Question: 1 (1) Councillor Frank McAveety

To ask the Leader of the Council to comment on the Life Golf Tabled Question Courses consultation.

Cllr David McDonald. Responder

The City Government remains committed, where we can, to remove the barriers of cost, accessibility and location that can prevent people taking part in sporting activities at all levels.

We recognise the importance of golf provision in the city and the role it has had in enabling people to experience the outdoors and the wider health benefits this can bring. However, we are faced with declining participation levels across the city, a challenging financial climate and substantial maintenance costs which raises questions regarding the long term sustainability of this service.

The declining participation in the city reflects the trend in Scotland overall, with figures showing we have lost more golfers in recent years than any other European country. Perhaps more significantly there has been a national decline in municipal club membership of 12% in the last year compared with 1.6% for private clubs.

For these reasons Glasgow Life has set up a Golf Working Group, chaired by Bailie Norman MacLeod, who you will know is also a member of the Glasgow Life Board. The working group will review the current service and consider potential future options. The group also includes officers from across and representatives from partner organisations, including; SportScotland, Golf Scotland and Glasgow Golf Union.

The recent golf survey aims to gauge public views on the current golf service, which to date Glasgow Life has received over 1500 completed submissions, which will help inform the review. It should however be emphasised that no decision has been made on future golf provision in Glasgow.

Question: 2 (2) Councillor Jane Morgan

To ask the Leader of the Council to update on the latest discussions with the UK Tabled Question Government following SERCO’s announcement to evict 300 refugees from their homes?

Cllr , Leader of the Council and City Convener for Inclusive Economic Responder Growth

I wish I was able to update the chamber on discussions with the UK Government regarding these threatened evictions of asylum seekers. Unfortunately, despite repeated invitations to the Immigration Minister to visit Glasgow to meet those involved in delivering the dispersal programme, she has been unable, so far, to find time in her diary to take up that invitation. In her most recent response Caroline Nokes MP did indicate that she has asked her office to consider arrangements for a visit, and I will certainly keep the Council informed of progress on that.

On the subject of the threatened evictions, I have again written to the Home Office making clear our opposition to the use of lock changes to evict people into destitution on the streets of Glasgow. I would echo the Joint Statement from organisations supporting people affected by eviction threats, who said, “Destitution is a political choice on the part of the Home Office and has no place in a humane and well-functioning asylum and immigration system.” As council is aware, asylum policy is a reserved policy and our ability to respond is limited by law.

Members will be aware that Serco is threatening these evictions now because they are leaving the city this autumn to be replaced by another contractor, Mears Group, who are taking up a potential ten-year contract to provide asylum accommodation and support across Scotland. With the support of Cllr Layden, the Chief Executive and other officers, have joined colleagues from across the UK in pressing the Home Office to match this change of contractor by implementing the wider actions needed to improve the dispersal system, including funding for local authorities and other service providers in reception areas.

Yesterday, my SNP colleagues in Westminster secured a debate on immigration and raised again the urgent reform of asylum policy including better quality decision, proper financial support, better managed move on period, right to work, funded systems for accommodation to avoid this situation that Glasgow currently finds itself in.

Cllr Layden will be attending a meeting with the Immigration Minister in London on behalf of COSLA on 8th July and will once again make the case for change in Home Office policy.

Question: 3 (3) Councillor Martin Rhodes

To ask the City Convener for Community Empowerment, Equalities and Human Tabled Question Rights for an update on the evaluation process for the Participatory Budgeting pilots.

Cllr Jennifer Layden, City Convener for Community Empowerment, Equalities and Responder Human Rights Thank you for your question.

In February 2019 Glasgow City Council commissioned the GCPH to undertake an evaluation of the four PB pilot wards in Calton, Canal, Pollokshields and Greater Pollock. The remit of the evaluation is to produce a concise report that captures the learning across the pilot areas.

GCPH represents good value in undertaking this work given their recognised expertise in PB, their knowledge of the four pilot wards and their offer of matching the £6k evaluation budget from their core budget; therefore, doubling the evaluation resource. Their evaluation framework can be found on their website.

