Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Allen, Croft, Hussain, Lamb, Murphy, Rush and Sharp.

The Mayor informed those present that whilst all Members had an interest in agenda item 7 (iv) (a), Review of the Members’ Allowances Scheme, there was a dispensation under paragraph 10 of the Members’ Code of Conduct such that Members did not have a prejudicial interest in this item of business.  It was therefore noted that a personal interest would be recorded for all Members of the Council in respect of this item.

There were no further declarations of interest.

Subject to amendment to references to the Municipal Year 2008/9, the Minutes of the Annual Council meeting held 18 May 2009 were agreed as an accurate record.

(i)                 Mayor’s Announcements

(ii)               Leader’s Announcements

(iii)             Chief Executive’s Announcements

4 (i)   Mayor’s Announcements

          The report outlining the Mayor’s engagements for the period 30 March 2009 to 5 July 2009 was noted.

          The Mayor drew Members’ attention to the forthcoming parade through the City by the 158 (Royal Anglian) Transport Regiment Logistic Corps.  As Freeman of the City, members of the regiment would be exercising their right to parade on Saturday 25 July 2009 and all elected Members were urged to attend.

          Members were asked to note that auditions for ‘Peterborough has Talent’ were being held on 19 July 2009.  Organisers of the event were seeking sponsorship, people to act as judges and a compere for the Children’s Final and Members were asked to contact the Mayor’s Office if they felt able to assist.  The competition finals would be held on 5 September, the proceeds of which would be shared between the Papworth Trust and the Mayor’s Charities and all Members were encouraged to attend.

          Finally, the Mayor presented Councillor Charles Swift with a civic gift to mark the occasion of his fifty-five years’ service as a ward Councillor for the North Ward of the City.

          4 (ii)       Leader’s Announcements

          The Leader informed those present that the City was one of six areas to benefit from the latest roll-out of the government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ scheme.  The funding would enable the complete refurbishment of Stanground College and the Orton Longueville Secondary School, with other secondary schools in the area benefiting from new infrastructure and ICT facilities.

          The following questions were raised by Group Leaders:

          (i)           Councillor Sandford sought assurance that all building works would be carried out to the highest environmental standards;

          (ii)           Councillor Khan requested that the rebuilding/refurbishment plans ensured adequate space and facilities.

          In response the Leader assured Members that building works would be carried out to the highest environmental standards and sufficient provision would be made in respect of space and facilities.

          4 (iii)      Chief Executive’s Announcements

          There were no announcements from the Chief Executive.

(i)                 Questions with Notice by Members of the Public

(ii)               Questions with Notice by Members of the Council relating to Ward Matters and to Committee Chairmen

(iii)             Questions with Notice by Members of the Council to representatives of the Police and Fire Authorities

(iv)             Petitions submitted by Members or Residents

5 (i)   Questions with Notice by Members of the Pubic

          There were no questions submitted.

          5 (ii)       Questions with Notice by Members of the Council relating to Ward Matters and to Committee Chairmen

          A question was asked in respect of the following:

·                 The current status and timescale for completion of works to replace two bus shelters and widen the bus lay-bys in Lincoln Road (opposite Morrison’s supermarket).

          5 (iii)      Questions with Notice by Members of the Council to representatives of the Police and Fire Authorities

          There were no questions submitted.

          A summary of all questions and answers raised within agenda item 5 (i), (ii) and (iii) is attached at Appendix A.

          5 (d)       Petitions submitted by Members or Residents

          The following petitions were received:

·                 Petition for the removal of a wall in the communal area near numbers 39-49 Brookfurlong, Ravensthorpe;

·                 Petition to prevent the sale of the Crematorium;

·                 Petition against the proposal to erect a fence around the playing field next to Norwood School;

·                 Petition to install a play area for children in the vicinity of Allexton Gardens.

(i)                 Questions with Notice to the Leader and Members of the Executive

(ii)               Questions without Notice on the Record of Executive Decisions

6 (i)   Questions with Notice to the Leader and Members of the Executive

          Questions were asked of the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Members in respect of the following:

·         The number of social workers employed by the Council and numbers currently on sick leave / suspended leave and mechanisms in place to avoid a tragedy such as the ‘Baby P’ case in the city;

·         Revenue lost as a result of having a Traffic Management Officer on duty to operate an automatic barrier scheme;

·         The number of offices allocated for the use of Cabinet Members, the additional square footage used (as opposed to previous arrangements) and the additional cost of such accommodation;

·         The comparative costs of the new and old Cabinet and Committee structure, including the proposed Neighbourhood Councils, in terms of allowances paid to Members, support posts, time and other related costs / overheads;

·         The plans in place to increase the number of secondary school and college places for students in light of the requirements for every 17 year old to be in education or training by 2013 and the extension of this requirement to 18 year olds by 2015;

·         The conversion of gardens at the Great Northern Hotel to a car park;

·         Consideration of measures to reduce the cost of producing the ‘Your Peterborough’ magazine;

·         The road layout at the junction of the Fletton and Nene Parkways (Junction 3 A1139) and the potential for confusion associated with road markings and signage.

