Agenda item

Lord Mayor:  The next item is questions from members of the public – Ms. Everett.

 

Helen Everett:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  My question is this:  “In the light of recent serious scandals concerning Harvey Weinstein and others, the President’s Club controversy and the rise of the MeToo and TimesUp movements, has Leicester City Council any plans to revise its 2011 policy on sexual entertainment venues (SEVs), and to adopt a zero tolerance policy on such places with a rebuttable presumption against granting licences following the lead of Labour led Manchester City Council.  Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Ms. Everett for the question.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clair, to reply. 

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  First of all I would like to thank you for asking a question to this Council this evening,  and I checked with officers and they advised me that under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2009 provides the legal basis for dealing with applications for sexual entertainment venues.  The current policy adopted was in 2011 which Helen has rightly said so.  Six sexual entertainment venues in the city centre and one which is on Braunstone Gate and that we agreed to put a limit in total to be licenced in City Council to five, but at present there are only three which are actually at this moment in time have planning permission and running.  Notwithstanding the cap on the number, the City Council is able to refuse the licence where the applicant does not meet criteria and as you have sent me Helen a letter on February 22^nd which even reminded me to check with officers those guidelines which is applicant for any new applications should be, the applicant is answerable to hold the licence by reason of having been convicted of an offence for any other reasons the licence should be inappropriate given to the character of the relevant authority and the use and purpose of any premises in the vicinity.  The condition of premises in respect of which the application is made.  So these are the basis we have already declined two applications which you rightly say and you mentioned one venue which is missed on.  Can I just give some information on Manchester.  They have currently five entertainment venues and officers have done some work and such from them that they do not actually operate on zero tolerance.  The City Council policy on sexual entertainment venues is programmed for review next year 2019-20.  This review will include consultation with local stakeholders and research  into the policy and practice from all other local authorities we will find out that and also as you mentioned in your letter that group of women’s equality party, Leicester branch.  I would ask officers to also consult and keep comments and allow the consultation on this policy commence.  After the consultation is undertaken and a review completed it is not possible to commit to the change in policy along the lines suggested in your question, but I would be more than happy for yourself and your women’s group to arrange a meeting with Council officers to clarify any further situation you might wish to share as this policy commences review.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Ms. Everett do you have a supplementary question?

 

Ms. Everett:  Yes.  Thank you very much Councillor Clair that was very helpful.  I am very pleased to hear that there will be a review of the policy and not before time, as the men in the city are managing quite well with only three lap dancing clubs operating.  I think we could probably easily reduce the limit don’t you?  That is not my supplementary question that is a rhetorical question.  So I am very also pleased to hear that you will consult with the women’s equality party, Leicester branch and we would be very pleased to meet with your officers to discuss details such as advertising hoardings and other such matters.  My supplementary question is this – “does this Council then consider when granting or renewing SEV licences for premises which operate on the distinctly unequal basis of women workers selling their services, pole dancing or private entertainment in booths for men with the money to pay.  Does this Council then consider that this is gender equality and that this is having due regard to its public sector equality duty to foster good relations between different groups of people”?

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Clair please.

 

Councillor Clair:   Yes of course now as I set out in my reply that there will be wider consultation and all equal opportunity policy would be considered.  I will not read what Council officers has given equal opportunity policy which actually exist or are a guideline, which sets out very clearly what Section 149 Equality Act 2010 but thisis something two pages which sets out a very clear guideline that we are very conscious of equal opportunities for women’s section, male and female, but as I set out in my reply I will endeavour and also ask officers to actually consult as widely as possible so that we have proper consultation and views are taken on board but at this moment in time I would not pre-empt how many number of licensing, how many number of premises we will license in future, it will undermine the consultation process.  So I will hear what you say and I will feed your view back to Council officers.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Thank you Ms. Everett.  Questions from Councillors.  The next item is questions from Councillors.  Can I request that where any Members have questions for tonight’s meeting that they bear in mind the requirements of the constitution that questions should be asked and answered without discussion and that supplementary questions must be a question for the purposes of clarifying the reply and not a statement.  Please note that I will be seeking to curtail any Member that does not comply with these requirements.  Question 1, Councillor Cole.

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Looking through the sheet Lord Mayor when I had nothing to do on a particular day, the day of these questions here so I must apologise to the Members for having so many questions which is taking up their time this afternoon. 

 

Lord Mayor:  You can always withdraw.

 

Councillor Cole:  “Can the City Mayor say how many Directors are employed by Leicester City Council and how many of the Directors are female.  Can he also tell us what is the gender pay gap between the Directors?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.  City Mayor to reply.

 

City Mayor:  Can I thank Councillor Cole for this question and indeed those that follow and I don’t think you need apologise for them.  My Lord Mayor Members will see the report later on this agenda does include the pay policy statement and the gender pay gap reports for 2017.  But I think to give a direct answer to the particular points that he has picked out there is obviously a question of definition when one looks at Directors but for this purpose I have included the Chief Operating Officer, all Strategic and Divisional Directors and others whose post title includes “Director”.  So that includes the City Centre Director and the City Highways Director.  And of those 20 employees, 12 are men and 8 were women.  The mean gender pay gap, that is the average pay gap for this group, was 3.6% and the median pay gap was actually -0.11 so in the middle band woman were paid very slightly less, more rather.  But I think he will understand and perhaps when I answer the subsequent question be able to draw a bit more out of this but I think he will understand that a 3.6% in favour of the men and 0.11% in favour of the women in those two different ways of measuring it, it’s actually fairly significant, and you know statistically I think it probably would not be counted as being significant and that does contrast very reassuringly with the figures for other places which as I say I will probably draw out in the response to further questions. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Cole?

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor.   It is encouraging to get the City Mayor’s answer on that and to know that if compared with the BBC and one of the larger national organisations that we are not doing as badly.  But of course there is a gap and the aim should be to close that gap so can the City Mayor say what his plans are to ensure that that gap gets to zero.    

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor I think it is perhaps worth reminding Members that when we are doing this it is not about drawing a distinction between what men and women are paid for the same work, what this particular way of measuring tends to illustrate is whether or not an organisation is employing women at a senior level that is consistent with the level at which they are employing men. And as I say, while there is a gap I think we can take some satisfaction as an organisation that contrasted quite dramatically with where it was a decade, two decades ago.  It is now the case that at a senior level women are well represented, and of course it is always work in progress there is more that can be done, are well represented and I think that that is reflected in the figures that I have reported.  But we cannot be complacent about it and we must continue to make sure that when we recruit we recruit the best people regardless of any irrelevant consideration of which one such is gender. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.    Question number 2, Councillor Cole please.

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor and thank the City Mayor for his response.  Of course I have already been on to the City Mayor about the fact that none of our Directors are from black or ethnic minorities.  So of course the focus feels is needed if I might just remind the City Mayor about that.  My second question then Lord Mayor is “It has been stated that the national gender pay gap is around 18%.  Can the City Mayor tell us what the Leicester City Council gender pay gap is please?”      

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.  City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  Yes, this does follow on from the point that I was making in response to the previous question.  It is indeed the case that the public sector median gender pay gap is 18.31%, that’s across the nation.  The private sector gender pay gap at the median is 24% so that is almost a quarter, right, and the non-profit sector gender pay gap is 23.53%.  So in contrast to 18%, nearly 25% in the private sector, 23% nearly 24% in the public sector, our median gender pay gap is 3.12%.  Now that is obviously not something to be complacent about because it ought to be zero but it is certainly something that suggests that unlike many other organisations in both the public and the private sector Leicester has consistently over a long period of time taken the issue of pay and gender equality very seriously indeed and has, I believe, something which while as I say we cannot be complacent about we can take some pride in.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.   A supplementary question?

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Again I thank the City Mayor for his answer and in a funny kind of way I want to support the City Mayor with his answer because it is a very encouraging picture and I think it is one that we should all be insisting that the City Mayor insists on driving down to zero.  So I want to get to my next question my Lord Mayor if I can.

 

Lord Mayor:  Next question number 3 then.

 

Councillor Cole:   “Can the City Mayor tell us what is the pay gap between white and black and ethnic minority employees at the City Council?”   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.   City Mayor to reply.  

 

City Mayor:  Yes, thank you my Lord Mayor and as I have indicated on previous occasions when I have talked about this this is very much work in progress, and while the figures for the pay gap between white and BME employees is not as good as it is for the gender gap, neither is it disastrously bad, and again I believe it is considerably better than it was just a decade ago certainly two or three decades ago.  The mean ethnicity pay gap, that is the average pay gap, at the 31^st March was 10.37%, and the median that is the middle range was 12.69%.  As I say that is better than it has been in the past but it is not something we ought to be complacent about and it is something, particularly when we look at the senior employees and the discussion we have had on previous occasions, at a senior level something where we still have some way to go to ensure that the senior management of the organisation fully reflects the communities that it serves.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor. Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Cole?

 

Councillor Cole:  I’m guessing the thing is Lord Mayor first I thank the City Mayor for his answer but given how long black and ethnic minority people has been in the city and have been employed by the Council, it does strike me as being worrying that we should have such a significant gap between white and black and ethnic minority workers.  If we are comparing those figures with the gender pay gap Lord Mayor and I just wonder if the City Mayor shares my view on that?

