- From Members of the Public
- From Councillors
Minutes:
Councillor Singh: Thank you my Lord Mayor. Can I request the City Mayor to make a statement on the importance of the Equality Impact Assessments in the decision making process and the provision of services from the Council pre and post budget and outline the structure that has been adopted to ensure a transparent and accountable framework in the light of the 2011 census information.
Councillor Sood: Thank you Lord Mayor. I thank Councillor Singh for this question. My Lord Mayor, unlike the Prime Minister who announced in November that the government was calling time on the production of Equality Impact Assessments, I can assure Council members that the Council will continue to use Equality Impact Assessments to inform its decision making and service provision. Why are Equality Impact Assessments important? They help us to do things. They ensure that our decisions are not made in a vacuum, they help us understand the personal context of people affected by our proposals, they focus on whether there will be negative impacts on those who use our services as a result of our proposals. If there are negative impacts, the challenge for us is to identify mitigating actions that reduce these negative impacts. They enable us to demonstrate that we are meeting our Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in the Equality Act 2010. The City Council believes that these proposals are fair for everyone and help make sure that resources go to those most in need and is able to meet their needs in other ways. Consideration of equality impacts has been a common strength throughout our budget process for last year and this year. Equality consideration has featured throughout the discussion. Our public consultation on budget proposals included summaries of the equality implications. We have asked for external views on the robustness of our budget and EIA and we hosted a review panel during this year and last year’s budget proposals. This feedback helps us to improve our Equality Impact Assessments. My Lord Mayor the 2011 census figures showed Leicester as a fast growing City which increased in size by 17% within the past 10 years and increasingly diverse with increased minority ethnic representations and I am confident that our use of Equality Impact Assessments will help us ensure that we are being fair to everyone in the City and how we look at our resources.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Singh, do you have a supplementary?
Councillor Singh: Yes, thank you Lord Mayor. I am grateful for the reply by Councillor Sood. I am encouraged by the emphasis in the answer on the duty of equality. I think that is very good. Would the Assistant Mayor further agree that it may be useful to consider setting up a working group to examine the strategic impact of service delivery and orientations to a City population with a predominance of BME communities in the coming generations?
Lord Mayor: Councillor Sood.
Councillor Sood: Thank you for the supplementary question and for your suggestion. We will look into it and I think it is a good suggestion and I will see how we can address all these issues. The area panel is made up of all different representatives from different organisations so we will certainly look into it.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. Councillor Singh, question number 2.
Councillor Singh: Thank you Lord Mayor. Will the City Mayor inform the Council on whether Commissioning of Services is now operational and if the Social Value Act 2012, which requires public bodies including Councils to consider the social value of a contract when procuring services and goods is implemented. How much allocation, if any, did the Council receive towards the implementation of this central plank of Government’s Localism agenda? Thank you.
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Thank you my Lord Mayor. As Councillor Singh is aware, and I think many other members will be, the Public Value Social Services Act comes into force at the end of the month. Essentially it requires us to better consider how and what we buy, how it improves the economic social and environmental well-being of the City. In fact, as members will know, we have not waited for this legislation. Over the last year or more we have been implementing elements of this agenda, including third tier supply, employment, apprenticeships and skill improvements and social value is central to the work of the local procurement task force which has already ensured that 100 low value contracts with a total of over £1.5m in value, have been advertised and marketed with the majority won by micro, small companies and voluntary organisations locally. Incidentally, Lord Mayor, to answer the final part of Councillor Singh’s question, there has of course been no government funding made available to support this agenda. We have done it entirely with our own resources.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Singh, do you have any supplementary?
Councillor Singh: Thank you Lord Mayor. I am grateful to the City Mayor for the answer. Once again it does emphasise the importance of raised gender and disability as part of the duty of equalities from the Council and I am very grateful for that. My Lord Mayor, in a recent article in the Guardian it stated that the vast majority of local government employees, 77%, said that they needed more training to do the job of commissioning well. While 14% said they already were expected to perform this job and they actually did not have the necessary skills, and only 8% were fully equipped. Lord Mayor, this is attributed solely to the government’s lack of support to their own policies. Will the City Mayor continue to keep the issues of in-service training as an on-going concern and continue to express to the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, the need for more resources to carry out its policies?
