Agenda and minutes

The Mayor was pleased to present the following two Awards:-

·              To the Strategic HR Team for the “Institute of IT Training Staff Development Programme of the Year Award 2008”.

·              To Streetpride/Neighbourhoods for the Beacon Status Award for “Better Public Places”.

The Leader was pleased to announce:-

·              The Corporate Performance Assessment 4* Status of the Council and thanked everyone concerned in this achievement.

·              The Heads of Terms for the YES! Project had now been signed.

·              Rother ValleyCountry Park had been selected as one of fifty available sites to become a training camp for the 2012 Olympic Games.

·              Councillor Rose McNeely had become a grandmother again to a baby boy born on Wednesday, 27th February, 2008.

Resolved:-  That the congratulations of the Council be forwarded to everyone concerned.

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:-  Councillor Sharman

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 6^th February, 2008 be approved for signature by the Mayor.

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:-  Councillor Sharman

(1)  The Chief Executive submitted the following petitions:-

·              From 92 residents objecting to the inappropriate plans for the buildings of flats at 48 Station Road, Laughton Common.

·              From 87 residents of Masbrough, Rotherham regarding the redevelopment of MasbroughPark.

·              From 30 residents of Thrybergh objecting to the type of proposed new development and the amount of traffic generated on School Street/Wood Street, Thrybergh.

·              From 109 residents of The Lanes, East Dene, Rotherham objecting to the removal of the caretaker from The Lanes.

·              From 40 residents of Parkgate regarding anti-social behaviour on the playground at Netherfield Lane, Parkgate.

·              From 17 residents of North Crescent, EastDene, Rotherham regarding anti-social behaviour on North Crescent, East Dene.

Resolved:- That the petitions be referred to the appropriate Cabinet Member for consideration.

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:-  Councillor Sharman

(2)  The Chief Executive submitted apologies for absence from Councillors Burton, Lakin, License, Mannion, St. John, Sharp, Stonebridge, Turner, Walker and Wyatt.

The Leader introduced the District Auditors, Sue Sunderland and Peter Catterick.

The District Auditors presented the Annual Audit Letter which recognised the Council’s attainment of four stars as a result of the continued improvement in services, the rate of improvement, the strong contribution towards wider community outcomes and working with partners, the comprehensive range of opportunities to help young people and the satisfaction levels of individual services.

The District Auditors gave a presentation outlining the main points of the Annual Audit and Inspection Letter, which drew specific attention to:-

·              Attainment of four stars.

·              The focus on areas of priority.

·              Rate of improvement.

·              Improvement and attainment at Key Stage 2.

·              Strong position to move forward.

·              Looking forward.

·              Service performance.

·              Use of resources.

Members asked a range of questions which the District Auditors responded to.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the Audit Commission’s Annual Audit and Inspection letter 2007/2008 be received.

(2)  That the areas for future action be noted.

Mover: Councillor Stone                                             Seconder: Councillor Sharman

Resolved:-  (1)  That the reports and minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet (Section B) (pages 151B to 166B) be adopted, subject to the amendments to Minute No. B158 to reflect the Council Tax increase of 3.8% instead of 4.1%, as set out at Minute No. B162 of the Cabinet meeting held on 27th February, 2008, which was also adopted.

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:  Councillor Sharman

(Councillors Clarke, Cutts, Donaldson and Gilding voted against Minute No. B158 – Proposed Revenue Budget and Council Tax For 2008/09)

The Strategic Director of Finance reported on the amount of Council Tax required to be levied following receipt of the Joint Authority precepts.

Resolved:- (1) That a net revenue budget (before use of balances) of £204,153,000 for the Council in 2008/09 be approved.

(2) That the Council Tax Base of 74,411.90 be noted.

(3) The following amounts be calculated by the Council for the year 2008/09 in accordance with Sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:-

(a)     £203,755,700             being the amount calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 32 (4) of the Act.  (The Council’s and Parishes spending less the amount financed from balances).

(b)     £115,145,755             being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its General Fund in respect of redistributed non-domestic rates and revenue support grant, increased by the amount of the sum which the Council estimates will be transferred in the year from its Collection Fund to its General Fund in accordance with Section 97 (3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1998 and increased by the amount of any sum which the Council estimates will be transferred from its Collection Fund to its General Fund pursuant to the Collection Fund (Community Charges) directions under Section 98 (4) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, made on 7 February 1994. (Government Formula Grant plus the Collection Fund surplus).

(c)     £1,190.8034               being the amount at (a) above less the amount at (b) above, all divided by the amount at (2) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 33 (1) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year. (Average Council Tax including Parishes).

(d)     £2,002,700                  being the aggregate amount of all special items referred to in Section 34 (1) of the Act. (Total Parish Precepts).

(e)     £1,163.8897               being the amount of (c) above less the result given by dividing the amount at (d) above by the amount at (2) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 34 (2) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which no special item relates. (Rotherham MBC Council Tax).

