Agenda and minutes

1.1

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mike Chaplin, Mike Drabble, Brian Holmshaw, Ruth Mersereau, Peter Price, Vickie Priestley, Martin Smith and Cliff Woodcraft.

1.2

Further to the reporting of the apologies for absence from Councillor Priestley, it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: On the motion of the Lord Mayor (Councillor Colin Ross), seconded by the Deputy Lord Mayor (Councillor Jayne Dunn), that in view of the ill-health of Councillor Vickie Priestley, approval be given for her period of office to be extended beyond 5^th December 2023, being the six-month period of non-attendance provided for within Section 85(1) of the Local Government Act 1972.

2.1

There were no items of business identified where resolutions may be moved to exclude the press and public.

3.1

Councillor Douglas Johnson declared a personal interest in item 11 on the agenda (Notice of Motion regarding “Stopping The Conservative Government Sewage Pollution Scandal”) (item 10 of these minutes) on the grounds that he serves as a member of the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and as a Director of the River Stewardship Company, having been appointed to those roles by the Council.

4.1

Lord Mayor’s Announcements

4.1.1

The Lord Mayor (Councillor Colin Ross) made a plea in relation to the conduct of the business relating to the terrible situation in Israel and Palestine, where views on the matter would be strongly held and expressed at the meeting.  He reported that the previous day, he had presided over a citizenship ceremony where he had been proud to welcome, as new UK citizens, people from over 20 countries from all around the world.  In that ceremony he had emphasised Sheffield’s status as a City of Sanctuary and how its diverse communities all contribute to the life of the city.  He asked that participants at this meeting be mindful of the effect that words can have and not to allow the debate at this meeting to disrupt the community spirit and harmony that exists in the city.  Furthermore, to be respectful to others in the Council Chamber, and he added that he was aware that some Councillors had, regrettably, been subjected to threats and abuse in recent days.

The Lord Mayor also reminded elected Members of the Public Sector Equality Duty under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to foster good relations between persons who share a protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

4.1.2

At the conclusion of the meeting, reference was made to the tragic accident that happened at the Sheffield Arena during the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey match on Saturday 28 October, where Nottingham Panthers player, Adam Johnson, sadly lost his life. The Lord Mayor reported that the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive had written to both teams involved offering the Council’s heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the player’s loved ones and to the Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers teams and staff.

4.2

Petitions and Public Questions

The Lord Mayor (Councillor Colin Ross) reported that one petition was to be received at the meeting and questions would be taken from 15 members of the public.  The petition and questions submitted by nine members of the public related either directly to, or as a consequence of, the conflict in Gaza.  He would firstly deal with the questions on subject matters other than the conflict in Gaza, and then receive the petition and questions regarding the conflict.  The debate on item 8 on the agenda (Notice of Motion Regarding “Stopping Genocide in Gaza”) would then be taken as the next item of business.

4.3

Public Questions (On Various Topics)

4.3.1

Question from Josh Cheeseman

“In light of the ongoing concerns over human rights in the People’s Republic of China, including, but not limited to:-

·        The violation of the right to freedom of speech and assembly (notably within Hong Kong, under the National Security Law where Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to 15 months in prison for a social media post).

·        Restrictions on the freedom of expression, persecution of human rights defenders (like legal scholar Xu Zhiyong).

·        Suppression of freedom of religion & expression of culture (not least those  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1

Earlier in the meeting, prior to the commencement of item 5 on the agenda, it was - RESOLVED: On the motion of the Lord Mayor (Councillor Colin Ross), seconded by the Deputy Lord Mayor (Councillor Jayne Dunn), that, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9.1, the order of business as published on the Council Summons be altered by taking item 8 on the agenda (Notice of Motion Regarding “Stopping Genocide in Gaza”) immediately after item 5 (Public Questions and Petitions).

