Agenda item

Public Engagement

It was moved by Councillor Aodan Marken, seconded by Councillor Brian Webster, that this Council:-

(a)       believes that full Council meetings are an important mechanism for demonstrating the Council’s accountability to Sheffield residents;

(b)       recognises that all Councillors want to represent their constituents and the city well, and that a great deal of this work inevitably takes place outside of the full Council meeting;

(c)        believes that full Council meetings could run better than they have done in the past, and that the best way to achieve that is via mutual respect on the part of all Members and dialogue between Council political groups;

(d)       notes the comments from the Leader of the Council, following the July full Council meeting, stating that ‘we can improve the way the Council meeting operates’, comments which were supported by the leaders of opposition groups;

(e)       believes that heckling Members from other parties is a sign of disrespect to the voters who chose their Councillor to represent them;

(f)        notes with disappointment the actions taken in adding to the recommendations of the Interim Director of Public Health for Sheffield’s annual 2015 report at the November full Council meeting, and believes that these additions were made with little regard for normal procedure;

(g)       notes that Green Councillors have previously called for audio-broadcasting of meetings, to allow wider public access;

(h)       is pleased that the recording of full Council meetings is being explored, and believes that this should be expedited for the purposes of local democracy and transparency;

(i)         calls on the leaders of all political groups on the Council to hold a publicly accessible meeting to discuss how best to improve full Council meetings; and

(j)         proposes that an annual survey of Council Members should be used to improve and assess progress in improving the conduct of all public Council meetings.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Ibrar Hussain, seconded by Councillor Alan Law, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words “That this Council” and the addition of the following words:-

(a)        notes that full Council meetings are one of many ways for demonstrating the Council’s accountability to Sheffield residents;

(b)        notes the many other types of Council meetings open to the public, including Cabinet, Scrutiny Committees and Planning & Highways Committee;

(c)         further notes additional ways that people are able to engage with the Council, including through Ward Councillors, consultations, equality hub networks and social media;

(d)        recognises that all Councillors want to represent their constituents and the city well, and that a great deal of this work inevitably takes place outside of the full Council meeting;

(e)        welcomes the current Administration’s plans to make the Council more of an in-touch organisation, and notes that the theme of this year’s Cabinet in the Community is asking people for their views on how they would like to engage with the Council moving forwards;

(f)         believes this should be part of a wider piece of work looking at engagement, and is open to exploring ways to improve all forms of engagement and commits to involving all groups in this process on a non-political basis; and

(g)        believes it fully appropriate for the Council to stand up for the city, and therefore believes it was proper for the Labour Group to oppose unfair Government cuts to public health funding at November’s full Council meeting, and is disappointed this was not supported across the Council.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried.

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried.