Agenda and minutes

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

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

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Minute's Silence

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2.

Apologies for Absence

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3.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

To identify items where resolutions may be moved to exclude the press and public.

 

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4.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 86 KB

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

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5.

Public Questions and Petitions and Other Communications pdf icon PDF 208 KB

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.

 

 

(NOTE: There is a time limit of one hour for the above item of business.  In accordance with the arrangements published on the Council’s website, questions/petitions are required to be submitted in writing, to committee@sheffield.gov.uk, by 9.00 a.m. on Monday 3rd July. Questions/petitions submitted after the deadline will be asked at the meeting subject to the discretion of the Chair.)

 

 

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6.

Members' Questions pdf icon PDF 1 MB

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

 

6.2      Questions relating to the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities (under the provisions of Section 41 of the Local Government Act 1985) and of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i).

 

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

 

 

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7.

Notice of Motion Regarding "A Better, Brighter Future for Sheffield" - Given By Councillor Tom Hunt And To Be Seconded By Councillor Fran Belbin

That this Council:- 

 

(a)      notes the hugely positive recent developments in our city, including:-

 

(i)             the exciting proposals for the Cole Brothers building;

 

(ii)            the ongoing progress with the Heart of the City developments; improvements to Fargate; pedestrianisation of Division Street and the planning permission to transform Castlegate;

 

(iii)          over £100m to be invested in Sheffield’s leisure and entertainment venues;

 

(iv)          the development agreement for Attercliffe Waterside which will see the creation of a new low-carbon neighbourhood with 1000 homes;

 

(v)           the creation of the Sheffield Policy Campus which will further develop Sheffield as a leading centre for policy making in Britain; and

 

(vi)          the two fantastic promotions for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday;

 

(b)      notes new developments that will help to improve the lives of people in Sheffield:-

 

(i)             the launch of Family Hubs, one-stop shops supporting families, children and young people to have the best start in life; and

 

(ii)            Sheffield being chosen to be part of a new five-year project which will support early intervention work to prevent homelessness;

 

(c)      believes that:-

 

(i)             Sheffield is changing for the better and will continue getting better still; and

 

(ii)            it is time to talk Sheffield up – not talk it down;

 

(d)      further believes that:- 

 

(i)             the Council’s Future Sheffield programme will deliver a modern council with a culture founded on trust and openness, with greater connection to our communities, where staff are engaged and where equality and diversity are celebrated; and

 

(ii)       the City Goals is a great initiative that will provide a set of goals, shaped by residents, and shared with our partners, that will guide the future of Sheffield; and

 

(e)      resolves to:- 

 

(i)             serve the people of Sheffield;

 

(ii)            work collaboratively through our committees and with our partners to continue to:- 

 

(A) help people with the cost-of-living crisis;

(B) fix our public transport and make it easier to get around our city;

(C) secure new investment in the city;

(D) ensure that public money is always spent wisely;

(E) invest in our neighbourhoods and devolve power to communities;

(F) tackle the climate emergency; and

(G) ensure that politics in Sheffield is conducted in a competent, open and inclusive way; and

 

(iii)          always be guided by our values: people are at the heart of what we do; openness and honesty are important to us, and together we get things done serve the people of Sheffield.

 

 

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8.

Notice of Motion Regarding "Responding to the Changing Shape of the Cost of Living Crisis Locally" - Given By Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed And To Be Seconded By Councillor Sophie Thornton

That this Council:-

 

(a)      praises the cross party response to the Cost of Living crisis, which has delivered 173 welcome places, £15m in hardship payments to residents, and support for affected businesses;

 

(b)      notes with concern that despite the Council’s interventions, the Cost of Living crisis is now impacting a much larger group of people, as:-

 

(i)       Council Homeless Services received 500 more presentations in 2022/23 than in 2021/22;

 

(ii)       the Trussell Trust delivered 28% more food parcels across Yorkshire in 2022/23 than in 2021/22, with 27 Trussell Trust and Independent food banks in Sheffield;

 

