To consider any communications to be submitted by the Mayor or the Chief Executive.
Minutes:
The Executive Director Core Services, in the absence of the Chief Executive, reported on the following Communications received.
(a) Josie Thirkell OBE
The Executive Director Core Services reported with great sadness on the death of Josie Thirkell on the 27th August, 2017.
Although hailing from the North East Josie spent much of her successful career in Barnsley.
Josie had been a dedicated public servant, being the Head Teacher at Springwell School which provided special education for children with emotional, social and behavioural difficulties. Subsequently she had been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Wellspring Academy Trust and more recently she served as the Chair of Barnsley College and Chair of Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust.
Josie had been forthright and down to earth and had a great sense of humour; she had been passionate about education culture and heritage and was a great advocate for Barnsley.
She had been awarded the OBE from HRH Prince Charles in February this year for her commitment to education and young people. She would be dearly missed by all who knew her.
Councillor Miller, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place, highlighted that he got to know Josie very well whilst she was Chair of the Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust, a role she was ideally suited to as she had a special way with people, being both passionate and persuasive about education, culture and heritage and the way in which these things could make a real difference to people’s lives
The Mayor and Members of the Council noted, with regret, the receipt of this news and they expressed their condolence to Ms Thirkell’s family at their sad loss.
(b) Berneslai Homes
The Executive Director Core Services reported that the Council may wish to congratulate Berneslai Homes on being voted No.1 Landlord for the Year in this year’s 24 Housing list of the top 50 social landlords. Berneslai Homes led by Helen Jaggar, Chief Executive, who was unable to be in attendance today due to annual leave, was represented by Paul Hayes, Chair of Berneslai Homes, and Stephen Davies.
Berneslai Homes had achieved this success in recent years despite the challenging local environment. It had collected over 98.5% of the Council’s rental income and brought in substantial additional benefits helping to sustain tenancies for those most in need within the Borough.
Councillor Miller, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place, added his thanks to Berneslai Homes for supporting the Council to achieve its strategic objectives, moving services to be more digitally friendly, including self-service lettings, whilst also tackling the shortage of homes by building and acquiring 320 new homes for the Council with a further 200 homes planned.
The Mayor and Members of the Council congratulated Berneslai homes and its staff at this success and expressed their thanks to all involved in the usual manner.
(c) Tobacco Control (CLeaR Assessment)
The Executive Director Core Services reported that the Council had been peer assessed by a team of national experts on its approach to tobacco control The assessment was based on robust evidence and focussed on how the Council challenged itself, its leadership and its results
From the first assessment in 2013 the total points available had increased from 40% to 70%. The feedback from the assessors had been excellent. They described Barnsley’s strengths as the political and public health leadership, the targeted action plan and the shared ambition to make smoking invisible and create a smoke free generation.
Every member of the Barnsley Tobacco Alliance should be congratulated on this achievement and particular thanks were extended to Diane Lee, Kaye Mann and Gilly Brenner from Public Health, Paul Micklethwaite from the Place Directorate, Richard Jenkins and Bob Kirton from Barnsley Hospital and Councillors Andrews BEM, Platts and Tattersall.
Councillor Andrews BEM, Chair of the Tobacco Alliance, outlined the pioneering work which was being undertaken and commented that officers had shown outstanding commitment to supporting the work of the Alliance, particularly those involved in parks, protecting children travelling in cars, and in the Town Hall Square. He asked to place on record his thanks for the enthusiastic support of Members of the Council to create a smoke free generation.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations on this achievement in the usual manner.
(d) Sandford Awards
The Executive Director Core Services was delighted to inform Members that the Museums Learning Team had been awarded the prestigious Sandford Award for its work at the Cooper Gallery, which added to the awards already gained for Experience Barnsley and Cannon Hall.
The Sandford Award was an independently judged, quality assured assessment of education programmes at heritage sites, museums, archives and collections across the British Isles. The Awards focussed on formal, curriculum-linked education opportunities offered to schools by heritage sites, although recognition was also made of formal learning such as family programmes.