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Yes my Lord Mayor. I will certainly try to get that message through to the Secretary of State, but I think those who know him or his reputation will realise that I don’t do so with any great sense of optimism. I will, however, undertake to continue to drive this agenda forward within the City Council and indeed by so doing to seek to provide an example to others in the public and indeed the private sector locally to examine their own procurement and the way in which our procurement can be used for the benefit of the local economy. This is something which has been very much welcomed by those who engaged in procurement within the Council and I am grateful for that, but it is also something that has been very much welcomed in discussions we have had with the private sector locally, with the voluntary sector locally and indeed with social enterprises locally, all of whom are very keen to be a part of ensuring that our procurement contributes in full to the local economy.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin, question 3.
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. When will the much anticipated list of 40 events planned for Belgrave Hall Museum be published, so that people wishing to visit the house and gardens can plan their dairies.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. Those events will be published in March this year.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin, do you have any supplementary?
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. It is disappointing that we still have to wait further. I wondered what plans there are to update the signage around the Belgrave Hall Museum in the meantime and also to communicate these activities to people of Leicester and Leicestershire.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: Lord Mayor, I am happy to confirm today that Belgrave Conservation Society members have agreed to meet with me on 12th February at 6.45pm. By then, if they have not published a leaflet, but obviously I would have some information an outline planning of those 40 events then I would be more than happy to share with those residents at that meeting.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. Councillor Chaplin, question 4.
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. How many individual artists in each age category have submitted how many pieces of work to the Open 24 exhibition at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery?
Lord Mayor: Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: Thank you. I can confirm that 275 artists submitted 649 works and also this year it is really good news that 89 children from ages of 11-19, have submitted their 89 works and obviously this is very encouraging.
Lord Mayor: Supplementary Councillor Chaplin?
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I’d like to know how those figures compare to previous years when the open exhibition has been held at a different time of year.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: I would request Councillor Chaplin to please state her question again so I can understand whether you have that information or you need that information.
Lord Mayor: Do you want to ask the question again, is that is what is being asked?
Councillor Chaplin: I would like to know how those figures compare with previous year’s figures when the exhibition has been held at a different time of year.
Councillor Clair: I can confirm that this year although entries are a bit low, but at the same time the children category and other categories are higher and obviously from the last year few artists who submitted their works they have not submitted, but an overall increase remains so high and obviously we are happy like I said to you and also said in this Council that after the event we would be more than happy to review that position.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin do you want to move on to question 5?
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. What plans does the Council have to support the Age UK Bobble Day on 8 February 2013, when councillors, Council staff and volunteers across the country are being asked to raise money for activities to help older people?
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Thank you Lord Mayor. I think many members may be unaware as yet of Age UK Bobble Day, but I hope that as a result of that question this evening they will no longer remain puzzled by it. In fact Age UK Bobble Day is a national fund-raising event which is organised by Age UK to raise money to support older people and particularly to support them to keep warm. We are going to be doing our very best to encourage our employees and others to take part in it. There will be an article published in the Face magazine, which is as I think Membes know our in-house magazine, which will go out to staff on 29th January and will be encouraging staff to organise events, raise money and encourage them to realise that it really is an excellent cause. We will actually be sending a separate note to elected members and for local voluntary and community sector groups across the City so that we can raise awareness there as well and of course I do hope that members will feel that there are ways in which they can contribute to make it a successful day.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin, do you have any supplementary?
Councillor Chaplin: I do. Thank you my Lord Mayor. Thank you City Mayor for replying. I was expecting it to be Assistant Mayor Rita Patel, but it is really heartening to hear that the Council is going to be supporting it and I am already doing my bit. I have knitted some hand knitted wrist bands which I will be selling in support of Bobble Day. But I wonder if the City Mayor would be able to give a commitment that obviously Bobble Day is just one initiative to support lonely older people, and I want to give a commitment to continue to support, particularly our older people’s homes, in the next budget to ensure that they are protected as services where older people can come together and there is a centre for older people if they are not living there to also come, so they don’t have to be lonely in the winter time and also throughout the year for other activities.
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Can I thank Councillor Chaplin for her comments. Can I just say that on behalf of Councillor Rita Patel, that she has got a very bad attack of tonsillitis and she is not able to be here this evening. I will undertake Lord Mayor to pass on Councillor Chaplin’s comments to her and ensure that she has an opportunity to talk directly with her in response.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. We have had apologies from Councillor Porter so questions 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are out. So speedy recovery. I am going to move straight on to question 11, Councillor Grant.
Councillor Gant: Will the Mayor apologise for how the Council has handled the affairs of the Scout Hut in Thurnby Lodge?
Lord Mayor: You have missed a question, question 11. Move back.
Councillor Grant: Why are the roads so badly affected by snow in Leicester when they appeared not to be on the roads immediately outside the City boundary? I am asking particular about last Friday.
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: I am sure members will forgive me if there is a note of disappointment in my voice. I spent all afternoon in eager anticipation of answering Councillor Porter’s questions, and not being able to do so has left me feeling somewhat flat. But I will do my best to respond nonetheless in an appropriate manner to Councillor Grant. The fact is that the main roads in the City were gritted three times in the 24 hours prior to the snowfall on Friday afternoon. They were gritted continuously throughout Friday afternoon and evening and for the rest of the weekend. I am informed that that amounted to an astonishing 240 tonnes of road salt on Friday alone across the primary road network and I understand that this is very similar to the treatment our county colleagues undertook on the equivalent roads beyond the City boundary.
Lord Mayor: Supplementary Councillor Grant?
Councillor Gant: No.
Lord Mayor: We move on then to question 12.
Councillor Grant: Will the Mayor apologise for how the Council has handled the affairs of the Scout Hut in Thurnby Lodge?
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Can I thank Councillor Grant for this question since it gives me an opportunity to pay tribute to all of those who helped bring about what is generally accepted as a very reasonable compromise in the discussions about the future of the scout hut and other buildings in that area. It is a compromise which gives all parties an opportunity to meet their legitimate needs. I am particularly grateful to the Councillors for Thurncourt, the Councillors for Humberstone and Hamilton, to Keith Vaz the local MP, who played a fairly crucial role in ensuring that the matter was dealt with in a reasoned and appropriate manner, and also to pay tribute to former Councillors for the part that they paid. First to former Conservative Councillor Jack Allen and also to Labour Councillor Alan Gratrix, because between the two of them their wise advice and diplomacy helped tremendously to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion. I am grateful to all involved.
Lord Mayor: Supplementary Councillor Gant?
Councillor Gant: Well I am surprised that the City Mayor has turned down the opportunity to apologise and I think that is a shame considering that it took so long to come to a reasonable compromise and as a result there was such a high cost incurred by the police and the public purse generally, there was such serious damage to community cohesion and the reputation of our City, and extremists were given the opportunity to come to our City and to do the damage that they did. So what lessons have been learnt that mean that we will not take so long over such a serious incident in the future, or was there some other political agenda which he thinks was worthwhile delaying such a compromise?
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: I would suggest to Councillor Grant that he talks to those that were involved in the discussions that led to the ultimate compromise and the ultimate agreement. I particularly would suggest that he does talk to Councillor Jack Allen who I know will give him some wise advice about the complexity of the issue, the sensitivity of the issues and the way in which, as we address those issues, it was necessary to just to talk and to seek to predetermine the outcome, but to listen to all concerned and to seek with them to find a solution that meets, as I have described them, the very legitimate needs and aspirations of all of those involved. These things do take time. We could have sought to impose something at the beginning. Had we done so, I think we would have been rightly accused of not being sensitive, of not listening and of not doing something that has ultimately, I think, the prospect of producing a solution which is sustainable for all concerned and for all communities concerned.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Barton.
Councillor Barton: Thank you my Lord Mayor. With the opportunities for heritage brought about by the Greyfriars excavation and increased footfall that could to come to the area due to the proposed Jubilee Square, Cathedral Gardens and other improvements to heritage sites in the vicinity, could we look at the feasibility of opening the Guildhall, currently closed for the winter, and other sites with seasonal opening hours, all year round?
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Lord Mayor as members will be aware over the period since my election nearly 2 years ago have done a lot to seek to bring back into use particularly to give public access to a number of the important heritage buildings we have in the City, the Castle, Magazine Gateway, Wigston House the most obvious ones, and it is certainly the case and I have expressed this on a number of occasions, that we are enormously fortunate in Leicester to have, despite all the things that happened in the ‘60s and ‘70s, such vital buildings that are a part of the proud historic past of this City and the way in which we continue to get access to them, get public use of them is something that is really right at the top of the agenda. It was, in any case, but of course the discovery of a pile of bones in our car park has made it even more important, that we actually use the assets we have got and use them effectively. For those members who have not seen it, if we needed to be reminded of the national and international importance of what has been found there, I have now got my copy of last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Now members may think that I buy this to check how my investments are going, but in fact I am delighted to say that the front page, as I think I have mentioned to some members before, does have on the front page of the Wall Street Journal the issue of the discovery of what is they say believed to be the skeleton of Richard III and it does mention Leicester and it does mention some very interesting debate about where those bones are to be interred. I have said on a number of occasions that those bones will be interred in Leicester Cathedral and that they will leave this City over my dead body. That having been said, to return to the question that I have actually been asked, I do believe that there are issues for us about how we use these buildings and the Guildhall is undoubtedly one of them. But I would just return to an issue that is implied in some of the other questions that others have raised this evening, and just say that I do not think that it is always appropriate or necessary to justify public access to these buildings by stuffing them full of artefacts. Particularly by stuffing them full of artefacts that don’t belong there. These buildings in the City Centre and the Guildhall happen to have some artefacts in them, but actually buildings like Wigston House or the Castle or the Magazine Gateway are buildings that are important in their own right and actually having them in use, having people having access to them and using them and using them for activities and events is as important in the City Centre as it is in Belgrave Hall.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Barton supplementary? No. Thank you. We will move on then. Councillor Willmott, question 14.
Councillor Willmott: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I am very pleased to hear about buildings worth keeping open in their own right. I could not agree more. But I would like Councillor Clair to inform Council why, after three quarters of a century of being open to the public, he decided to close Belgrave Hall Museum and Gardens? Thank you my Lord Mayor.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Clair
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. The changes proposed for Belgrave Hall are not actually closure. On the contrary we are investing it is for the improvement of the facility and we all know that Belgrave Hall looks tired and many rooms are being closed and we focus on the promotion of events and also to have special events and at the same time we want to focus on some income generation and I hope with those 40 events which will be finalised and then for the first year those events will bring more people. If not more, at least we can attract a similar number of people for years to come. I think it is the best course of action for the long term future of Belgrave Hall.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Willmott, supplementary?
