97 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 22 July 2010 to transact the business set out in the Council Summons dated 16 July 2010. Present County Councillor Hyde, Lord Mayor (in the Chair); County Councillor Dianne Rees, Deputy Lord Mayor. County Councillors Ali, Aubrey, Aylwin, Berman, Bowden, Bowen, Bridges, Burfoot, Burley, Carter, Chaundy, Clark, Ralph Cook, Richard Cook; Cowan, Cox, Kirsty Davies, Tim Davies, Dixon, Finn, Foley, Ford, Furlong, Gasson, Goodway, Greening, Clarissa Holland, Martin Holland, Hooper, Howells, Hudson, Ireland, Jerrett, Brian Jones, Margaret Jones, Jones- Pritchard, Joyce, Kelloway, Lansdown, Lloyd, Macdonald, McEvoy, McKerlich, Derrick Morgan, Elgan Morgan, Linda Morgan, Page, Jacqueline Parry, Keith Parry, Patel, Pickard, Piper, David Rees, Robson, Rogers, Rowland-James, Salway, Singh, Smith, Stephens, Wakefield, Walker, Walsh, Williams and Woodman. Apologies: County Councillors Burns , Grant, Goddard, Griffiths, Islam, Montemaggi, David Morgan and Pearcy (Prayers were offered by the Reverend Gareth Evans) (Council on 23 September 2010 amended these minutes by the transfer of the names of Burns and Pearcy from the attendance list to the list of apologies) 42 : MINUTES 17 JUNE 2010 The minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2010 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Lord Mayor, subject to the following typographical corrections. County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 22 July 2010 98 (a) Corporate Questions, Page 49 Proposed by Councillor Ralph Cook The amendment of the third sentence of the Supplementary question from Councillor Ralph Cook to read as follows: Do you share my concern that the 22,000 properties that are currently void in this list here, at least a quarter of them on the basis of the St. Mellons figures there - because there has been very little change elsewhere since January – probably do have residents in them? And is there anything else you think you can do to round them up, especially in light of the Boundary Commission which makes so many decisions based on the number of people on the electoral roll, rather than sensible things like how many people there are. (b) Communities, Housing and Social Justice Questions, Page 77 Proposed by Councillor Gasson In the Supplementary question from Councillor Gasson the deletion of the words ‘Anti Social Behaviour Officer’ and the substitution of the words ‘ACPO Officers’ (Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable and Assistant Chief Constables) 43 : 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.) Councillors Cowan and Robson declared a personal interest in the Re- Appointment of Nominees to the Standards & Ethics Committee as one nominee was a family friend. 1. Former Councillor Vita Jones The Lord Mayor sadly announced that former Councillor Vita Jones had recently died. Councillor Jones who was first elected to the South County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 22 July 2010 99 Glamorgan County Council in January 1975 represented the Rumney Division until June 1983. She was re-elected in May 1985 to 1995 representing the Llanedeyrn Division. From 1995 to 2004 Councillor Jones represented the Pentwyn Ward of Cardiff Council. She had held a number of important roles in both Authorities including the Deputy Chair of the Property Services Committee and from 1999 to 2004 she held the position of Deputy Presiding Officer. 2. Retirement of Tom Morgan, Acting Chief Executive The Lord Mayor referred to the impending retirement of Tom Morgan as Acting Chief Executive of Cardiff Council and with the approval of Council agreed that Council’s standing orders be suspended to allow Members to express their good wishes to the Chief Executive. The Lord Mayor called on the Leader of the Council, Councillor Rodney Berman, followed by Councillors David Walker (Conservative), Neil McEvoy (Plaid Cymru), Jayne Cowan (Independent) and Russell Goodway (Labour), who all expressed their thanks to the Chief Executive for the service he had given to the Council during a very successful and progressive time for the City. They all added their best wishes to Tom and his family and wished him well in the future. Councillor Monica Walsh expressed her thanks also to the Chief Executive. 