Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors John Fisher, Paul Swansborough and David Thain.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest on this occasion.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 8^th December 2014.

RESOLVED that

The minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 8^th December 2014 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.

a)         Mayor

The Mayor invited the Reverend Paul Lawlor, her chaplain for her year in office to speak.

Former Mayor Dot Dudley

The Mayor formally advised the Council of the death of the former Mayor Dot Dudley and Members observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect.  Members were then invited to say a few words in memory of her. 

The Leader commented that former Mayor Dot Dudley, who had 2 daughters and 2 sons, had been a councillor for 11 years and had represented Batchley, where she had lived all her life.  She had not courted publicity but had worked tirelessly for her community.  A letter of condolence had been sent to the family.

The Leader of the Opposition passed on condolences to former Mayor Dot Dudley’s family, friends and Labour colleagues.

Councillors Fry, Gandy and Shurmer also paid tribute to the work the former Mayor had done for her community and Redditch as a whole.

The Mayor gave a summary of some of the events she had attended since the previous meeting:

·         The Alexandra Hospital on Christmas Day

·         Wychavon District Council Civic Service

·         Headless Cross Golden Age Club

·         ROWL – AGM

·         Holocaust Memorial Event – this had been well attended and a very interesting and moving service.

·         Redditch Special Olympic Awards

·         Touchstones Charity Talk – this was a counselling service for bereaved children.

The Mayor’s forthcoming engagements included:

·         Mayoral Charity Indian Banquet Evening

·         RBC Play Rehearsal re Debt

·         Wyre Forest Winter Supper Evening

·         Stourport Council Talent Show

·         Worcester City Civic Service

·         Worcestershire County Civic Dinner

·         Mayoral Charity Skittle Evening

·         Kidderminster Council Charity Ball

The Mayor also thanked Councillor Pattie Hill for standing in for her on those occasions when she had been unable to attend an event.

b)         Leader’s Announcements

The Leader paid tribute to Ken Banks, the husband of former Mayor Kath Banks and confirmed a letter of condolence had been sent by the Leader and Mayor.  

The Leader of the Opposition acknowledged the tribute and passed on the former Mayor’s thanks for the kind thoughts.

Since the last meeting the Leader had attended the following events:

·         Various Christmas community events

·         The pantomime, Cinderella at the Palace Theatre

·         Pride of Redditch Awards organised for the second year by Councillor Rebecca Blake and Ian Dipple from the Redditch Standard.  It was noted that local businesses had attended for the first time.

·         Polish School Nativity Play

·         Redditch Guru Nanak Gudwara, a Sikh temple held at Ridgeway School.

·         Holocaust Memorial Day Event – this was the 70^th anniversary year and the Council had been awarded one of the 70 candles which was lit by the 91 year old holocaust survivor, Iby Knill.  The event had included a talk by Iby, together with a performance from the Polish Saturday School, the Kerela Cultural Association and Astwood Bank First School.

The Leader had also written to both the local mosque (a letter of thanks had been received) and Pakistan High Commissioner in light of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

The following question from Councillor Juliet Brunner has been submitted in accordance with Procedure Rule 9.2:

“What advice would the Leader of the Council give to any Councillor who was contacted by a resident who did not live in their ward and asked to deal with an issue?”

The Leader responded to a question submitted in accordance with Procedure Rule 9.2 from Councillor Juliet Brunner.

Councillor Brunner asked the following question:

“What advice would the Leader of the Council give to any Councillor who was contacted by a resident who did not live in their ward and asked to deal with an issue?”

The Leader referred Members to the relevant section of the Council’s Constitution and advised that this matter would be raised at the Constitutional Working Party meeting to be held on 27^th January 2015 and if Members of that Working Party agreed it was appropriate, the necessary amendments would be made.

Councillor Brunner raised a number of points within her supplementary question including “what would the Leader suggest if a resident requested their matter be dealt with by a Councillor from the Political Party they had voted for or they preferred to deal with a female Councillor? And how would matters be dealt with which were raised during political campaigns?”

In response the Leader reiterated that this was a matter that would be discussed at the Constitutional Working Party meeting.

No motions had been submitted.

To receive the minutes and consider the recommendations and/or referrals from the following meetings of the Executive Committee:

(a)  16^th December 2014 – there are no recommendations to the Council in these minutes;

(b)  20^th January 2015 – there are potential recommendations to the Council on the Independent Remuneration Panel report and recommendations on the Housing Revenue Account Initial Estimate 2015-16.

Minutes of the meeting held on 16^th December are included in the Minute Book, recommendations and reports are enclosed with this agenda.

Members considered the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of 16^th December 2014.

Members consider the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of 20^th January 2015.

Independent Remuneration Panel Report

It was highlighted that the IRP had not proposed an increase in the level of allowances compared to the previous year and the Council continued to pay less that that recommended by the Panel.  This had been debated at Executive Committee and it was felt that in the current times of austerity it would not be appropriate for these allowances to be increased.

Housing Revenue Account Initial Estimate

The Executive Committee had received a report which presented the initial estimates for the Housing Revenue Account and proposed dwelling rents for 2015/16 and Council was requested to endorse the recommendations in order for the relevant teams to continue the good work which had been carried out to date.

RESOLVED that

(a)  The Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 16^th December 2014 be received and adopted; and

(b)  The Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 20^th January be received and all recommendations adopted.

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

(a)  Licensing Committee, 3^rd November 2014;

(b)  Planning Committee, 10^th December 2014.

Copies of the minutes are included in the Minute book circulated with this agenda.

The Council received the minutes of the recent meetings of the Licensing Committee and the Planning Committee.

RESOLVED that

(a)       The minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 3^rd November 2014 be received and adopted; and

(b)       The minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 10^th December 2014 be received and adopted.

There were no urgent decisions to note.

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 in 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.

There were no separate items of urgent business to consider at this meeting.

Should it be necessary, in the opinion of the Chief Executive, to consider excluding the public from the meeting in relation to any items of business on the grounds that exempt information is likely to be divulged it may be necessary to move the following resolution:

“that, under S.100 I of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following matter(s) on the rounds that it/they involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant paragraphs (to be specified) of Part 1 of Schedule 12 (A) of the said Act, as amended.”