Councillor Willmott: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I think the Assistant Mayor Councillor Clair has got a very short memory. I will remind him of a letter he wrote to me on 1st November last year when I asked him if Belgrave Hall would remain open to the public and he says, and I quote from his letter “in this sense you are correct that Belgrave Hall and gardens will no longer be open to the public as they are now”. So he has got a rather short memory my Lord Mayor and I am hoping on that basis that he might actually reconsider the closure and say this evening in the light of what the City Mayor has said about opening important historic buildings, and Belgrave Hall and gardens are the only Queen Ann Buildings in the City that was open to the public before it closes, that he will this evening commit to reopening Belgrave Hall in the terms outlined by the City Mayor. Thank you.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: Yes my Lord Mayor. As Cllr. Willmott has actually mentioned that after three quarters of a century I hope Councillor Willmott knows better than I do when this whole project was bought by the City Council in 1936 that the economic climate and situation at that time of the Council available funds which were totally different from now. After 77 years, in the year 2013, I think we need to think what is the best way we can provide those facilities and also those services to the city of Leicester. We are investing in Belgrave Hall and we are planning those events. I hope with those events there will be more public come through the gate and also like you quote from one letter I sent Cllr. Willmott my Lord Mayor a reply in my e-mail where I sent him all the copy of the report of the scrutiny processes, decision notice and also for the last three or four years visitors’ figures, which are on the decline. Now at this moment in time only 16,000 people come through the gate, which is the very lowest of any competitive museum in the City. So I would suggest my Lord Mayor that the action we are proposing is the right one. I think that it will actually make Belgrave Hall sustainable for the long term future and we are encouraging to have local voluntary groups if they actually form that then obviously we can manage to open even longer and have more events with the help of the volunteers and obviously if Councillor Willmott is keen because he lives just a few yards away he can have the key and he may want to do that.
Councillor Willmott: I am quite happy to take you up on that offer my Lord Mayor. I look forward to collecting the key later on.
Lord Mayor: We will move on. Councillor Cole.
Councillor Cole: Please can the Deputy City Mayor give an update on the appalling situation that exists at Westcotes Health Centre where there has not been any permanent doctors for several months?
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.
Deputy City Mayor: Thank you my Lord Mayor. Thank you Councillor Cole for his question. As I updated at Council in November an interim provider to cover the practice on the 1st October and I hope that that provided an improvement to the situation and has allowed the continuity of care for patients. A full procurement exercise is now underway to secure a new permanent long term provider to take on the running of the practice. Today is the actually the deadline for those interested to have expressed an interest in taking on that contract and in due course a report will go to the PCT Board making a recommendation on the preferred provider.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Cole, supplementary?
Councillor Cole: I wonder if the Deputy City Mayor has any idea if there have been many takers on it?
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.
Deputy City Mayor: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I am not aware of the numbers, but the deadline was 5pm today for organisations to express an interest. What I have asked officers and NHS colleagues to arrange is that at an appropriate point in the procurement process, is that there will be an opportunity for interested Ward Councillors in the area to have a look at what different organisations have presented in terms of their offer to take on the running of this practice. I do want to thank those Councillors who have taken up concerns of patients and constituents in relation to the Westcotes Health Centre problems.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Cole, question 16.
Councillor Cole: Thank you Lord Mayor. I wonder if the City Mayor could say whether there are any plans to bring 20 mph speed limits to Western Park Ward? Because of rat runs in the Ward, the lives of children and their parents are put at risk in the morning.
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Thank you Lord Mayor. I know that it is true of all members in this chamber that encouraging people, and particularly children, to walk and cycle and to do so in a safe environment is right at the top of our priorities when we look at neighbourhoods across the City. It was with that in mind that the Deputy City Mayor confirmed a programme of new 20 mph zones across the City to be implemented during this and the next two years and that was made in June of last year. The programme has 9 new 20 mph zones based on areas around schools and where there has been personal injury accidents. In fact, the roads in Western Park were not part of the ones that we announced at that stage, but I have had a very powerful case by Councillor Cole and by Councillor Barton made on behalf of Western Park and indeed had a very powerful case made on behalf of Eyres Monsell by the Deputy Mayor and his co-councillors and others in that part of the City. But I think that what this leads me to conclude is that we ought to press ahead with those already announced and also to be looking at others and indeed seeing whether there are other members who feel that their areas should be given a high priority and perhaps to look to see whether we can indeed accelerate the programme such that, if it is possible to extend what are undoubtedly measures that bring about safety in particular residential areas to a wider area of the City. So I will certainly take very careful note of the point that has been made about Western Park. The case has been made for Eyres Monsell and particularly I have also had my arm metaphorically twisted by Councillor Cleaver on this issue to make sure that we do actually respond where there are cases being made.
Lord Mayor: Any supplemental question Councillor Cole? OK. Thank you.