The evaluation began in May 2019 and will conclude in September. It will include interviews with the PB pilot lead within Glasgow City Council, the pilot leads in each ward and focus groups with community members involved in the PB citizens panels. The evaluation will provide a clear account of the activity within each ward and pull together the strengths, challenges and key learning from the pilot overall.

The GCPH will also make a series of recommendations for the next phase of PB within the City as well as providing some implications for the ‘mainstreaming’ of PB moving forward. On Tuesday this week, I attended and spoke at a Glasgow Disability Alliance event on disabled people’s experiences of participatory budgeting within the four ward based pilots. There is learning that has come from disabled peoples experiences, including access, resources to take part, peer support. I will ensure that this work will feed into our evaluation of PB.

Following recess, I will set up a short life working group with cross party representation and officer support to take PB to the next level following on from the recommendations produced by the GCPH. The roll out of participatory budgeting is a key commitment for all local authorities and is a regular agenda item on the COSLA community wellbeing board, which I sit on. It is important that we as a council get this right, particularly ensuring that participation and community engagement is meaningful and we leave no one behind in this process. There will continue to be ongoing scrutiny and development at various council committees including OPSD, WECCE and Community Planning Partnership.

Question: 4 (4) Councillor Malcolm Cunning

To ask the City Convener for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm to Tabled Question update the chamber on discussions with the regarding the proposed Planning Bill.

Cllr Kenny McLean, City Convener for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Responder Realm

As the member will be aware, preparation of the Planning Bill followed a consultation triggered by the paper “Places, people and planning” issued by the Scottish Government in January 2017, and a consultation that ran to April 2017. The Bill was introduced to the on 4 December 2017 and passed Stage 3 on 20 June 2019.

Over the period of the Bill, the Council considered a number of aspects, such as the possible introduction of third party or equal rights of appeal, and made its views known. The Council worked with the Heads of Planning Scotland to provide input to the detailed legislative process that has taken place over the past two years, and directly with the Scottish Government, including a meeting here in the City Chambers earlier this month.

Following a period of four weeks to allow for any challenge through the parliament the bill will move to Royal Assent. Beyond that, there will be a series of secondary legislation procedures over the next few years to take forward the changes it has introduced. As mentioned in the parliamentary debate this will likely involve a large amount of collaborative work with Heads of Planning Scotland and individual local authorities.

Question: 5 (5) Councillor Euan Blockley

To ask the Leader of the Council, in relation to John Mason’s comments what Tabled Question proportion of Glasgow’s population are “elites”?

Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of the Council and City Convener for Inclusive Responder Economic Growth

I’m afraid I can only answer questions which are relevant to the remit of Glasgow City Council. If you want to know more about John Mason MSPs comments I suggest you direct your question to him.

Question: 6 (6) Bailie Kyle Thornton

To ask the City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction what measures

will be taken to ensure that the failure of the Neighbourhoods service to carry out Tabled Question grass cutting in recent weeks in a timely manner will not be repeated in the future?

Responder Cllr Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction

Members will be aware that we have a generic workforce and deploy resources according to local priorities, including grass cutting and cleansing services such as bulk uplift. Daily operational meetings continue to take place to monitor the deployment of resources city wide.

As part of the neighbourhood approach, neighbourhood liaison teams have been working with all stakeholders to ensure the issues identified locally in relation to grass cutting are addressed.

In particular, Neighbourhood Liaison Managers have been engaging directly with elected members on this issue and where there are issues in their areas, these matters are being resolved locally. We will continue with this local approach to ensure that priorities at a neighbourhood level are actioned as quickly as possible.

Of course we must continue to revise our grass cutting strategy city wide, to ensure we are using resources effectively but also ensuring our green spaces have the greatest environmental impact. We will be exploring how much more of the uncut habitat across the city can be enhanced with wildflower planting over coming years, building on the wildflower areas we already have.

Question: 7 (7) Councillor Allan Young

To ask the relevant City Convener what steps they will take to accelerate the roll-

out of 20mph zones in all residential areas in Glasgow after the Scottish Tabled Question Government ignored the wishes of this Council and rejected Mark Ruskell’s Safer Streets Bill?