(iii)      nationally, food prices have risen by 18.4% since January; and

 

(iv)      the recent rise in the Bank Base Rate to 5% will seriously impact many of Sheffield’s low income mortgage holders;

 

(c)      notes that:-

 

(i)             research has found that an estimated £18.7bn in benefits and social tariffs go unclaimed across the UK every year;

 

(ii)            similarly, an estimated £17m of Pension Credit goes unclaimed in Sheffield every year;

 

(iii)          take-up is lower for locally administered benefits such as Council Tax Support than DWP administered benefits; and

 

(iv)          Sheffield Citizens Advice Bureau (which provides support to maximise household income) has provided primarily online support since the pandemic, which can be challenging to access for residents who are elderly or facing digital exclusion;

 

(d)      believes that accessing locally administered benefits in Sheffield is made more difficult due to the many barriers residents face in contacting the Council, and reaffirms that the Council has an utmost responsibility to assist residents to access all the benefits and support they are entitled to;

 

(e)      notes that the Local Area Committees have been a vital part of the Cost of Living response in their localities, including working closely with Welcome Places, providing grants to Voluntary, Community and Faith organisations, and producing locally tailored communications; and

 

(f)       therefore, requests that the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee considers allocating from unallocated resources from the 2023/24 budget setting process:-

 

(i)             £200k in additional grant funding to Citizens Advice Services, to expand their employment of Volunteer Trainers and provide increased face to face support; and

 

(ii)            £400k in additional citywide LAC funding, to be allocated by Indices of Multiple Deprivation and spent on the response to the Cost of Living crisis.

 

 

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9.

Notice of Motion Regarding "Reaffirming Sheffield as a City of Sanctuary" - Given By Councillor Alexi Dimond And To Be Seconded By Councillor Maleiki Haybe

That this Council:-

 

(a)            notes that:-

 

(i)       Sheffield, the UK’s first City of Sanctuary, has a proud history of welcoming people seeking safety;

 

(ii)       the climate crisis increases the risk of displacing people;

 

(iii)      the Illegal Migration Bill in Parliament has already been voted through by the majority of the House of Commons;

 

(iv)      people seeking safety, including children, will be effectively detained in camps, barges, large-scale institutional accommodation, containment sites; segregated from communities, and denied support and threatened with removal to Rwanda; and

 

(v)      over 500 charities and faith groups have signed a pledge to ‘Fight the Anti-Refugee Laws’, including at least 7 local groups such as City of Sanctuary Sheffield, ASSIST Sheffield, DEWA, South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and Sheffield Association for the Voluntary Teaching of English (SAVTE);

 

(b)            believes that:-

 

(i)       everyone’s claim for asylum should be treated equally and fairly;

 

(ii)       the Government’s anti-refugee laws deny internationally recognised rights and will create ever-longer delays in the asylum process;

 

(iii)      the UK needs an asylum system that empowers people seeking safety to rebuild their lives, not segregated but housed as our neighbours, enabling communities to welcome them; and

 

(iv)      the Illegal Migration Bill punishes people and will effectively destroy the right to seek safety in the UK; and

 

(c)            resolves to:-

 

(i)       sign the ‘Fight the Anti-Refugee Laws’ pledge and join the “Lift the Ban” coalition;

 

(ii)       use our powers to ensure migrants do not suffer lengthy stays in temporary, sub-standard or far-distant accommodation;

 

(iii)      ask the Chief Executive to make representations to HM Government expressing this Council’s deep concern about the impact of the new housing regulations1;

 

(iv)      call on the Government to withdraw the UK-Rwanda agreement, repeal the Nationality and Borders Act and Illegal Migration Bill;

 

(v)      call on the Government to recognise the impact of climate change as a legitimate reason to seek safety;

 

(vi)      reaffirm our status as a City of Sanctuary, and work with the Local Authorities of Sanctuary network to ensure we are meeting the accreditation criteria;

 

(vii)     investigate ways to fund advice to asylum seekers which was previously delivered by the Sheffield Law Centre;

 

(viii)    work in partnership with organisations and people with lived experience of the asylum system to identify strategies for mitigating the adverse effects of government policies within Sheffield; and

 

(ix)      introduce a Councillor ‘Migrant Champion’ who would:-

 

(A)      be a point of contact for migrants, community groups and organisations to raise concerns;

 

(B)      seek to ensure council services are open and available to migrants who need them;

 

(C)      seek to ensure that the Council is not sharing information about individual migrants in the area with the Government unless there is a lawful basis for doing so; and

 

(D)      seek to make sure the needs of vulnerable migrants are met.