5.2

It was moved by Councillor Alexi Dimond, and seconded by Councillor Maleiki Haybe, that this Council:-

(a)       notes:-

(i)         its unanimous vote in September 2019 to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, the first Council to do so;

(ii)        that East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Gaza are illegally occupied by Israel; and that Gaza has been subject to 16 years of blockade;

(iii)       that the Israeli government has been withholding essential resources from Gaza and what UN Experts have described as “destroying or damaging homes, hospitals, markets and UN Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA)” and that Amnesty International has “documented unlawful Israeli attacks, including indiscriminate attacks, which caused mass civilian casualties and must be investigated as war crimes”;

(iv)       that under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as certain acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” and that, under Article I, the UK has confirmed that genocide is a crime under international law which it undertakes to prevent and to punish;

(v)        the UK, at the UN Security Council on 18 October 2023, refused to vote for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza; and

(vi)       Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’tselem and the South African government recognise that the state of Israel is enacting a system of apartheid;

(b)       believes:-

(i)         all atrocities committed against civilians must be condemned and investigated;

(ii)        all forms of racism, including anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia have no place in our city and condemns any attacks on Palestinian, Jewish or Muslim people;

(iii)       Sir Keir Starmer was wrong to say, in an interview with LBC radio, that Israel “does have that right” to withhold food, water and electricity from Gaza, and he should apologise and retract this statement supporting collective punishment;

(iv)       all political leaders have a responsibility to try to prevent genocide; and

(v)        the only one way to secure peace between Israelis and Palestinians is for a just political settlement based on the end of the occupation of Palestinian territories and an end to what one UN Special Rapporteur has described as “apartheid practices”, and another has described “settler-colonialism” and “ethnic cleansing”;

(c)        regrets flying the Israeli flag from the Town Hall; and

(d)       therefore resolves to:-

(i)         call upon the UK Government to:-

(i)         call for an immediate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1

Urgent Business

There were no questions relating to urgent business under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 16.6(ii).

6.2

South Yorkshire Joint and Combined Authorities

6.2.1

The Lord Mayor (Councillor Colin Ross) reported that Councillor Douglas Johnson had given advance notice of three questions relating to the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority and Councillor Ian Horner had given advance notice of two questions relating to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.  Their questions concerned moorland burning and bus services, respectively. The advance notice of the questions had enabled Councillor Tony Damms, the Council’s Spokesperson on the Fire and Rescue Authority, and Councillor Tom Hunt, the Council’s representative on the Mayoral Combined Authority, to provide written answers, and copies of the questions and responses had been circulated at the meeting and published on the Council’s website.

6.2.2

Councillor Damms stated that although the document circulated at the meeting indicated that a written answer will be provided, he had now provided an answer to Councillor Johnson and would ensure that the answer would be published on the Council’s website.  He added that the Chief Fire Officer had confirmed that there was no legal requirement for the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority to be consulted in relation to any planned moorland burning.  Councillor Johnson thanked Councillor Damms for the answers which he had provided to him and for his years of service on the Fire and Rescue Authority, including in the role as the Council’s Spokesperson.  He added that the answer from the Chief Fire Officer had confirmed that the Service had not been consulted about moorland burning and he stated that the relevance of this was the extent to which land managers were complying with the code of good practice when burning areas of moorland.

6.2.3

Councillor Ian Horner, as a supplementary question, asked whether the additional funds for public transport which had recently been provided by the Government would be used to reverse the recent cuts made to local bus services.  In response, Councillor Tom Hunt stated that whilst he welcomed the additional funding recently provided by the Government for public transport in the region, this was in the context of many years of government underfunding for those services.  He added that it would be for the Mayoral Combined Authority to consider how best to utilise the additional funding received for public transport in the region.

6.2.4

There were no further questions relating to the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities for Fire and Rescue and Pensions and of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i).

6.3

Written Questions

A schedule of questions to Chairs of Policy Committees, submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 16, and which contained written answers, was circulated.  Supplementary questions, under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 16.4, were asked and were answered by the appropriate Policy Committee Chairs.

