Agenda and minutes

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

To receive the record of the proceedings of the meeting of the Council held on 4^th January 2017 and to approve the accuracy thereof.

(a)       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.

(b)       Petitions Requiring Debate

The Council’s Petitions Scheme requires that any petition containing over 5,000 signatures be the subject of debate at the Council meeting.  Two qualifying petitions have been received as follows:-

1.    Petition Calling on the Council to Reverse the Decision to Close Hurlfield View

To debate an electronic petition https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-hurlfield-view containing 5,467 signatures (as at 24th January) calling on the Council to “reverse the decision to close Hurlfield View”. The wording of the e-petition is as follows:-

“Hurlfield View is the only facility in Sheffield that has day services and respite care for severely challenging individuals with dementia, the most complex cases in Sheffield.”

2.  Petition to “Save the Trees on Rivelin Valley Road”

To debate a combined electronic and paper petition entitled “Save the Trees on Rivelin Valley Road”.  The online petition – Rivelin Valley Trees - contains 4,034 supporters (as at 24th January) and the paper petition will increase the number to above 5,000.  The e-petition includes the following wording:-

“We, the undersigned, refute the assertion that the felling of 31 trees on Rivelin Valley Road, Sheffield is necessary. This road is the second longest avenue of Lime trees in the UK and is an invaluable asset to Sheffield and its heritage.  We demand, and believe it imperative, that sensitive, alternative highway engineering specifications for footway, kerb and drain be adopted and implemented to enable the long-term retention of these trees.”

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 and Pensions – Section 41 of the Local Government Act 1985 – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i).

            (NB. Minutes of recent meetings of the two South Yorkshire Joint Authorities have been made available to all Members of the Council via the following link –

            http://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/ecCatDisplay.aspx?sch=doc&cat=13165&path=0)

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.

To receive the annual report of the former Audit Committee providing an overview of the activity undertaken during 2015/16.

The Chair of the Committee (Councillor Josie Paszek) will briefly introduce the report.

Report of the Acting Executive Director, Resources containing recommendations made by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 18^th January 2017.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes the recent publication of analysis by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), from Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, finding that the proportion of household debt is at its highest level for five years; on average UK homes owed 26.5% of their annual income to loans and credit cards in the third quarter of 2015, the highest rate since 2008; and the average amount owed by households is now £12,887, the highest figure recorded, and the calculations do not include mortgages;

(b)       is concerned by the need for households to be relying on such high levels of debt, demonstrating that the Government’s handling of the national economy is fundamentally flawed – with average earnings falling below 2% since October - as increases in earning slow, household debt increases and this situation could have serious detrimental long term consequences for raising families out of poverty;

(c)        recalls the findings in July 2015, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which found that 63% of children living in poverty were in working families in 2013/14 (compared with 54% in 2009/10); and regrets that in the last year, according to the IFS, child poverty has increased by over 200,000 and notes further reports by the IFS which suggest that the UK is set for the biggest increase in child poverty in a generation and that by 2020 child poverty will have risen by 50%;

(d)       wishes to further highlight that the cycle between debt and poverty is well known, and that for children in debt-ridden families, they are more likely to be locked into a cycle of poverty; the Children’s charity Barnardo's states that “poverty is the single greatest threat to the wellbeing of children and families”;

(e)       reiterates the motion passed at December’s Full Council meeting, which noted that Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough has the 14th highest levels of child poverty of any constituency in the country with 39.7% of children (11,706 children) living in poverty and in Sheffield Central 34.9% of children (5,452 children) are living in poverty;

(f)        believes it is outrageous that in the fifth richest country in the world [i.e. the UK] children are increasingly having to suffer the consequences of poverty, and notes that from the beginning of the Coalition Government in 2010, children’s charities have been warning that the Government’s policies would result in increased child poverty and this has been seen through the significant growth in foodbanks in recent years;

(g)       regrets that the changes to Universal Credit announced in the Autumn Statement do not address the huge cuts made by this Government and recalls that the cuts to Universal Credit introduced by this Government have taken £2,100 per year from 2.5 million working families today and the measures in the Autumn Statement will give them back as little as £150;

(h)       notes research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which highlights that lone parents with 2 children, working full time on the National Living Wage, have lost £2,586 per year due  ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

That this Council:-

(a)       believes that all health and social care staff should be thanked for their tremendous hard work and that their commitment and dedication should be acknowledged; it is not staff who are to blame for the continuing crisis at the NHS, but a government who consistently fail to fund this vital service;

(b)       recognises that staff at the Northern General Hospital have been under incredible pressure this Autumn and Winter, and in October 2016, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust missed their A&E target with only 85.6 per cent of patients being seen within the four hours, against a target of 95 per cent (meaning that 2,633 patients waited too long), and believes this pressure on health services is leading to greater pressure on social care;

(c)        supports NHS England’s four-hour standard, which sets out that a minimum of 95 per cent of all patients to A&E will be treated within four hours; notes the widespread public and medical professional support for this standard, and believes that it is most concerning that the Secretary of State for Health, the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP, recently suggested that the four-hour target may be downgraded and no longer apply to minor injuries, and further believes that abandoning the four hour waiting time would be, in the words of Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, “a total admission of failure by this government”;

(d)       notes that ambulance services are also increasingly under pressure and deep condolences are given to the friends and family of a gentleman, aged 79, who died in the city after waiting two hours and forty minutes for an ambulance; the call was initially assessed as code Yellow, meaning that the incident involved a “potentially serious condition” and, under guidelines, the ambulance should have arrived in 40 minutes;

