Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 31^st July 2020 were approved and signed as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor M Oates and seconded by Councillor Dr S Peaple)

Councillor D Cook announced the following;

“Madam Mayor, it gives me great pleasure to announce the creation of a members Heritage Project Group lead by the Heritage Champion Councillor Paul Brindley on behalf of the Portfolio Holder for Heritage and Growth Councillor Jeremy Oates who will present to Cabinet on behalf of the Project Group. By announcing this at full Council it will provide validity and formality to the group’s existence.  The membership of the group will be announced by the Leader shortly after consultation with the Portfolio Holder and must include representation selected by the leader of the opposition group. This group will have a defined set of tasks under the umbrella project of “safeguarding Tamworth’s historic assets”.

Tasks will include, evaluating the current position, evaluating predicted costs (in regards planned maintenance), scoping any consultation work, assessing and recommending to cabinet and or full Council any decision relating to the project around our heritage assets. Just to announce that’s formally created now. Madam Mayor I will distribute on email its membership shortly.

Thank you Madam Mayor.”

Councillor Dr. S Peaple announced the following;

“Thank you Madam Mayor, sorry I was slow on the unmute button. Firstly can I allude to something the Minister of Saint Francis said before the meeting during prayers? I understood that Councillor Lunn isn't well and can I ask the members of the controlling group to convey our best wishes to him for a speedy recovery? He was here with us on many occasions and I'm sure he would be delighted to know we are wanting him to recover, so all the best to him please via the Conservative group.

Secondly can I welcome the announcement from the Leader of the Council regarding the Heritage group which I think is something we need if we are to secure the long-term future of our heritage given all the pressures facing the Councils finances?

I can announce that as regards the opposition the Labour group were 100% behind me being the representative on it, given my background as a historian. So I look forward to Councillor Cook confirming who else is on the group. Thank you.”

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC NO. 1

Under Procedure Rule No 10, Mr R Brown, of Tamworth will ask the Leader of the Council, Councillor D Cook, the following question:-

“When the current COVID Pandemic is over, what preparation is our Council making to place a curtain between the Public Gallery and the Councillors’ seating area at Public Council Meetings, to conceal the Councillors from Public view during those Meetings?”

Councillor D Cook gave the following reply:-

“Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you Mr Brown for your question.

OK, I will play along knowing the devil in the detail will be in the supplementary. My answer is of course we have no plans to buy curtains.

Thank you Madam Mayor.”

Mr R Brown asked the following Supplementary question-

“Thank you for your response Councillor Cook the supplementary question is, what measurable and timely plans and action does our Council have to add a video of Councillors’ attendance and to maintain livestream availability of public Council meetings to its electorate when face to face meetings, become restored after the pandemic? And curtains may be necessary to do that.”

Councillor D Cook gave the following reply:-

“Thank you Madam Mayor, not entirely sure about curtains I would have to take a deeper view in to that but there are two parts to the answer in my opinion. The Councils position and my personal position.

Firstly, our corporate position on the matter. As you may be aware, new Regulations ([1]) came into force in April 2020 as a response to the Pandemic, yes we are in the middle of a pandemic,  they allow Council’s to re-commence Council and Committee meetings safely and remotely during lockdown with the current restrictions in place thereafter. These Regulations addressed the previous condition of Schedule 12 of the Local Government Act 1972, which required that Councillors must be present at a  meeting in ‘one place’ (i.e. Marmion House or the Town Hall) for Council and Committee meetings.

The minimum requirement of the Regulations is that one person participating in such meetings remotely, must be able to hear and be heard (and where and if possible, see and be seen) by the other members in attendance at the meeting. The same conditions apply where members of the public attend remotely.

As you can appreciate, for all authorities, this posed a significant change to our way of working and the change itself had to be implemented remotely. It was, however, a priority for us to restart the democratic process in Tamworth as soon as we could, to give assurance to our residents that democracy continues and the “new normal” was starting to take shape.

With the advice and support of officers from Governance, IT and Democratic Services, we implemented Microsoft Teams Live Events as our platform for Council and Committee meetings, which was the choice for many other local authorities, and government bodies.

Currently, due to the number of participants logging into these meetings at one time,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

The Annual Treasury report is a requirement of the Council’s reporting procedures. It covers the Treasury activity for 2019/20, and the actual Prudential Indicators for 2019/20.

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor Dr S Peaple)

Councillor Dr S Peaple moved a motion seconded by Councillor R Bilcliff to add an additional recommendation, which following a unanimous vote was carried