7.1

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: On the motion formally moved by Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards and formally seconded by Councillor Joe Otten, that the Council:-

(a)      notes the information set out in the report of the Director of Policy and Democratic Engagement on the review of the allocation of seats on the Council’s Committees following the recent change to the composition of the Council;

(b)      notes the initial allocation, before final adjustment, of seats to political groups on the individual committees which are subject to proportional balance, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report, and which is based on the committees (and their sizes) which were approved at the annual meeting of the Council on 17^th May 2023 for operation in the Municipal Year 2023-24;

(c)      gives approval for (i) the size of the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee to be increased from 11 seats to 13 seats in order to ensure that sufficient seats are available for all Policy Committee Chairs, the Finance Committee Chair and the Deputy Leader of the Council, whilst maintaining political proportionality; this being in accordance with the view expressed by the Governance Committee in its report on the 6 month review of the Council’s governance arrangements, submitted to the annual meeting of the Council on 17^th May 2023, which stated that the Deputy Leader should sit on Strategy and Resources Policy Committee and, should the Deputy Leader not be a Policy Committee Chair, their appointment should be facilitated through existing mechanisms around appointments to ensure political proportionality and (ii) the size of the Governance Committee to be reduced from 11 seats to 9 seats to retain the existing 180 seats in total across all the Council’s Committees that are subject to political proportionality;

(d)      in order to (i) satisfy the requirement to ensure that the total number of seats on the ordinary committees of the Council are allocated to each political group in the same proportion as the group’s membership of the Council and (ii) accommodate a request made by Councillor Lewis Chinchen to move from membership of the Licensing Committee to membership of the Audit and Standards Committee, gives approval to the final adjustments of seats as shown in the schedule circulated at the meeting;

(e)      (i) approves the appointment of Members to Council Committees for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2023-24 to reflect the arrangements now agreed and the wishes of the political groups, in accordance with the list of proposed memberships circulated at the meeting, and including substitutes where appropriate, (ii) for the purposes of Council Procedure Rule 25.6, gives the consent of the Council in any case where a Member chooses not to be appointed to serve on any Policy or Regulatory Committee and (iii) notes that, where changes are to be made to the composition or membership of sub-committees of Policy Committees, these will need to be formally approved at the next meeting of their parent Policy Committee;

(f)       appoints Councillor Glynis Chapman to serve as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1

It was moved by Councillor Dawn Dale, and seconded by Councillor Jayne Dunn, that this Council:-

(a)      notes the campaign to make care experience a protected characteristic and the drive to extend Corporate Parenting beyond Children’s Social Care;

(b)      notes the Council has:-

(i)       developed a Voice and Influence Team which employs a group of Care Experienced Young People to deliver a range of consultation, training, and scrutiny activities to ensure the voice of Children in Care and Care Experienced Young People are central to service development and decision making;

(ii)       a “Staying Close” project to enable Care Leavers to enjoy enhanced support to independence;

(iii)      continued to support friendships and tackle loneliness with a programme of free activities and events;

(iv)      implemented a new Pathway Plan snapshot document; this enables Care Leavers to clearly see their agreed plan as they transition to independence;

(v)      developed a range of work experience, training and apprenticeship offers for Care Experienced young people; and

(vi)      provided a full Tenancy Ready Programme to prepare Care Experienced young people for managing their own accommodation and award priority status to Care Leavers;

(c)      believes:-

(i)       that despite the resilience of Care Experienced people, society too often does not take their needs into account;

(ii)       Care Experienced people often face discrimination and stigma across housing, health, education, relationships, employment and in the criminal justice system;

(iii)      as corporate parent, the Council has a responsibility to provide the best possible care and safeguard children who are looked after by us as an Authority;

(iv)      Councillors should be champions of our looked after children and young people and challenge the negative attitudes and prejudice that exist; and