Responder Cllr Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction

The recent decision in the Scottish Parliament not to proceed with the national 20mph Bill requires a review of Glasgow City Council’s approach to the roll-out of 20mph across the city.

Historically, Glasgow City Council has implemented 20mph in discrete areas, accompanied by extensive physical traffic calming prioritised to achieve maximum casualty reduction. This is a very effective way to achieve reduced speeds and casualties but involves very significant costs, and is very time consuming to deliver.

There are currently 80 of these mandatory 20mph zones in Glasgow. City of Edinburgh Council implemented a city-wide 20mph in a different way, relying entirely on signs to achieve reductions in speed. Whilst this approach has proven to be cheaper, it still cost several million pounds to develop and implement.

So I can announce that I have already tasked officers with scoping out a city wide roll-out of 20mph, estimating the costs and timeframes of the various potential approaches and will report to the Environment, Sustainability and Carbon Reduction Committee later in the year with a recommended way forward.

Question: 8 (8) Bailie Dr Bartos

To ask the City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction which primary

schools were in scope and how many children could have benefited this autumn Tabled Question from the Greens “Bike for Every Child” school bike library scheme, had it not been cut in the SNP 2019-20 budget?

Responder Cllr Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction 14 primary schools were eligible to participate in the Bike Library 3-year Pilot Project.

• Avenue End Primary School • Bankhead Primary • Blackfriars Primary School • Chirnsyde Primary School • Crookston Castle Primary • Cuthbertson Primary School • Hillington Primary School • Merrylee Primary • Our Lady of the Rosary • St. Bernard's Primary • St. Francis' Primary School • St. Maria Goretti Primary • St. Monica's (Milton) Primary • St. Paul's (Whiteinch) Primary

The project was aimed at pupils in P5 to P7.

30 bikes would have been made available at each of the 14 schools with the hire period being up to 90 days so up to 420 children would have had access to a loan bike this autumn had the scheme been implemented. Although the procurement of the Primary Schools Bike Library Pilot is on hold while we seek ways to secure long term finance, we are looking at possible alternative delivery mechanisms which could target a bike lending scheme to the most vulnerable communities and achieve the aim of increasing access to bikes for the most vulnerable primary pupils. It may be that a partnership approach with some of the many grassroots cycling organisations we have in Glasgow will be a more sustainable way to deliver this scheme.

We are committed to making cycling more accessible, to all communities, as effectively as we can. I am keen to see the preliminary work that has gone into the bike library pilot continuing in a way that will ensure we achieve the right outcomes. I would welcome engagement with bailie Bartos when we move this project forward.

Question: 9 (9) Bailie Russell Robertson

To ask the Convener for a response to the closure of the three Sandyford Sexual Tabled Question Health Clinics, which are is some of the most deprived areas of Glasgow?

Responder Cllr Mhairi Hunter, City Convener for Health and Social Care Integration

Unfortunately it is the case that Sandyford has had to temporarily reduce the number of sites that it delivers its services from. This has been due to a particular combination of challenges in relation to staffing levels resulting from long-term sickness, maternity leave and natural staff turnover. This combination was resulting in patients having their appointments rescheduled, sometimes on more than one occasion. In an attempt to stabilise this situation and ensure clinical safety, the service had no option but to concentrate the available staff across fewer sites.

Unlike more general clinical services, Sandyford is unable to source temporary replacement staff from the NHSGGC Bank and, because of its specialist nature, new staff have to be appropriately trained before they are fully able to practice. Initially, the shortage of staff was across medical and nursing. The medical situation has now improved but unfortunately the nursing position still remains problematic. This has a direct bearing on the service’s ability to reopen these locations at present as all of them are nurse delivered. Every effort is being made to fill vacancies, train staff and re-open services. Staff who are on long-term sick leave are being appropriately supported and managed in line with NHSGGC policy to enable them to return to work as soon as possible. Staff who are on maternity leave plan to start returning to work late summer. The service also recruited to vacancies in April but then experienced further vacancies. These are currently being recruited to which will enable the service to plan a schedule of reopening.

Regarding the services available at the clinics affected by this situation, it is important to note that these locations only offer routine care. Contrary to what has been recently reported in the press, there are no HIV, termination or counselling services provided at any of these sites. Anyone requiring these services would be directed to the main site in Sauchiehall Street. In the meantime, patients can attend for appointments at any of the other sites which have remained open across the Board area. Women seeking emergency contraception can also access this service from their pharmacy.

Question: 10 (10) Councillor Robert Connelly

To ask the Environment Convenor for an update of the maintenance Tabled Question arrangements for the Winter Gardens and its surroundings?

Cllr Kenny McLean, City Convener for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm Responder

Whilst a long term sustainable future for the Winter Gardens is being identified, the building remains closed to members of the public and staff due to the elevated risk to health and safety that the structure currently presents. The People’s Palace, however, remains open to the public and staff. The normal levels of routine maintenance are being undertaken in the People’s Palace Building and also to the services which operate in both buildings, e.g. the heating and lighting, etc. Specially trained engineers and other staff members are visiting the building weekly to inspect the structure and monitor the building and to identify any changes in condition, and to inspect the safety measures that have been constructed which allow the People’s Palace to remain opened.

The City Government is committed to securing a long term sustainable future for the Winter Gardens that is established in partnership with the citizens of Glasgow. As Labour have known for years, this will involve a significant level of capital expenditure on refurbishment activity.

In the meantime, to prevent unauthorised access to the external elevations of the Winter Gardens an exclusion zone has been created, however we will continue to provide basic maintenance to the grounds within this exclusion zone using an appropriate safe working method until a longer-term solution to the Winter Gardens is found.

Question: 11 (11) Councillor Cecilia O’Lone

To ask the City Convener for Workforce for an update on the progress of the Tabled Question Gender Pay Gap Action Plan as agreed at full council on the 4Th April 2019.

Responder Cllr Michelle Ferns, City Convener for Workforce

Thank you for raising the gender pay gap motion which also supports the Scottish Government’s Fairer Scotland for Women action plan. I was very happy to support the related motion at the last council meeting and pleased to be able to update you on progress since then.

Clearly the terms of the motion are wider than my own Workforce responsibilities and a wider working group will be required to address the full aspects of the motion. For example, the contribution that Education can make particularly given the prominence given to early learning, childcare and schools in the plan, but, also DRS in terms of employability and economic development and Social Work in terms of Welfare Rights and Income Maximisation.

In terms of HR, I’m sure that you will have read their published gender pay gap summary in compliance with our Public Sector Equality duty. The Council’s overall figures have been positive although with the introduction of Cordia into the Council – a large female dominated but relatively low paid group – that positive position has converted into a 6.53% imbalance in favour of men. Of course, that remains well below the Scottish average but we do need to confront this and I see the current Job Evaluation project as being the main contributor to tackling this problem.

The teacher’s figures are also in negative territory as the proportion of women teachers and principle teachers has increased while the proportion of women headteachers and psychologists has decreased. I would see the necessary action plan as having content that would specifically tackle this issue.

I have also asked HR to review the application form with a view to removing all potential sources of bias, not just in terms of sex but all of the protected characteristics. They are currently working on this.

The objective of that working group should be to produce and then implement an action plan designed to meet the aims of the Council motion. I also thought that it was important to gain some further perspective from the Government and learn from them what practices across Scotland we could learn from, and, indeed shape. The Head of HR met with civil service colleagues at the end of the month to take this forward and we will be discussing over the summer period how we can ensure that our work complements the national commitment to promote a Fairer Scotland for Women.

I hope that the above gives you assurance that steps have already been taken and will continue to be taken to deliver on the Council’s motion.

Question: 12 (12) Councillor Laura Doherty

Can the Leader of the Council and City Convener for Inclusive Economic Growth update Tabled Question the Chamber on any discussions or actions to improve the city economy since last council.

Cllr Susan Aitken, Leader of the Council and City Convener for Inclusive Responder Economic Growth

Thank you very much and your question is very timely indeed, with Glasgow named this week as the six best city in which to do business in the UK. Clearly we want to be first but the Top 21 Cities report did state that we are the fastest growing major city economy in the UK. And the economic powerhouse of Scotland.

Just yesterday, myself and the Deputy Leader of the Council were delighted to have met with senior executives at JP Morgan at their Glasgow headquarters to hear about their continuing commitment to Glasgow, their future plans and the role the council has in ensuring our shared ambitions are successfully delivered. Yesterday we also launched our Meanwhile Space initiative around the High Street and Saltmarket area, using 11 vacant units to provide temporary space to our vitally important creative sector and hopefully setting a template for how to use vacant properties in other parts of the city.

Following a fact-finding visit to Manchester, work is accelerating on a new partnership to boost our £2bn night time economy. We anticipate the findings and recommendations will be ready by early to mid-August.

In the 6 weeks since the Council last met on May 16th, we have also approved our new Inclusive Growth Strategy and allocated £1.2m to support our aspirations to become a Fair Work City; approved funding to help redevelop Govan Old Church; launched our Action Plan for Social Enterprise; launched proposals to regenerate the St Enoch District; approved £1 million City Deal funding to develop the Clyde Waterfront Innovation Campus; approved the establishment of three Space for Growth Hubs in the city; and just this morning, we have agreed to develop a Business Case to support the Glasgow City Innovation District with up to £50m of funding.

Question: 13 (13) Councillor Martha Wardrop

To ask the relevant City Convenor what steps the Council takes to ensure that plastic Tabled Question waste which it collects for recycling does not end up in unlicensed overseas facilities?

Responder Cllr Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction

Under the Council’s Duty of Care requirements, the council regularly checks with re-processors (to whom it sends recyclable materials for further treatment), to determine the final destination of the material.

The plastic outputs from the council’s Blochairn Material Recycling Facility can comprise the following:

• High Density Polyethylene bottles (HDPE) • Polyethylene Terephthalate bottles (PET) • Mixed plastic

The council predominantly sells the outputs to Jayplas and WRC. The final destinations are where the treatment process separates the plastic polymers and granulates/flakes from the plastics for resale into compound markets. These locations are in Loughborough, Corby, Lincoln and Manchester.

Question: 14 (14) Councillor Martha Wardrop

To ask the Leader of the Council what assessment has been made of the carbon

impact of approved City Deal projects and whether, following Scotland and Glasgow Tabled Question declaring a climate emergency, these projects will be subject to review?

Cllr Susan Aitken, Leader of the Council and City Convener for Inclusive Economic Responder Growth In order for City Deal funding to be made available, projects are required to develop and submit for approval Strategic Business Cases, Outline Business Cases and Full Business Cases that are fully compliant and consistent with HM Treasury’s Green Book. This places a requirement on all City Deal Member Authorities to detail sustainability cases for each project.

The Outline Business Cases have already determined how projects will affect stocks of natural capital - outlining the environmental, economic, social and financial benefits / implications associated with their delivery. They determine how each project will contribute to the Scottish target of 80% carbon reduction by 2050 (the target at the time of development).

The programme is consistent with the City Development Plan (CDP), which is subject to a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that culminates in the production of an Environmental Report (ER). Environmental risk management and performance evaluation has been set in the context of the CDP with the ER identifying a number of issues that will be monitored alongside delivery of City Deal projects, including the reduction of CO2 emission levels and resilience to climate change impact. In addition, City Deal projects are subject to Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIAs) requirements, as per Glasgow City Council policy, with consideration given to the vulnerability of protected groups in relation to each City Deal project. The impact of all City Deal Projects on carbon emissions is further examined and detailed in future Full Business Cases.

From a carbon mitigation perspective, an approach to reducing energy in construction and use is being taken. Where possible, City Deal contracts place an obligation on contractors to ensure that carbon footprint is minimised during construction. This can be done through the selection of materials with lower embodied carbon values, and the use of ‘green’ principles. Where appropriate, procured construction works are undertaken with the ethos of minimum waste and lean construction. Consideration is given to encourage local supply of materials and labour, and where possible traditional and sustainable materials and techniques are used. The carbon emissions during the ‘operational’ phase of the projects will be limited to routine maintenance activities, and are not considered to be significant.