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  As I have indicated before my Lord Mayor I am very happy to repeat it this evening, that I believe that our work in this particular field is still work in progress and there is still some way to go but I think it is worth saying that when one looks at the senior workforce of any organisation and it is true of this Council as well we are advertising and drawing candidates from the population of the UK at large not just the population of this city, and that does inevitably mean that many of those who have the experience and want to take the jobs will be coming from other places to Leicester and it is certainly the case that Leicester’s senior management is more than representative when it comes to the BME component of it, more than representative of that component within the population of the UK.  But what this does mean is that we must re-double our efforts, and I have talked about this on previous occasions, we must re-double our efforts to do what is described as growing your own and actually encouraging those who are local people who are already our own employees to come through the organisation and to take senior management positons within the organisation and that of course is not something that happens overnight.  I think we have come a long way over recent years and recent decades but I do believe there is still a long way to go and I am very pleased that Councillor Cole has again reminded us this evening that there is a continuing challenge for us to make sure, as I put it earlier on, that the workforce in general and the senior management in particular reflects the communities that we seek to serve.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor for your reply.  Question number 4, Councillor Cole please.

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor and again thanks to the City Mayor.   “Each year we see that the African heritage children in Leicester City secondary schools are below the local average in terms of  number of GCSE passes at grade C and above.  Can the Deputy Mayor for Children, Young People and Schools say why is happening and what the City Council is doing to address this issue?” 

 

Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Cole.  Councillor Russell to replyplease. 

 

Councillor Russell:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  It is not necessarily accurate to say that African heritage children are doing worse at GCSE than the local average.  Some groups of children in this cohort do better, for example those ascribing as black African do consistently better than a number of other groups within the city.  Those who ascribe themselves as black Caribbean or black Caribbean and white also … sorry, apologies Councillor Cole, those are a group who are, seem to be under performing in comparison to their peers in terms of the results they are getting at GCSE.  It is a really small cohort of children, it is about 3% of the overall cohort across the city and about 13% of those children who describe themselves as African heritage within the city.  But what we do because that number can be masked within some of the national breakdowns of figures we ensure that every school in the city receives a very, very detailed breakdown of their figures of their results so they can identify groups within their schools that are underperforming that they need to offer additional support to, that they may be need to work with in a different way to ensure they are achieving their full potential.  That is an absolute focus of ours particularly when our role as a local authority with schools is changing, is trying to make sure that schools have all the information at their fingertips so that they can put into action schemes and support that will ensure that all of our children in the city meet their full potential.                     

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Russell. Do you have a supplementary question?  

 

Councillor Cole:   Can I thank the Deputy City Mayor for her answer.  My concern is really a very deep one Lord Mayor.  My concern is this, if we are putting in all this support to the schools why repeatedly year on year is this problem presenting itself and doesn’t appear to be going away.  Surely something is missing.  Can the Deputy Mayor suggest what that might be? 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Russell please.   

 

Councillor Russell:    Thank you Lord Mayor.    Children are educated at a range of schools across the city and it isn’t the role of the City Council to be able to go in and to say how individuals or groups of children are taught within schools, that is very much the remit of governors and the autonomy of Head Teachers and school leaderships within schools.  What we do want to do is give them all of the information to be able to work to make sure that all groups of children are able to succeed and I know many governing bodies look in detail at their results and do take action to try and support children; and they may be children on frees school meals, they may be children of particular heritage, they may be our looked after children who they look to work with in a different way.  We are not in a positon as a city, as a City Council, to be able to make significant policy changes in the way that schools operate, but what we can do is support to continue to offer challenge which we do and to make sure that we supply them with the information so that they can analyse and understand their results and make sure they are taking actions to ensure all their pupils can succeed. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Russell.  Question number 5, Councillor Cole please. 

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  “Can I ask the Deputy City Mayor for Culture, Leisure and Sports how many knife crimes were committed in Leicester city over the last year and how does this  compare with the previous year’s and the national average.  Can he also say what the Council is doing to address this issue?”   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.  Councillor Clair to reply please.

 

Councillor Clair:    My Lord Mayor may I likewise thank Councillor Cole for asking this question.  I have a response from officers.  The number for April 2017 to February 2018 for Leicester city is 976 knife or bladed instrument offence which include when one was seen, either used or threatened even if not seen.  The possession of those offences.  There were 872 offences in the city in the previous year in the same period April to February 2016/17.  My Lord Mayor this takes us to an increase in past cases to 12% comparing from last year to this year.  The details to compare other cities are not known as that is not the way in which the Home Office collect data.  What the last return shows is an increase in knife crime across almost every city up and down in the country which is wide ranging from 2% to 49%.  At 12% in Leicester and Leicestershire we as a local authority are placed somewhere in mid-range, and as the last section of his question what we do to address those issues and I can go through the list how we actually targeted support for young people who are at risk or involved in knife crime or knife carrying work; intervention of young people who have been involved in knife crime or knife carrying.  And also the City Council and multi-agency equip and support young people to develop their resilience and skill and intervention to target the hardest groups and young people, and also case conference around an individual who are known to carry knives and I am aware of the community safety team with multi-agency.  Also officers such as crime and anti-social behaviour, section officer, City Council Youth Offending Services - they are all working very closely with other multi-agency knife crime statutory groups and chaired by the police to address knife crime issue collaboratively and also the Youth Offending Services they reach out to schools and also the children who are in our residential care homes.  So we are trying what we could and I know that this is something we need to address as Councillor Cole raised in Scrutiny meetings and I am mindful of that and we will actually do whatever we could to address this issue.                

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Councillor Cole do you have a supplementary question please?

 

Councillor Cole:  Can I thank the Deputy City Mayor for his answer Lord Mayor, and can I say that when I speak to experts in this area they do say all of this multi-agency approach to this matter is really scratching the surface of the problem.  So I would like to ask the Deputy City Mayor if he agrees with the current way by the senior police officer in the news yesterday that says this problem isn’t taken as seriously as it should be because most of the deaths are young black men.       

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Clair please to reply.     

 

Councillor Clair: Mr Chair now asI said I may have missed those comments from the Chief Police Officer which I was made aware of that, but I can assure Councillor Cole that we have really very effective Police and Crime Commissioner and also Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Councillor Master, and we have a very good relationships with other multi-agency and I will charged to become the Chair of Leicestershire Safety Partnership Board and as for my best judgement that even Councillor Gugnani the Chair of Neighbourhood Scrutiny he is very keen to take this issue forward.  There is a meeting which is arranged for Members for further briefing on 28^th March next week.  I will urge Councillor Cole to attend that meeting and I can be present at that meeting and any issues raised I am taking so seriously as you have said yourself and we will try whatever we could.           

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you there Councillor Clair.  Question number 6, Councillor Cole please. 

 

Councillor Cole:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  And just to say to the Deputy City Mayor that I will attend.  It is in my diary to attend, and I did attend the previous one.  I am not too sure what became of that but I will again attend because clearly we have got to keep our foot on the pedal where this is concerned.    “There is a perception in parts of the Western Ward when I speak to residents on their door step around New Parks and Braunstone Frith and other areas, that Leicester City Council has forgotten about them.  Can the City Mayor tell us if he thinks this is a fair perception and what his plans are to address the perception?”   

 

Lord Mayor: Thank you Councillor Cole. City Mayor to reply please.   

 

City Mayor:   Thank you my Lord Mayor.  As Councillor Cole will be aware there have been many occasions over the years and recent months when Members in this chamber have drawn attention to the needs of their area and described it as a forgotten area.  I can assure him that not only is the particular areas that he talks about in his Ward, New Parks and Braunstone Frith, not forgotten but neither are other parts of the city that Members sometimes feel the need to speak up for.  I think that the response to the latter part of his question as to how we address it is something that is a challenge to all of us and it is a challenge to remind Members just how much this Council and its officers do across the city investing in and working in and working for the many neighbourhoods that make up our city.  I did look up the list of activities that we have in the New Parks and Braunstone Frith areas.  It is a long list and I won’t read it all together because there are 90 Council owned assets across the Ward:  library, leisure centre, estate shops, primary schools, secondary schools, sports pitches, bowling greens, adventure playgrounds, industrial space, office space, 90 Council assets across the Ward.  And of course we have in addition to that some 2,738 Council properties within the Ward, residential properties within the Ward, all of which we serve, and indeed as part of the housing revenue account those 2,738 properties have even in just the last year, and it is a figure that is typical of recent years, had £1.2m spent on new boilers, new kitchens, bathrooms, windows, doors, and of course it is the case, and Members who know the Ward well will realise, it is a case this is a part of the city where we have a very significant number of schools and colleges.  We spent £8.3m on renewing New College, £8.9m on Westgate, over £3m investment to increase places at Braunstone Frith Primary to develop Forrest Lodge as part of a brand new school and to remodel Parks Primary.  Those and so many more add up to a very significant investment by the Council in all aspects of life in the city.  I think Councillor Cole will be aware that we have invested very heavily in the TNS retention and development of the New Parks housing office, New Parks central library and the multi-service centre and the new community room project.  I think in that case some £100,000.   So to come back to where I started Lord Mayor I think that if we look around the city we will see that many of the areas that people sometimes perceive as being forgotten are very much in our minds, are very much in our priorities and are very much invested in by this Council and I think we all, whether as Ward Councillors or me as Mayor with my colleagues here, have a job to do in perhaps being rather more explicit in reminding people that the overwhelming majority of what we do and what we spend is out and about in the service of the communities of the city.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Cole?

 

Councillor Cole:  Can I thank the City Mayor for his answer. And to all extents I agree with much of what he said but we still have a job to do when it comes to the individual because the individuals we are talking about their personal situation and it is about how we share with them our concerns for them and how we make that aware to them in the Ward Lord Mayor and I think it would be interesting to have a conversation with the City Mayor about how we do that because I think that is really very important.  When you live in place you need to feel that those who are managing or running the services do care for you.           