3. Awards The Lord Mayor referred to the following awards: Catering Awards Sue Eakers, Direct Service Unit Group Manager was awarded a UK industry award for her commitment to her role and the enormous contribution she had made to the school meals service. She received the prestigious Roger Davies Outstanding Achievement Award at the Local Authority Caterers Association national awards at the NEC in Birmingham last month. County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 22 July 2010 100 The catering team at Ysgol Glantaf was also recognised and short listed for the Secondary School Catering team award. Local Training and Enterprise, Jasmine Centre The Local Training and Enterprise’s Jasmine Centre was recently awarded a Careers Wales Social Inclusion Adult award. The Jasmine Centre helped unemployed adults find work or training. They also signposted to specialist agencies for identified support. They offered support in compiling CVs, interview techniques and job search. It provided an informal, non threatening environment for clients to meet with a Careers Wales Adviser to discuss employment related issues. They also offered various training programmes such as first aid and food hygiene. They organised employment events encouraging employers to advertise vacancies at the centre. Clients valued the support offered at the centre and feedback was always positive. The centre had developed a very positive relationship with Careers Wales enabling people to access our services who may well have felt unable to attend our more formal city centre offices. Local Training & Enterprise was just about to open a new Central Enterprise Centre in City Road, doubling the floor space for support to job seekers and employers, responding to the demand for LT&E services, which was growing rapidly in this economic climate . Adamsdown Neighbourhood Project A neighbourhood regeneration project to transform an open space in Adamsdown was awarded runner up in the National Local Government News- Street Design Competition under the Urban Green Space category. The project had transformed redundant open space into a unique and exciting space for local people to utilise and enjoy. A key feature of the space was bespoke functional public art designed for creative play. It was one of a series of green spaces in the ward of Adamsdown that had been transformed through a programme of environmental improvements in this designated renewal area. Extensive consultation was carried out with the local people over a three month period, making sure invaluable local knowledge and opinions were County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 22 July 2010 101 received and the ideas for the space were also inspired by models made by children from the nearby Adamsdown Primary School. Excellence Wales The shortlist of finalists for Excellence Wales’ Welsh local public services’ award scheme was recently announced with Cardiff Council’s name found on two out of the three categories. Cardiff had been recognised in the ‘Our homes – delivery good quality affordable housing’ category and ‘Our Services - delivering high quality, citizen-centred services’ for our partnership working on the South East Wales Improvement Collaborative project. The winners would be announced at an Efficiency and Innovation Conference in the autumn. Civil Parking Enforcement Paul Thomas, Operational Manager for Transport Network Management and his team successfully launched the new Civil Parking Enforcement scheme across the city on the 5 July. A strong team of 34 officers had been transferred over to the Council from the Police. The team consisted of: • 28 Civil Enforcement Officers • 5 Senior Civil Enforcement Officers • 1 Team Leader. The team were tackling illegal parking across the city, seven days a week, 7am -10pm issuing fines up to £70 for those caught illegally parked 4. Microphone System and Recording of Proceedings The Lord Mayor updated Members on the sound and voting system which had proved to be extremely unreliable in recent times. He stated that whilst the relevant officers of the County Council had worked closely with Tyco, the systems supplier, to the extent that representatives of the company had been present throughout most of the recent meetings of Council, problems had continued to be experienced. County Council of the City & County of Cardiff 22 July 2010 102 Last month a specialist senior engineer from Tyco had been commissioned by the company to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the ongoing failures. The investigation had now been concluded and a report received from the company. The report highlighted defective under floor cabling as the principle source of the problems experienced. It was intended to remove the flooring and inspect all cabling during the summer recess. All faults identified would be rectified with a view to the system being fully operational in September 2010. 5. Webcasting and Recording of Proceedings Members were reminded of a decision of the Constitution Committee on 10 July, 2008 to webcast