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- 66 - NUNEATON AND BEDWORTH BOROUGH COUNCIL COUNCIL 6th December, 2017 The meeting of the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council was held at the Town Hall, Nuneaton, on Wednesday, 6th December, 2017. Present The Mayor (Councillor W.J. Hancox) The Deputy Mayor (Councillor C.M. Watkins) Councillors D. Aldington, C. Bennett, I.C. Bonner, K. Brindley, R.G. Copland, G. Daffern, D. Gissane, J. Glass, C. Golby, S. Gran, J. Gutteridge, D. Harvey, J. Haynes, J.A. Jackson, K.A. Kondakor, A.A. Lloyd, I.K. Lloyd, S.J Margrave, C.S. Phillips, N.J. P. Phillips, G.D. Pomfrett, M. Pomfrett, J. Sheppard, T. Sheppard, J. Tandy, R. Tromans and K.D. Wilson. Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J.B Beaumont, P.M. Elliott and R.T Smith. An address was given by the Rev. Mark Turner, the Mayor’s Chaplain. CL38 Minutes The minutes of the Ordinary Council meeting held on the 13th September, 2017 and the minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting held on the 13th September 2017 were confirmed and signed by the Mayor. CL39 Interests The Declarations of Interest for this meeting are as set out in the Schedule attached to these minutes. CL40 Announcements The Leader of the Council made the announcement that he would not be standing at the next election in May 2018 and that he would be retiring but would remain Leader until then. The Mayor made the following announcements: Thanked everyone for their support for his sponsored Wing Walk in October and can all sponsor money be handed in to the Mayor as soon as possible. - 67 - There are two quiz nights being held in January. The first is on the 12th January 2018 at the Anchor Inn, Nuneaton. The second is being held at the Griff and Coton Club in Nuneaton on the 19th January 2018. With plenty of notice on the 20th April 2018 there is an Elvis Night being held at the Saunders Club in Bedworth and is set to be a very enjoyable evening. Lastly the Mayor wished everyone a Happy Christmas. CL41 Public Participation a) Kyle Evans asked the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Health and Environment; Many months ago myself, Cllr Seb Gran and Cllr Bhagwant Pandher took part in a litter pick along Griff Lane the old disused road connecting the Griff to the Bermuda Industrial Estate, it was a very successful litter pick, and we collected around 30 bags of litter, of course NBBC's Environmental Team were on hand to assist us and they did a fantastic job as usual. I'd like to thank them and the other members of the public for coming along, I think we did a great job. During this litter pick I was amazed that there were no litter bins whatsoever along the route, I walked back a few nights ago along Griff Lane to find that all the rubbish has come back again, I' am sure that me and other Conservative Councillor's in the Borough will conduct another litter pick along the route again soon, but It would make a lot of sense for the Council to invest in some litter bins to put along the route, to limit the amount of litter dropped. People walk back from MacDonald’s, KFC and Subway, finish what they're eating, and because there are no bins, they drop there litter. So could I please ask the Cabinet Member to consider getting some bins along the Griff Lane route, so that we can help make the Borough look at cleaner and more vibrant place? Councillor B.J. Longden, Portfolio Holder for Health and Environment, responded as follows: Thank you for raising this issue. Griff Lane itself has been built over, roads have been changed and deviated but I assume the section you are talking about is the bit that goes down to Coventry Road and across to where the Bowling Alley is by the Cinema, the others go off into Arbury Hall estate. Unfortunately this issue does highlight the highly inappropriate behaviour that some of our residents take. They are clearly prepared to discard litter as and when they want to, they don’t give any thought to the detrimental effect it has on the environment and the quality of life to other residents. If people have packaging from fast food outlets then they should really be taking home with them, not just dumping it where they think it’s convenient to them and if they do pass a litter bin on the way home they can always put it back into that. The fact is as we always keep saying with limited resources and ever decreasing resources that the Borough Council have - 68 - at its disposal to deliver the wide range of services that we provide to our residents means that our cleansing teams are able to walk the litter pick, all the areas they want to within the Borough and Griff Lane is one of them. However I have asked for a litter bin to be installed at the point where Griff Lane meets the Coventry Road and hopefully the provision of that bin will encourage some of them, not all of them I very much doubt it will get all of them to amend their behaviour and we will see how we go with that. I have to say Mr Mayor that the public spiritedness in this of Mr Evans and his Tory colleagues over there is all very well but the old cynic in me does say that it forms a nice photo opportunity for the election leaflets in 2018. At the end of the day Chair it’s really down to residents to behaviour responsibly and have some pride in their Borough. b) Kevin Moore asked the following question; Democracy is by far the best way of governance in all aspects of politics in the United Kingdom. A key part of the democratic process is that the individual has the right to have their say and when people are excluded from the democratic process, as at Newcastle under Lyme recently, democracy is threatened. Online petitions are one of the many ways for people to express their views or opinions. Many members of this Council chamber, from all political parties, have signed online petitions, and they are used by various Councils across the country including Warwickshire County Council. The Leader of the Council may be aware that members of this Council have signed online petitions at the County Council such as the one relating to Children's Centres. Given that online communication is the most commonly used form of communication today, especially amongst younger people, will the Leader of the Council agree to lift the Council's ban online petitions so that more people are encouraged to take part in the democratic process of the Borough. The Leader of the Council, Councillor D. Harvey responded as follows; Mr Mayor, I do not wish to comment on the situation at Newcastle under Lyme, which is an ongoing legal matter and clearly not the remit of this Council. I can also tell Mr Moore that I do not have the power, as leader to lift a ‘ban’ as he calls it, on Online Petitions. This is a matter for Full Council. This was a decision of Council due to complexities of running an e-petition scheme, along with the expense at a time of possible cuts in services due to lower government grant. The conservative government repealed the duty to have a e-petition scheme when they came to power in 2010. To - 69 - have an effective scheme would require investment into specialist software to ensure that only genuine signatories agreed to the petition. Because of the cost, the Council took the decision not to implement the scheme when the government changed the law. As we are now faced with yet more cuts to our grant in the coming year, such a use of resources can hardly be justified for us as a small district council as opposed to a large organisation such as County but I do have to add Mr Mayor that the public are entitled to speak at all our council meetings, cabinet meetings and committee meetings and we were one of the first councils in the country to do that and I believe at Warwickshire County Council that still doesn’t apply to every meeting. c) Anne Llewellyn-Nash asked the following question: In the light of businesses like HSBC and Barclays moving out of Bedworth and the number of empty shops in the town centre, how many new businesses have the Borough Council succeeded in attracting to Bedworth Town Centre in the last six months? The Leader of the Council responded as follows: First of all I would like to clarify the position in relation to the two Bedworth banks. Barclays has not been closed but is opening reduced hours, opening 9.30am to 4pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday only. HSBC closed earlier this year as part of a national programme – this is far from a localised issue. Indeed, over 1700 High Street branches have closed throughout the UK over the past five years, as customers increasingly move to online banking. It is important to point out that our vacant unit rate in both Nuneaton and Bedworth remains below the national average. In fact this Council has very few of its own premises vacant. I would also highlight the fact that there have been two new store openings in Bedworth over the past six months – the carpet store adjacent to Costa Coffee re-opened earlier this year as Karpet Kingdom and Poundstretcher has taken on a prime retail location in Bedworth as part of its UK – wide expansion.