Agenda and minutes

The Mayor will open the meeting and welcome all present.

The Mayor’s Chaplain, Canon David Rogers, will lead the Council in prayer.

The Mayor opened the meeting and welcomed all present. The Mayor’s Chaplain, the Reverend Jo Musson, led the Council in prayer.

To receive any apologies for absence on behalf of Council members.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Anita Clayton and Wanda King.

To invite Councillors to declare any interests they may have in items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 20th September 2010.

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 5 - 2010/11)

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 20th September 2010 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To consider a petition submitted by Mr D Rose in respect of land at Webheath.

(Report attached)

A petition had been received, in accordance with current constitutional arrangements and the Petition Scheme, which contained in excess of the 400 signatures required to trigger a Council debate.

The petition organiser, Mr David Rose, took advantage of the opportunity to address the Council on the subject of the ADR land at Webheath. The primary concern of the petitioners was to prevent any further development of the ADR land at Webheath and the land at Foxlydiate and to have the land in question designated as Green Belt. Supporting documentation and a DVD were circulated to all Council Members.

Mr Rose reminded Members of a number of the points that had been made in the Consultant’s report prepared by White Young Green in 2009, the Study into the Future Growth Implications of Redditch. He then cited a number of reasons why further development would be undesirable, including his view that any new development would be visually intrusive, that the local infrastructure was inadequate, including the road network, the lack of public transport links, the distance from the town centre and the sewerage and drainage problems that could ensue. A number of other possible sites for additional housing within the town were identified by Mr Rose as being, in the petitioners’ view, more suitable for this purpose than the land at Webheath.

Following presentation of the Petition, the Council proceeded to debate the subject of the petition, for which an extension of time was granted by the Mayor owing to the public interest in the issue. Members noted the strength of feeling amongst local residents at the possibility of development on the Webheath ADR land but highlighted the ongoing commitment on the Council to find suitable locations for additional housing, notwithstanding the ending of the Regional Spatial Strategy process. They acknowledged that balanced decisions had to be made, which took into account a wider range of views and interests and it was made clear that for this purpose any further proposals for development would have to be the subject of a full consultation process.

Members noted, however, that there was appeared to be some lack of common understanding over a number of matters in respect of the status of the Webheath land, such as, for example whether the site was ‘far from the Town Centre’ or not,  or whether the site was ‘sustainable’, etc. and it was therefore

RESOLVED that

Officers investigate further the matters disputed by the petitioners in order that clearer common understanding might be developed of a number of contentious facts in respect of any proposed development on the subject Webheath land.

To receive a report from the Mayor on civic matters which have arisen since the last meeting or events which may be occurring in the near future.

To give notice of any variation to the items listed in the Forward Plan and/or items accepted as “Urgent Business”.

(No separate report / oral update)

The Mayor’s communications and announcements were considered under the following headings:

a)         Mayor’s Announcements

The Mayor advised that since the previous meeting of the Council she had attended numerous engagements. The Mayor drew particular attention to the Graduation Ceremony at NEW College to which she had been invited and her own Civic Service at St. Stephen’s Church which had been attended by a number of her fellow Councillors.

b)         Forthcoming events

The Mayor advised that forthcoming events included the Borough’s own Fireworks Extravaganza at the Arrow Valley Park, the Opening of Stitch in Time at the Winyates Craft Centre, the League of Friends of the Alexandra Hospital AGM, the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Plymouth Road cenotaph on 11th November and the services at both St Stephen’s and St George & St Mathias , Astwood Bank on Sunday, 14th November.

c)         Local Democracy Day

The Mayor thanked Councillor Juliet Brunner for once again helping to organise a very successful Local Democracy Day event at the Town Hall. The Chair of the Student Council, April Powell, presented certificates to those Members present who had proved themselves to be the most popular Councillors with the local students at the event, namely:

 1st      Councillor Simon Chalk

2nd      County Councillor Terry Spencer

3rd      Councillor Gay Hopkins

d)         Canon Gathercole

The Mayor advised the Council of the recent sad death of Canon Gathercole, an Industrial Chaplain, Chaplain to a number of former Borough Council Mayors and a significant figure locally.

e)         Commonwealth Games Gold Medallists

The Mayor advised that two local sportspeople had struck gold at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi the previous month. They were Stevan Walton who had gained two golds in the shooting events and Katrina Hart who had gained a gold in the T37 100 Metres. It was hoped that the two Commonwealth champions would be able to attend the following meeting of Council.

f)          Urgent Business

The Mayor advised that she had accepted one late report, Item 8, the Executive Committee decision notice for the meeting on 20th October 2010.

No questions have been submitted to the Leader and no Notices of Motion received.

