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 8th January, 2014 and to approve the accuracy thereof.

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.

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).

That this Council:-

(a)       notes the unprecedented number of petitions and signatures in support of branch libraries, and the expressions of commitment, passion and willingness from the people of Sheffield;

(b)       recognises the enormous value of the network of libraries in the community, especially on the educational attainment levels of children in less affluent areas;

(c)        recognises the increasing need for free public internet access by people looking for work and claiming benefits, as well as the impact of libraries on nearby shops and business;

(d)       notes the serious pressure on the Council from central Government cuts but also recognises the range of choices still available in Sheffield, at whatever level of financial commitment;

(e)       believes the proposed model for community and independent libraries - which requires volunteers to both manage and finance a library service – is too rigid to be workable;

(f)        believes a better approach would allow for volunteers to take part in an integrated, city-wide and established network of library services and in all libraries, not just a few; and

(g)       therefore, urges the Cabinet Member for Communities and Inclusion to bring forward different proposals from those consulted on, that take account of Sheffield residents’ willingness to participate in a genuine community-based city-wide library service, and recognise the need for co-ordination and other input by librarians and other paid staff.

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.

Report of the Chief Executive.

Report of the Chief Executive.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes that Handsworth Grange Community Sports College installed two food bank collection boxes in January after becoming concerned that some families in the local area did not have enough money to feed their children;

(b)       recalls that the food bank came about after a pupil came into school on a Monday morning saying that the last full meal she had eaten was her school dinner on Friday lunchtime;

(c)        praises the work of Handsworth Grange Community Sports College and supports the work of the Council in announcing support to local food bank schemes across the city;

(d)       notes with concern that the number of Food Banks in Sheffield has grown to 16 and in the last year three Food Banks alone have fed 1988 people and more working families are being referred to Food Banks which is a clear sign that more people are suffering a rise in the cost of living and that wages are not keeping up;

(e)       believes that this is a damning indictment of the record of the present Government’s and Deputy Prime Minister’s record in Sheffield and calls upon him to explain what action he as the Deputy PM is going to take to halt the growth of food banks in his City, especially now that one has opened in the middle of his Constituency;

(f)        calls upon the Deputy Prime Minister and the Government to publish the 2013 DEFRA report on Food Banks that cost £43,000 of public money and has never seen the light of day; and

(g)       confirms that publication of the report would allow Sheffield City Council to check if the information in the DEFRA report correlates with the evidence in the quick review report done by the Council and the view of Chris Mould, the Trussell Trust executive chairman that there is a link between low wages, changes in benefits, and use of food banks by families.

That this Council:-

(a)       believes that the clustering of betting shops in or close to deprived communities is being driven by increasing revenue from fixed odds betting terminals (FOBT) rather than traditional over the counter betting;

(b)       believes that this has encouraged betting shop operators to open more than one premises in close proximity to one another;

(c)        is aware of the growing concern in many communities about the detrimental effect this is having on the diversity and character of UK high streets;

(d)       is alarmed that people can stake as much as £100 every 20 seconds on these machines;

(e)       is further concerned that the practice of single staffing in betting shops leaves staff vulnerable and deters them from intervening if customers suffer heavy losses, thereby undermining efforts by the betting industry to protect vulnerable customers;

(f)        further believes that local authorities should be able to establish a separate planning class for betting shops and that they should be given additional licensing powers to determine the number of FOBT machines within existing and proposed shops and to require that the machines are modified to slow the rate of play and to interrupt when people play for long periods; and

(g)       calls on the Government to put local people before the interests of the betting shop operators and give local authorities the powers they need to respond to concerns from their local communities and stop the proliferation of FOBT machines and betting shops.

That this Council:-

(a)       is committed to defending Sheffield’s reputation as the greenest city in the country – affording our green and open spaces the protection they deserve;

(b)       therefore notes with concern the following sentence from the Sheffield Local Plan report agreed by the Cabinet on 18th December 2013: “Work has already commenced on developing a methodology for strategic review of the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire Green Belt”;

(c)        recognises the importance of demonstrating a five-year economically-deliverable supply of housing within the City’s Local Plan;

(d)       however, believes that using future allocations of the New Homes Bonus to invest in brown-field sites and bring more empty homes back into use, could avoid the need to concrete over green field and Green Belt land;

(e)       furthermore, hopes the Council will re-investigate density and height requirements within the inner ring-road to help protect important green spaces;

(f)        regrets that instead the Administration appear to have surrendered to big developers by allowing them to cherry-pick treasured green sites across the City for development;

(g)       believes that the Administration have once again taken the easy way out because they think they can get away with blaming someone else; and

(h)       opposes a Green Belt review until more innovative ways of delivering Sheffield’s five-year housing supply have been exhausted.

