Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield, S1 2HH

Contact: Paul Robinson  Email: paul.robinson@sheffield.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

2.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 74 KB

Members to declare any interests they have in the business to be considered at the meeting

Minutes:

3.

Minutes Of Previous Council Meeting pdf icon PDF 303 KB

To receive the record of the proceedings of the meeting of the Council held on 6th November, 2013 and to approve the accuracy thereof

Minutes:

4.

Public Questions and Petitions and Other Communications

To receive any questions or petitions from the public, or communications submitted by the Lord Mayor or the Chief Executive and to pass such resolutions thereon as the Council Procedure Rules permit and as may be deemed expedient

Minutes:

5.

Members' Questions pdf icon PDF 531 KB

5.1       Questions relating to urgent business – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(ii).

 

5.2       Supplementary questions on written questions submitted at this meeting   – Council Procedure Rule 16.4

 

5.3       Questions on the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities for Fire and Rescue, Integrated Transport and Pensions – Section 41 of the Local Government Act 1985 – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i).

 

            (NB. Minutes of recent meetings of the three South Yorkshire Joint    Authorities have been made available to all Members of the Council via the following link https://meetings.sheffield.gov.uk/council-meetings/full-council)

 

Minutes:

6.

Representation, Delegated Authority and Related Issues pdf icon PDF 44 KB

To consider any changes to the memberships and arrangements for meetings of Committees etc., delegated authority, and the appointment of representatives to serve on other bodies

Minutes:

7.

Appointment to the post of the Executive Director, Children, Young People and Families pdf icon PDF 56 KB

Report of the Chief Executive.

Minutes:

8.

Date of the Council's Annual General Meeting in 2014 pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Report of the Chief Executive.

Minutes:

9.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Ian Auckland

That this Council:-

 

(a)       believes Liberal Democrats are committed to building a stronger economy by rebalancing the British economy away from the City of London and towards revitalising cities across the country;

           

(b)       welcomes news that the Government’s transport capital investment outside of London is set to increase by 28% in real terms in 2015-16;

           

(c)        notes that this represents a 16% increase relative to the previous Government’s 2010-11 budget;

           

(d)       thanks Liberal Democrats in Government for helping to secure another £16 million to allow the Bus Rapid Transit project to proceed with greener buses,  a new highway link and a high quality service between Sheffield and Rotherham;

           

(e)       furthermore, backs the on-going consultation into improvements to Dore and Totley station, which will deliver a significantly improved Manchester to Sheffield service;

           

(f)        fully endorses the Bus Rapid Transit and Northern Hub Rail projects, and thanks the Government for ensuring investment is available to enable these projects to proceed, and calls on future Governments to ensure these projects are completed;

           

(g)       reminds Members that these projects come in addition to unprecedented levels of investment in Sheffield’s transport infrastructure, including £1.2 billion to enable the Streets Ahead project, £58 million for the UK’s first tram/train pilot, and new facilities for electric vehicles;

           

(h)       believes these projects will help build a stronger local economy by creating jobs and enabling Sheffield to become a better place to do business;

           

(i)         however, notes South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority’s 2012/13 budget monitoring report, which demonstrated that projects in which Sheffield City Council were the lead authority, had a total underspend of £2.9 million, more than a third of the allocated budgets;

           

(j)         regrets that the current Administration have failed to effectively spend the capital funds that have been allocated  and believes these failures damage the potential to capitalise on future funding streams; and

           

(k)        calls upon the Administration to immediately publish its internal review into the failure to manage capital budgets, to ensure these mistakes are not repeated.

Minutes:

10.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Mazher Iqbal

That this Council:-

 

a)         believes Britain’s energy market isn’t working for ordinary families and businesses and the cost of electricity and gas is crippling their family finances;

 

(b)       regrets that energy bills have risen by almost £300 for families since 2010 and businesses say it’s the second biggest cost they face and is concerned that when the price of energy increases energy companies pass this on, but when it drops consumers don’t see their bills fall;

 

(c)        notes recent research by Which? estimating that flaws in the market have left consumers paying £3.9bn a year over the odds since 2010;

 

(d)       fully opposes the unfair price rises recently announced by the big energy companies including a 10.4% increase in Npower’s dual-fuel bills from December, SSE increasing prices by 8.2% from 15th November, British Gas increasing their prices by 9.2% on 23rd November and Scottish Power raising prices by 8.6% from 6th December;

 

(e)       notes comments from the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice speaking about the SSE increase “The price rise will be a blow for stretched budgets … Many households are facing a daily battle to try to make their frozen incomes cover mounting energy, food and travel costs. Further increases will push people into poverty.”;

 

(f)        believes that the increases represent a rip-off and believes that the present Government have chosen to defend the big energy companies and have failed to stand up for the consumer;

 

(g)       regrets that the Council’s main opposition group’s spokesperson for energy has followed the line of the Conservative Party in defending the energy companies rather than Sheffield families and is extremely concerned by the following comments he made in “Lib Dem Voice” on 30th September, 2013 “No energy company has a duty to invest in anything” and “To say that energy prices are the fault of the energy companies is obviously on one level correct, but seems to imply that they have a duty to us rather than their shareholders when they set their prices. They have a legal duty not to operate a cartel, but beyond this they pitch their prices to maximise profits.”

 

(h)       believes that this demonstrates that the main opposition group is only concerned with defending the excessive profits of the big energy companies and has no concern for Sheffield’s hard pressed families who are faced with extortionate increases in their energy bills;

 

(i)         welcomes the commitment by The Rt. Hon. Ed Miliband MP to freeze energy bills until 2017 upon the election of a Labour Government; and

 

(j)         further welcomes the commitment that the next Labour Government will reset our energy market so it works for Britain’s families and businesses, with a new tough regulator to stop overcharging.

 

Minutes:

11.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Leigh Bramall

That this Council:-

 

(a)       welcomes the recent confirmation from the Department for Education that Sheffield has by far the highest percentage of young people undertaking apprenticeships of all Core Cities:

 

           Sheffield                    7.8%

           Liverpool                    5.6%

           Nottingham               5.2%

           Leeds                         5%

           Bristol                         4.9%

           Newcastle                 3.5%

           Manchester               2.5%

           Birmingham              2.4%

 

(b)       further welcomes that the rate currently being achieved is also among the highest of any local authority in England;

 

(c)        believes that the commitment to apprenticeships made by the current Administration has played a significant role in helping to achieve this success with policies such as:

 

(i)         a One Hundred Apprenticeship Programme for young people furthest from the jobs market;

 

(ii)        a locally developed Skills Made Easy apprenticeship programme, which this Council played a key role in designing, that seeks to create 4000 additional apprenticeships across the Sheffield City Region and uniquely puts the purchasing power for skills in the hands of business, thereby meeting the needs of the local economy, young people and the business community far better than national programmes;

 

(iii)       the RISE graduate internship programme, which encourages small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to take on graduates; and

 

(iv)       a pilot of a recently announced Employment and Skills event that will match young people with real jobs and advice on apprenticeships and other training offers;

 

(d)       further welcomes the City Region’s success in securing the £5m Ambition Sheffield City Region bid, which this Administration also played a key role in designing and developing with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and local authority partners;

 

(e)       notes that the funding for the Ambition Sheffield City Region bid came from a reported huge £250 million underspend in the Deputy Prime Minister’s flagship Youth Contract, with reports suggesting just a few thousand businesses had taken up the programme despite the target exceeding 250,000, and therefore welcomes the fact that the success of the Sheffield City Region Bid shows that the Coalition Government has belatedly recognised the success of Sheffield in tackling youth unemployment, and that local authorities and the LEP in this area are better placed to deliver employment programmes for young people;

 

(f)        believes that this Administration’s commitment to apprenticeships and related programmes is good for the City’s business community - helping to deliver the right skills to grow our economy and attract future inward investment – and helps to provide a positive future for our young people by giving them a more prosperous future, thereby representing real action on this Administration’s priorities to be business friendly and focus on jobs;

 

(g)       further welcomes the fact that this commitment to apprenticeships is now reflected in the fact that the City has now seen the percentage of young people Not in Education, Employment and Training (NEETS) reduce to 6.5% - the first time the Council has recorded NEETS of below 7%;

 

(h)       therefore believes that this is a track record the City and its young people can be proud of and is therefore saddened  ...  view the full agenda text for item 11.

