Council Meeting
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COUNCIL MEETING Wednesday, 6 December 2006 2.00 p.m. Morecambe Town Hall Mark Cullinan Chief Executive Town Hall LANCASTER Sir/Madam, You are hereby summoned to attend a meeting of the Lancaster City Council to be held in the Town Hall, Morecambe on Wednesday, 6 December 2006 commencing at 2.00 p.m. for the following purposes: 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 2. MINUTES To receive as a correct record the Minutes of the Meetings of the City Council held on 27th September and 1st November 2006 (previously published). 3. ITEMS OF URGENT BUSINESS 4. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS To receive any announcements which may be submitted by the Mayor or Chief Executive. 6. QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC UNDER COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULE 11 To receive questions in accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rules 11.1 and 11.3 which require members of the public to give at least 3 days’ notice in writing of questions to a Member of Cabinet or Committee Chairman. 7. QUESTIONS UNDER COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULE 12.2 To receive questions in accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rules 12.2 and 12.4 which require a Member to give at least 3 working days notice, in writing, of the question to the Chief Executive. 8. LEADER'S REPORT (Pages 1 - 4) To receive the Cabinet Leader’s report on proceedings since the last ordinary meeting of Council. REPORTS REFERRED FROM CABINET, COMMITTEES OR OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY 9. REPORT OF CIVIC TASK GROUP (Pages 5 - 64) To consider the recommendations of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 11th October 2006. 10. 2007/08 BUDGET AND POLICY FRAMEWORK UPDATE (Pages 65 - 70) To consider the recommendations of Cabinet at its meetings on 10th October and14th November 2006 and the supplementary report of the Leader to be circulated as soon as possible following publication of the agenda, in relation to: (a) Medium Term Financial Strategy (b) Corporate Plan 2007/08 – Cabinet Priorities (c) Review of Special Expenses MOTIONS OF NOTICE 11. NOTICE OF MOTION - USE OF SCHOOL BUSES To consider the following motion, notice of which has been received from Councillors Stuart Langhorn, John Day, Ian Clift, John Gilbert, Janie Kirkman, Joyce Pritchard and Pat Quinton: ‘This Council notes that as a result of Lancashire County Council doubling the fares for children using school buses;- • There has been a reduction in the number of pupils using these services. • Children have been put at increased risk through greater use of unsafe pedestrian routes and by crossing busy main roads. • Displacement onto ordinary bus services means that some children are having to arrive at school well before the start of the school day and leave later than they would otherwise. • There has been a greater use of cars, adding to congestion on our roads, causing greater dangers and increased pollution. • Therefore, Council resolves: To request that Lancashire County Council reverse their decision to increase school bus fares and urges them to increase bus use for journeys to school.’ 12. NOTICE OF MOTION - TRAFFIC CALMING MEASURES AROUND SCHOOLS To consider the following motion proposed by Councillor Blakely and seconded by Councillor Smith : ‘This Council notes that due to the Extended Schools Agenda, schools are now open longer with children travelling to and from school outside the usual hours. This Council believes that the traffic calming measures around schools in the district are inadequate. Lancaster City Council calls on Lancashire County Council to urgently review measures around schools and where possible, introduce 20mph speed limits and permanent traffic calming measures.’ 13. NOTICE OF MOTION - CLIMATE CHANGE To consider the following motion, notice of which has been received from Councillors Whitelegg, Chapman, Barry and Heath : ‘Council welcomes the publication of the report by Sir Nicolas Stern on the urgency of measures to combat climate change. Further it wishes to play a full and proportionate role in designing and delivering measures that will achieve the ambitions and expectations of both the Prime Minister and Sir Nicholas in combating climate change. Council also notes the Local Government Association's commitment to action at the local authority level to combat climate change. Council therefore requests the introduction of planning policy for the district such that: Planning permission is not needed for the introduction of solar water heating systems and photo-voltaic cells. Planning permission is not needed for the introduction of domestic wind turbines (up to 1.5 Kilowatts) in non-conservation areas. Guidance is given as to the introduction of domestic wind turbines in conservation areas. However, Council would want such domestic wind turbines to be allowed if the guidance is followed.’ OTHER BUSINESS 14. PROMENADE BYELAWS (Pages 71 - 82) To consider the report of the Chief Executive. 15. GAMBLING ACT 2005 - STATEMENT OF GAMBLING LICENSING POLICY (Pages 83 - 136) To consider the report of the Head of Legal and Human Resources. 16. ALLOCATION OF SEATS TO POLITICAL GROUPS (Pages 137 - 142) To consider the report of the Chief Executive. 17. ELECTION OF MAYOR To elect the Mayor of the City of Lancaster for the ensuing year. 18. ELECTION OF CABINET MEMBER A casual vacancy having arisen on Cabinet in accordance with Article 7.04(c) with effect from 1st December. The Cabinet will consist of the Leader together with up to nine other Councillors, all elected by the Council and will be considered to be properly constituted even if all the places are not taken up. The election of a new Cabinet Member shall follow the following process set out in Article 7.04 of the Constitution : ‘In the case of a casual vacancy arising during the year in a non-PR Cabinet, Members who are nominated, seconded and willing to accept nomination shall be voted upon individually commencing with those one or more up to the number of vacancies as are nominated before the start of the meeting by the Leader or potential Leader until vacancies for other Cabinet Members are filled or until no more nominations are made. Nominations shall be put forward as a package by the Leader, but voted upon individually, commencing with those nominated by the Leader, until all vacancies are filled and no more nominations are made. Should an individual not be elected, further nominations may be made by Councillors but not by the Leader.’ 19. PUBLIC SPEAKING AT CABINET (Pages 143 - 148) Report of the Monitoring Officer 20. APPOINTMENT TO OUTSIDE BODIES AND PARTNERSHIPS (Pages 149 - 152) To consider the report of the Chief Executive. 21. URGENT BUSINESS REPORT (Pages 153 - 154) To consider the report of the Chief Executive. 22. MINUTES OF CABINET (Pages 155 - 190) To receive the Minutes of the meetings of Cabinet held on 10th and 24th October and 14th November 2006. …………………………………………………. Chief Executive Town Hall, LANCASTER, LA1 1PJ. Published on Monday 27th November, 2006 Page 1 Agenda Item 8 COUNCIL Leader’s Report 6th December 2006 Report of Leader of the Council PURPOSE OF REPORT To present the Leader’s report to Council. This report is public. RECOMMENDATIONS To receive the report of the Leader of Council. REPORT 1.0 General Matters of Interest 1.1 Meeting with Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing Members have seen that Yvette Cooper visited the West End and Poulton areas of Morecambe on 13th November at the invitation of Geraldine Smith MP to look at the housing regeneration programmes. Cabinet Members and Officers, the West End Partnership, the Housing Corporation, Adactus, and the NWDA were also present. We were able to provide her with an overview of the programme. We took the opportunity to raise two issues with her. First, we were trying to bring together a number of funding streams with different criteria and time scales. This inevitably adds to the complexity of the project. It would be helped if Government could provide more flexibility and discretion to local partnerships. Secondly, the Housing Corporation’s unit cost rules were not well adapted to dealing with housing regeneration issues in seaside towns. The costs of acquiring a large HMO in poor condition, which nevertheless generated a large rental income, and the subsequent conversions are much higher than, say, acquiring and demolishing surplus terraced housing in other parts of the country. They are however treated in the same way. 1.2 Vision Board Members will recall that the Council approved the Economic Vision, with some amendments, at its meeting in July. Since then, the Board has been working on a producing an Investment Plan with a number of projects derived from the Vision. It is Page 2 intended to submit this to the NWDA in January. Essentially this is a funding bid for NWDA investment in the area over the next three year period. 1.3 Lancashire Locals Members will be aware that Lancashire Locals have been meeting on a bimonthly basis for some time. It is fair to say that the first few meetings were largely scene setting, but I am pleased to report that at the last two meetings we have been able to have some modest influence on County Council programmes. Members have discussed the proposed changes at the Morecambe TIC and as a result the County agreed to withdraw its proposals for further consideration. We discussed a report on Children’s Centres, which resulted in a meeting with County Councillor Marcus Johnstone about the proposals in the West End. Most recently we discussed the use of surplus income from on street parking fees with a clear preference for spending on 20mph zones in the first instance. More generally the top priorities were road safety schemes including further 20 mph zones; residents parking; and promoting sustainable transport.