That this Council:-

(a)       celebrates the 15th anniversary of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage, which falls this year, and the contribution it has made to making work pay, boosting living standards and tackling in-work poverty;

(b)       notes that, before the National Minimum Wage was established, poverty pay was widespread and that the Conservative Party opposed its introduction;

(c)        further notes that families are on average £1,600 worse off a year, and that the National Minimum Wage is now worth less in real terms, than in May 2010;

(d)       further notes that the Government has not backed up its promise to name and shame firms not paying the minimum wage;

(e)       calls on the Government to strengthen enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, including by increasing fines for non-payment of the National Minimum Wage and giving local authorities enforcement powers;

(f)        welcomes the action of the present Administration in implementing the Living Wage within the Council after the previous Administration failed in their pledge to do so, and the policy of supporting a Living Wage for Sheffield involving partners across the city in public, private and voluntary sector organisations; and

(g)       further calls on the Government to encourage employers to pay a living wage and take action to restore the value of the National Minimum Wage so that the UK can earn its way out of the cost of living crisis and to help control the cost of social security.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes that 5^th February is Voter Registration Day and encourages all Sheffield people to register to vote;

(b)       welcomes the recent action taken by the Council to attempt to encourage more people to register to vote and believes this action is more important than ever due to the Government’s introduction of Individual Electoral Registration;

(c)        is concerned by reports that the Individual Electoral Registration risks millions of people falling off the register especially the young, students, some minority ethnic communities and private renting tenants; and

(d)       notes that the previous Government set out a more responsible approach implementing a voluntary system until late in 2015 and would delay further if the Electoral Commission had concerns and believes that the Government should think again about rushing the implementation of these reforms and beginning the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration this year.

That this Council:-

(a)       welcomes the latest national unemployment figures, which saw the largest single fall in unemployment in seventeen years, and growth figures, which recorded the UK's fastest annual rate of growth since 2007;

(b)       notes also that British workers – excluding the richest 10% – have seen their take-home pay rise in real terms in the past year;

(c)        furthermore, confirms that the vast majority of new jobs created since 2010 have been in full-time employment;

(d)       also draws attention to research which demonstrates companies in the North of England are now growing at the fastest pace seen in any UK region;

(e)       in addition, notes the latest local employment statistics, which demonstrate that the number of residents claiming jobseekers allowance has reduced in every Ward in Sheffield;

(f)        believes these moves towards a stronger economy and a more balanced economy could not have been achieved without Liberal Democrats in Government;

(g)       recognises that the current situation is a long way from the “post-soviet meltdown”, riots in the street and triple-dip recession predicted by Labour politicians;

(h)       recalls the comments of The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP that one million jobs would be lost under this Government and contrasts this with the more than one million private sector jobs created since 2010;

(i)         believes it is time for Labour politicians to apologise for their dire and failed predictions and for their role in bringing Britain to the brink of the economic precipice;

(j)         however, also underlines the important role the Council can play in delivering a stronger local economy; and

(k)        therefore, implores the ruling group to finally drop its anti-business mentality and actively work with local businesses to help create new jobs in Sheffield.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill;

(b)       believes it is outrageous that whilst the Bill could stop campaigners and charities it doesn’t stop commercial lobbyists from influencing government policies and believes this is a further example of the Government standing up for the wrong people;

(c)        further believes that the Bill is a cynical attempt by the Government to insulate their policies from legitimate, democratic criticism and for example could stop organisations such as the National Union of Students from being able to hold the Liberal Democrat Party to account for their broken promises on tuition fees;

(d)       notes comments from the Royal College of Nursing that the Bill will “place unwarranted restrictions on many organisations that seek to legitimately and impartially campaign, provide commentary and influence party policy in the run up to a general election”;

(e)       believes that the Bill isn’t about transparency, but is about gagging charities and campaigners whilst doing nothing to address the real ‘big money’ in politics; and

(f)        believes that whilst the Government have been forced into some concessions after pressure from charities and campaigners, the concessions don’t go far enough and the Bill still stands up for vested interests.

That this Council:-

(a)       fully endorses the One Billion Rising Campaign which will build upon the energy and momentum that was created in 2013 when one billion activists in 207 countries came together to strike, dance, and rise to end violence against women and girls;

(b)       recalls that the campaign recognises that one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime which amounts to one billion women; and

(c)        notes that One Billion Rising for Justice is a call to women, men, and young people around the world to gather safely on 14 February 2014 outside places where they are entitled to justice – court houses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not.

That this Council:-

(a)       welcomes news that the New York Times named Sheffield the beer capital of Britain;

(b)       recognises the important role local pubs play in the life of our city by providing a community hub for residents to meet, relax, debate and do business;

(c)        regrets the decline of community pubs in recent years and notes that in the past three years fifteen planning applications have been granted to change the use of local pubs;

(d)       supports campaigns led by Greg Mulholland MP and The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) to reverse this decline and put local pubs back at the heart of our communities;

(e)       endorses Government proposals to introduce a code of practice, which would contain mandatory rules for all pub companies owning more than 500 pubs, and an independent adjudicator with the power to investigate and settle disputes; and

(f)        however, also calls on the Administration to support local pubs by:

(i)         supporting community groups who wish to register their local pubs as assets of community value; and

(ii)        amending local planning policies to stipulate that no pub will be allowed to change use unless it is demonstrated that continued trading is not economically viable and that the premises has been marketed as a pub unsuccessfully for a stipulated minimum period.

That this Council:-

(a)       notes with concern reports in The Sheffield Star newspaper on 3rd January 2014 that the Council intends to spend another £1 million in the Park Hill area;

(b)       recalls the concern of the Main Opposition Group when the Council revealed its intention to spend £2.5 million of taxpayers’ money at Park Hill in 2011;

(c)        furthermore, highlights that this latest announcement follows the allocation of £381,000 to the Park Hill Green Links project;

(d)       struggles to understand how members of the ruling group can continue to make the erroneous claim that there is no money available for vital services, when funds continue to be poured into these kinds of pet projects; and

(e)       calls on the Administration to reassess its priorities and use funds earmarked for the Park Hill area to keep open treasured local libraries.

That this Council:-

(a)       understands the importance of public transport in getting access to employment, education and volunteer opportunities particularly in times of economic difficulties; and

(b)       believes also public transport is an important tool in combating the related problems of congestion, air pollution, climate change and road safety.