Agenda and minutes

(1)   Councillors Church and Woods declared personal and prejudicial interests in respect of item 12(iii) “Notice of Motion” in respect of WNDC as Board members of that organisation.

(2)   Councillor Garlick declared a personal but non prejudicial interest in item 13 “Matters of Urgency” in respect of Weston Favell School as a Governor of that body.

(3)   Councillors Edwards and Hawkins declared personal but non prejudicial interests in respect of item 12(iii) “Notices of Motion” in respect of WNDC as members of that organisation’s Planning Committee.

(4)   Councillors Church and Woods declared personal but non prejudicial interests in respect of item 7 “Portfolio Holder Presentations” insofar as the discussion referred to the WNDC’s agreement to fund the Market Square Lighting Scheme as Board members of that organisation.

To approve the minutes of the proceedings of the Meeting of the Council held on 26 October 2009.

The minutes of the meeting of Council held on 26 October 2009 were signed by the Mayor.

Apologies were received from Councillors De Cruz, Duncan, Hadland and Larratt.

The Mayor welcomed Councillor M Hoare to the Council meeting following a prolonged period of illness.

The Mayor reported that the Council had received a Customer Service Excellence Award for all its Customer Services and IT.  The main strengths that had been highlighted were staff showing real passion for what they do and pride in delivering customer focussed services.  Full compliance was achieved in every area of the standard.  Whilst the award was granted to Customer Services and ICT it reflected the hard work and customer focus of the whole of the Council.

The Mayor noted that the Gala Dinner had raised £1500 towards the Mayor’s Charity.

The Mayor stated that the Mayoress had secured a £10,000 award from the Barclaycard Community Fund towards his Guide Dogs for the Disabled charity.  This would allow for one dog to be fully trained.

Sheron Watson commented that residents were opposed to the social housing being planned on the former garage site.  She referred to car parking problems in the area that would be exacerbated by the loss of the garage space as well as the rights of access that it gave.  She requested that restoration of the area as a garaging site be considered.  Sheron Watson handed the Mayor a petition.  The Mayor indicated the petition would be handed to the appropriate Director and Portfolio Holder for response.

Norman Adams asked what NBC stood for.  Was it Northampton Borough Council or Northampton Bingo Club?  He commented that tenants representatives had been invited to agree to an arrangement by letter or not be further involved with the Council.  There would not be an elected tenants representative body.  He understood that names would be put in a hat and picked out randomly.  He referred to an item later on the agenda in respect of committee allocations and the fact that the Chief Executive appeared to be becoming a bingo caller.

Mr Swinn noted the number of people now registered on the Housing waiting list as 7,048.  He commented that this was an increase of 3,100 in 12 months or 70%.  He noted the two schemes for building social housing and the Government guidance How Councils Can Build the Houses We Need.  He noted that both bids were in the region of £450,000 each.

Mr Baker commented that the Council should be congratulated for the joint work undertaken to improve Council housing which would not have happened in years gone by. He also congratulated the Council upon its floral displays.

Mr Grethe stated that he believed that a review of the Council’s Constitution was taking place. He felt that the current arrangements were too restrictive and that more time for public contributions should be allowed at Cabinet and Council. He hoped that the Working Party would would take on board his views.

Mr Mallard in representing the Eastfield Residents Association expressed concern that their local Councillor had not been allowed to address Cabinet on 25 November 2009 in respect of the items referring to Overview and Scrutiny.  He commented that the Residents Association had sent letters to the Borough Solicitor, Leader of the Council, Councillor P D Varnsverry and the Chronicle and Echo.  In referring to other issues he commented that it appeared that the Independent Councillors were being kept from important issues and Committees.

Public and Member Questions and the responses are attached.

Member Questions declined are also attached.

The Mayor advised that 108 questions had been received from members of the public and Councillors.  The questions and responses had been tabled in accordance with the Constitution.

Councillor Clarke commented that the questions from the Independent Group members had been submitted some seven days previously which he believed gave adequate time for responses to be made available to the Council.  It appeared that Cabinet had been advised by the Chief Executive and Directors that to answer all the questions would distract from the work of the Council.  However the advice given to his group by the Chief Executive had been that it was for the Portfolio Holders and Chairs to respond to questions.  It was not reasonable to say that officers would be involved in composing responses.

Councillor B Hoare apologised for copies not being available to all Councillors at the commencement of the meeting.  He noted that Portfolio Holders were perfectly entitled to decline to answer questions.  He reported that an offer had been made to the Independent Group Councillors to nominate three questions each but they had declined to do so.  Questions that asked for detailed analysis couldn’t be answered by Portfolio Holders without the assistance of officers.

Mr Adams asked, Councillor Beardsworth as the relevant Portfolio Holder, “the recent report (November 5 2009) by the National Institute for the Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) highlights work/stress.  Could the Portfolio Holder for Housing confirm that stress is being monitored across the areas covered by her?  Could she give the hours lost (to stress) according to Sheltered Housing Wardens (Co-ordinators) in each of the following months this year – January to October 2009.  Councillor Beardsworth stated that she could confirm that processes were in place to ensure that the Council monitored all absences related to stress as with all absences.  The total hours lost to stress related staff absence within Sheltered Housing equated to 1,495.24 hours (202.5 days) during the period January 2009 to October 2009.

Norman Adams asked Councillor Beardsworth as the relevant Portfolio Holder, “In the period from March 2008 to August 2009 one block of flats in Camborne Close (Delapre) has had repairs to its door(s) on 20 occasions.  Was this an exception or was it common across the Borough?  Would the Portfolio Holder please give the full cost of repairs to communal doors and locks for the period in question Borough-wide?”  Councillor Beardsworth commented that in the period between 1 March 2008 and 1 August 2009 Property Maintenance spent in the region of £145,337 on approximately 2,100 communal door and lock related repairs.  Total spend was produced using the national Housing Federation Official Schedules and includes repairs to bin stores, meter cupboard doors, gates, entrance doors and access controlled equipment.  Norman Adams asked a supplementary question and commented that he was aware that at Camborne Close on the 20 occasions referred to, repairs had not been dealt with at once.  This allowed access to the building by anyone including youths.  He noted that most  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

At this point each of the Cabinet members made a presentation on their respective Portfolios which had been circulated with the agenda.

Councillor B Hoare presented his Portfolio Holder report.  Councillor Clarke noted that he and his colleagues had declined to answer a number of questions and he compared this with the statement in his report to be open and honest with Elected Members and for Councillors to hold the Cabinet and himself to account in a robust and forthright way.  Councillor Clarke commented that the words on paper were contradicted by the actions in Council.  Councillor B Hoare commented that he and his Cabinet colleagues were perfectly entitled to decline to answer questions and he was more concerned about putting resources into improving the Council and developing the good work already done by Councillors and officers.  He noted that in any case, more questions had been asked on this occasion than at any other question time.  Councillor Malpas commented that he was aware that a consultant had been engaged to give the Council advice on accommodation needs in order to accommodate those staff moving out of Cliftonville House.  He queried whether this expertise already lay within the Council.  Councillor B Hoare commented that he could neither confirm or deny this but the Chief Executive may have engaged specialist help to make the best possible use of the space that was available.  Councillor Mildren asked Councillor B Hoare what the word “Northamptonian” meant to him.  Councillor B Hoare indicated that a “Northamptonian” could either be someone who had been born and bred in Northampton or someone who had the best interests of the town at heart.

Councillor Beardsworth as the Portfolio Holder for Housing submitted her report.

Councillor P D Varnsverry as the Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement submitted his report.  Councillor Golby commented that this year’s Christmas lights combined with the German market looked good.  However, he commented that the “Merry Christmas” lights at the bottom of Bridge Street were not working properly.  Councillor P D Varnsverry commented that the fault had been discovered the previous Tuesday, examined on Friday and new parts were due to be fitted, probably on 11 December 2009.  Councillor Meredith congratulated the officers for how well the town centre and market square was looking.  Councillor Clarke enquired that whilst Bridge Street was closed would the prohibition to traffic at the top of the Drapery be lifted so as to allow traffic from Mercers Row and George Row to be able to exit the town centre?  Councillor P D Varnsverry noted that the traffic arrangements had been well advertised but that traffic could exit via the top of the Drapery.  Councillor Mildren queried whether the welcome signs should say “welcome to everybody” rather than “Welcome Northampton”.  Councillor P D Varnsverry noted that all were welcome in Northampton.