          A summary of all questions and answers raised within agenda item 6 (i) is attached at Appendix B.

          6 (ii)       Questions without Notice on the Record of Executive Decisions

          Members received and noted a report summarising:

·         The Council’s call-in mechanism which had not been invoked since the last meeting;

·         Special Urgency and waive of call-in provisions in relation to the decision relating to the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Plan 2009/10 for the National Treatment Agency;

·         Cabinet Member Decisions taken during the period 30 March to 30 June 2009.

          Questions were asked about the following decisions:

          Members’ Waste and Recycling Working Party

          Councillor Fower queried the legality of the decision relating to the Waste Strategy in light of the decision to disband the Members’ Waste and Recycling Working Party.

          The Leader undertook to provide a written response to Councillor Fower in order to fully clarify the position.

          The sale of land and building known as Newark Court

          Councillor Fower queried why details of the amount the Council was seeking to raise from the sale was not made available.

          Councillor Scott confirmed that she would provide a written response to Councillor Fower, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Resources.

(i)                 Executive Recommendations

(ii)               Committee Recommendations

(iii)             Notices of Motion

(iv)             Reports and Recommendations:

a)     Report from the Independent Members’ Allowances Panel

b)     Neighbourhood Councils

7 (i)   Executive Recommendations

          There were no recommendations from the Executive.

          7 (ii)       Committee Recommendations

          There were no recommendations from Committees.

          7 (iii)      Notices of Motion

          The Mayor advised those present that Councillor Lee had suggested an amendment to the motion submitted by Councillor Fower (set out at paragraph 1, page 17 of the agenda book) and this had been agreed by Councillor Fower.  Members’ consented to submission of the amended motion as set out in the Order Papers.

(a)        Councillor Lee moved the following Motion:

That this Council:

(i)      Agrees to publicise the salaries and expense claims of its Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive and Directors at the same time as the allowances and expense claims of elected Members are published;

(ii)     Continues to publicise details of Members’ allowances and expense claims in accordance with the requirements of the Local Authorities Members’ Allowances (England) Regulations 2003;

(iii)    Publicises the expenses and / or remuneration paid to any elected Member appointed on behalf of the Council to the Police and Fire Authorities.  Publication to take place at the same time as each individual body publishes this detail;

(iv)    Publicises all information referred to above in ‘Your Peterborough’ magazine, the homepage of the Council’s website, and as directed by the relevant regulations.

          The Motion was seconded by Councillor Fower.

          Councillor Fitzgerald moved the following amendment to paragraph (iii) of the motion (in italics):

          Publicises the expenses and / or remuneration paid to any elected Member appointed on behalf of the Council to the Police and Fire Authorities and the expenses and/or remuneration paid to any elected Member by all other organisations / bodies that make payments now or might make payments in the future where a member is appointed by the Council to serve on such a body.  Further, and in order to boost public confidence in elected Members, they will agree to publicise together and in one place all other expenses or remuneration details that are already available in the public domain where an elected Member may receive a fee or expenses when appointed to a nation or local government body or a regional / national quango, excluding any appointments that are made or where income or expenses are received that would be in connection to a Members’ primary job or usual employment.  Publication to take place at the same time as each individual body publishes this detail.

          This was seconded by Councillor Morley.

          A concern was raised that Members had not had sight of Councillor Fitzgerald’s proposed amendment in writing.  It was suggested that the meeting should be adjourned in order to enable written copies of the amendment to be circulated.  A vote was taken on an adjournment which was CARRIED: 19 in favour, 16 against, 13 abstentions.

          Following a brief adjournment, the meeting reconvened at 8.50 p.m.  Members debated the amended motion submitted by Councillor Fitzgerald, following which a vote was taken on the amendment.  This was DEFEATED: 35 against, 8 in favour and 3 abstentions.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

APPENDIX A

SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RAISED UNDER AGENDA ITEM 5 – COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT TIME

1.       Questions with Notice by Members of the Public

         There were no questions from members of the public.

