Agenda item

Notice of Motion given by Councillor Aodan Marken

That this Council:-

 

(a)       notes with concern what this Council believes to be a troubling pattern by the current Government of reducing local decision-making power on important ethical and environmental issues;

 

(b)       believes that this pattern is illustrated by, among other things:-

 

(i)         the issue of planning guidance in August 2015 stating that if local planning authorities do not approve or reject planning applications for fracking wells within 16 weeks, ministers can intervene;

 

(ii)        plans announced in November 2015 to grant the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government the “power of intervention” over locally taken investment / divestment decisions with respect to the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS), where those decisions are taken wholly or largely on ethical or environmental grounds;

 

(iii)       proposals reported in the Daily Telegraph newspaper in January 2016 to “bring commercial shale production [fracking] within the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning regime”, which would remove decisions on fracking-related planning applications from local authority control entirely; and

 

(iv)       the publication of procurement guidance in February 2016 asserting that it is “inappropriate” for public bodies, including local authorities, to undertake procurement boycotts unless these are in line with nationally-directed foreign policy decisions;

 

(c)        believes that these steps by Government represent a concerted attack on local democracy and demonstrate that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s claimed pursuit of a “devolution revolution” is a sham, with the localisation or centralisation of powers used opportunistically to pursue the Government’s ideological agenda;

 

(d)       believes that it is not only right but essential that the ethical and environmental concerns of local people and (where relevant) pension scheme members be taken into account when decisions are taken that impact them, and that this is most effectively done when decisions are wherever possible taken locally;

 

(e)       calls upon the Administration to oppose the Government’s efforts to remove locally-held powers over ethical and environmental decision-making in areas such as fracking, investment and procurement; and

 

(f)        directs officers to send copies of this motion to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Minutes:

 

Decision Making on Ethical and Environmental Issues

 

 

20.1

RESOLVED: On the Motion of Councillor Aodan Marken, seconded by Councillor Brian Webster, that this Council:-

 

 

 

(a)      notes with concern what this Council believes to be a troubling pattern by the current Government of reducing local decision-making power on important ethical and environmental issues;

 

(b)      believes that this pattern is illustrated by, among other things:-

 

(i)       the issue of planning guidance in August 2015 stating that if local planning authorities do not approve or reject planning applications for fracking wells within 16 weeks, ministers can intervene;

 

(ii)      plans announced in November 2015 to grant the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government the “power of intervention” over locally taken investment / divestment decisions with respect to the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS), where those decisions are taken wholly or largely on ethical or environmental grounds;

 

(iii)      proposals reported in the Daily Telegraph newspaper in January 2016 to “bring commercial shale production [fracking] within the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning regime”, which would remove decisions on fracking-related planning applications from local authority control entirely; and

 

(iv)     the publication of procurement guidance in February 2016 asserting that it is “inappropriate” for public bodies, including local authorities, to undertake procurement boycotts unless these are in line with nationally-directed foreign policy decisions;

 

(c)      believes that these steps by Government represent a concerted attack on local democracy and demonstrate that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s claimed pursuit of a “devolution revolution” is a sham, with the localisation or centralisation of powers used opportunistically to pursue the Government’s ideological agenda;

 

(d)      believes that it is not only right but essential that the ethical and environmental concerns of local people and (where relevant) pension scheme members be taken into account when decisions are taken that impact them, and that this is most effectively done when decisions are wherever possible taken locally;

 

(e)      calls upon the Administration to oppose the Government’s efforts to remove locally-held powers over ethical and environmental decision-making in areas such as fracking, investment and procurement; and

 

(f)       directs officers to send copies of this motion to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.