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Agenda and minutes

Extraordinary Council Meeting, Council - Tuesday, 19th November, 2019 6.10 pm

Venue: Town Hall, Market Street, Tamworth. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services 01827 709264 

Items
No. Item

15.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor M J Greatorex.  Councillor Sheree Peaple joined the meeting at 6.20pm

16.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of Members’ interests (pecuniary and non-pecuniary) in any matters which are to be considered at this meeting.

 

When Members are declaring a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in respect of which they have dispensation, they should specify the nature of such interest.  Members should leave the room if they have a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in respect of which they do not have a dispensation. 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

17.

To receive any announcements from the Mayor, Leader, Members of the Cabinet or the Chief Executive

·         To receive a nomination from the Leader of the Council to confer the title of Honorary Alderwoman to Maureen Gant;

·         To receive a nomination from the Leader of the Council to confer the title of Honorary Alderman to Michael Greatorex

Minutes:

Announcement from the Mayor

 

I’m going to go straight into acknowledging exactly for those who were not present for prayers earlier on that we have sadly lost a current serving councillor Michael Greatorex and an ex-councillor, ex-Mayoress of the Borough Mrs. Mary Oates and before we move on to anything else, I think it would only be appropriate if we pause for a minutes silence for both of those two friends who we’ve sadly lost in the past couple of weeks.

 

So, if you’d like to be upstanding please.

 

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, please be seated.

 

I think given the huge respect that those of us who knew both Michael and Mary,  it’s only appropriate that before we move on to any other items of business that we allow a few minutes to hear tributes from various Councillors about those dear departed friends.  So I’m going to invite Councillor Jeremy Oates to speak about his mother for a few minutes.  Over to you Jeremy.

 

Councillor Jeremy Oates:

 

Thank you Mr. Mayor. I’m very much aware that there aren’t many people left in the room now who served on the Council at the same time as Mary did. In fact she was elected in 2004 at the same time as those two fellows at the end. She stood as a paper candidate in 2005 and the irony of what I’m about to say, as she’s no longer with us, but the Council Chamber became a new lease of life to her. In the year 2000 she had breast cancer and had a lump removed, she was also was made redundant / took early retirement whilst she was off through ill health, so she was at quite a low point in her life at the time she was elected onto the Council. So Tamworth Borough Council gave her a new purpose and a new lease of life in her early retirement. I do wonder, and have said this before, something about ageing councillors, the Council keeps them going because they’ve got something to live for and something to do and that was certainly the case with Mary. It was a privilege to work with my parents on the Council and I know other councillors have worked with wives and sons and it’s often a different dynamic when you’re working with a family member. I was the Leader of the Council for a while, whilst she was on the Council and while she was a Cabinet member and to be honest I tended to treat her a little bit harder than the other Cabinet members because I could.  And because of that relationship I was able to push a little bit harder and use her as an example and say something like, if this is how I treat my Mom imagine what I’m going to treat you like when you step out of line … Danny, Rob, etc. I appreciate many didn’t know her she was first elected in 2004.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

To consider the following motion, notice of which has been duly given in accordance with Procedure Rule No. 4.12.1 by Councillors R Ford, J Oates, S Goodall, B Price and R Pritchard pdf icon PDF 187 KB

Tamworth Borough Council declares a “Climate Emergency” that requires urgent action.

 

Further details are in the attached document.

Minutes:

The ‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C’, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October 2018, (a) describes the enormous harm that a 2°C average rise in global temperatures is likely to cause compared with a 1.5°C rise, and (b) confirms that limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C may still be possible with ambitious action from national and sub-national authorities, civil society and the private sector.

It is noted that the impacts of climate breakdown are already causing serious damage around the world. It is also acknowledges that strong policies to cut emissions have associated health, wellbeing and economic benefits.

Recommendations:

1.

Tamworth Borough Council declares a Climate Emergency’ that requires urgent action;

 

2.

Make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2050;

 

3. 

Ensure that political and chief officers leadership teams embed this work in all areas and take responsibility for reducing where practicable, as rapidly as possible, the carbon emissions resulting from the council’s activities;

 

4.

The Council (including the Executive and Scrutiny Committee) consider the impact of climate change and the environment when adopting and reviewing Council policies and strategies;

 

5.

 

Receive a report to the relevant scrutiny committee regarding the level of investment in the fossil fuel industry that any of our investments have;

 

6.

Ensure that all reports in preparation for the 2021/2022 budget cycle and investment strategy will take into account the actions the Council will take to address this emergency;

 

7.

Ask council to note there will be an as yet undefined financial impact to any plan to achieve net zero carbon operations.

 

Amendment moved by Councillor J Faulkner and seconded by Councillor K Norchi to recommendation 2 of the motion:

Make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2030

On being put to the named vote the amendment was not carried.

Named vote

 

For

Against

Councillor J Faulkner

Councillor M Bailey

Councillor K Norchi

Councillor R Bilcliff

Councillor Dr. S Peaple

Councillor D Box

Councillor S Peaple

Councillor P Brindley

Councillor P Standen

Councillor J Chesworth

 

Councillor R Claymore

 

Councillor T Clements

 

Councillor C Cooke

 

Councillor D Cook

 

Councillor M Cook

 

Councillor S Doyle

 

Councillor A Farrell

 

Councillor R Ford

 

Councillor S Goodall

 

Councillor T Jay

 

Councillor J Oates

 

Councillor M Oates

 

Councillor B Price

 

Councillor R Pritchard

 

Councillor R Rogers

 

Councillor M Summers

 

Councillor P Thurgood

 

 Amendment moved by Councillor C Cooke and seconded by Councillor D Cook to recommendation 2 of the motion:

Make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2050 with aspiration to achieve 2030 should the council be financially able to do so. 

On being put to the named vote the amendment was declared carried. 

Named vote

 

 

For

Against

Abstain

 

 

Councillor M Bailey

Councillor D Box

Councillor R Bilcliff

Councillor P Brindley

 

 

Councillor J Chesworth

 

 

Councillor R Claymore

 

 

Councillor T Clements

 

 

Councillor C Cooke

 

 

Councillor D Cook

 

 

Councillor M Cook

 

 

Councillor S Doyle

 

 

Councillor A Farrell

 

 

Councillor J Faulkner

 

 

Councillor R Ford

 

 

Councillor S Goodall

 

 

Councillor T Jay

 

 

Councillor J Oates

 

 

Councillor K Norchi

 

 

Councillor M Oates

 

 

Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

19.

Allocations Policy pdf icon PDF 534 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Housing Services and Neighbourhoods)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

The Portfolio Holder for Housing services and Neighbourhoods provided details of the full Allocations Policy 2020, shown at annex one, Summarised feedback from the detailed consultation exercise that ran from 7th May 2019 – 30th August 2019,reflected scrutiny committee observations (both IS&G and Health & Wellbeing) and also set out the implementation arrangements should Council approve the final scheme.  She provided additional clarification as an alteration to recommendation 1 of the motion

 

1.

Approve the Council’s Allocations Policy 2020, shown at annex one, with the following clarifications:-

 

a.

That the thresholds for income per households range from £30k (pa) up to a maximum of £60k (pa). This will be subject to a comprehensive household income and expenditure assessment to ensure no household suffers exceptional financial hardship & is deemed ineligible as a result.

b.

b.   That the local connection be usually 2 years as set out in the proposed policy; but circumstances will be considered to ensure exemptions and officer discretion is applied to avoid any household being significantly disadvantaged where there is current local connection with Tamworth and this period needs to be extended. 

c.

            The impact of the policy (specifically financial thresholds and local connection) will be reviewed within 12 months and recommendations reported back to Cabinet on policy developments going forward, in 2021.

 

 

 

RESOLVED

That Council;

 

 
  1. Approved the Council’s Allocations Policy 2020, shown at annex one with the following clarifications:
  1. That the thresholds for income per households range from £30k(pa) up to a maximum of £60k (pa).  This will be subject to a comprehensive household income and expenditure assessment to ensure no household suffers exceptional financial hardship & is deemed ineligible as a result.
  2. That the local connection be usually 2 years as set out in the proposed policy; but circumstances will be considered to ensure exemptions and officer discretion is applied to avoid any household being significantly disadvantaged where there is current local connection with Tamworth and this period needs extending. 
  3. The impact of the policy (specifically thresholds and local connection) will be reviewed within 12 months and recommendations reported back to Cabinet on policy developments going forward, in 2021.

 

 
  1. Supported Health & Well-being scrutiny committee observations shown at annex three which were incorporated into the revised policy.

 

 
  1. Endorsed the Equality Impact Assessment set out at annex six.

 

 
  1. Acknowledged feedback from the detailed consultation exercise that ran from 7th May 2019 – Friday 30th August 2019, full details set out in annex seven.

 

 
  1. Approved  the implementation action plan, should Council approve the final scheme, highlighted in the report and shown at annex  eight.

 

Moved by Councillor M Cook, seconded by Councillor R Bilcliff

 

 

 

 

The Mayor