 

 1  Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (Amendment) (England) Order 2022, (SI 521/2022), as amended by the 2023 order which extends the effect of the Regulations until  ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

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10.

Notice of Motion Regarding "Mitigating The Impact Of Housing Growth" - Given By Councillor Lewis Chinchen And To Be Seconded By The Lord Mayor (Councillor Colin Ross)

That this Council:-

 

(a)      recognises that housing growth must be supported by sufficient investment in infrastructure and services, including transport, education, active travel improvements and public spaces;

 

(b)      believes the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a crucial tool that the Council has at its disposal to achieve this objective;

 

(c)      believes that the Neighbourhood Portion of CIL, allocated to wards using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), is not meeting its intended objective as there is little connection between where it is spent and the number of houses built in these areas (except for localities that have a Town/Parish Council or Neighbourhood Plan);

 

(d)      believes the CIL funding formula for the Neighbourhood Portion must be more closely linked to housing growth, given that the purpose of CIL is to support new development;

 

(e)      believes that a bespoke formula can be created that ensures zero-rate charging areas still receive a fair allocation, whilst ensuring sufficient funds go to the areas experiencing the greatest pressure from new development;

 

(f)       notes that Cornwall County Council ensures that zero-rate charging areas still receive an allocation of CIL funds, whilst awarding parishes an amount proportionate to the scale of development in their area;

 

(g)      also, notes that a large proportion of Neighbourhood CIL that is allocated to wards is not spent, with some wards not spending any of their allocated funds within a financial year;

 

(h)      therefore, invites:-

 

(i)             the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee to commission an investigation into the feasibility of a new formula for Neighbourhood CIL that more closely links Neighbourhood CIL allocations to housing growth, whilst ensuring that zero/low-rate charging areas receive their fair share;

 

(ii)            Local Area Committees (LACs) to feature an item on every meeting agenda on the spending of Neighbourhood CIL monies so that we have proper political accountability;

 

(iii)          LACs to seek the co-operation of Town and Parish Councils to enable LACs to understand and review their spending of Neighbourhood CIL monies;

 

(iv)          officers to create working groups with ward members and the relevant council officers (for example, Highways or Parks & Countryside) to identify suitable schemes to fund using Neighbourhood CIL monies and create action plans to take those schemes forward;

 

(v)           LACs to oversee the establishment of inter-ward collaboration between wards; and

 

(vi)          the Governance Committee to satisfy itself that Members receive sufficient training regarding CIL so they understand how to make best use of the funding available.

 

 

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11.

Audit and Standards Committee - Standards Report 2022 pdf icon PDF 50 KB

To receive the Annual Standards Report for 2022 which was approved for submission to full Council by the Audit and Standards Committee at its meeting held on 16th February 2023.

 

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12.

Changes To The Constitution pdf icon PDF 3 MB

To approve, with or without amendment, the recommendations in the report of the Interim General Counsel (and Monitoring Officer), published with this agenda, regarding changes proposed to be made to the Council’s Constitution.

 

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13.

Minutes Of Previous Council Meetings pdf icon PDF 755 KB

To receive the record of the proceedings of (a) the ordinary meeting of the Council held on 20th February, (b) the special meeting of the Council held on 1st March, (c) the extraordinary meeting of the Council held on 10th May and (d) the annual meeting of the Council held on 17th May 2023, and to approve the accuracy thereof.

 

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14.

Memberships of Council Bodies, Representatives to Serve on Other Bodies and Related Issues

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.

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