Any decision to review the existing City Deal funded projects would require a decision by the Glasgow City Region Cabinet.

It is worth noting that, at the meeting of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet on 11 June it was agreed that a ‘Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan for Glasgow City Region’ would be developed by Climate Ready Clyde. It is currently anticipated that this will be published in March 2020.

Question: 15 (15) Bailie Soryia Siddique

To ask the City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction to comment on the Tabled Question recent press reports of a bed bug infestation at St. Brides Primary.

Responder Cllr Chris Cunningham, City Convener for Education, Skills and Early Years

In January this year, the school reported that they had seen one bed bug. A teacher then reported that she had bed bugs in her house.

Health and safety visited and we had the school fumigated. There have been no further reports since January 2019.

Let me be clear at this point that even one bed bug is too many and as a Council we are determined that we will do everything we can to ensure that our schools are free of any such problems.

Having said that I would also say that we disagree with recent press reports that the school should have been closed or that the fumigation put staff at risk. Everything was done in line with advice from health and safety and environmental health. An action plan was agreed with staff. This included giving the school a washing machine and dryer. This is not uncommon in schools and nurseries.

The member of staff who reported bed bugs at home was given compensation to cover the cost of a new mattress. I would also say that the staff were very distressed by the recent press reports which were based on old news.

But whether those reports were old or new the fact remains that finding bed bugs in any school is not acceptable and we will continue to work with staff and with local communities to ensure such incidents become a thing of the past, just as this one now is.

Question: 16 (16) Councillor Aileen McKenzie

To ask the City Convener for Community Empowerment, Equalities and Human Tabled Question Rights for an update on the Council signing up to Co-operative’s Charter against Modern Slavery?

Cllr Jennifer Layden, City Convener for Community Empowerment, Equalities and Responder Human Rights

Council will be aware that I noted that we would explore the Council signing the Charter but that most of the provisions of the Act concern England and Wales only, and, do not pertain to Scotland. Indeed, our own Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 is recognised as providing victims with greater protections and police with greater powers in relation to slavery and trafficking.

Nevertheless, the Council complies with the Modern Slavery Act (2015) overall through the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) Part 3 (Exclusion Grounds) which refers explicitly to child labour or human trafficking.

The Charter sets a series of 10 actions that local authorities can take to ensure their supply chains are not contributing to modern slavery. Whilst these are admirable, the Charter in itself does not addresses actual flaws in the current Act, as debated just last week in Westminster in light of the Independent Review which reported last month.

The MSA has been described as welcome but more for the ‘saviours’ than the ‘saved’. The review considered four themes relating to provisions in the Act: the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, transparency in supply chains, legal application and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The Independent review makes 80 recommendations which the UK Government is considering and will respond formally in due course.

A number of these recommendations focus on the need for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates, known as Guardians in Scotland, and in place since 2010. In light of this, it is perhaps wiser that the Council, keeps an eye on this, uses its experience of working with trafficked children and others, by sharing the valuable experience of TARA, and supporting the voices of those with experience to identify how and where improvements can be made.

This evidenced based approach is likely to have a greater impact. Whilst we await the UK Government response, we will be responding to the Scottish Government consultation on Section 38 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015: Duty to notify and provide information about victims – which we feel has the potential to further strengthen the protection of those exploited and prevention of modern slavery.

Question: 17 (17) Councillor Stephen Curran

To ask the City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction whether the Tabled Question administration has considered the revised Funeral Costs Guidance issued by the Scottish Government earlier this year?

Responder Cllr Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction

The guidance, published in May this year, was the first time the Scottish Government had released guidance related to funeral costs. Glasgow City Council and other Local Authorities have been part of a Working Group reviewing these guidelines prior to publication.

The guidance sets out a number of recommendations for Local Authorities to consider. Officers are currently considering the recommendations of the guidance and will report back to the appropriate Committee.

We are currently in the process of implementing simple changes, including improving information on the bereavement services section of the Council webpage.

Glasgow City Council was the first authority to introduce ‘Direct Cremation’ and provide a more cost effective choice of service to the bereaved.