There were no Leader’s Questions or Notices of Motion submitted in accordance with the relevant Standing Orders.

A.        To formally receive the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 8th September 2010

(All decisions here have previously been fully resolved. There are no outstanding recommendations or referrals which require the Council’s consideration.)

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 5 – 2010/11)

B.        To receive the minutes and consider the recommendations and/or referrals arising from the following meeting of the Executive Committee:

            29th September 2010

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration include:

·        Administration of Small Charities by the Council; and

·        Management Options Appraisal for Pitcheroak Golf Course.

                        (Reports and decisions attached)

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 5 – 2010/11)

C.        To receive the decision notice and consider the recommendations and/or referrals from the following meeting of the Executive Committee:

20th October

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration include:

·        Council Plan 2011/14 – Part 1

·        Customer Feedback Policy;

·        Garden Waste Collection Service – Outcome of Trial;

·        Home Repairs Assistance Policy 2010

·        Regional Housing Pot - Grant Proposals; and

·        Joint Committee for Worcestershire Enhanced Two Tier Regulatory Service.

                        (Reports and draft decisions attached)

(full Decision Notice to follow)

Members received the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee held on 8th and 29th September 2010 and the decision notice of the meeting held on 20th October 2010.

RESOLVED that

1)         the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 8th September 2010 be received and adopted;

2)         the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 29th September 2010 be received and all recommendations approved; and

3)         the decision notice of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 20th October 2010 be received and all recommendations approved, subject to:

in respect of Minute 100 (Regional Housing Pot Grant – Proposals) it being further RESOLVED  that

Officers investigate the feasibility of making the provision of loans to the landlords of Houses in Multiple Occupation conditional on their being members of a local accreditation scheme.

To formally receive the minutes of the following meetings of the Council’s Regulatory Committees:

Audit and Governance Committee - 28th September 2010

Planning Committee             - 14th September 2010

                                                            - 12th October 2010

Standards Committee                      - 13th October 2010

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 5 – 2010/11)

The Council received the minutes of the recent meetings of the Audit and Governance, Planning and Standards Committees.

RESOLVED that

1)         the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 28th September 2010 be received and adopted;

2)         the minutes of the meetings of the Planning Committee held on 14th September and 12th October 2010 be received and adopted; and

3)         the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 13th October 2010 be received and adopted.

To confirm the new Contract Procedure Rules, and substitute these for the previous Standing Order 46 for Contracts.

The Council is advised that it approved and adopted revised Contract Procedure Rules at its meeting in December 2009. Officers wish to fully implement these revised procedures, now that the training of all relevant Staff in the revised arrangements has been completed.

It is therefore RECOMMENDED that

the Revised Contract Procedure Rules formally supersede Standing Order 46 in the pack of Constitutional documents.

(Documents previously circulated to all Members  and approved in December 2009. Further copies available on request.)

The Council considered a request that the new Contract Procedure Rules, approved at its meeting in December 2009 formally supersede the existing Contract Procedure Rules and be fully implemented.

RESOLVED that

the Revised Contract Procedure Rules formally supersede Standing Order 46 in the pack of Constitutional documents.

To note the following decision taken in accordance with SO36 since the last meeting of the Council:

Interest Free Energy Efficiency Loans

(Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships)(Decision Reference 487)

On  6^th September it came to the attention of officers that Salix (part of the Carbon Trust) had opened a new round of bids for funding for local authorities to install energy efficiency measures.  The available funding would be distributed to bids which met the criteria in the order that they were received.  Accordingly officers, having urgently completed the relevant bid documentation for a programme of works to Council owned buildings, required authority to pursue the funding application on an urgent basis.  The urgency was such that there was not time for this matter to be formally reported to Full Council

It was therefore RESOLVED that

1)                 authority be delegated to the Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships to apply for an interest free loan from Salix in the sum of £14,840 to fund energy efficiency measures within Council buildings, in the terms detailed in the report; and

2)                 if the loan is granted by Salix, the Council set aside a budget for repayment of the loan, based on savings made on energy bills as a result of the installation of energy efficiency measures.

The Council noted an Urgent Business decision which had been approved in accordance with Standing Order 36, namely:

Interest Free Energy Efficiency Loans

(UB Reference 487)

RESOLVED that

the matter be noted.

To consider any additional items exceptionally agreed by the Mayor as Urgent Business in accordance with the powers vested in her by virtue of Section 100(B)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

(This power should be exercised only I cases where there are genuinely special circumstances which require consideration of an item which has not previously been published on the Order of Business for the meeting and/or on the Leader’s Forward Plan.)

There were no separate items of Urgent Business for consideration at this meeting.