12 THE COUNTY COUNCIL OF THE CITY & COUNTY OF CARDIFF The County Council of the City & County of Cardiff met at City Hall, Cardiff on Thursday 25 June 2009 to transact the business set out in the Council Summons dated 19 June 2009. Present County Councillor Griffiths, Lord Mayor (in the Chair); County Councillor Hyde, Deputy Lord Mayor. County Councillors Ali, Aubrey, Aylwin, Berman, Bowden, Bowen, Burfoot, Burley, Burns, Carter, Chaundy, Clark, Ralph Cook, Cowan, Cox, Kirsty Davies, Tim Davies, Dixon, Finn, Foley, Ford, Furlong, Gasson, Goddard, Goodway, Grant, Greening, C Holland, M Holland, Hooper, Howells, Ireland, Islam, Jerrett, Brian Jones, Margaret Jones, Jones-Pritchard, Joyce, Kelloway, Lansdown, Lloyd, Macdonald, McEvoy, McKerlich, Montemaggi, David Morgan, Derrick Morgan, Elgan Morgan, Linda Morgan, Page, Jacqueline Parry, Keith Parry, Patel, Pearcy, Piper, David Rees, Robson, Rogers, Rowland-James, Salway, Singh, Smith, Stephens, Wakefield, Walker, Walsh, Williams and Woodman. Apologies: Councillors Bridges, Richard Cook, Hudson, Pickard, Dianne Rees (Prayers were offered by the Reverend Dr John Payne) 14 : COMMONWEALTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE 2011 The Lord Mayor was delighted to inform Council that Cardiff had been successful in securing the Commonwealth Local Government Conference, one of the world’s most prestigious public sector conferences, in 2011. The opportunity had arisen for the Chief Executive of the conference and the Leader of the WLGA to attend the Council meeting to announce this national achievement. Council agreed that Standing Orders be suspended for his one item to allow the announcement to be made. County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 25 June 2009 13 The Lord Mayor invited Carl Wright, Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum to address Council. Mr Wright expressed his pleasure that Cardiff had been successful in winning this very prestigious international conference, which would bring together a very high level audience from across the world and would highlight Cardiff in its role as the Capital of Wales. Over 500 senior council leaders, mayors and also several heads of government, ministers and senior private sector representatives were likely to attend this event during Commonwealth Week, the second week of March. The Commonwealth Local Government Forum comprised something like forty five countries and Mr Wright stated that the outcomes of this conference would be communicated to all the commonwealth prime ministers at the summit leader meeting of the commonwealth leaders in the same year. Mr Wright concluded by handing over to Councillor Davies a special memento, which had been brought from the last conference hosts in the Bahamas and the Caribbean, to pass on to Cardiff. The Lord Mayor invited Councillor John Davies, Leader of the WLGA to address Council. Councillor Davies, in his capacity as Leader of the Welsh Local Government Association stated that it was a real privilege to attend the Council meeting today and to be able to congratulate Cardiff on winning the bid to host the 6 th Commonwealth Local Government Conference on behalf of the UK. It was an opportunity, he said, to showcase Welsh local government to the rest of the world and to allow politicians, policy makers and practitioners to debate some of the key policy issues facing national and local government. In conclusion Councillor Davies presented the Lord Mayor with a carving of a boat which was a significant symbol of the history and culture of the Bahamas. It also symbolised Cardiff’s historic maritime and cultural links with other nations throughout the Commonwealth 13 County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 25 June 2009 14 The Leader of the Council, Councillor Berman, responded on behalf of the Council. He thanked the Commonwealth Local Government Forum for selecting Cardiff’s bid to host the 2011 Conference and Councillor Davies for his contribution. He added that the conference would further strengthen Cardiff’s profile and status as a truly international capital city. The successful bid underlined Cardiff’s international policy in attracting major international events to the City. Cardiff would be working closely with key partners, such as the Welsh Assembly Government, the Local Government Association, the Welsh Local Government Association and the Consular Association in Wales to ensure that the conference was a truly international and tremendous success. The Lord Mayor thanked Mr Wright and Councillor Davies. 15 : MINUTES The minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2009 were approved as a correct record, subject to the inclusion of the names of Councillors Ford, C. Holland, M. Holland and McEvoy in the list of those present for that meeting. The minutes were signed by the Lord Mayor. 