 (f)        Part of the Council's Area

being the amounts given by adding to the amount at (e) above the amounts of the special item or items relating to dwellings in those parts of the Council's area mentioned above divided in each case by the Council Tax base relating to that part  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

Resolved:-  That the reports and minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee (Section C) (pages 20C to 22C) be adopted.

Mover:-  Councillor Clarke                              Seconder:-  Councillor Robinson

(1)   Councillor Donaldson asked if the Chairman of the Licensing Board could tell her how the Council felt about the knowledge of approving taxi drivers with known criminal records and a continual failure to declare driving offences when committed. 

Councillor Barron reported that each application for a licence to drive a taxi/private hire vehicle was considered on its own merits.  Criminal records were checked as part of the application process, with any convictions, cautions or reprimands being brought to the attention of the Licensing Board in order for a decision to be made with respect to that application.  The Licensing Board were provided with guidance to assist them when making decisions regarding criminal records, which took into consideration the requirements of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.  Continual failures to notify the Licensing Authority about convictions for any offence were taken extremely seriously by the Licensing Board and may result in the revocation of a driver's licence.

(2)   Councillor Donaldson asked if the Council should have a policy, in line with the Freedom of Information Act, that taxi drivers should give the fare paying passenger access to the taxi driver’s record? 

Councillor Barron explained that the Licensing Authority would release information where it was lawful to do so.  Information was currently available in the form of statutory public registers and information could also be released if a request was made under the Freedom of Information Act.  However, release of any personal information was governed by the Data Protection Act 1988, which prevented the Council from releasing personal information to a third party without the subject's prior consent.  In addition, the Criminal Records Bureau Privacy Policy prevented Licensing Authorities from sharing any information regarding criminal records with members of the public.

The Licensing Board have been delegated the power to determine applications for licences on behalf of the Council.  As part of this process involved the consideration of any relevant criminal records it was not considered to be necessary for members of the public to have direct access to such information.

(3)   Councillor Donaldson asked if she could be updated on the position with regard to the recruitment of social workers? 

Councillor Kirk was not aware of any previous position statement with regard to the recruitment of social workers.  However, he provided a brief update on the current vacancy situation.

With reference to the last two recruitment campaigns, a recruitment advert for a number of social worker posts was placed in the national and local media in late Spring 2007, which traditionally was a good time to advertise, with a view to attracting newly qualified social workers graduating from university.  Whilst this was quite successful there were still some vacant posts

An advert was again placed in the national and local media in January, 2008 in order to fill the remaining vacancies.  However, the response was poor due to the time of year with more vacancies than there were applicants. Two people were eligible to be short listed, with only one  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

(1)  Councillor Gilding asked had there been any increase in alcohol related offences in South Yorkshire since the introduction of 24 hour drinking?

Councillor Littleboy explained that this was not a question that he could answer immediately as it had not been the practice until quite recently to ask Police Officers to record for each and every offence that they dealt with whether or not the person who committed the offence was under the influence of alcohol.

However, some information was provided which was due to go before the Police Authority’s Performance Committee next week.

For this year the Police Authority established a target of reducing crime overall by 5%. So far this year crime had been reduced by 7.9%.  Recently the monthly figures have shown reductions of 10% in November, 17%, December, and 14.6% in January.  Against a target of detecting 27% of offences, performance exactly equalled the target, with performance in the most recent months exceeding the target.

For offences of violent crime the target adopted was to reduce offences by 10%.  So far this year violent crime had actually reduced by 11.7%.  During November the reduction was 10.8%, in December 20.4%, and in January 14.9%.  It was not possible to say whether or not each or any of these offences involved alcohol.

(2)  Councillor Gilding asked how many officers were on duty outside Millmoor and the surrounding area for the football match, with Lincoln City as the visitors, last week, what was the cost of the operation and who pays?

Councillor Littleboy pointed out that, as with every football match played in the county, South Yorkshire Police carry out an advance assessment of the risk level involved in the fixture.

Based on this advance assessment, there were 48 officers deployed outside the ground and 28 within, plus a handful of commanders and tactical advisors, so that the total deployment was 88 officers.

Most of the costs of policing football were recovered directly from the club. In this case the total cost was £11,000, of which about £8,000 was recovered from the club and the remainder covered by the Police budget.

Many of the officers involved would have worked on days which would have otherwise been rest days.

In the event, the match created some real tensions, but these were positively policed and there were few incidents or arrests. The Police could not police and ensure crowd safety without these numbers of officers.

Councillor Stone presented a report by the Assistant Chief Executive, Legal and Democratic Services, relating to the recommendations of the Independent Panel as to the filling of vacancies on the Standards Committee.

Resolved:- That Messrs. D. Foster and N. Sykes be appointed as Independent Members of the Standards Committee for a term of four years.

Mover:- Councillor Stone                                Seconder:- Councillor Sharman