(e)       wishes to further highlight that the NHS is coming under increasing pressures, in part due to the crisis in social care - £4.6 billion has been cut from the social care budget since 2010, and that NHS funding will fall per head of population in 2018-19 and 2019-20;

(f)        supports calls on the Government to bring forward extra funding now for social care to help hospitals cope this winter, and to pledge a new improved funding settlement for the NHS and social care in the March 2017 Budget;

(g)       welcomes the Labour Party’s call to the Government for an urgent £700 million for social care, and is deeply concerned that the Prime Minister Theresa May’s government rejected this proposal, implicitly failing to understand the impact social care has on the wider NHS;

(h)       believes that Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital should be commended for seeing 98 per cent of youngsters within four hours, but raises concerns that such achievements will become increasingly unlikely without appropriate funding; and

(i)         understands that the NHS is experiencing the largest financial squeeze in its history and that 2017 will be a make or break moment for adult  ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes that the election of the regional mayor for Sheffield City Region has been postponed until May 2018;

(b)       notes with concern the press statement issued by the Leader of Barnsley Council (Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton) and the Mayor of Doncaster (Ros Jones) in support of exploring a Yorkshire-wide devolution option;

(c)        asserts that there is currently no Yorkshire-wide devolution deal on the table and notes the comments made by Northern Powerhouse Minister, Andrew Percy MP “I would urge leaders in South Yorkshire not to walk away because they will be in a position like the North-East where we take the proposal off the table because they have rejected it.”;

(d)       believes that the economic geography of the Sheffield City Region is distinct from the rest of Yorkshire and has strong links across the county borders with areas such as Bassetlaw and Chesterfield;

(e)       wants the best for our local economy and is therefore disappointed that devolved powers and funding for Sheffield City Region are now at risk because of local leaders’ parochial disagreements;

(f)        believes this is further evidence, along with the disagreements on HS2, of a lack of effective local leadership; and

(g)       calls on the Leader of the Council to do everything in her power to reassure the public and businesses of Sheffield and to get the SCR Devolution Deal back on track.

That this Council:-

(a)       fully supports the commencing in February of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) History Month and welcomes the promotion of this throughout the city by the City Council and local LGBT groups;

(b)       acknowledges the importance of raising awareness and advancing education on matters affecting the LGBT community; to work to make educational and other institutions safe spaces for all LGBT communities and to promote the welfare of LGBT people, by ensuring that the education system recognises and enables LGBT people to achieve their full potential, so they contribute fully to society and lead fulfilled lives, which in turn benefits society as a whole;

(c)        believes LGBT History Month is a time when we can explore and share some hidden aspects of our country’s past, both recent and remote and that this hidden history belongs to all of us and is part of our inheritance;

(d)       recognises that throughout history we can find many examples of people who refused to conform to the outward signs of the sex to which they were born, and we also find many stories of people who loved their own sex; some of them experienced serious persecution and some are remembered for the contributions they made to our culture and society, in particular in Sheffield, the Socialist, Edward Carpenter;

(e)       acknowledges that their personal lives have often been suppressed or censored; to understand our present and imagine our future, we must first gain insight into our past; this is true of us as individuals, it is also true of societies; and believes that the Council has a moral obligation to ensure that this is well understood and as such:-

(i)         supports the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, in his stance that a Labour government would add LGBT History Month to the national curriculum and that radical policy changes in the school curriculum would be implemented to better reflect gay issues;

(ii)        supports the issuing of a formal apology to all gay men who were convicted under now abolished restrictive sex laws – and deplores the actions of the Conservative government in “talking out” a Private Member's Bill – the so-called Turing Bill - which would have pardoned all men living with UK convictions for same-sex offences committed before the law was changed; and

(iii)       will fight against inequality and injustice wherever it is seen, and recognises that a key part of this battle is in raising awareness and levels of education on these issues and this is why initiatives such as LGBT History Month are so important and should be encouraged throughout Sheffield.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes the recent Cabinet report “Waste Management Policies” which was passed by the Administration last month;

(b)       has concerns about some of the policy changes laid out by the Administration in this report, in particular, the proposal for a £20 charge for replacement black bins, even when a replacement is needed through no fault of the resident, such as theft or criminal damage;

(c)        believes that this charge is unfair and, with other savings that the Administration expects to be delivered through changes to the waste management contract and other policy changes, unnecessary;

(d)       believes that this charge will lead to more thefts of bins and more littering and fly tipping, which in turn will incur cleaning costs for the Council; and

(e)       calls on the Administration to reconsider this charge until further consultation is undertaken.

That this Council:-

(a)       recognises that boxing and related training can help where many social problems manifest themselves, for example, deprived communities and disadvantaged people, many who face a world of "gritty" social issues, such as gang-related crime, violence in their schools and local areas;

(b)       acknowledges that boxing has been described as "a universal language" and as a "working class sport played all over the world";

(c)        believes that, rather than serving as a release for aggression, the role of boxing is better viewed as a replacement for aggression;

(d)       further believes that everyone involved in boxing knows its benefits; it is a vehicle to learn or develop values and skills which lead to discipline, self-control and defence, exercise, fitness and diet, and above all, self-belief and confidence;

(e)       hopes to see more boxing gyms in more areas and boxing training available in all schools for those who wish to take part; and

(f)        further recognises that sport holds a unique position within the field of development, despite a limited understanding of the vital role it plays.