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.

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

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors A Clayton and Hicks.

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

Councillors Cookson, Hall and Pearce declared a personal and prejudicial interest and Councillors Anderson, Chance, Field, Hartnett, Hopkins and Thomas declared a personal interest in Item 6 (Executive Committee) as detailed separately at Minute 27 below.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings of the Council held on 18 May 2009.

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 1 – 2009/10 – to follow)

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meetings of the Council held on 18 May 2009 be confirmed as correct records and signed by the Mayor.

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)         Mercian Regiment

It was with regret that the Mayor announced the sad death of a member of the Mercian Regiment, Lance Corporal Kieron Hill, killed in action at the end of May.

b)         Mayor’s announcements

The Mayor advised that since the previous meeting of the Council he had attended various functions, including: the inaugural meeting of the BNI local group, Civic Services at Wychavon, Droitwich Spa, Evesham and Worcester City, Redditch Choral Society’s performance of the St John Passion, the judging of a Fathers’ Day drawing competition at Debenhams and the Armed Forces Day flag raising ceremony at the Town Hall that morning.

The Mayor thanked Cllr Banks for stepping in to take on engagements he was unable to attend.

c)         Forthcoming events

The Mayor advised that forthcoming events included the Redditch Railway Exhibition in the Kingfisher Centre, the North Worcestershire Partnership Games presentation at the Abbey Stadium, the opening of Tenacres First School summer fete, the opening of a new Council Park at Overdale Close, Astwood Bank, an Arts & Craft Fair for the Salvation Army at  St Stephens,

theAlexandra Hospital League of Friends Annual Summer Fete and

a celebration of young people’s achievements at the Palace Theatre.

d)         Urgent business

The Mayor advised that he had accepted one additional item of “Urgent Business”:

Item 11 – Urgent Business – Notice of Motion – Bus Stop – Arrow ValleyPark.

The Mayor had also accepted two late reports:

Item 6 – Executive Committee Decision Notice, 10 June 2009; and

Item 8 – Constitution – Annual Review.

A.        To formally receive the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 1 April 2009.

(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 1 2009/10 – to follow)

B.        To receive the minutes and consider the recommendations and/or referrals from the following meetings of the Executive Committee (Decisions Notices previously circulated):

22 April 2009

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration include

·        Air Quality Strategy and Planning Protocol for Herefordshire and Worcestershire;

·        Children’s Centres – Future Contracts;

·        Government Connect;

·        Local Land Charges Fees;

·        Shared Services Board;

20 May 2009

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration include

·        Paolozzi Mural Trust;

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 1 2009/10 – to follow)

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

10 June 2009

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration include

·        Policy on the Funding of Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations;

·        Financial Management Action Plan;

·        Partnership Governance – Adoption of Framework and Toolkit;

(Decision Notice to follow)

RESOLVED that

1)         the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 1 April 2009 be received and adopted;

2)         the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 22 April 20009 be received and adopted and all recommendations approved;

3)         the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 20 May 2009 be received and adopted and all recommendations approved, subject to:

in respect of Minute 6 (erroneously numbered 300) (Home Energy Conservation and Affordable Warmth) it being NOTED that

Resolution 1 should have read “…cavity wall insulation installed in their homes free of charge.” as had been previously noted at the meeting of the Executive Committee on 10 June 2009; and

4)         the decision notice of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 10 June 2009 be received and all recommendations approved subject to:

in respect of Minute 19 (Funding of Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations – Policy) it being further RESOLVED that

            a policy for the award of contracts to voluntary and community sector organisations, based upon the ideas set out in the document tabled at the meeting by the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Tourism, be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee prior to submission to the Executive Committee and Council.

(The Portfolio Holder for Housing, Local Environment and Health undertook to provide a written response to Councillor Shurmer in respect of slippage in delivery of the Housing Capital Programme (Minute 21 – Capital Programme Outturn 2008/09).

In respect of Minute 11 (erroneously numbered 305) (Member Development Steering Group, 6 May 2009) the Leader requested that any Member who had not managed to resolve the shortfall in their IT requirements by late July should contact her.)

(Prior to consideration of this item, and in accordance with the requirements of Section 81 of the Local Government Act 2000, Councillors Cookson (Age Concern), Hall (Redditch Arts Council) and Pearce (Redditch Arts Council) declared a personal and prejudicial interest and Councillors Anderson (Redditch Play Council), Field (SSAFA) and Thomas (Carer’s Careline) declared a personal interest in view of the fact that they were variously employed by, were Chairs or board members of or had been appointed to voluntary and community sector organisations within the Borough and Councillors Chance, Hartnett, Hopkins and Taylor declared a personal interest in view of their personal connection to (Taylor) or as Board Members of (Chance, Hartnett and Hopkins) Redditch Co-operative Homes.

In the absence of the Mayor, Councillor Hall, Councillor Banks, the Deputy Mayor took the Chair)

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

Audit and Governance Committee-           26 May 2009

Planning Committee                         -           31 March 2009

                                                                        -           21 April 2009

                                                                        -           19 May 2009

(There is one recommendation from the Audit Committee that requires the Council’s consideration. Otherwise, all decisions here have been fully resolved).

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 1 2009/10 – to follow)

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

RESOLVED that

1)         the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 26 May 2009 be received and adopted and all recommendations approved; and

2)         the minutes of the meetings of the Planning Committee held on 31 March, 21 April and 19 May be received and adopted.

To consider the Annual Review of the Council’s Constitution

and Associated documents.

(Constitution attached)

Members undertook an annual review of the Council’s Constitution and associated documents. Officers highlighted the fact that the overwhelming majority of revisions included since the Constitution was last agreed in August 2008 comprised those measures approved at intervening meetings of the Council.

RESOLVED that

the Council’s current Constitution and associated documents (Standing Orders, Financial Regulations, Scheme of Delegation to Officers, Scheme of Members’ Allowances, etc.) as now issued be approved.

To consider a number of minor administrative matters arising from the Annual Meeting of the Council, including:

Highways Forum – Appointment of two Members to the Forum (2008/09 appointments, Councillors Field and Hunt) – this had been omitted from the Order of Business in error.

Notification of the allocation of Members to other vacancies left unfilled at the Annual Meeting may also occur at this point.

The Council considered a number of minor administrative matters, including several outstanding appointments following the Annual Meeting in May.

RESOLVED that

the following appointments be noted:

Highways Forum – Councillors D Hunt and D Smith;

Grants Panel – Councillor M Shurmer; and

Church Hill District Centre Members’ Panel – Councillor G Hopkins (to replace Councillor D Smith)

To note any decisions taken in accordance with Standing Order 36 and/or the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Constitution), as specified.

(None to date).

There were no Urgent Business decisions under Standing Order 36 for consideration at this meeting.

To consider a Notice of Motion:

A Notice of Motion submitted by Councillor P Mould. It concerns the possibility of installing a bus stop to enable public transport access to the Arrow ValleyPark.

The above Notice of Motion missed the notification period required under Standing Order 6. However, the item has been accepted by the Mayor as Urgent Business for this Council meeting, on the basis of its broad public interest and in view of a requirement for comments to be returned to the County Council by the end of the week commencing 22 June.

(Report attached)

An urgent Notice of Motion had been submitted by Councillor Mould too late to meet Standing Order deadlines but had been accepted by the Mayor for consideration at the meeting on the basis of its broad public interest and in view of a requirement for comments to be returned to the County Council by the end of the week commencing 22 June. The Motion was in respect of the provision of a bus stop at Arrow Valley park. This was seconded by Councillor Thomas.

It was accepted that the proposal as envisaged was not a complete or ideal solution to the lack of public transport provision at the Arrow Valley Countryside Centre and Park, but Members considered that this represented a positive development. There was also an understanding that the Council may need, in due course, to provide evidence that an enhanced bus service was justified by user numbers. There was general support for the motion and it was duly

RESOLVED that

the Motion be approved in the following terms:

“The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has investigated the possibility of installing a bus stop to enable public transport access to the Arrow Valley Park at several recent meetings. It has come to our attention that there is a possibility that a bus stop could be installed which would facilitate access to the number 60 circular route.

WorcestershireCounty Council could apply for Kickstart Bus Funding to finance the installation of this bus stop. We feel that Redditch Borough Council should support WorcestershireCounty Council in this endeavour.

We understand that applications for Kickstart Bus Funding have to be submitted by the end of June. Unfortunately under these circumstances the normal process for reporting Overview and Scrutiny recommendations would not enable us to meet this deadline.  For this reason we are bringing forward this proposal as an Urgent Notice of Motion.

On behalf of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, we urge the Council to support efforts by WorcestershireCounty Council to secure Kickstart Bus Funding to install a bus stop that will enable better public transport access to the ArrowValleyPark.”