Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, Rotherham. S60 2TH

Contact: Lewis South, Democratic Services Manager  Ext. 2050 Email: lewis.south@rotherham.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

99.

PRESENTATION OF AWARDS

Minutes:

The Mayor was pleased to present four awards to:-

 

·              To the Ulley Dam and Country Park Restoration Team who were successful in winning an Excellence Award at the 56th I C E  Awards event .

 

·              To the Century Business Centre Team at Manvers who have recently won the Business Incubation Champion Winner 2011 - UK Business Incubation (UKBI).

 

·              To individual members of the RBT Procurement Team who have recently gained Chartered Buyer status from the Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply (CIPS).

 

·              To Rotherham Ready team for winning the Enterprising Britain Award.

 

Congratulations were offered to all those involved in these achievements.

 

In addition, the Mayor also wanted to offer her own congratulations to the Town Centre Events Team on their organisation of Rotherham’s own Royal Wedding, which had taken place in the All Saints’ Square today.

100.

COUNCIL MINUTES

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 2nd March, 2011 be approved for signature by the Mayor.

 

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:-  Councillor Sharman

101.

COMMUNICATIONS

Minutes:

(1) The Chief Executive submitted the following petitions which had been referred to the appropriate Directorate for consideration:-

 

·              From one hundred and sixty-eight residents of the Norfolk Estate, Rotherham regarding unmindful car parking.

·              From twenty-six residents of Chapel Walk, Rawmarsh re surfacing work at Chapel Walk, Rawmarsh.

·              From eighteen residents of Todwick regarding access from the A57, turning right into Goosecarr Lane.

·              From thirty-two residents of St. Ann’s Road and Bramwell Street requesting resident only parking.

·              From sixty-six residents of Kilnhurst objecting to the operation of Universal Recycling.

 

(2) The Chief Executive submitted apologies for absence from Councillors Blair, Gosling and License.

 

(3)  The Chief Executive reported the receipt of Councillor Gavin Sharp’s resignation with effect from 17th March, 2011.

102.

CABINET MINUTES

 

Boston Castle (Minute No. C191) (Pages 140C to142C)

 

Recording of Council Meetings (Minute No. C204) (Page 154C)

 

Licensing Act 2003 – Statement of Licensing Policy (Minute No. C207) (Pages 159C to160C)

 

Gambling Act 2005 – Statement of Licensing Principles (Minute No. C208) (Page 160C)

 

Proposed Changes to Planning Board (Minute No. C209) (Pages 160C to 162C)

 

Minutes:

Resolved:-  That the reports and minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet (Section C) (pages 134C to 162C) be adopted, subject to the amendments below:-

 

A. Minute No. C203 (Role and Function of Overview and Scrutiny in Rotherham):-

 

be adopted with the addition of the following words:-

 

that the new scrutiny arrangements be implemented at the Annual Council Meeting.”

 

Mover:-  Councillor Stone                               Seconder:-  Councillor Sharman

 

B. Minute No. C209 (Proposed Changes to the Planning Board):-

 

be adopted with the addition of the following words:-

 

“(4)  That Cabinet Members be excluded from membership of the Planning Board.”

 

Mover:-  Councillor Littleboy                           Seconder:-  Councillor Sims

 

C. An amendment was proposed for Minute No. C204 (Recording of Council Meetings) to read:-

 

“That the cost of the filming of the digital recording of the full Council Meetings be investigated and a report be submitted to full Council for consideration.”

 

Mover:-  Councillor Mannion                           Seconder:-  Councillor Gilding

 

The amendment was put and LOST.

103.

DELEGATED POWERS MEETINGS

 

Safeguarding and Developing Learning Opportunities for Children – Pages 73D to 83D (Section D)

 

Community Development,  Equality and Young Peoples Issues – Pages 36E to 42E (Section E)

 

Culture, Lifestyle, Sport and Tourism – Pages 41F to 44F (Section F)

 

Regeneration and Environment – Pages 85G to 93G (Section G)

 

Adult Independence Health and Well Being – Pages 64H to 75H (Section H)

 

Safe and Attractive Neighbourhoods – Pages 71J to 81J (Section J)

 

Resources and Commissioning – Pages 40K to 46K (Section K)

 

Town Centres– Pages 32L to 37L (Section L)

 

Joint Meeting (Regeneration and Environment and Town Centres) – Pages 13M to14M (Section M)

 

Deputy Leader and Organisational Change and Governance – Pages 21N to 25N (Section N)

 

 

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the reports and minutes of the meetings Cabinet Members as listed below be adopted:-

 

·              Safeguarding and Developing Learning Opportunities for Children – Pages 73D to 83D (Section D)

 

·              Community Development,  Equality and Young Peoples Issues – Pages 36E to 42E (Section E)

 

·              Culture, Lifestyle, Sport and Tourism – Pages 41F to 44F (Section F)

 

·              Regeneration and Environment – Pages 85G to 93G (Section G)

 

·              Adult Independence Health and Well Being – Pages 64H to 75H (Section H)

 

·              Safe and Attractive Neighbourhoods – Pages 71J to 81J (Section J)

 

·              Resources and Commissioning – Pages 40K to 46K (Section K)

 

·              Town Centres– Pages 32L to 37L (Section L)

 

·              Joint Meeting (Regeneration and Environment and Town Centres) – Pages 13M to14M (Section M)

 

·              Deputy Leader and Organisational Change and Governance – Pages 21N to 25N (Section N)

 

Mover:- Councillor Stone                                Seconder:- Councillor Sharman

104.

AUDIT COMMITTEE

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the reports and minutes of the meetings of the Audit Committee (Section P) (pages 34P to 43P) be adopted.

 

Mover:- Councillor Sangster                           Seconder:- Councillor Kaye

105.

LICENSING BOARD

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the reports and minutes of the meetings of the Licensing Board (Section Q) (pages 23Q to 24Q) be adopted.

 

Mover:- Councillor Wootton                           Seconder:- Councillor Barron

106.

LICENSING COMMITTEE

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the reports and minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee (Section R) (page 2R) be adopted.

 

Mover:- Councillor Wootton                           Seconder:- Councillor Barron

107.

PLANNING BOARD

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the reports and minutes of the meetings of the Planning Board (Section T) (pages 241T to 260T) be adopted.

 

Mover:- Councillor Pickering                           Seconder:- Councillor Dodson

108.

Questions to Cabinet Members

Minutes:

(1)  Councillor Thirlwall asked could the Cabinet Member or Town Centres tell the Council Chamber who the Elected Member was that had been found to have illegally used a blue badge parking permit and had subsequently been let off prosecution on a technicality?

 

Councillor R. S. Russell reported the Council did not engage in speculation and rumour.

 

Notwithstanding that, Councillor Thirlwall was advised that the Council were not permitted under the Data Protection Act to release details of any person who was being or has been investigated. Only the Court could find someone guilty and once an individual was prosecuted then it was a matter of public record.    

 

(2)  Councillor Fenoughty asked what provision had this Council made, across the Borough, for gypsy and travellers' sites?

 

Councillor Akhtar explained that within Rotherham there were two Showmen/Over-wintering Sites and ten private owned gypsy and traveller sites.  

 

Along with other authorities in the South Yorkshire area Rotherham commissioned a report which  identified that it needed sixteen residential pitches. As a result the Authority undertook an extensive piece of work reviewing the potential of approximately 2,400 sites for their suitability for gypsy and traveller provision. A Cabinet report was submitted in July, 2009 sharing the locations of three preferred sites. On the back of this the Council decided to seek funding from the Homes and Community Agency prior to undertaking public consultation. The Homes and Community Agency decided that other areas in the region had a greater need for provision and turned down our funding bid.  In the absence of funding the Council had not been able to progress provision.

 

The Council wote into the Housing Strategy, 2011-2014, (May 2010) a commitment to undertake a further study of need and the Council was signed up to taking a regional approach to this as part of the Sheffield City Region.

 

On Tuesday of this week, the Government announced a new consultation exercise ‘Planning for Traveller Sites’ which aimed to align planning policy for traveller sites more closely with other policies for Council housing and returning policy for gypsy and traveller issues to local authority discretion.

 

Finally, the Council (Local Planning Authority) was working to prepare an approved Development Plan Document which detailed Gypsy and Traveller site allocations and this would be complete in 2012. 

 

(3)  Councillor Gilding referred over the past two years to the Labour Party holding meetings on Council premises:-

 

Rotherham Labour Party – 22 occasions

Rother Valley Party – 10

Wentworth Party – 10

Labour candidates meetings – 3

Labour Conference briefings – 2

 

and asked had the Labour Party paid for these meetings and could details be provided of payment?

 

Councillor Sharman reported that prior to the refurbishment of the Town Hall political groups were charged a flat rate of £10.00 for each meeting.  These were billed annually. However, during the period of refurbishment when meetings were relocated to Bailey House no charges were levied unless the meeting took place at the weekend.  A number of political meetings took  ...  view the full minutes text for item 108.

109.

Scrutiny Update

Minutes:

Councillor Whelbourn, Chairman of the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee, welcomed the opportunity to update activities by Scrutiny over the past few months and pointed out that the review of the future of overview and scrutiny had come to an end resulting in endorsement of the recommendations by Cabinet on the 6th April, 2011 and a referral to full Council for decision.

 

Over the past few months the Scrutiny Panels had also considered work relating to:-

 

·              Assistive technology.

·              Services associated with dealing with and preventing diabetes.

·              Impact of severe weather and how the Council with partners managed the challenges.

·              Examination on ways to improve dealing with consultations, especially those from Central Government.

 

The work that scrutiny did added value and plans were in hand for the work programme for the coming year, whilst being flexible and responsive to change.

 

Looking into next year the possibility of implementing new ways of working alongside further legislative changes remained a challenge, combined with a tough financial climate and the opportunities offered by health, police and local government reform.

 

Resolved:-  That the update on the work of Scrutiny be noted.

110.

Vote of Thanks

Minutes:

The Mayor referred to Councillors Austen, Littleboy, Sharp, Slade, St. John and Thirlwall who were not standing in the forthcoming election and thanked them, on behalf of the Council, for the work they had undertaken during their terms of office.

 

Best wishes were also offered to those standing in the forthcoming election.