Agenda and minutes

The Mayor was pleased to announce that Rotherham’s Local Strategic Partnership had received the Beacon Gold Award for “Better Outcomes for People and Places”.

Congratulations were offered to all those involved in this achievement.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meetings of the Council held on 4^th February, 2009 be approved for signature by the Mayor.

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:-  Councillor Sharman

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

·              From three hundred and fifty-one residents of Rotherham seeking tarmacing to a 200 metre stretch of footpath on the Wentworth Park Estate.

·              From forty-nine residents of Low Golden Smithies, Swinton requesting provision of a salt bin for Low Golden Smithies, Swinton.

·              From twenty-seven residents of Potteries Court regarding recent changes proposed by the Council to the care system.

·              From seven parents regarding changes to the current Home to School Transport arrangements for Milton School.

·              From six parents regarding changes to the current Home to School Transport arrangements for Newman School.

·              From seven hundred and sixty-four residents of Rotherham calling for a freeze on Councillors’ allowances and expenses for the 2009/10 financial year.

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

Mover:- Councillor Stone                    Seconder:-   Councillor Sharman

(2) The Chief Executive submitted apologies for absence from Councillors Foden, Hodgkiss, License, Mannion, Rushforth, Sangster, Sharp, Sims, Walker and Whysall.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the reports and minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet (Section B) (pages 145B to 167B) be adopted,  with the exception of Minute No. B186 of the Cabinet meeting held on 25th February, 2009.

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:  Councillor Sharman

(2)                Moved by Councillor Stone and seconded by Councillor Sharman:-

That Minute No. B186 relating to the Budget be adopted.

Moved by Councillor Thirlwall and seconded by Councillor Slade as an amendment.

That the recommendations to Minute No. B186 be adopted with the following additional wording:-

“That this Council reluctantly resolves to approve the budget set out in the Cabinet report of the 25^th February, 2009 with the following amendments:-

1.            Provide a grant of £250k to Age Concern Rotherham – Day Care Services.

2.            Provide a grant of £10k to MIND Drop-In Service.

3.            Provide a grant of £10k to support The Talking Newspaper for the Blind.

4.            Provide a grant of £10k to the Speak-Up Self Advocacy Project (for leaflets and DVDs etc.)

5.            Provide a grant of £35k to the Rotherham Self Advocacy Partnership.

6.            Divert £300k from Children and Young People’s Services Directors’ salaries and spend it on frontline Social Workers.

Achieved by:-

(a)          Reducing the Members’ Allowances by £40k per annum.

(b)          Reducing the Marketing and Publicity Budget by £400k.

(c)          Reducing the budget to Planning/Building Control and Land Charges Section by £500k.

(d)          Cutting the number of Cabinet Members from 12 to 8, giving a saving of £6k.

(e)          Reducing the amount of money spent on Members’ out of town seminars, conferences and award ceremonies by £40k.

(f)            Set aside £71k to fund other worthy projects that become evident throughout the year.

(g)          Stop first class rail travel for both officers and Councillors.

(h)          Return £600k to the Council reserves. “

The amendment was put and lost with Councillors Clarke, Cutts, Donaldson, Fenoughty, Gilding, Hughes, Parker and Turner abstaining from voting and requested that this be recorded.

(3)  The motion to adopt  Minute No. B186 relating to the Budget was then put and carried.

(Councillor Donaldson declared a personal interest in the amendment on the grounds of being a Director of Age Concern Rotherham)

The Strategic Director of Finance submitted a report 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 £210,639,000    for the Council in 2009/10 be approved.

(2) That the Council Tax Base of 74,774.37 be noted.

(3) The following amounts be calculated by the Council for the year 2009/10 in accordance with Sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:-

(a)     £ 211,553,284            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)     £119,935,903             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)     £1,225.2511               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)     £2,064,284                  being the aggregate amount of all special items referred to in Section 34 (1) of the Act. (Total Parish Precepts).

(e)     £1,197.6443               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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

Resolved:- That the reports and minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee (Section C) (pages 20C to 23C) be adopted.

Mover:- Councillor Clarke                               Seconder:- Councillor Austen

(1)   Councillor Donaldson asked if the Cabinet Member could tell her what plans the Council had made for Rotherham to celebrate St. George’s Day? 

Councillor Smith reported that the Big Screen in All Saints' Square would display the St. George’s Flag with "Happy St. George's Day" message explaining he was the Patron Saint for England on 23rd April, 2009.

Rotherham Visitor Centre would also display the St. George's Flag in their window.

Advice and guidance was currently being provided to Rotherham and District Scouts Group about their St. George's Day parade on Sunday, 26th April, 2009.

(2)   Councillor Donaldson asked had the Council already made a decision to sell or close neighbourhood centres for Cliff Hill/Redwood Drive, Maltby and/or The Lings, Bramley? 

Councillor Akhtar explained that no decision had been made of this nature at all. The review of Neighbourhood Centres attached to sheltered housing was ongoing and a full programme of Member Consultation would be rolled out during March and April, 2009.

(3)   Councillor Donaldson asked how often was litter picking undertaken in any one area of Rotherham and how much funding was allocated to this service? 

Councillor R. S. Russell confirmed that litter picking work was scheduled with the aim of targeting resources to achieve acceptable standards of cleanliness based on an area’s potential for litter generation.  This meant that high litter generation areas such as shopping parades, outside schools, high density social housing estates and so on were cleansed at a higher frequency than for example low density residential areas and rural roads.

A variety of cleansing frequencies were used to achieve the desired standards.  For litter picking, the scheduled frequencies varied from daily cleansing through to once every nine weeks.  In addition, mechanical sweeping of the road gutters is undertaken at frequencies varying from weekly on some principal roads through to four times per annum on estate roads.

Many estate and rural road locations did not regularly generate litter and consequently were not scheduled for routine litter clearance.  Litter on these was generally dealt with by the road gutter sweeping, but where standards were unsatisfactory then a one off cleansing was arranged.

The total funding allocated to Litter Picking (including emptying of litter and dog waste bins) was £1,447,000, this excluded the cost of other Street Cleansing activities such as mechanical sweeping of road gutters, graffiti and fly tipping removal, gum removal, provision of litter and dog waste bins.

(4)   Councillor Donaldson asked how much had the Council spent on Consultants in the last five years?

The Deputy Leader reported that the Council engaged Consultants only when there was a need to buy in specialist knowledge and advice, or when there was insufficient capacity in a service to meet demands at a particular time. They often played a very valuable enabling role which allowed the Council to progress its business.  In addition, they were also used to provide expert training and development for employees and Members.

Quantifying spend on Consultants was not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

To consider the adoption of the following motion :-

That this Council resolves to fix Councillors’ Allowances and Expenses for the Financial Year 2009/10 at or below the current 2008/09 levels.

Proposer: Councillor Thirlwall                         Seconder: Councillor Slade

Moved by Councillor Thirlwall and seconded by Councillor Slade:-

“That this Council resolves to fix Councillors’ Allowances and Expenses for the Financial Year 2009/10 at or below the current 2008/09 levels.”

Moved by Councillor Parker and seconded by Councillor Gilding as an amendment

“That this Council resolves to fix Councillors’ Allowances and Expenses for the Financial Years 2009/10 and 20010/11 at or below the current 2008/09 levels.”

Both the amendment and the motion were put and lost.