Councillor Church as Portfolio Holder for Planning and Regeneration submitted his report and commented that WNDC had agreed, the previous week, to fund the market square lighting scheme.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

A statement from the Leader of the Opposition regarding environmental services.

Councillor Palethorpe indicated that he was speaking on behalf of the Environmental Services functions of the Council.  He noted that over the last three years the Council’s budget had been cut by £20m and much of this had come from Environmental Services.  He believed that Environmental Services had been cut to the bone and it was important to maintain what was left.  He was aware that this year there was again a need for the Council to make savings as far as possible to maintain services.  He believed it was important that funding was not further reduced to Environmental Services so they could continue to deliver services.  He noted that the health of the organisation was dependent upon the health of staff, in this case many of whom worked outside.  He urged the Administration to protect Environmental Services; they were a visual representation of what the Council provided for people.

Councillor B Hoare commented that a balanced budget needed to be brought to Cabinet on 16 December and consideration would have to be given to competing priorities.  The Cabinet would have to make choices.  He could not tell Council today that Environmental Services would not be asked to make savings once again.  He was pleased with improvements that they had already made and the Council had made significant commitments in respect of carbon management.  Cabinet’s proposals made on 16 December would then be consulted upon publicly and a final decision would be made in February 2010.

Councillor Palethorpe thanked the Leader for his comments and appreciated the difficulties that Cabinet found itself in.  He noted that if collections of waste to the public were cut this would just lead to increased journeys to waste collection centres as people took rubbish to them.  This in itself would not be good for the environment.  He reiterated that as far as possible Environmental Services should be protected at its current level.

Report of Director of Finance and Support (copy herewith).

Councillor Perkins submitted a report.  Councillor B Hoare seconded its adoption.

RESOLVED:                        That the revisions to the Council’s prudential indicators for 2009-10, as set below be approved:

(a) Estimate of capital expenditure

(b) Estimate of capital financing requirement (CFR)

Report of Chief Executive (copy herewith)

Councillor B Hoare submitted a report.  Councillor P D Varnsverry seconded adoption of the resolution.  Councillor Clarke reiterated the concerns he had expressed at the last meeting of Council and commented that his Group had asked for places on each of the three Overview & Scrutiny Committees.  He was unhappy that it was proposed that individual places would be determined by a draw from a hat.  He stated that if this was followed through his members would not attend the Committees that they had been allocated to.

RESOLVED:That if within three weeks of 7 December 2009 the Independent Group have not named their members to the Committee places agreed by Council at the meeting of 26 October 2009, the Chief Executive be delegated to conduct the drawing by lot of the names of members of the Independent group against those Committee places already agreed, and to allocate those places to the drawn named members.

Report of Chief Executive (copy herewith)

Councillor B Hoare submitted a report.  Councillor Perkins seconded the recommendation.

RESOLVED:That the Constitution Working Party comprise two members each from the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Groups and one each from the Labour and Independent Groups.

(i) Councillor Simpson to move and Councillor Collins to second:

This Council applauds the launch of the 10:10 campaign, which encourages organisations across the public, private and third sectors to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

This Council considers it vital that local government demonstrates robust political leadership in responding to the climate crisis and that the United Kingdom does more to reduce its carbon emissions and develop the green technologies needed to generate economic growth in the years ahead.

This Council further considers it important for the Borough of Northampton to lead by example in reducing its carbon emissions and to strive to be a regional leader on environmental issues.

This Council notes with great regret last month’s floods across the North West of England and recognises the link between extraordinary weather patterns and man-made climate change.

This Council resolves to sign to the 10:10 campaign, in accordance with other Liberal Democrat-run authorities, setting its baseline for emissions at 31^st December 2009.

(ii) Councillor b Hoare to move and Councillor p d Varnsverry to second:

This Council notes the United Kingdom’s unprecedented peacetime fiscal position. Specifically:

1.      That the government will borrow £89,400,000,000 this year to meet its Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR 2007) targets.

2.      That this year’s extra borrowing will stretch the national debt beyond £200,000,000,000,000, a figure greater than any forecast by HM Treasury.