16 : CHAIRMAN’S ANNOUNCEMENTS (The Chairman reminded Members of their responsibility under Article 16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct to declare any interest, and to complete Personal Interest forms, at the commencement of the item of business.) The Lord Mayor was pleased to say that the Council and individuals had received further awards and details of such awards were circulated to Members and are detailed below. County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 25 June 2009 15 1.Awards (a) Sustainable Cities Award The regeneration of Cardiff Bay had been honoured with a prestigious “Sustainable Cities Award” by the Globe Forum. Voted for by a panel of experts based in Sweden, the award aimed to honour societies, individuals or companies that had excelled in the area of sustainable development. It was presented to Councillor Margaret Jones by the Crown Princess of Sweden at a high profile ceremony held at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm on 3 June. In awarding the 2009 Sustainable City title to Cardiff, the panel had considered a number of areas, including social, transport, cultural and environmental advancements. They had acknowledged the Council’s work with partners in the creation of water transport from the city centre to the Bay and in the soon-to-be created Pont y Werin Bridge that would link Cardiff to Penarth for pedestrians and cyclists. Among the many other accomplishments identified by the Judging Panel were the presence of the Cardiff Wetlands Reserve, created with the Barrage in 2002, and the use of parts of the Bay area for festivals, which had proved popular with the local community. In presenting the award the jury said Cardiff demonstrated practises of a sustainable city with highly creative services and innovation and had “clearly shown that sustainable development and economic development go hand in hand in Cardiff (b) Centre for Public Scrutiny ‘Good Scrutiny Awards’ Following last year's double in the Centre for Public Scrutiny 'Good Scrutiny Awards', this year Scrutiny Performance and Governance were short listed once again for the Team Award, this time for the work they had been carrying out with the LSB Scrutiny Panel. The team were awarded with a commendation for the work undertaken. (c) Rhoda Emlyn-Jones OBE Congratulations were extended to Rhoda Emlyn–Jones from Adult Services who had been awarded an OBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday 15 County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 25 June 2009 16 Honours list for services to disadvantaged people. Rhoda had also won the Western Mail’s ‘Welsh Women of the Year’Award in 2007. 2. Conduct of Council Meetings The Lord Mayor informed Council of how he intended to chair meetings of Council during his year of office. “Chairing Council meetings is a privilege but also a responsibility and I intend to chair meetings in a fair, but firm manner. I will adhere to the Council Procedure rules and to the procedural advice provided to me by senior officers, and will also take into consideration established custom and practice. However, the procedural aspects of Council meetings can, on occasion, be complex and it is not unthinkable that I will, on occasion, make a ruling that a Member believes is wrong. I can assure you that any ruling that I make in these meetings will be made in the spirit of fairness to all and I ask, therefore, Members to respect and adhere to my rulings. Whilst I respect the need for Members to briefly challenge a particular ruling that they feel is against procedure rules, I do not intend to allow lengthy debates about the merits of particular rulings from this Chair. I will, wherever possible, allow as many Members who wish to participate in a debate, the ability to do so. However, I also have the responsibility to take into consideration the suggested timings for debates agreed by the Business Committee. It is my intention, therefore, at the commencement of any debate that may be lengthy, to outline the time available for debate and how many speakers are likely to be called. Whilst I recognise that I have a crucial role in ensuring that the conduct of these meetings are fair and reflect good governance, I am not alone in that responsibility. I therefore ask all in this Chamber to respect other speakers and not to speak until I have called them. I fully understand that this Chamber will be focus for political banter, but I will not allow the constant hum of background chatter or constant interruptions of those I have called on to speak. I also call on Members not to ask to make personal points of explanation or points of order unless they are just that – I can recall too many County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 25 June 2009 17 instances where Members have used procedural motions in an inappropriate manner. I hope I have your support in this approach.” 3.Councillor Ed Bridges The Lord Mayor referred to the decision of Councillor Ed Bridges to grow his hair over the next 12 months for the purpose of raising money for the Lord Mayor’s charity – Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre – and he urged Members to support Councillor Bridges’ efforts.