Agenda item

Gritters and Snow Wardens

It was moved by Councillor Jack Scott, seconded by Councillor Ibrar Hussain, that this Council:-

(a)

would like to thank the Gritters and Snow Wardens on behalf of the Council and the people of Sheffield for all their hard work keeping Sheffield’s roads safe through the bad weather;

(b)

appreciates that Community Snow Wardens are unpaid volunteers who give up their time to help their local communities;

(c)

acknowledges the unprecedented bad weather we have had and would like to reassure residents we will do our best to combat any further snow in the City;

(d)

is pleased there have been no major incidents throughout the bad weather; and

(e)

urges this Government to look seriously at climate change which has led to this unprecedented cold spell in the UK.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor David Baker, seconded by Councillor Ian Auckland, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

1.

the deletion of paragraph (e);

2.

the re-lettering of paragraphs (c) and (d) as new paragraphs (d) and (e) and the addition of a new paragraph (c) as follows:-

(c)

praises the previous Administration for introducing the Snow Warden Scheme and regrets the repeated refusals of this Administration to expand the Scheme at minimal cost;

3.

the addition of new paragraphs (f) to (h) as follows:-

(f)

notes that, while individual extreme weather events cannot be attributed to climate change with any confidence, climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of such events;

(g)

regrets that previous Governments refused to take warnings of climate change seriously; and

(h)

commends the influence of Liberal Democrats in Government in addressing climate change, through measures such as the ground-breaking Green Deal, which the Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Streetscene described as “fantastic news for Sheffield”.

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

(Note: Councillor Robert Murphy voted for paragraphs (g) and (f), against paragraph (h) and abstained on paragraph (a) of the amendment and asked for this to be recorded.)

The original Motion was then put to the vote and carried, as follows:-

RESOLVED: that this Council:-

(a)

would like to thank the Gritters and Snow Wardens on behalf of the Council and the people of Sheffield for all their hard work keeping Sheffield’s roads safe through the bad weather;

(b)

appreciates that Community Snow Wardens are unpaid volunteers who give up their time to help their local communities;

(c)

acknowledges the unprecedented bad weather we have had and would like to reassure residents we will do our best to combat any further snow in the City;

(d)

is pleased there have been no major incidents throughout the bad weather; and

(e)

urges this Government to look seriously at climate change which has led to this unprecedented cold spell in the UK.

(Note: 1. The Deputy Lord Mayor (Councillor Vickie Priestley) and Councillors Simon Clement Jones, Shaffaq Mohammed, Rob Frost, Sylvia Anginotti, Colin Ross, Joe Otten, Keith Hill, Penny Baker, Diana Stimely, Roger Davison, Andrew Sangar, Ian Auckland, Bob McCann, Anders Hanson, Katie Condliffe, David Baker, Alison Brelsford and Trevor Bagshaw voted for paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) and abstained on paragraphs (d) and (e) of the above Motion and asked for this to be recorded.

2. Councillor Robert Murphy voted for paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d) and abstained on paragraph (e) of the motion and asked for this to be recorded.)