3.      That respected national and international bodies, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) have warned against maintaining public spending at the historic rates seen since 2001.

This Council further notes:

1.      That CSR 2007 expires on 31^st March 2011.

2.      That the Labour government has not published spending plans beyond this date.

This Council recognises the crossroads at which local government finds itself and accepts that future governments will seek real-terms reductions in spending across many services currently run by local authorities.

This Council resolves to:

1.      Continue its programme of reform to protect as many frontline services as possible.

2.      Seek more substantive partnership arrangements with neighbouring public sector bodies to minimise backroom costs.

3.      Engage Northamptonians in an open and honest dialogue about the extent of change required to maintain existing frontline services.

4.      Lobby Northampton’s sitting Members of Parliament, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to push for reform of the discredited Council Tax to ensure that Northamptonians enjoy the fully funded, locally delivered services they deserve.

(III) COUNCILLOR PALETHORPE TO PROPOSE AND COUNCILLOR LARRATT TO SECOND:

This council believes that planning decisions affecting the town should be subject to proper democratic scrutiny, and should therefore be made by elected members of this authority.  This council instructs the Chief Executive to write to the secretary of state requesting that WNDC be disbanded and that planning powers be returned to the relevant councils as soon as is practicable.

(i)                 Councillor Simpson moved and Councillor Collins seconded:

“That this Council applauds the launch of the 10:10 campaign which encourages organisations across the public, private and third sectors to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

This Council considers it vital that Local Government demonstrates robust political leadership in responding to the climate crisis and that the United Kingdom does more to reduce its carbon emissions and develop the green technologies needed to generate economic growth in years ahead.

This Council further considers important for the Borough of Northampton to lead by example in reducing its carbon emissions and to strive to be a regional leader on environmental issues.

This Council notes with great regret that last month’s floods across the north west of England and recognises the link between extraordinary weather patterns and man made climate change.

This Council resolves to sign the 10:10 campaign, in accordance with other Liberal Democrat run authorities, setting its base line for emissions at 31 December 2009.”

Mr Swinn asked what trust and confidence people could have in Councillors, given two motions that had been approved in 2005 in respect of the suspension of customer panel and establishment of a new tenant participation mechanism.  Nothing had taken place since.  In respect of this motion there needed to be a national education programme for people generally.

The Council debated the motion.

The motion was carried.

(ii)               Councillor B Hoare moved and Councillor P D Varnsverry seconded

“That this Council notes the United Kingdom’s unprecedented peace time fiscal position.  Specifically:

(1)    That the Government borrow £89,4000,000,000 this year to meet its Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR2007) Targets.

(2)    That this year’s extra borrowing will stretch the national debt beyond £200,000,000,000,000 a figure greater than any forecast by HM Treasury.

(3)    That respected national and international bodies, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have warned against maintaining public spending at the historic rates seen since 2001.

This Council further notes:

(1)    That CSR 2007 expires on 31 March 2011.

(2)    That the Labour Government has not published spending plans beyond this date.

This Council recognises the crossroads at which Local Government finds itself and accepts that future Governments will seek real terms reductions in spending across many services currently run by local authorities.  This Council resolves to:

(1)         Continue its programme of reform to protect as many front line services as possible.

(2)    Seek more substantive partnership arrangements with neighbouring public sector bodies to minimise back room costs.

(3)    Engage Northamptonians in an open and honest dialogue about the extent of change required to maintain existing front line services.

(4)    Lobby Northampton sitting Members of Parliament, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to push for reform of the discredited Council Tax to ensure that Northamptonians enjoy the fully funded, local delivered services they deserve.

Mr Adams on behalf of Northampton Save Our Services stated the motion was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The Mayor was of the opinion that the following item be discussed as a Matter of Urgency due to the undue delay if consideration of it were deferred:-

WESTON FAVELL SCHOOL.

Councillor Palethorpe moved and Councillor Simpson seconded

“Northampton Borough Council instructs the Chief Executive to write to the Leader of Northamptonshire County Council expressing this Council’s opposition to the proposal of designating Weston Favell School to Academy status.  Northampton Borough Council supports the views of the students, parents, governing body and staff of Weston Favell school in realising the ambition to become an excellent education and community school”.

Council debated the motion.

The motion was carried.