Agenda and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest of a pecuniary or non-pecuniary nature from Members in respect of the items on this agenda (other than those recorded within the Minutes submitted for consideration at this meeting).

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on the 1^st April 2021.

To consider any communications to be submitted by the Mayor or the Chief Executive.

To consider appointments to Regulatory Boards, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Outside Bodies consequent to the Annual Council held on the 20^th May, 2021.

To consider any questions which may have been received from Elected Members and which are asked pursuant to Standing Order No. 11.

(a)  Councillor Fielding

‘The temporary new Trinity MAT secondary school to be located on Broadway is due to open in just 14 weeks’ time and welcome the 180 students who chose this as their secondary school.

At the time of writing, no work has yet commenced on site and parents are understandably concerned that the school will not be ready in September.

Is the school expected to be ready to receive its new students in September, and in the event that it isn’t ready, what plans are in place to provide a school place for these 180 students?’

(b)  Councillor Greenhough

‘Over the last year there have been a large number of incidents at the borough’s recycling centres. These incidents saw staff being verbally and physically abused. With the staff on these sites wearing body cameras, can the council confirm whether any offenders have been reported to the police?’

(c)  Councillor Hunt

‘It was recently reported that 1,700 littering fines were issued by the council in 2020 - 1,000 less than in 2019. In 2016 the number of fines issued totalled 8,594. Why have the number of fines issued reduced so much since 2016?’

Proposer – Councillor Kitching

Seconder – Councillor Hunt

This Council believes that:

i)             The ability of members to ask questions at Full Council meetings is essential for openness, engagement and transparency. It allows Cabinet members to respond to submitted written questions in a public forum.

ii)            The members’ questions facility has become popular and well used in recent years, with both ruling and opposition group members using it to ask questions of Cabinet members at Full Council meetings

iii)           This has led to the session frequently over-running the allotted 30-minute time limit and being cut short.

iv)           When the session is cut short it is frustrating for members whose questions are missed, for Cabinet members who do not have the opportunity to respond and for officers who have spent time and effort in preparing responses.

Therefore, this council calls for:

v)            The current 30-minute time limit on members’ questions at Full Council to be extended to 1 hour.

vi)           The Chief Executive to make the relevant constitutional changes to facilitate this.