The Award brought a number of benefits including:
· A ‘kite mark’ for high quality education provision which was recognised by schools and other education institutions across the United Kingdom
· The opportunity to use the Award to attract new visitors
· National recognition amongst the heritage sector
The Manager, Jemma Conway, who was present in the Council Chamber this morning, and her team were all to be congratulated on achieving this outstanding mark of quality for the service.
Councillor Miller, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place thanked the Learning Team for this achievement and for the recognition this had brought to the Service and for Barnsley. He particularly expressed his thanks to Jemma Conway and her team for all they hard work in achieving this success, explaining that last year over 11,000 school children took part I learning activities across the Culture Service, almost double the number from two years ago. He highlighted that the Museum Learning Team offers learning experiences of the highest possible quality and the Sanford Award for the Cooper Gallery is recognition of that fact.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations on these achievements in the usual manner.
(e) British Safety Council International Safety Award 2017 and RoSPA Order of Distinction Award 2017
The Executive Director Core Services informed Members of the Council of an award received for the Core Services Directorate. He reported that the British Safety Council and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) awards were awarded annually to organisations that had attained consistently high health and safety standards. To be eligible the Council needed to have achieved a better than national average accident level and demonstrably robust management practices for health and safety.
To achieve the Awards the Council had provided a wealth of supporting documentation to prove its commitment to health and safety. This included an outline of the health and safety policy and management organisation for health and safety.
Simon Dobby, Head of Corporate Health Safety and Emergency Resilience was present in the Council Chamber this morning.
Councillor Gardiner, Cabinet Member for Core Services added his congratulations and commented that achievement of the awards reflected the Council’s strong commitment to the health and safety of its employees.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations to all concerned in the usual manner.
(f) #EverybodyThink Campaign
The Executive Director Core Services reported that the Communications and Marketing Team had been awarded ‘Social Media Campaign of the Year’ for the #EverybodyThink Campaign to tackle fly tipping at the UK Public Sector Communications Awards earlier this month.
The awards celebrated and rewarded excellent communication strategies and campaigns by local and national governments, emergency services and not-for-profit bodies across the UK.
The Campaign, which had been launched in December last year resulted in a 15% reduction in fly tipping in its first 7 months, compared to the same time last year.
The Campaign was part of a long term strategy by the Council to change behavious and impove the local environment for residents and visitors to Barnsley.
The Council was working really hard to deliver excellent campaigns with reducing funding and this was a great example of the many different Council Services coming together to really get to the heart of the problem and make a positive difference to Barnsley.
Councillor G Carr, Chair of the Task and Finish Group which looked at this issue added her thanks to both Members of the Council and Officers for their commitment to this campaign.
Councillor Platts, Cabinet Spokesperson for Communities, reported that in terms of enforcement, joint working with the Police using evidence from CCTV cameras, had been used to bring perpetrators to justice, highlighting that a particularly prolific fly-tipper had now received a custodial sentence.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations to all concerned in the usual manner.
(g) Barnsley in Bloom
The Executive Director Core Services was pleased to report that the work of the parks service, volunteers and local groups had produced a staggering 23 awards in this year’s Yorkshire in Bloom competition.
These included category winner award for Carlton Marsh Nature Reserve and a special mention for Oxspring Primary School, which received a discretionary award for ‘Outstanding Small Community’.
The results followed a visit from the Yorkshire in Bloom judges earlier in the year where they assessed a number of green spaces, squared and gardens across Barnsley.
This year saw an increase in the number of green spaces taking part and this was thanks to the Parks Team who helped and encouraged them along the way.
Councillor Platts, Cabinet Spokesperson for Communities commented on the brilliant results which improved year on year and which was as a direct result of the dedication and hard work of groups of volunteers supported by the Parks Team. She made particular reference to the success of Carlton Marsh which had been awarded the first Platinum Award within Barnsley. She expressed her thanks to all volunteers and to the members of the Parks team for all their hard work and dedication in achieving such outstanding results.
Councillor Barnard made particular mention of the success of Oxspring Primary School in being given the discretionary award for ‘Outstanding Small Community’ and expressed thanks to all involved in helping to achieve this success.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations to all concerned in the usual manner.