2.      Questions with Notice by Members of the Council relating to Ward Matters and to Committee Chairmen

         Councillor Sandford asked the Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Community Development:

Works to replace two bus shelters and to widen bus lay-bys in Lincoln Road (opposite Morrisons supermarket) is causing massive disruption and inconvenience to bus travellers, car drivers and local companies with large sections of the carriageway being cordoned off for weeks on end, often with no work apparently taking place.  I have been advised that the work will continue until September.  Can the Cabinet Member do anything in order to speed up with work and reduce disruption?

         The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Community Development responded:

         Utility diversions are currently being undertaken at the Paul Pry and Paston Lane bus stops on Lincoln Road.  This is to enable the lay-bys to be widened as part of an improvement to the existing bus stop infrastructure on this key bus route.  The existing bus lay bys are narrow and buses can encroach into the inside lane when stopped and cause a safety issue and disrupt traffic.

         At the present time Morrison Utilities are working on behalf of EDF Energy Networks to replace both high and low voltage cables at the Paston Lane stop. The carriageway is currently narrowed to one lane to permit safe passage of pedestrians around the works. It is anticipated that this work will be completed to such an extent that traffic management should have been removed from the main carriageway by Friday 10 July 2009.

         Whilst works will be ongoing until the end of September, I am pleased to say that it is envisaged that the majority of the remaining works will only involve lane closures during off peak periods.  Traffic management will be removed from the main carriageway overnight and during the morning peak when the council’s engineering work commences.

         Through its statutory traffic management functions the council makes every effort to co-ordinate transport infrastructure works in an area and reduce disruption along this other vital route in and around the city.  However local authorities have only limited influence over the time taken by utility companies to complete planned works.

3.      Questions from Members to Representatives of the Police / Fire Authorities

         There were no questions for Representatives of the Police / Fire Authorities.

APPENDIX B

SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RAISED UNDER AGENDA ITEM

6 (a) – EXECUTIVE BUSINESS TIME

1.      Questions with Notice from Members to the Leader and Members of the Executive

(a)     Councillor Fower asked the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services:

I understand there is presently a drive to recruit 5000 revised social workers to reduce the change of children dying from neglect and / or abuse.  The campaign has already noted that one in ten posts across the country remain unfilled. 

Can the relevant Cabinet Member inform me of the present state of play in Peterborough, for example, what is the situation in respect of the number of social workers employed by the Council, how many (if any) are on some form of suspended leave and what action is being taken to prevent a tragedy like the case of ‘Baby P’ in this city?

         The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services responded:

         The information relates to the frontline Children’s Social Care division that responds to allegations of abuse and referrals of concern.  It is acknowledged there are qualified social workers working elsewhere across Children’s Services.  Members will recall that following the Joint Area Review [JAR] in 2006 a workforce development project was established to respond to inspectors’ concerns that there was insufficient capacity and too many SW vacancies.  In 2008 Children’s Social Care was restructured and relocated following an exercise of capacity and activity analysis in conjunction with Price Waterhouse Coopers.  A successful recruitment strategy under the promotion of ‘grow with Peterborough’ has enabled many vacancies to be filled.  The current vacancy level for Qualified Social Workers is 10% which means 7.5 posts out of 76.5 are currently unfilled.  Prior to the Baby P publicity we had achieved a vacancy rate below 6%.  The publicity of the tragedy has made it harder to recruit and Peterborough currently has a campaign targeted at experienced workers.

   Peterborough also has a long term recruitment strategy which consists of:

1.a ‘grow your own scheme’ where we offer three secondments/traineeships per year.  This enables us to plan to fill vacancies with workers returning when qualified.  Two will be returning this year as qualified workers;

2.The department offers three final year bursaries to students who then come to Peterborough to work upon achieving their qualification.  There is one returning this year on this scheme and;

3.The department offers a competitive career progression scheme which has received national recognition from the Children’s Workforce Development Council [CWDC].  New recruits confirm this was a key reason for making their application to Peterborough.  We remain confident we will still attract applicants to the currently vacant posts.

         In response to what action is being taken to prevent a baby P tragedy in the city:

         Peterborough and its partner agencies have undertaken a self evaluation exercise against the findings in Haringay and the Recommendations of Lord Lamings progress report ‘the protection of children in England’ - these evaluations are currently being analysed by the Peterborough Safeguarding Children  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.