(v)      the Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies, such as councils, to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation of people with protected characteristics; and

(d)      therefore resolves to request that the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee, as part of the forthcoming Equalities Framework, consider:-

(i)       introducing a requirement that, when making any policy decisions, the Council recognises Care Experienced people are a vulnerable group who face discrimination;

(ii)       treating care experience as if it were a Protected Characteristic so that future services and policies consider care experience through Equality Impact Assessments;

(iii)      putting the needs of vulnerable people at the heart of decision-making through co-production and collaboration; and

(iv)      calling upon all other bodies to adopt corporate parenting for children in care and care experienced people until such time as it may be introduced by legislation.

8.2

Whereupon, it was formally moved by Councillor Sue Alston, and formally seconded by Councillor Mohammed Mahroof, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition of new sub-paragraphs (d)(v) to (vii) as follows:-

(d)(v)  formally supporting the LGA’s Step Ahead campaign;

(vi)      continuing to build on the existing ringfenced apprenticeship opportunities for care experienced people by committing to an agreed number of apprenticeships places each year delivered through the Council’s levy funding; and

(vii)     taking an intersectional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.1

It was formally moved by Councillor Penny Baker, and formally seconded by Councillor Barbara Masters, that this Council:-

(a)      notes with alarm the significant projected overspend of £8.4m due to a shortfall in DWP subsidy for our Housing Benefit bill, which has increased rapidly, and specifically:-

(i)       notes that £4.9m of this overspend is due to increased Council homeless placements in B&B’s and hotels, and reaffirms its support for increasing social housing stock, work on void performance, and working with partner organisations to expand available housing to relieve homelessness; and

(ii)       notes that £3.5m of this overspend is due to increased numbers of people using exempt Supported Accommodation (SA), which is not commissioned by the Council or regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), and notes that £2.6m of the overspend within supported accommodation is due to placements by a single provider, which has reportedly provided just one hour of support to residents per fortnight;

(b)      notes that:-

(i)       serious concerns have been raised around the quality of support provided in the unregulated Exempt SA sector, with a Select Committee report stating that “in the worst instances the system involves the exploitation of vulnerable people who should be receiving support, while unscrupulous providers make excessive profits by capitalising on loopholes […] all paid for by taxpayers through housing benefit”; and

(ii)       despite limited information due to a nationwide lack of regulation, similar concerns have been raised within Sheffield, with one former provider perpetrating “institutional financial abuse of residents”, and one large currently operating provider prosecuted for providing “unsafe and unsatisfactory accommodation”;

(c)      believes that quality SA is necessary to support residents and relieve the crisis in homeless provision, however, believes that low quality supported accommodation is seriously harmful to vulnerable people and detrimental to the Council’s finances;

(d)      notes incoming new Local Authority powers from the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act (subject to consultation), including:-

(i)       an obligation to develop a SA strategy; and

(ii)       a potential discretionary power to introduce a licensing scheme for exempt SA; and

(e)      therefore, resolves to ask the Housing Policy Committee to:-

(i)       engage with Government consultation and consider supporting the introduction of a SA licensing scheme in Sheffield;

(ii)       consider investigating whether the largest exempt accommodation providers are providing quality support for vulnerable people, and value for money for Sheffield taxpayers;

(iii)      consider whether to introduce a policy to require future tendered services to avoid referring into non-registered exempt supported accommodation where possible; and

(iv)      consider writing to the Government requesting reform to Housing Benefit subsidy regulations to remove this financial burden.

