vague, deliberately slippery and deliberately evasive and entirely political. For all that, it was also a commitment that I don’t believe this Tory-led Government is in a position to make based on its current policies.

 

So, let me briefly explain what I mean by that. Whatever rate you set full employment at, and is certainly a rate that is considerably higher than the current employment rate in this country because, let’s remember, we are not talking about unemployment here, we are talking about employment rates. Whilst unemployment rates have been going down nationally and in Nottingham for the last few years, employment rates, the number of people employed and in work are not going up by an equivalent number. Now, our Nottingham Job Plan sets a target employment rate of 75%. There are currently just short of 100,000 adults in the city who don’t work, of these around 56,000 are students, retired or on long-term sick. We  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107.

108.

Report of the Leader on the Nottingham City Council Act 2013 pdf icon PDF 32 KB

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader presented a report, as set out on pages 21 to 23 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  agree that the powers and duties contained in the Nottingham City Council Act 2013 be non-executive functions of the Council;

 

(2)  delegate the powers and duties under the Nottingham City Council Act 2013 to the Regulatory and Appeals Committee;

 

(3)  amend the relevant parts of the Constitution to reflect (1) and (2) above;

 

(4)  amend delegation 5 of the Scheme of Delegation to authorise the Markets and Events Service Manager and the Director of Community Protection to serve fixed penalty notices under the 2013 Act.

109.

Report of the Leader on decisions taken under the urgency procedures pdf icon PDF 48 KB

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader submitted a report, as set out on pages 25 to 28 of the agenda.

 

RESOLVED to note the urgent decisions taken, as follows:

 

(1)  Urgent decisions (exempt from call-in)

 

ref

 

Date of decision

Subject

Value

Reasons for urgency

1330

18/02/14

The use of Care and Support Specialised Housing Funding to develop Lenton Independent Living Scheme and bungalows

£980,000

In order to facilitate the signing of the contract by 20/02/2014.

1340

26/02/14

Approval of the costs of an Adult Care Package

Exempt

To allow for a timely implementation of the decision.

1341

27/02/14

Approval of the costs of an Adult Care Package

Exempt

To allow for a timely implementation of the decision.

1343

27/02/14

Redevelopment of Lenton site – Award of Tender

£14.930 million

The Council has been awarded £980,000 grant funding from the Homes and Communities Agency and is required to sign the

contract with the HCA by the 03/03/2014.

 

 

(2)  Key decisions (special urgency procedure)

 

Date of decision

Subject

Value of decision

Decision Taker

Reasons

19/03/2014

Equal Pay Settlements

Exempt

Leader

The Council has only recently become aware of the school moving to academy status from 1 April 2014/delay to the decision would delay the school moving to academy status.

 

 

110.

To consider motion in the name of Councillor Clark:

“This Council has learnt a lot about solid wall insulation through its experience in Clifton. It has been made much more difficult by a Government that makes dramatic changes to grant regimes and consults after the event.

This Council believes that the human impact on the environment will most affect those who are poorly housed.

It therefore calls for a stable national funding regime for a five year programme to make a significant difference for residents living in solid wall properties that:

  • Tackles the issue on an area by area basis
  • Applies to all tenures equally
  • Pays for Green Deal assessments
  • Identifies a fixed price for works
  • Encourages specialist contractors of the highest quality
  • Engages local councils as trusted brokers
  • Enables training and employment”

Minutes:

Moved by Councillor Alan Clark, seconded by Thulani Molife:

 

“This Council has learnt a lot about solid wall insulation through its experience in Clifton. It has been made much more difficult by a Government that makes dramatic changes to grant regimes and consults after the event.

 

This Council believes that the human impact on the environment will most affect those who are poorly housed.

 

It therefore calls for a stable national funding regime for a five year programme to make a significant difference for residents living in solid wall properties that:

 

o  Tackles the issue on an area by area basis

o  Applies to all tenures equally

o  Pays for Green Deal assessments

o  Identifies a fixed price for works

o  Encourages specialist contractors of the highest quality

o  Engages local councils as trusted brokers

o  Enables training and employment.”

 

Moved by Councillor Roger Steel by way of an amendment and seconded by Councillor Spencer to:

 

In Paragraph 1

DELETE ‘much more difficult by a Government that makes dramatic changes to grant regimes and consult after the event.’

 

INSERT ‘more difficult by changes to Government grant regimes.’

 

In Bullet point 4:

DELETE ‘identifies’ INSERT ‘Encourages’

 

In Bullet point 6:

DELETE ‘Engages’ INSERT ‘Considers’

 

In Bullet point 7:

After ‘Enables training and employment’ INSERT ‘for local people’

 

Amended motion to read:

 

This Council has learnt a lot about solid wall insulation through its experience in Clifton. It has been made more difficult by changes to Government grant regimes.


This Council believes that the human impact on the environment will most affect those who are poorly housed.

 

It therefore calls for a stable national funding regime for a five year programme to make a significant difference for residents living in solid wall properties that:

 

·  Tackles the issue on an area by area basis

·  Applies to all tenures equally

·  Pays for Green Deal assessments

·  Encourages a fixed price for works

·  Encourages specialist contractors of the highest quality

·  Considers local councils as trusted brokers

·  Enables training and employment for local people”

 

After discussion, the amendment was put to the vote and was not carried.

 

RESOLVED to carry the substantive motion as follows:

 

“This Council has learnt a lot about solid wall insulation through its experience in Clifton. It has been made much more difficult by a Government that makes dramatic changes to grant regimes and consults after the event.

 

This Council believes that the human impact on the environment will most affect those who are poorly housed.

 

It therefore calls for a stable national funding regime for a five year programme to make a significant difference for residents living in solid wall properties that:

 

o  Tackles the issue on an area by area basis

o  Applies to all tenures equally

o  Pays for Green Deal assessments

o  Identifies a fixed price for works

o  Encourages specialist contractors of the highest quality

o  Engages local councils as trusted brokers

o  Enables training and employment.”