Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J Goodall, S Goodall and A James

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 May 2017 were approved and signed as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor D Cook and seconded by Councillor S Peaple)

The following announcements were made:-

Councillor John Faulkner:-

Peter was already a member of the Labour Party when he moved to Tamworth in 1986 and took a full part and was first elected to Tamworth Borough Council on 30^th October 1997 and therefore he had just short of twenty years’ service when he resigned with affect from 31^st August 2017 following a stroke. Sadly following a second stroke he died on Saturday. Paying tribute to Peter as I am sure we would all like to do, one thing comes across more than anything else and that is his diligence in dealing with patch issues. He would essentially carry through each particular issue as far as he was able to take it. He wouldn’t necessarily be fobbed off. A lot of residents throughout Bolehall and throughout the town were grateful for his assistance.

When he was first elected in 1997 he secured 515 votes. I think it was something of a tribute to him that when he stood in 2015 and he secured 1440 votes. He served as Leader of the Council for four years between 2000 and 2004 and I think one of his greatest achievements was the introduction of street wardens; one of the greatest concerns for Tamworth was Community Safety and I think street wardens played a major role in making people feel more secure. For this work in Tamworth I think we should all thank Peter.

But of cause in 2004 the Labour Group lost control and Peter became Leader of the Opposition and as Councillor Danny Cook as already made reference, he was quite diligent. He lost few opportunities to remind the Tories, for example of the sale of the Peaks business for £1.00 to a company called Sports Village UK Limited and which basically had no assets to speak of at all. Perhaps we miss Peter not being here to remind us of this. Secondly there was the matter of the Icelandic Banks period. In 2008, prior to these banks collapsing, Tamworth Borough Council had seven and a half million pounds invested with Glitner, Kaepthing, Singer  & Friedlander and Heritable Bank and provided a regular source of questions from Peter with what was happening.

We didn’t always agree with Peter and seldom so the members opposite and also occasionally on this side. Most recently we had the question of the European Referendum and Peter argued for withdrawal from the European Union. Some healthy debates there! Whatever happened he was always a friend and colleague. He had that sort of dignity that he would be able to separate personal items from issues.

Peter never held a grudge and very often there would be jokes at his expense and he always took them very well. So I’m going to conclude with two quotes. First of all something Peter said when he was speaking about Phil Dix “when he did speak common sense and his vast knowledge made people immediately want to listen and respect  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC NO. 1

Under Procedure Rule No 10, Ron Brown, of 4 Adonis Close, Tamworth will ask the Leader of the Council, Councillor D Cook, the following question:-

"Is the Council Leader aware of the following discovery by Tamworth Resident and Elector, Ron Brown? A collection of Borough Council Employees has been posing as official representatives of Elected Councillors, posting statements (purportedly from the Council and Councillors) and soliciting public responses. Via that "man in the middle" attack on Public-Councillor intended dialogue, they have taken extensive steps to suppress and censor selected Public responses - none of which were abusive or contained other than factual statements. At the time of submitting this question, this group of impostors has - presumably in an attempt to cover their tracks - altered the Facebook-required truthful description of their identities, from one of pretence and actually BEING Tamworth Borough Council, to one of being merely the output of TBC's Communications Team. Furthermore, they are VISIBLY constructing for themselves the ability and authorisation to BLOCK any responder whom they deam (without Council Approval) as unacceptable to their purpose.

Supportive copies of "before and after" Facebook "about us" descriptions and a complete (at time of writing) copy of a thread where the impostors are visibly attempting to suppress the responses - which they originally requested - have been provided to the above Councillors. Please pay careful attention to the Councillor's submissions?”

Councillor D Cook gave the following reply:-

Other than is the Leader aware I’m not sure here is a question there!

Mr Mayor with your permission as the resident is not present I will offer to write to the resident to answer the question. I believe it is also subject to a Freedom of Information request with the exact same content from the exact same resident so I suggest we let that process run its course and when it has I will write to the resident also enclosing a copy of the complaints procedure. However I have absolute confidence that our communications team are doing a superb job and I will not have them questioned in such away.

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL NO. 1

Under Procedure Rule No 11, Councillor T Peaple will ask the Portfolio Holder for Housing, Councillor M Thurgood, the following question:-

“At the annual joint scrutiny of budgets the members requested that the cabinet investigate the potential for moving high earning council tenants on to a market rate of rent. Has this investigation been carried out and if so what were the results?”

Councillor M Thurgood gave the following reply:-

Thank you Mr Mayor and thank you too to Councillor Peaple for his question.

Councillor Peaple you will be aware that the potential move to charge high earning council tenants market rates for their rent was a provision allowed for under the Housing and Planning Act 2016. The scheme was designed to charge those households earning more than £31k (£40k in London) up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

(The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

The Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance informed Members that The Annual Treasury report is a requirement of the Council’s reporting procedures.
It covers the Treasury activity for 2016/17 and the actual Prudential Indicators for 2016/17. The report meets the requirements of both the CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management and the CIPFA Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities. The Council is required to comply with both Codes in accordance with Regulations issued under the Local Government Act 2003. It also provides an opportunity to review the approved Treasury Management Strategy for the current year and enables Members to consider and approve any issues identified that require amendment.

To consider excluding the Press and Public from the meeting by passing the following resolution:-

“That in accordance with the provisions of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meeting and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, and Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public  interest in disclosing the information to the public”

At the time this agenda is published no representations have been received that this part of the meeting should be open to the public.

(The Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Leader of the Council seeking Members approval of the recommendations of the Appointments and Staffing Committee in relation to the posts of Interim Chief Operating Officer and Head of Paid Service in accordance with the Council Functions as detailed under Article 4 of the Constitution.