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you. City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor I would agree entirely with that and I do believe that there is a need for us to have a continued dialogue about the reality for life of people in many parts of our city and the areas that Councillor Cole has reminded us of New Parks and Braunstone Frith.  They are two undoubtedly that feel the pinch as a result of not what we are doing but of what central government is doing and I think you know we need to continue to have a dialogue with them and with each other about how best we can serve them despite what the present Tory government is throwing at us and at them.    

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.   To your relief Councillor Cole this is your last question I believe, question number 7. 

 

Councillor Cole:  I am ashamed Lord Mayor, thank you.   “In the light of the City Council’s equal opportunity policy and the “me too” tweets, can the City Mayor say if the Council has received complaints regarding historic or recent sexual harassment from its staff and what has the Council’s response been to it?”

 

Lord Mayor:   Thank you.  City Mayor to reply please.  

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor we have received no such complaints in the current year 2017/18.  In the previous five years the number of sexual harassment complaints and allegations made by Council staff about co-workers and contractors was three, two of those being in 2013/14 and one of them in 2016/17.  In addition over the same time period we received two complaints and allegations by members of the public about Council staff and contractors and those were one each in the years 2014/15 and 2015/16.  I would just add to that Lord Mayor that although those numbers are comparatively small and we might immediately feel some reassurance from that, we know from elsewhere that there is often an inhibition about complaining and we should not feel that just because there is a low number of complaints that also means that there is very low incidence.  What we must continue to do is to encourage people to feel that they are in a situation and have a climate in which they can come forward and can complain and in which their complaints will be taken seriously and responded to appropriately.  So of course these are quite low numbers but that is not a reason or us feeling that all is well out there, we must continue to develop a climate in which people feel they can come forward and that we will not tolerate inappropriate behaviour.                          

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.   A supplementary question Councillor Cole? 

 

Councillor Cole:  Again I thank the City Mayor for his answer.    I of course requested us to talk about equal opportunity and when we talk about equal opportunities I think we are mindful of the power relationship between one group and another and in this case of course we are talking about gender issues, but there is also a group with regard to  race, religion etc.  I want to suggest to the City Mayor that in putting all these things in place for inspections etc. that he does take into account those other aspects of the equal opportunity within the workplace here at the City Council and can he assure me that that is an important  part of the City Council’s function. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.  City Mayor please.         

 

City Mayor:  Yes I do entirely take that point and I think it is quite right that Councillor Cole reminds us that it is often the case where employees, and indeed others that come into contact with the Council, are not meeting as equals when it comes to the power and influence of the two parties, and that is certainly true as we have seen in other contexts people taking advantage of the power that they have of being in a superior position of one sort or another or  positions where they can put somebody’s career or can influence other aspects of their remuneration or something of that sort and it is important that we empower those who do not otherwise have power to stand up to people who abuse their positions, and it is certainly true of course in this context in regard to particular sorts of  behaviour that any form of inappropriate use of power informed bullying is something that we should not tolerate and we should encourage all of those who come into contact with the Council and are employed by the Council to feel that they are empowered to report and for us to be able to reassure them that we take them seriously when they do come forward.            

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.   Question number 8, Councillor Waddington please.  

 

Councillor Waddington:  Thank you my Lord Mayor. “Could the Assistant Mayor for Adult Social Care please tell me what the Council’s policy is in regard to the installing, servicing and maintaining lifts in the properties of people with disabilities.  How many such lifts have been installed by the Council and how many of these lifts are maintained by the Council.  What is the annual cost of this provision?”    

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Waddington.  Councillor Dempster to reply. 

 

Councillor Dempster:  Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Waddington for your question because it is actually very timely because this is the policy that has recently been modified because there has been an anomaly for many years.  So as well as putting in lifts we install ramps, we complete bathrooms into wet rooms; we have put on building extensions on to people’s houses and with all of those they become the property of the householder apart from with lifts, and with lifts they have not become then the property of the householder.  So that has recently changed in that we are now offering the householders the opportunity to own the lift.  But ultimately of course it remains the responsibility of the Council to maintain the lifts in the meantime and of course the reason for that is that the reason that the people get the lifts in the first place is because there is a need that has been identified under the Care Act.  So given that we have identified that need under the Care Act then we have a legal responsibility to make sure that the lift is properly maintained and in working order.  In terms of the numbers since 1993 the local authority have installed 1384 lifts of which 755 have been owner occupied privately rented, and 629 have been in local authority properties, but ongoing cost to the local authority for service and maintenance is in the region of £263 roughly and a half thousand pounds.  We do have some aging stock and we are looking at that and we are working with the individual householders, talking to them about the fact that we can put in a five year maintenance agreement in place and that is what we will actually be doing in all new lifts but in terms of existing lifts if people want to they can actually become the owners of the lift.               

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Dempster.  Councillor Waddington do you have a supplementary question please?  

 

Councillor Waddington:  Yes I do Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Dempster.  I am aware that negotiations are ongoing with people with disabilities who have had lifts installed but unfortunately some of them are very fearful of the consequences of being asked to take ownership of these lifts because that means expensive maintenance and repair possibilities.  So can the Assistant Mayor reassure me and all the disabled people who are feeling this anxiety that the transfer of the lifts into the ownership of the service users after those lifts are five years old will not be compulsory in any case.  I think that reassurance will do a great deal to reduce the anxiety that some people are expressing.  Thank you.      

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Dempster to reply please.

 

Councillor Dempster:  Thank you.   Yes I mean I just want to reiterate because that should give the reassurance that the Council retains ultimate responsibility to ensure that a lift provided to meet eligible needs, so under the Care Act, that we retain as a Council the ultimate responsibility to ensure that that is working.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Dempster.  Question number 9 by Councillor Chaplin please.      

 

Councillor Chaplin:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  I would like to ask the question number 9 under my name.  Just to make it clear that this wording is from constituents who live in the St. James Road area of the Ward.  Thank you.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you. Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clair to reply.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor. An article 4 Direction needs to be kept under review and any changes in this area or scope needs to be justifiable on planning policy grounds.  That is the hard to material planning objectives need to be evidence by … which justifies the approval of Direction in fact needs to be evidenced to the degree sufficient to meet the requirements of government who approves the new amended Direction.  In order to support a view at all count potential additional article 4 directions and recently concluded local plan emerging options consultation which most of the Councillors have received that consultation document either have a copy from customer services or on the website which referred to question number 22 and 4 specifically asked where existing area should be extended or new one added.  Officers know that extensions are to encourage the local community and also local Ward Councillors to proactively engage with the consultation process and including Councillor Chaplin may have sight of that and this was the questionnaire section which was sent out 23 and 24 question are asked to engage and also member of the public to engage and respond back.  So as part of those questions and all of the currently being assessed by officers and responses prepared for consideration in the draft plan intended to be published for further consultation later this year.  Changes will be addressed by the local plan should it be agreed Article 4 Direction area are required.  So I am sorry Lord Mayor it is a bit lengthy my reply but I think I need to really explain fully.  So required therefore there will be a separate formal Article 4 concentration followed by submission of a case made to government in line with the application and recognition so combined the heritage and housing policy in the same Article 4 Direction will be time consuming and implicated the then required evidence of justification then may be not in a separate additional actual Article 4 Direction.  In addition such combined directions would be defined in the confined consultation area.  So this is technical answer which I want to read out so there is an opportunity for Members to raise and actually take part so that we can see it through a mandate in the local plan. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Councillor Chaplin do you have a supplementary question?

 

Councillor Chaplin:  Yes my Lord Mayor I do and I thank Councillor Clair for the technical answer that he has given.   The residents of St. James Road they are very into technical detail and they will obviously be looking at this and reading the minutes of the meeting.  But I know that they would also want me to ask that as a Council that we actually take on board this issue of HMOs and I know there is an opportunity in the local plan and I have obviously got a question later about that, but I think that we need to address whether or not there could be two separate categories of houses of multiple occupation and would the Deputy Mayor agree that there should be one that is for therapeutic purposes so that could be relating to people and organisations that provide hostels and then they have somewhere for people to move on to which is a shared accommodation,  but it is managed well and maintained well and then other HMOs and all of the other ones because it seems that they are not very well managed so is there any way of holding the landlords to account and I do think that we should be looking for a code of conduct, code of practice to have good landlords in the city.  It is the bane of this particular area of the Ward and I wondered if the Deputy Mayor would agree to look at those two things.  Thank you.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Clair please.

 

Councillor Clair:  Yes thank you chair, Lord Mayor.  As I said this is a technical details.  I have a reply which is another lengthy one on the code of conduct, rather than read I will either send copy to Councillor Chaplin or happy to arrange a meeting with planning officers so that she can go through and officers can take her through and she can make her contribution as part of the consultation of the local plan as this is a very important issue dear to our heart so as to Councillor Chaplin.  So that is the way I would suggest that it should be addressed.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.   Question number 10, Councillor Chaplin please. 

 

Councillor Chaplin:   Councillor Clair is obviously being my opening act today because the question to him is “Can we have an update on the development of a new Local Plan and new timescales for consultation?” Thank you.      

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  City Mayor please. 

 

City Mayor:   Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you to Councillor Chaplin for this question.  As she will be aware we have gone through the initial phase of consultation and the emerging options coming from that are currently being assessed and assembled into a report for our consideration in the weeks ahead.  There is also of course an ever changing background in terms of government expectations of the local plan and we have got some changes to their requirements that might affect the way in which we shape this as it goes forward.  The draft local plan with the allocated sights and with the new draft policies, we are still working towards publishing for consultation later this year and I am very keen that we should get that into the public domain at the earliest possible time because as she knows is quite a long process this and there is a lot of detail in it.  As part of the consideration of the detail I have arranged for all Ward Members to be invited for discussions about their own Ward in the context of their parliamentary constituency in the next few weeks.  I think dates are in diaries for that.  I realise that they inevitably won’t necessary suit all Members and I can be quite flexible perhaps to have a wash up session at the end for those Members who have not been able to go to the one specific to their Ward to pick up things that may be of concern to them.  But I am very keen that we should go into those discussions with a map that shows all those sites that have been identified as being ones needing consideration and really to draw on Member’s own understanding of the Wards they represent.  Really as an initial phase before we respond to what the local people are saying so that we can perhaps you know provide the context about what local people are saying and the understanding that Members have, but as I say I think that should be in Member’s diaries and I am looking forward to those discussions.                   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  A supplementary question Councillor Chaplin?   

 

Councillor Chaplin:   Yes my Lord Mayor that is really helpful Sir Peter.  Obviously that is noted in terms of the consultation with Ward Members.  I think certainly Members in this particular part of the Ward and perhaps in Stoneygate in general would be really also looking to have an opportunity to have public consultation in the same way they had an enormously constructive and fruitful consultation meeting with officers at the first stage of the consultation and I believe the officers actually said that it was one of the most productive community meetings they had ever been to.  So I know it is something that is of huge importance and of interest in the Ward.  So will there be an undertaking that the second stage of consultation will also include, where required or where needed, some consultation with the public in the same way as the Councillors are having the consultation.  Thank you. 

 

Lord Mayor:   Thank you Councillor Chaplin.  City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor as one of Councillor Chaplin’s constituents in Stoneygate I’m sure the hugely constructive engagement is what one would always expect from me and my neighbours.  However, yes she is entirely right I think that as we look at the sites and how they are allocated for housing, for employment, whether we are determined as will undoubtedly be the case for many of them to retain them as valuable public open space, there will be a necessity for that to be in the public domain for the public meetings. Whether that is going to be public meetings across the whole of the city, whether it is for specific sites or groups of sites or on the Ward basis I think it is something that Ward Members really can advise on and can help shape but certainly this is nowhere near the end of the process.  We are perhaps at the mid-point but there is certainly a long way to go yet.    

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.   Welcome to Councillor Dawood to the full Council meeting.  Question 11, Councillor Chaplin please.

 

Councillor Chaplin:  Sorry my Lord Mayor.  Thank you.  Welcome Councillor Dawood. That is really helpful and no doubt if the residents are asked they will be raising the issue about houses in multiple occupation.  Question number 11 my Lord Mayor is “To ask the City Mayor about the outcome following meetings of the Fire Authority and his discussions with the Chief Fire Officer about suggestions for improved fire safety across all social housing?”   Thank you. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Chaplin.  City Mayor please.   

 

City Mayor:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  Yes I did indeed raise the matter with the former Chief Fire Officer before his retirement and he was quite reassuring actually about the safety of social housing in the city and you know was not aware of specific problems but did understand the generality of the concern that was being expressed.   He did remind me of course that safety standards for any social housing constructed in the city is a matter for the Council from the building control perspective and I think that is an important thing to be reminded of that we have responsibilities as well as the fire service for making sure that, certainly with new buildings, they are built to a standard that takes full account of the need for fire safety.  For larger buildings though the Fire Service are more actively involved in ensuring that the correct fire protection and safety arrangements are in place.  So I had quite a reassuring discussion with the former Chief Fire Officer.  But we are now of course in the process of recruiting a new Chief Fire Officer, a process that is almost complete.  I will continue to keep the matter on the agenda and have discussions with the new Chief Fire Officer when he is appointed and obviously at an appropriate time, certainly when the Grenfell Inquiry concludes, we will look at what implications that might have for action that we ought to be taking locally.  I will obviously respond to questions or on other occasions I keep Councillor Chaplin informed of the discussion because I know this is a matter of very considerable concern to her.  

 

 Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.  Do you have a supplementary question?

 

Councillor Chaplin:  No.

 

Lord Mayor:  No, then thank you we can move to question number 12, Councillor Chaplin please.   

 

Councillor Chaplin:  Thank you.   “Given the number of planning contraventions in conservation areas and the administrative costs of these has the City Mayor considered having information delivered door to door to remind homeowners and landlords of the regulations?”  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Chaplin.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clair to reply please.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  On this area in particular the Council work very proactively to promote the importance of conservation area and Article 4 controls with local interest groups such as the Civic Society and local conservation groups one which is in Councillor Chaplin’s area, Stoneygate Conservation Society which is a very active group and there are thousands of houses covered by these controls across the city and whilst there are questions about cost effectiveness as Councillor Chaplin has mentioned in the question herself of the distribution of paper leaflets, officers have been asked to review a range of approaches to raise awareness of householders and landlord responsibilities.  My Lord Mayor such approaches will build upon a very successful experience gained through the annual programme of small scale building conservation grants and the promotional and engagement activity in the townscape heritage initiative, and there are other ways in which we can promote this if Members can ask other officers to go and present or give some presentation to local ward community meetings and also if Ward Members are so keen in their area that they can actually put some money aside with my suggestion not recommendation, from Ward community fund which we have some leave leaflets ready for a local activist.  So those may be the best scenario we can make awareness to people as much as wide as we could.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Chaplin?

 

Councillor Chaplin:  I do my Lord Mayor and it is actually quite technical so please do excuse me on this one.  I let you off the supplementary previously.   Thank you very much for the full response. I have indeed asked planning about this issue and the response that I had back from officers was that they were strapped for money and they were also quite strapped in terms of staffing hours.  So in the first instance I think we need to look at whether or not we actually have the staff on board to do this.  In Stoneygate Ward, it is not just Stoneygate Conservation Society, there is also Evington Footpath Conservation Area Society, and I think that given the number of contraventions that there are and I notice that Councillor Moore has got a question about this later Lord Mayor, contraventions, is actually if we put a bit of time and effort and a little bit of money into making sure there is widespread universal doorstep information available, because some of these are owned by landlords who don’t even live in the Ward let alone come to Ward Community meetings, and I think we need to do a bit of work about this.  I am certainly prepared to go and deliver some leaflets, I don’t know if my Ward Councillors are prepared to do that, but what I would most like is an undertaking from you Deputy City Mayor that some resources will be made available so that we can have some information going through letterboxes because it is becoming quite evident that if we don’t do something soon to protect the housing heritage that we have in the city in the same way that we take care of the historic centre of Leicester we are going to end up ruining something that is actually quite lovely. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Do you have supplementary question please?

 

Councillor Chaplin:  Thank you which is quite lovely in summer, so I would actually ask if we could perhaps do something a bit more co-ordinated as opposed to on a Ward by Ward basis. Are you prepared to agree to that?  Thank you.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Clair please.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  I think the first thing I can stress is that we have very active and proactive conservation officers team which they go out and actually monitor those issues.  As far as the budget is concerned for these activities we have only £25,000 which is for specific projects and that takes us to 10 or 15 projects per year that would be some time to help and support replacement of windows and then that is specially targeted for deprived areas and low income sort of deprived people.  So that is not sufficient but to my opinion we can only do whatever we could under the budget pressure and also under those pressures which will still be ongoing, but I would be more than happy as I said to Councillor Chaplin that there is other ways in which they can actually engage ourselves for Ward Community meetings to our own Ward Community funds and I am glad to know that I mentioned only two conservation societies but there are more active groups and I think we need to have some co-ordinated approach amongst ourselves to work with those local Members and local community.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Question number 13, Councillor Barton please. 

 

Councillor Barton:  Thank you Lord Mayor.   “Is there any information about how many children in Leicester may lose their entitlement to free school meals if the government’s proposal of new eligibility criteria relating to Universal Credit to be rolled out in Leicester soon is implemented?”   

 

Lord Mayor:   Thank you Councillor Barton.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Russell to reply.

 

Councillor Russell:  Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Barton for the question.  As it stands children who are currently receiving free school meals will receive quite a significant level of protection when their families or if their families move on to Universal Credit.  There may be some changes with that if their earning levels significantly increase, we were hoping to keep a greater level of protection for families nationally as a party particularly given some of the challenges that families may face where their income may change month by month.  But as it stands children who are currently accessing free school meals will continue to be able to do so.     

  

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Russell.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Barton?

 

Councillor Barton:  Thank you, thank you, that’s, thank you Councillor Russell for your answer.  That will be a relief to many of the families who might be worried fearing their children could lose entitlement but we still have the problem of perhaps people in the future losing out and we don’t know how many people that is likely to affect and we also have the problem of holiday hunger where children don’t get a meal during the school holidays.  Is that something that we can help with? 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Russell please.

 

Councillor Russell:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Both in terms of the information roll out and trying to alleviate some of the fears that come with that roll out of Universal Credit we are working with schools and colleges across the city to make sure that governors, that school leaders and that all school staff have access to up to date information about Universal Credit both so that they can amend policies appropriately within their schools but also so they can be a first point of information and sign posting for families that might be concerned.  Holiday hunger is a growing problem in this country and in this city and it is something that we have been seeking to tackle over the last four years.  We have run a variety of schemes, we have put money in from the public health budget into supporting holiday hunger programmes, we are working with a range of voluntary sector providers to make sure that we can get in as much match funding as possible to deliver as many meals as we can in the areas that most need them across the city and I am happy when those arrangements are more finalised, and you will imagine that trying to set up a holiday hunger programme right across the city is a fairly complex arrangement, ours locally is being led by Action Homeless.  We are looking at making sure that there is provision right across the city, and I will share all of the details of that with Members once they are finalised.  Thank you. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Russell. Question number 14, Councillor Barton please.

 

Councillor Barton:  Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Russell for that answer.  The next question is that “Local music venues often feel vulnerable due to nearby residential development as they fear they could be closed down because of noise complaints.  Will Leicester City Council be adopting the agent of change principle that says that the person or business responsible for the change is responsible for managing the impact of that change?”   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clair please.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor and for Councillor Barton to ask this question and I share her concern same way as she feel.  I had a briefing from officers which is again the technical answer as the government is currently consulting on new national planning guidelines to introduce what it describes as the “agent of change principle” to ensure that new development can be integrated effectively with existing businesses and community facilities, not only entertainment venue it can be places of worship, pubs, it can be musical venues, it can be a sports club.  The aim is that existing businesses and facilities should not have unreasonable restrictions placed on them as a result of development permitted after they were established as rightly so Councillor Barton has raised this concern in her question.  So where an existing business or community facility has effect, that is mainly noise generation that could be deemed a statutory nuisance in the light of new development in its vicinity, the applicant or agent of change should be required to secure suitable mitigation before development has been completed. This clarification is welcome as it makes it clear that the rights of existing businesses and venues will be able to be better organised and protected.  The City Council is well placed to respond to new guidance once confirmed by the government and will be able to include appropriate amended policy in the local plan, and I can assure Councillor Barton that at this moment of time officers do whatever they can to address those issues in the planning process to introduce those conditions but once this legislative change has come through and we will be incorporating in our local plan and that would redefine and I think we can feel relieved ourselves.        

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Barton?

 

Councillor Barton:   Thank you Councillor Clair for that very, very full answer.  I think really he said most of what I wanted to know but it would be useful to know if anything is being done in the meantime before the local plan and before legislation takes and comes into effect to sort of alleviate for us the, I don’t know if there are any current developments but if any are coming before we have got those rules in place.            

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Clair please.     

 

Councillor Clair:   Yes my Lord Mayor.  I am vaguely aware and can make a guess one venue that Councillor Barton may be referring to, but there are some developments possibly a planning application around that area for other residential development.  I will ask officers whatever at this moment under our planning framework why would we have as a local authority and they should be doing their best to implement, to protect existing businesses as they are in  area before those developments actually come and apply for planning permission.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Question number 15, Councillor Singh please.

 

Councillor Singh:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  This question has been brought back to full Council.   “Would the Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clarke, answer the question on the order papers under my name please.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clarke to reply.

 

Councillor Clarke:  Thank you.  Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Singh for the question but also for the curtesy and the patience you have shown in waiting for the answer to these questions which we did not quite have the data at the last full Council meeting, but I am happy to provide the data this evening.   Of the four hour waiting time target set across the National Health Service in England performance for the Leicester Royal Infirmary’s emergency department was 75% in January 2018 as compared with 71.5% in December 2017.  The trajectory for this target stands at seeking a 90% outturn.  On the other hand those waits aside patient satisfaction in the emergency department is, I am told, high.  The figure we have been given with the January position was of 97% of patients said they would recommend the care provided.  Emergency department attendances do though remain high and did remain high during December and into January.  This issue isn’t necessarily just about the number of attendances though, it is about the acuity, the severity of cases coming into the new emergency department.  The issues that were presented over this winter were predominantly respiratory issues, flu and flu-like symptoms and Norovirus presentations.  So it has clearly been a tough winter for the LRI’s new emergency department, however, there are signs that that new department is very highly regarded by those people who unfortunately have to use it. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Singh? 

 

Councillor Singh:  No my Lord Mayor. I am satisfied with the answer that has been given.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Then we swiftly move on to Councillor Singh again for question number 16 please.

 

Councillor Singh:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  “How many types of operations have been cancelled and what is being done to recover from this horrendous position?”    

 

Lord Mayor:   Thank you.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clarke, again please. 

 

Councillor Clarke:  Thank you my Lord Mayor and thanks again to Councillor Singh for the question.  Councillor Singh alludes to the instruction given to NHS Improvement and NHS England that and I quote “non-urgent inpatient elective care should be cancelled until mid-January to ensure beds and staff are available for the sickest patients.  Trusts should avoid last minute cancellations.  That was the instruction given.  This was extended to the deferral of all non-urgent inpatient elective care until the 31^st January.  Medical specialities with the highest level of cancellations in University Hospitals Leicester include orthopaedics, general surgery, maxilla facial surgery, urology, cardiac surgery, ear nose and throat, plastic surgery and gynaecology.  So over the weeks of the 17^th December 2017 to the 28^th January 2018 the number of cancellations per week, per week, range from 150 to 250, and as at the 28^th January at 100 procedures so there was a reduction moving towards the end of January.  UHL’s ranking in comparison with its peer group that it has given of 18 Trusts in the country has averaged between the 10^th out of 18 to the 12^th out of 18 over the last six quarters.  Now that demonstrates that this is not a local issue and it is, as with the emergency department problems that have been experienced, there  are real national pressures that we must be mindful of.  Wards that would normally be used for elective treatments are still being occupied by patients who have been admitted after an attendance at A&E so your first question has a relationship certainly with your second question.  The plan is to return to a full programme of elective inpatient activity this month and that is the plan, but we all know on our side of the chamber that as Harry S Truman had a sign on his desk when he was President the buck stops here and I think we all know where the buck stops in terms of UHL and that it not necessarily in the leadership within the city’s hospitals but at Theresa May’s desk.  Thank you my Lord Mayor.     

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke.   Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Singh?

 

Councillor Singh:  No my Lord Mayor.  Thank you and once again very grateful for the reply I have been given.       

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Question 17, Councillor Singh again please. 

 

Councillor Singh:  Yes thank you Lord Mayor.  This may well put things in perspective.  Is the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board aware of the changes in systems and procedures as a response to the serious shortfall in some areas of the NHS provision and issues around effective leadership as contained in the recent CQC investigation?

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Clarke please to reply.

 

Councillor Clarke:   Thank you my Lord Mayor.  The inspection rather than investigation as Councillor Singh put it took place between November and December last year and covered five core services.  Urgent and emergency care which we have discussed, medical care which includes care of the elderly which obviously has links into our adult social care, maternity, out-patients and diagnostic services.  The Care Quality Commission’s overall judgment was in fact requires improvement and that has not actually changed the overall judgment and that is over all of our hospital sites which were inspected and they were all judged as that required improvement judgement which looked at these five main areas: safety, effectiveness, caring, responsive and well led and it is leadership which Councillor Singh alluded to.  The Trust was adjudged to be good in two areas that is effective and caring and requiring improvement in the other three.  So it is about requiring improvement rather than there being any serious failure which I think Councillor Singh alluded to.  However, I think we do all have to recognise that there are issues within our hospitals but what I don’t want to do is to in any way undermine the fantastic work that does go on on a daily basis and where there are areas in fact where we are in Leicester, our health professionals in Leicester are leading in the clinical care of the city’s residents.  I refer to where I believe the true failure of leadership is in the answer that I gave to my previous question.         

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke.  Supplementary question Councillor Singh?

 

Councillor Singh:  Yes my Lord Mayor I do have one.   Of course he is quite right and I totally share his view the NHS staff are second to none and highly commendable.  But would Councillor Clarke agree with me that first and foremost it is the government that needs to revise and rescind the austerity cuts to the NHS local and national basis as a matter of urgency and to an extent he has already said that but I would like that to be noted but the heart of this problem is quite clearly the financial support that has been given by this Tory government.  Thank you.     

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Clarke please.

 

Councillor Clarke:  Absolutely and I think I said at the last full Council meeting you cannot sustain an excellent National Health Service with a government that to its core does not support an excellent National Health Service, not through its attitude but also through its funding.  Despite that our hospitals are still noted as being good.  In the early identification and management of sepsis the diabetes centre, which is not only nationally renowned but world renowned, and in terms of its local maternity services.  Though it has also been talked of as being good in terms of elements of its ED unit but quite rightly as a Council we do need to continue to scrutinise our hospitals through health scrutiny and the great work of Councillor Cutkelvin and through to OSC and I know has shown a direct interest in your role as chair of OSC in this and we do need to continue toscrutinise and ensure the best quality care but that does not mean we shouldn’t recognise again I say where the buck stops.    

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke. Question number 18, Councillor Riyait please.

 

Councillor Riyait:   Thank you my Lord Mayor.  “When will Alderman Richard Hallam Primary School get any measures to assist with school day parking issues which are increasingly endangering the safety of children attending the school?” 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you for the question.  Councillor Master to reply.

 

Councillor Master:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Riyait for the question.  I think the simple answer is we have not forgotten.  We are on a school runs parking programme that obviously Ward Councillors are aware of through the highways meetings that we have with Leicester West, Leicester South and Leicester East with the updates that we give.  Richard Alderman Richard Hallam school is ranked 39^th on the list of schools out of 121 schools so you can see there is a huge task ahead in terms of making the appropriate measures or taking the appropriate measures to make the school safe as Councillor Riyait has identified.  Both myself, Councillor Riyait and the Director of Highways went out on a patch walk to establish the needs that were required.  Since then Council officers have been back in touch with the school to discuss the physical measures in regards to what are needed in February at the end of February on the 21^st and they are drawing up more practical plans now that they can take forward and then going forward they will arrange a meeting again with the schools, with the Ward Councillors to consult on those proposed plans.  Once they have been approved which I anticipate won’t take very long given the urgency and the need as you have identified they would be more than happy to put that on the work programme and from the indication they have given me from the works programme and the list that we have for this financial year that the anticipated time frame for works, the physical works within the school in and around the school be done by the end of this year.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Master.   A supplementary question?

 

Councillor Riyait:  Yes my Lord Mayor.  Can I welcome that news from Councillor Master and thank him for listening to the residents, the school and the Ward Councillors.  Can I just ask if whether Council officers are able to, but I think he has already outlined they will be in touch so I will wait for their response.  Thank you.     

 

Lord Mayor:   Do you want to respond to that?

 

Councillor Master:  Absolutely crucial to the consultation that the Ward Councillor is involved because on the patch walk some key points were identified so I will ensure they are in touch will the Ward Councillors to make sure your points are put across.        

 

Lord Mayor:   Thank you Councillor Master.  Question 19, Councillor Riyait again please. 

 

Councillor Riyait:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  “I recently referred a case of a family where a mother and father with four young children were living in a one bedroomed flat in Abbey Ward to the Assistant Mayor for Housing.  How common is this kind of overcrowding in Leicester?” Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor:   Councillor Connolly please.

 

Councillor Connolly:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Riyait for the question.  Fortunately this type of overcrowding is not common in Leicester and there are no other cases registered on the housing register with this level of overcrowding at the moment.  However, it should be noted that this particular case there are exceptional circumstances around it.  However, again overcrowding is the biggest reason why people apply to the housing register and we assess according to the level of overcrowding and award priority for rehousing to reflect this with additional priority for those who are the most severely or statutorily overcrowded as is the position with this case. 

  

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Connelly.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Riyait?

 

Councillor Riyait:  Yes can I thank Councillor Connelly for referring this family’s case and I believe they have been moved up to band 1, but I am just wondering in this case obviously they had to come to myself and obviously I then came to Councillor Connelly so I am just wondering for people in this situation whether there is a process where Council officers are routinely looking to see whether they are on the right banding etc.   

 

Lord Mayor:   Thank you.  Councillor Connelly please.

    

Councillor Connelly:  Thanks for the supplementary.  Officers do regularly review the overcrowding cases that we have on the housing register and again if you have a constituent who is unhappy or doesn’t think they have got the correct banding, I am more than happy for you to either raise it directly with the officers or raise it with myself and I will refer it to the relevant officer.          

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Connelly.   Question number 20, Councillor Riyait please.   

 

Councillor Riyait:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  “Are Council officers giving routine advice to people who are in desperate need to visit Leicester Gurdwaras for food and shelter?”  Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you for the question.  Councillor Connelly please.

 

Councillor Connelly:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Riyait for this question.  No the Council as a matter of course do not give routine advice to people to visit Leicester Gurdwaras for food and shelter.  We do not refer, use or advise anyone who is homeless on to the Leicester Gurdwaras.  However, we do have a list of organisations who operate a food bank, hot food service or run a lunch club in the city.  This is confidential and the Gurdwaras are one of the organisations on this list.      

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Connelly.  A supplementary question?

 

Councillor Riyait:  Thank you for that Councillor Connelly.  I think the reality is that increasingly vulnerable people are presenting themselves to places like Leicester Gurdwaras and other faith organisations etc.  I just wondered if Councillor Connelly accepted that that is the situation and also recognise the work that some of these organisations are doing.  You know obviously, you know quite voluntarily.  Thank you.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Connelly please.

 

Councillor Connelly:    Thank you Councillor Riyait for the supplementary.  If people, individuals, are going to Gurdwaras for shelter I would suggest that the Gurdwaras refer them to Housing Options for Housing Options then to see what assistance we can give, but I do recognise the good work that the voluntary sector including the Gurdwaras, the mosques, the churches and temples in the city, what good work they do in helping us as a Council to tackle the issue of homelessness in our city.   We continue to say homelessness and rough sleeping is not an issue that the Council on its own can resolve, it is only by working in partnership will we ever be able to tackle this issue.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Connelly.  Question 21, Councillor Bajaj please. 

 

Councillor Bajaj:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  “What impact do traffic lights have on the environment, particularly when cars are queuing at arguably unnecessary traffic lights?” 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clarke please.

 

Councillor Clarke:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Bajaj for the question.  You raise two points really, one is about the necessity of traffic lights themselves and the other one is about the environmental impact of those traffic lights.  Now in terms of the necessity they are installed to address problems and those are often problems related to congestion and helping the network to move in a way that is effective to keep our city moving.  So they are not deliberately put in to stop traffic from flowing, quite the opposite.  They seem to improve priority junctions with excessive side road delays so to enable traffic that we want to get through to get through when it can and also to improve safety as well and particularly safety for pedestrians and indeed cyclists.  I was a cyclist once and indeed public transport as well to promote public transport. You obviously did not read Dan Martin’s article in the Mercury Dipak judging by your face.  They are also to solve accident blackspots as well so where there are vehicle collisions too.  Now the second point about environmental impact now signals respond to traffic demand at isolated junctions, they co-ordinate and platoon traffic through.  We have an incredibly sophisticated traffic management system in Leicester and actually if you go to some north American cities you will see that we are actually, if you excuse the pun, streets ahead whereas you might assume that our traffic lights are on some kind of timing system, but actually we have a system that is incredibly responsive and intuitive called SCOOT and that has been upgraded since we were one of the first cities to install that system and it is continually upgraded.  So overall traffic lights seek to actually improve the congestion problem in a growing city and also make sure that the negativity on the impact on the environment is minimised and that is the whole rationale for having those traffic lights.  Often I do look and think you know do we really need this many but when I take that question to officers they say actually yes, yes we do.  However, you will have noticed not far from this building at Horsefair Street we have removed traffic lights where that need for those traffic lights has reduced and that is a strategic opportunity that we have taken because those traffic lights were no longer necessary.  However, for the most part those traffic lights are absolutely necessary to make sure our environmental impact is minimal and to make sure that our streets are safe for the residents of our city. 

  

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke.  Do you have a supplementary question?

 

Councillor Bajaj:  I would like to ask my next question.         

 

Lord Mayor:  OK so you are moving on to question 22?  So we can move on to question 23, thank you. OK.  That is wonderful.  Oh Councillor Cole you are back.  Thank you.

 

Councillor Cole:    Thank you Lord Mayor.  It is clearly the end of the political season they have saved it all up for the end Lord Mayor.  And finally.   “Given what has happened to Northampton County Council, does the City Mayor feel vindicated by his strategy of ensuring that Leicester City Council produces a legal budget annually.  Given that in a worst-case scenario we could be stuck with the present government until 2022, who will no doubt continue cutting local government’s funding.  Can the City Mayor paint a picture of the way ahead during this period leading up to 2022 in terms of Leicester City Council’s annual budget and how he plans to mitigate the inevitable pain this will inflict on the people of Leicester especially the weak, the poor and the vulnerable in the Western Ward and the other Wards across the City?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.  City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  I certainly wouldn’t say that I felt vindicated by what has been happening in Northamptonshire.  I just feel desperately sorry for the people of that county.  Their County Council has been grossly irresponsible, they have been driven by dogma, they have shown little concern for the implications of what they have been doing and they have I think not served well those who elected them to the positions of responsibility.  They have allowed their budget to fall apart, they have allowed their services to fall apart and of course inevitably when that happens it is the most vulnerable in their communities who are most hard hit.  I can say that this is my view and I am sure I speak for other members of the Labour Group here in Leicester that we would set out faces against that irresponsibility.  We will continue to behave responsibly, to recognise the realities of what the Tory government are doing to local government and in so far as we are able to seek to hold the services together, to hold the city together and to protect the most vulnerable in our city from the impact of what the Tories are seeking to do to them.   It is a statement of the obvious that we can only be partially successful in that but what we can do is to avoid Leicester going the same way that Northamptonshire has gone, finding itself actually having to savagely cut regardless of the impact and regardless of the implications.  I know I speak for Members on this side when I say we will continue to live in the real world, to face up to reality and to do our best while this Tory government remains to protect the people of our city from the impact of what they are doing and of course the final thing I would say is that I know I share this with Members on this side for the sake of the people in Northamptonshire but particularly for the sake of the people that we represent we will be campaigning to make sure that that Tory government does not run its course for the next few years, it is brought to an end as soon as possible and that we make sure it is replaced by a Labour government committed to an end to the savagery of austerity.       

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.  Do you have a supplementary question?

 

Councillor Cole:  and finally, finally Lord Mayor can I thank the City Mayor for his answer and clearly it is one that I support in its fundamental essence.  But can I also ask for a guarantee from the City Mayor that in the previous budget conversation we had friends to support us given the cuts coming down the line up until 2019/2020.  How is the City Mayor going to avoid the cliff edge if we are going to be subjected to this Tory government until 2022.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Cole.  City Mayor please.   

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor, Members will be aware, and we have talked about it on many occasions, that unlike many other Councils including some that are Labour controlled, we have sought to review our services in a systematic way, we have not sought to take a blunt axe to services once a year just to say well that’s it, that’s what the Tories have done to our city, we have tried to take the responsible view that we need to seek in so far as we can to understand what matters to the people of Leicester, to understand the impact of what we are doing and particularly of course work with our trade unions to ensure that we use their sympathy and their understanding to be aware of what it means for our workforce as well.    And it will certainly be my determination in my time ahead as City Mayor and I am sure it is something that Members will want to continue to support, that we should take that responsible view of the service we provide and seek to understand the implications sometimes quite serious ones of reductions in services and to meet them head on and honestly in response to what we have to face up with.  I can really only conclude by saying my Lord Mayor that what we have seen from this Tory government is unprecedented savagery in the reductions that they have made to local government spending and what we have seen from the City Council, this Labour led City Council is a responsible reaction to that and one that is sensitive to the needs of our city and particularly the most vulnerable in our city who so desperately need our support in response to what the Tories are doing to them. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.   Question number 24, Councillor Willmott please.

 

Councillor Willmott:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  “I would like to ask on behalf of my constituents to ask Councillor Kirk Master to agree to come to Rushey Mead and listen to their concerns about the plans for the recreation centre and library that were published last week.”  Thank you. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Master please.

 

Councillor Master:  Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Willmott for the question on behalf of his constituents.  As Councillor Willmott is fully aware as a Rushey Mead Ward Councillor that I have indeed met with numerous campaign groups, four, five, six, seven, I am not sure how many there are actually now in Rushey Mead that continually I meet with. In fact I only met with another one last night for over an hour and a half here in City Hall.  So as I have always stated in this chamber and will continue to state, I have no problem with meeting any group or any constituents or any service users.              

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Master.   A supplementary question Councillor Willmott?

 

Councillor Willmott:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  First of all I don’t dispute that Councillor Master may have met many groups but my question is will he come to Rushey Mead and meet with the community there, not ad hoc meetings of groups that come to City Hall.  That was my question, and I put it again because it has not been answered my Lord Mayor. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Master please.  

 

Councillor Master:  I did ask officers to prepare a kind of consultation process that we have been through since 2016 when TNS moved in to that area of the city and it was actually four and a half pages long in terms of the number of events, public consultations, drop in events, one to ones, drop in sessions, questionnaires, meetings etc, etc, etc.  I am not sure of the purpose of another public meeting in Rushey Mead given that we have done this in 2016, a decision was taken in January 2017 and we are now in March 2018.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Master.  Question number 25, Councillor Willmott please.

 

Councillor Willmott:   Thank you my Lord Mayor.  At the request of the City Mayor the Labour Group have instructed me to withdraw question 25 my Lord Mayor so I do so.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Willmott.  Question number 26, Councillor Willmott. 

 

Councillor Willmott:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  Perhaps I will have more luck with the City Mayor.  “I would like to ask him on behalf of my constituents to agree to come to Rushey Mead and listen to their concerns about the plans for the recreation centre and library that were published last week.”  Thank you my Lord Mayor.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Willmott, City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor as Members will have noted from the response to the previous question Councillor Willmott’s interest in this is clearly more about embarrassing and attacking his political colleagues than it is about representing his constituents.  My Lord Mayor.

 

Councillor Willmott:  That is not true.

 

Lord Mayor:  Can I request the member of the public to maintain silence otherwise I will have to evict them.

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor in response to the previous question Councillor Master has explained the numerous consultations that he has been engaged with in relation to the particular issues in the Rushey Mead Ward which are far greater than has been the case in many other parts of the city where decisions have been taken have been far more difficult than this one.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.  Councillor Willmott do you have a supplementary please?

 

Councillor Willmott:  I will try my Lord Mayor.  I have not had an answer to the question yet which is not particularly good from fellow politicians.  My point my Lord Mayor is that these questions were asked by constituents in Rushey Mead, people who voted for Peter Soulsby and myself and Councillor Patel and Councillor Clair and I am absolutely astonished that they won’t give a direct answer.  When the City Mayor was elected he promised to be accountable to the people of this city, he used to have cabinet meetings here where people could come and ask questions, he used to do surgeries, those things have gone my Lord Mayor.  These luxuries don’t exist.  All that the people there are asking is will he, because he is the final decision maker, Councillor Master won’t come to Rushey Mead and actually face the people locally and listen to what their concerns are now that the plans have been published, and I will ask him again why will he not agree to face the people of Rushey Mead my Lord Mayor.    

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  City Mayor please.

 

City Mayor:  My Lord Mayor Members on this side of the chamber will note that that was an attack on the leadership of this Council as they will also note that the and my Lord Mayor it is notable that many of those with whom Councillor Willmott has been working on this particular issue are people who have been intensely hostile and indeed have been our political opponents on occasions in the past, and I hear some notes of support for that remark.  My Lord Mayor I would encourage Councillor Willmott to work constructively with his political colleagues with regard to this issue.  As he is well aware there has been decisions with regards to neighbourhood facilities across the city where other Ward Councillors have worked constructively with Assistant Mayors who have had the responsibility and as a result of having worked constructively have been able to ensure that basic investment has gone into the facilities in their areas in the way that we would be anxious to provide investment into the Rushey Mead area but which Councillor Willmott has made very difficult indeed.  And I would say to him that it would be better for him to fight the battles that actually represent the interests of his constituents rather than those that have little or nothing to do with those interests and have everything to do with internal battles in the Labour party and Rushey Mead and with his own political ambition.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you City Mayor.  Question 27 Councillor Willmott. 

 

Councillor Willmott:   Yes my Lord Mayor.  This question appears to be in invisible ink.  I think it is simply because the first rendering of the question was out of order.  The question I would have asked here was very similar to the previous questions.  It was directed to Councillor Clair asking him if he would, in his capacity as Deputy Mayor, come and explain on behalf of his portfolio to the people of Rushey Mead.  But again the group at the request of the City Mayor have instructed me not to ask that question so I withdraw the question even though it is not there.  Thank you my Lord Mayor. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Willmott.  Question number 28 Councillor Kitterick please.

 

Councillor Kitterick:  Thank you very much Lord Mayor.  “Can the Cabinet Member for Housing inform us of the steps a person should take if they are having difficulties with private sector accommodation?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Kitterick.  Councillor Connelly to reply.

 

Councillor Connelly:  Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Kitterick for the question.  In the first instance a tenant should contact their landlord or their letting agency in order for them to address the particular problem.  If they get no response or unsatisfactory response from their landlord or letting agency or feel intimidated from contacting the landlord or letting agency, they should contact the Council and we will pursue it on their behalf.  If they then wish to contact the Council directly obviously there is nothing from preventing them from contacting their local Ward Councillor and I am sure their Ward Councillor will pursue the case on their behalf.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Connelly.  Councillor Kitterick before I invite you for a supplementary question I wish to thank you for informing me in advance for a little latitude to explain for your supplementary question which I have considered and will allow that but I hope that you will respect the little latitude you have been given to and make your supplementary question as short as possible.  Thank you.

 

Councillor Kitterick:  My Lord Mayor I always respect the Lord Mayor as everybody in this Council chamber knows.  Is Councillor Connelly aware that my constituent Mr. I, I shall not identify him or the landlords, his landlord is not an individual it is a limited company.  That the Council in its best analysis found an extensive lack of fire precautions in his property including a lack of smoke alarms and a lack of adequate escape in the event of a fire.  That there were nine people in the household constituting five households and that there is one of the bedrooms currently empty, that there are bathing facilities for five people, for those nine people, there were kitchen facilities for three people, that there is extensive mould in the bathroom, kitchen and food store.  And if to cap everything off the officer who inspected suspects that there are asbestos tiles in the ceiling and that the landlord has been asked not to disturb them so as to be a danger to the people living there.   The landlord did take action and is Councillor Connelly aware that having found out that my constituent was forced to share a single bedroom with his 12 year old daughter did take action that he sought to befit my constituent.  Given that this case is shocking but not unique and if these breaches have been found in a chicken shop we would close that shop down, and given that Members across this chamber all have their stories of such problems with private sector accommodation, would Councillor Connelly agree is it not time to bring in a comprehensive licensing system for private sector landlords in this city.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Kitterick.  Councillor Connelly to reply please.

 

Councillor Connelly:  Thank you Councillor Kitterick for the supplementary. I am well aware of the issues at this particular property and I am aware that you raised it on the 10^th February and one of our private sector housing officers visited the property and on the 16^th February wrote to the landlord and he is quite correct and it is not an individual landlord it is a limited company.  We are also trying to assist the particular tenant and to provide him with alternative accommodation, Council accommodation, and hopefully that should happen fairly soon.  I don’t disagree at all with Councillor Kitterick’s view about having a private landlord licensing scheme and as he is no doubt aware we have to apply to the government for the government to approve such a scheme and the government is fundamentally opposed to such schemes.  The Executive made a decision, we are aware that Nottingham Council will apply for a city wide private landlord licensing scheme.  They subsequently had to amend that to a selective scheme because some parts of the city and they had to put in a tremendous amount of resource in order to prepare their case to take to government.  Obviously they have been successful in their application for a selective scheme and has been agreed by the government.  We are looking to see what Nottingham are doing in order to deliver such a scheme and it is our intention to look at delivering a private landlord licensing scheme.  What I will say just in respect of the particular properties concerned, of course the government for whatever reason determined that office accommodation could be converted into housing accommodation without the requirement for planning permission.  In certain areas, so for instance where I work on New Street and Friar Lane some of the old solicitors offices have been converted into very pleasant accommodation and then we have the other extreme such as this whereby unsavoury accommodation is satisfactory clearly isn’t the case.  The reality is if they have to go to apply for planning permission they would never have ever got planning permission for the properties they are running at the moment.  But in some way yes I agree with Councillor Kitterick we do need to deliver a private landlord licensing scheme and that is what we will be seeking to do.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Connelly.   Question number 29, Councillor Moore please.

 

Councillor Moore:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  “Is the City Mayor aware that many breaches of planning permission in the City are not enforced effectively.  Can he acknowledge the distress this can cause to residents affected by loss of amenity as a result and offer an explanation?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Clair to reply.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Moore to ask me this question.  The City Council planning officers deal with around 800 reports of planning contraventions a year.  Government policy requires us to seek to resolve cases through negotiation to avoid having to revert to enforcement action which should be used as a last resort.  The Council has a good track record in this respect around 50% of contraventions, once checked, are generally found not to involve a breach of planning control and almost 40% of the remaining are positively resolved through compliance, negotiation or submission of a successful planning application to address the breach.  If I add both of these 50% and 40% that gives me a figure of 90% success of resolving those contraventions outside the legal process and that may be the next step when enforcement action is found to be necessary the Council will effectively pursue cases.  However, the process in that case can be longer that may take some time up to six months and an example I will give that we have taken even longer than a year to bring those sort of criminal convictions along with this process.  Officers are very thorough and proactive in pursuing action and will follow through on action to court if necessary.  Recent successful high profile cases involving painstaking and diligent action over a number of years has been successfully pursued.  I can give you an example of that like Green Lane Road, Mayflower Road, Fernandez Restaurant, Winter Road, East Park Road and some of which even recently Inquiry of public being concluded which is Westcotes Drive.  So the Council has really a good track record in taking robust action and compares favourably with other councils and I have given a figure that 16 cases are currently being investigated in Councillor Moore’s ward and those cases will be considered and investigated in the same way as officers have done in many other cases. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Do you have a supplementary question?

 

Councillor Moore:  Yes please my Lord Mayor I do.  Can I thank Councillor Clair for his answer and for the reassuring statistics that he has given us this evening.  I was beginning to think that Knighton was perhaps a little bit of a black area within the city, but I am reassured.  However, there does seem to be one particular case that has escaped this inspection and so this is my supplementary question.  Can the Deputy City Mayor find out why a retrospective planning application in Knighton was refused yet no enforcement was carried out and the same resident has now made a reapplication.  So the things that this person did, it was retrospective, he did them, it was refused, it was not removed, it’s still there and now has made a reapplication for this same adaptation to the building.  So when is the Planning Department going to tackle such cynical manipulation of planning regulations and give a robust message to unscrupulous and selfish residents.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Moore.  Councillor Clair to reply please.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor. I am aware of the case Councillor Moore is referring to.  I hardly correct my colleagues where in this case I can say Councillor Moore is incorrect in her description of an event.  In this case no application was submitted and refused in the first process of investigation.  When a complaint was lodged on 6^th November enforcement officers visited the site and promptly issued a formal planning contravention notice.  On 16^th November within 10 days advising that the location of the development was considered to be unacceptable.  That was the advice given to the owner of this property on the basis of the complaint made by an individual which of course you have copied me that complaint by highlighting your concerns and upon a subsequent visit in two weeks on 6^th December 2017 that premises owner has complied with the request of the officer as he removed those air conditioning units and now they have applied as a retrospective application to work with officers to find a suitable location in and around that building which officers will consider that application on its own merit and no decision is being made but obviously I take Councillor Moore’s point wholeheartedly and I do have sympathy with not only Councillor Moore and her constituent but city wise when the member of her constituency go through that pain but as I illustrated the track record of the Planning Department to deal with that and also given some reference and history back to this case.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Question number 30, Councillor Grant please.

 

Councillor Grant:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  “Was the City Mayor aware that emergency vehicles are only allowed to use bus lanes when on a blue light call.  This means ambulances returning to their area of operation take longer to be ready to respond to take a call.  Would the City Mayor now consider allowing the use of bus lanes to ensure that ambulances are on station more quickly providing cover to the public for longer and improving the efficiency of other emergency services?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Grant.   Deputy City Mayor Councillor Clarke to respond.

 

Councillor Clarke:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  The City Mayor has delegated bus lane issues to myself not least because I had to very swiftly become an expert in bus lanes when a Councillor who used to sit over there became very against bus priority himself.  So I believe that Councillor Grant is wrong in his assertion around the blue light priority because the bus lanes are government by cameras that would not pick up whether the lights are blue or not they actually read number plates and there is a wide list of emergency vehicles that are monitored and also emergency calls don’t always use blue lights so actually all emergency vehicles within our policy and there is a Traffic Regulation Order that reflects this, can use bus lanes.  If that is somehow not being applied correctly I would invite Councillor Grant to give me those instances and where that information has come from.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke.  Councillor Grant.

 

Councillor Grant:  Yes I mean that is welcome news.  Can we make sure that the various emergency services who have this ability to use the bus lanes are aware of it because, and this was raised with me by a paramedic who certainly thought that this was the case and therefore can only use bus lanes and actually the one in the Assistant Mayor’s Ward is the particular concern because  having used his blue lights to get into the Royal quickly he is then unable to get back out to the county on station as quickly because he is unable to use the bus lanes.  If he is not carrying a patient who requires to be at the Royal urgently they get stuck in traffic.  So would it be possible for use to just make sure that the emergency services are aware of the ability to use this and reassure the drivers they are not going to end up with a ticket or that we will end up on the front page of the Mercury explaining how we are cancelling a ticket.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Grant.  Councillor Clarke please.

 

Councillor Clarke:  Once again.  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  Once again Councillor Grant has been misled.  There is actually no traffic in Aylestone whatsoever.  You breeze through.  I have made sure of that Councillor Grant.  If there has been some misinformation that has gone to paramedics as well as obviously having the bus lane brief I also have the health brief and therefore can link straight into EMAS and through to our health professionals as well and I will certainly take that up and find out how that misinformation has got to professionals if indeed that is the case.  Thank you Councillor Grant.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clarke.  Question number 31 Councillor Grant.

 

Councillor Grant:  Yes. “To which council workers do we provide personal cameras such as those mounted on the chest?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Councillor Master to reply.

 

Councillor Master:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  Thank you Councillor Grant.  It is a timely question because currently we don’t supply any form of body worn video cameras to any of our staff at this moment in time.  However, I have tasked officers to look at a procurement exercise to see what the process is for us to go through and purchase some for our front line officers and our front line officers will consist of Civil Enforcement Officers, some parks officers and City Wardens – the ones that deal with the face to face public on a day to day basis.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Master.  Do you have a supplementary question?

 

Councillor Grant:  Yes.  While that is very encouraging news could we also look at whether it was possible to provide this sort of protection to our road crossing patrols, more affectionately known as lollypop men or women, who can be subjected to outrageous aggression and physical risks whilst carrying out the important job of protecting our children.  And if it couldn’t be provided through council budgets may be offering a way for either you know schools or for community funding to be used to do that.

 

Lord Mayor: Thank you.  Councillor Master please.

 

Councillor Master:  I am absolutely happy to take that back. I think that is a fair challenge and what we are going to procure is a set of approximately 50 cameras that we can look at alternative use.  So if there is a need that is identified within that area that is not a problem at all we can take that forward. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Master.  Question number 32, Councillor Grant please.

 

Councillor Grant:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  “What balance should licencing take when deciding whether to issue a private taxi licence in regard to considering public safety against the driver’s rights?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Grant.  Deputy City Mayor Councillor Clair to reply.

 

Councillor Clair:  Thank you my Lord Mayor.  In accordance with section 51 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 the Council shall grant a licence if they are satisfied that applicant is fit for purpose to hold the licence.  A licence can be suspended or revoked if the applicant does not meet the licensing policy guideline which are:- convicted of an offence involving dishonesty, indecency or violence;  convicted of a licensing offence; an immigration offence or any other reasonable cause.  In making the licencing decision all available information should be considered.  However, the overriding consideration of the Council is to protect the safety of the public and the personal circumstances of an applicant have no bearing on the decision which the licensing committee has to decide, and as you mentioned in your question, an individual driver does not have the right to be licenced where the Council as a private hire of hackney carriage unless he or she applies for a licence.  So however, in that sort of situation the decision is a determination of the civil right then article 6 of the Human Rights Act applies.  This establish a right of a fair trial. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  Do you have a supplementary question Councillor Gant?

 

Councillor Grant:  Yes Lord Mayor.  And following on from the Assistant Mayor’s answer earlier on the licensing of sexual entertainment venues, can he assure the public the test is at least as high to be a licenced taxi driver and to his knowledge there are no drivers he believes represent a risk to any members of the public.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Grant.  Councillor Clair please.

 

Councillor Clair:  In my reply to even previously in licencing planning issues so as the licensing issue, I think we have a robust policy in place.  I can assure that we have a really very effective chair of Licensing Councillor Thomas with experience of last maybe 15–20 years being chair of Licensing Committee.  I have full faith in our Licensing Committee members so as Planning Committee member they actually take each case on its own merit and I as an Executive member so as my please and City Mayor we don’t feel appropriate to intervene or even to discuss those cases.  So that has to be actually considered on its own merit which is the practice I can assure Councillor Grant that we actually comply and I believe that that is always implemented.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you Councillor Clair.  And that concludes the question from the Councillors.