9.2

Whereupon, it was formally moved by Councillor Nabeela Mowlana, and formally seconded by Councillor Fran Belbin, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

1.       the addition of a new sub-paragraph (a)(iii) as follows:-

(a)(iii)  notes that the need for the regulation of the Supported Accommodation sector was identified in 2020 by Steve McCabe MP who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.1

It was formally moved by Councillor Alison Norris, and formally seconded by Councillor Ruth Milsom, that this Council:-

(a)      notes that:-

(i)       under this Government, water companies have polluted waters and coastal waters across the country with filthy raw sewage;

(ii)       people are appalled by disgusting sewage discharges into our rivers and coastal waters;

(iii)      this Government has slashed the monitoring of water pollution, enforcement actions and prosecutions;

(iv)      in Parliament, Conservative MPs have consistently failed to support tougher measures to stop the sewage scandal;

(v)      in 2022, there were 1335 spills counted in Penistone and Stocksbridge constituency lasting for 7,161 hours; and the local Conservative MP, Miriam Cates, has voted against ending the sewage scandal; and

(vi)      sewage and pollution in our rivers and coastal waters harm wildlife, hurt the visitor economy and can cause illness;

(b)      believes that:-

(i)       the people of Sheffield are proud of our rivers and deserve high quality water standards;

(ii)       people using and enjoying our rivers and waterways – wild swimmers, anglers, walkers, kayakers – should not have to put up with sewage and pollution in our waters;

(iii)      volunteer ‘river ranger’ groups in Sheffield that monitor the health of our rivers do amazing work and deserve our praise and thanks;

(iv)      it is a sad state of affairs that citizens have felt compelled to take action themselves to monitor sewage and pollution in our water due to government inaction;

(v)      high profile campaigners like Feargal Sharkey and Paul Whitehouse have done excellent work to raise awareness about sewage in our rivers;

(vi)      we need mandatory monitoring of sewage outlets; automatic fines for sewage discharges, with tough penalties for water companies whose outlets do not have monitoring in place, and ambitious targets to cut illegal discharges through sewage outflows and clean up our rivers, streams, and seas once and for all; and

(vii)     Ofwat, the regulator, should be given the powers to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses who are found to pump significant levels of raw sewage into our precious rivers, lakes and seas; and

(c)      resolves to ask the Government to:-

(i)       clean up our rivers and end the sewage scandal;

(ii)       make polluters pay and to work with the Environment Agency and our other partners to identify, monitor and report pollution; and

(iii)      hold Yorkshire Water to account to ensure they are investing in our water infrastructure and improving water quality.

10.2

Whereupon, it was formally moved by Councillor Mike Levery, and formally seconded by Councillor Richard Williams, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

1.       the substitution, in sub-paragraph (a)(i), of the words “since 2015” for the words “under this Government”;

2.       the insertion, also in sub-paragraph (a)(i), of the word “increasingly” following the words “water companies have”;

3.       the addition of a new paragraph (a)(iv) as follows, and the re-lettering of the original sub-paragraphs (a)(iv) to (vi) as new sub-paragraphs (a)(v) to (vii):-

(a)(iv)in particular, staff at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.1

RESOLVED: On the motion formally moved by Councillor Mike Levery and formally seconded by Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards, that this Council:-

(a)      notes the information contained in the report now submitted on the recruitment exercise and salary package for the post of Director of People and Culture; and

(b)      approves the total salary range for that post, in the range £99,784 to £106,960.

11.1.2

(NOTE: The result of the vote on the motion was FOR - 60 Members; AGAINST - 4 Members; ABSTENTIONS – 0 Members.)

12.1

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: On the motion formally moved by Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards and formally seconded by Councillor Joe Otten, that:-

(a) it be noted that, at its meeting held on 5th October 2023, the South East Local Area Committee had appointed Councillor Kurtis Crossland to serve as Chair, and Councillor Gail Smith to serve as Deputy Chair, of the Committee for the remainder of the municipal year, filling vacancies which had arisen in those positions;

(b) Councillor Nabeela Mowlana be appointed as ‘Migrant Champion’;

(c) representatives be appointed to serve on other bodies as follows:-

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority

-

Councillor Mike Chaplin to replace Councillor Tony Damms