Minutes:

12.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Joe Otten

That this Council:-

 

(a)       is appalled by the latest round of excessive hikes in energy prices and believes these have been caused by the last Government, who took the market from seventeen operators to the dominance of the big six;

           

(b)       believes Liberal Democrats are committed to building a stronger economy and a fairer society and therefore supports the measures being taken by Liberal Democrats in Government to tackle high energy bills, including:

                       

(i)         the ground-breaking Green Deal, which was described by the Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment as “fantastic news for Sheffield”;

 

(ii)        reversing the previous Government’s planned cut to Cold Weather Payments, which are targeted at the most vulnerable;

 

(iii)       promoting ‘collective switching’ and making it easier for households to switch providers;

 

(iv)       reducing fuel bills for 2 million families by up to £130 through the Warm Home Discount;

 

(v)        rolling out a ‘smart meter’ programme, which helps people save money and ensures energy companies meet demand more efficiently; and

 

(vi)       working with Ofgem to investigate and tackle the big six’s profits;

 

(c)        rejects spurious claims that rising energy prices are linked to green levies and highlights research which demonstrates that the Coalition Government’s climate change policies will save consumers roughly £166 in energy bills by 2020;

           

(d)       believes the Labour Party’s proposed price freeze is a con, which could risk blackouts and jeopardise green jobs as well as billions of pounds of investment in low carbon technology;

           

(e)       furthermore considers that energy companies will significantly hike prices in anticipation of a freeze and that in the long run a freeze will drive smaller operators out of the market, thereby reducing competition and actually upholding high prices;

           

(f)        recognises the work already undertaken by the Council to support local residents with energy bills including the previous Administration’s Free Insulation Scheme, which insulated over 28,000 homes in Sheffield, and the Big Sheffield Switch; and

 

(g)       however, calls on the current Administration to go further to support local residents struggling with high energy bills by:

 

(i)         utilising underspends in the Council capital programme to create a £1 million Local Climate Change Fund, to support community micro-generation projects;

 

(ii)        maximising the use of collective switching, by repeating the Big Sheffield Switch;

 

(iii)       promoting the Green Deal, by encouraging local residents to make use of free household assessments; and

 

(iv)       investigating the use of public health funding to support elderly residents with improved insulation.

Minutes:

13.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Clive Skelton

That this Council:-

(a)       recognises the contribution that our serving armed forces and veterans make to our communities;

(b)       notes that its commitment to the Armed Forces Community Covenant ensures the needs of those residents of Sheffield who serve or have served the country are recognised and supported at a local level;

(c)        congratulates everybody involved in delivering many successful activities in Sheffield, as demonstrated by the inclusion of eleven Sheffield examples in the Royal British Legion’s  Best Practice Guide to Community Covenants (September 2013);

(d)       further notes that many other residents have, through a range of professions, served the country in equally significant measure in national security and defence – including those who participated in the testing of Britain’s nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s;

(e)       welcomes that, following a Ministry of Defence commissioned Health Needs Analysis in 2011 of British nuclear test veterans, the NHS has introduced a number of practical measures to support them;

(f)        believes that other parts of the public and voluntary sector should seek to introduce similar measures to support nuclear test veterans – and that the Council should lead this at a local level by extending the provisions of the Armed Forces Community Covenant to those veterans who live in Sheffield;

(g)       urges the Government to support the campaign of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans’ Association by:

(i)         officially recognising the unique service of these veterans and acknowledge the nation’s continuing debt to them; and

(ii)        supporting the intention to establish a Benevolent Fund of £25million to provide assistance for those veterans and their descendants in need; and

(h)       agrees to ask all the Sheffield MPs to back this campaign and join the Council in urging the Government to support the requests outlined in paragraph (g) above.

Minutes:

14.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Julie Dore

That this Council:-

(a)       notes that the Council launched an appeal in February 2013 to raise the £150,000 needed to install the Women of Steel statue, designed by artist Martin Jennings, at Barkers Pool, outside the City Hall;

(b)       believes that this statue will be a fitting tribute to the women of Sheffield who worked in the steelworks and factories through both world wars and were vital contributors to the war effort;

(c)        further believes that this statue and the story it represents will be an inspiration to the present and future women of Sheffield;

(d)       congratulates the performers, organisers and benefactors who between them raised over £60,000 towards the cost of the statue at the recent fundraising concert; and

(e)       urges the people of Sheffield to continue to contribute in many ways to achieve the target which is needed to pay for the statue so that it can be in place during the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One.

 

Minutes:

15.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Jillian Creasy

That this Council:-

 

(a)       deplores the cuts being imposed on Sheffield City Council by central government against a background of cuts to public services, jobs and benefits facing the city as a whole;

 

(b)       notes that extending the current Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) or “Robin Hood Tax” on shares to other asset classes such as bonds and derivatives could raise £20bn of additional revenue in the UK a year;

 

(c)        notes also that at least 11 European nations, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, are moving ahead with FTTs on shares, bonds and derivatives;

 

(d)       believes that whilst a FTT would have a negligible effect on jobs in the City of London, investing FTT revenues elsewhere would see a significant increase in employment levels in other sectors;

 

(e)       believes that revenues from the FTT could be used to offset cuts to public services and local authorities, including Sheffield;

 

(f)        therefore calls on Government to extend the current FTT on shares to other asset classes such as bonds and derivatives;

 

(g)       notes that so far two dozen councils across the UK have passed similar motions;

 

(h)       directs that a copy of this Motion be sent to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government; and

 

(i)         thanks the many local people who have lobbied their councillors about this issue.

Minutes:

16.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Diana Stimely

That this Council:-

 

(a)       recalls motions from the main opposition group in December 2011 and December 2012, calling on the Administration to support local businesses by repeating the previous Administration’s Free Christmas Parking scheme;

           

(b)       notes that other cities and towns, including neighbouring Rotherham, continue to offer free parking schemes in the run up to Christmas;

           

(c)        reminds Members that proposals in the main opposition group’s budget amendment would have provided funding for the provision of free Christmas parking;

           

(d)       regrets that instead of supporting local traders, this anti-business, anti-car Administration have hiked many city-centre parking charges; and

           

(e)       calls upon the Administration to reconsider its Christmas policy to re-introduce free Christmas parking in the city and district centres.

Minutes:

17.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Bryan Lodge

That this Council:-

 

(a)       congratulates the following Sheffield sportsmen, sportswomen and teams who have achieved notable success in 2013:

 

(i)         Nick Matthews, third time World Squash Champion;

 

(ii)        Matthew Fitzpatrick, US Amateur Golf Champion;

 

(iii)       Peter James Hallam, Junior Men’s British Figure Skating Champion;

 

(iv)       Matthew Johnson, City of Sheffield swimmer, member of the British Junior World Champion Relay Team;

 

(v)        Sheffield Trampoline Academy, two World Champions, Bryony Page and Lucy Horan;

 

(vi)       Sheffield Eagles, the first side to win back to back Rugby League Championship Grand Finals;

 

(vii)      City of Sheffield Diving Club, Top Boy and Girls Teams in British Diving Talent Games; and

 

(viii)     Sheffield FC, inaugural winners of the Pioneers Cup, against teams from Italy and Spain;

 

(b)       believes these achievements highlight the contribution Sheffield sport clubs and individuals make to the City and thanks performers, officials, and volunteers for their hard work and commitment; and

 

(c)        directs that a copy of this Motion be sent to the named clubs and that letters of congratulations be sent to those mentioned above who have received individual awards.

Minutes:

18.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Rob Frost

That this Council:-

 

(a)       believes it is important to support grassroots sport within the city for its well documented community, public health and emotional wellbeing benefits;

           

(b)       notes the shocking condition of many Council-owned football pitches across Sheffield and considers this a barrier to grassroots participation;

           

(c)        welcomes the announcement by the Coalition Government, alongside the Football Association and the Premier League, to invest £102 million in grassroots football facilities; and

           

(d)       calls upon the Administration to bid into this fund to radically improve grassroots football facilities in Sheffield, the home of football.

Minutes:

19.

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Robert Murphy

That this Council:-

 

(a)       notes recent research that showed Sheffield is one of the most congested cities in the country and that congestion is growing;

 

(b)       notes the recent plans for rail improvements at Dore junction station which will increase capacity on the Hope Valley line and is glad to support these moves which are long overdue;

 

(c)        believes that when complete the improvements will  open opportunities to re-open rail stations such as Heeley, Millhouses and Totley Brook as well as improving journey times and reliability of Trans Pennine services;

 

(d)       regrets the decision of the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (SYITA) not to approve provision for cycle carriage on Tram/Train vehicles, thereby missing an opportunity to show its support for integrated transport and lead the way with this national pilot;

 

(e)       reaffirms this Council's support for provision for cycle carriage on Tram/Trains and believes the SYITA decision will reduce support for a Tram/Train extension alongside the current track bed to the south of Sheffield in favour of heavy rail; and

 

(f)        directs that a copy of this Motion be sent to the SYITA, Stagecoach Supertram and Network Rail.

 

 

Minutes: