Agenda item

COUNCIL QUESTIONS – 4^th OCTOBER 2018

 

Lord Mayor: Moving on to questions. There are no questions from members of the public so we will move on to questions from Councillors. Can I request that if any Members have questions for tonight’s meeting 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 purpose of clarifying the reply and not a statement. Please note I will curtail any Member that does not comply with those requirements and to start Councillor Waddington your question please.

 

Councillor Waddington: Thank you Lord Mayor. “Could the City Mayor please tell me which services Leicester City Council currently contracts out, and which ones he would consider bringing back in-house and when?”

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: Thank you Lord Mayor. The Council of course, as Members will be aware, has until recently had almost a billion pounds of expenditure each year and while that figure is now somewhat below a billion it is still very substantial and like other Councils we do have a wide range of providers of the services that the people of Leicester expect from their Council.  Some of them we provide directly, some of them we provide through third parties, some of them, quite a lot of them, are provided through voluntary and community sector partners. And, of course, you know like all other Councils that does involve some degree of the exchange of contracts and ensuring that the services are delivered according to those contracts. I think as Councillor Waddington will be aware the biggest contracted out service is one that was actually contracted out in 2003 under a previous Labour administration. They contracted out for 25 years the waste collection and disposal service.  Very much I think to my regret they did that with the benefit of a private finance initiative, and I am very pleased to say that since I was elected as Mayor we have not entered into any private finance initiatives unlike previous Labour administrations.  It does mean though because of that, we have a considerable number of difficulties with that contract, particularly difficulty to deal with the issues that of course Councillor Byrne is often drawing to our attention, those associated with the Ball Mill.  But we have actively sought to deal with that but are aware that they tied us up to a contract of 25 years and we are not at the end of that 25 years yet so are not able to consider bringing that back in house.  We have brought other services back in house – car park management being a notable one – and of course I have been pressed repeatedly to consider options for contracting out some leisure facilities, grounds maintenance, highway maintenance, building cleaning, all of which I have stood firm against unlike some previous administrations, and I do intend to continue to look always to direct provision of service as the very first, and I believe the very best, option.

  

Lord Mayor: Councillor Waddington do you have a supplementary?

 

Councillor Waddington: Yes thank you my Lord Mayor. I am pleased to hear the City Mayor’s comments which indicate that he believes that we should bring services back into the public realm, both at national and hopefully at local level.  So can I ask him when each of the contracts that we have, we haven’t had the full list, but when each of the contracts comes to an end can I ask him whether those contracts will be reviewed to ensure that we look at bringing those services that we can back in house. Thank you.           

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: My Lord Mayor I can give an absolute assurance that, as I have said in the answer to the initial question, that for me certainly the direct provision of service is by far to be preferred which does not mean that there are not advantages sometimes in recognising, particularly working with the voluntary and community sector, that they are often able to be in a better position than us to provide services that are well tailored to particular needs, to particular communities in the city, and I am of course, as I say, predisposed towards doing everything ourselves, but do recognise that we don’t have the monopoly of expertise, monopoly of knowledge about the city, or are necessarily always the best ones to provide services tailored to the needs of the communities.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Waddington your second question.  

 

Councillor Waddington: Yes, thank you my Lord Mayor. “Could the City Mayor, Deputy or Assistant Mayor responsible explain what, if any, monitoring is taking place on the impact of Universal Credit on claimants and services such as food banks, advice services and other services that are trying to help them?”      

 

Lord Mayor:  Assistant City Mayor Master.     

 

Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor. For those in the authority, I am sure Councillor Waddington is aware this benefit does not belong to the authority, we have taken a huge amount of work to get to this point. Since the Universal Credit full service roll out launched in June 13^th of this year the Revenues and Benefits service have expanded their monitoring and we have an exhaustive list, but I will give you some examples:  rent arrears and evictions, referrals to all social welfare advice providers, advice and digital support sought through our libraries or Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Services, customer services and the phone lines, applications in applying for crisis and emergency food and fuel, and our complex needs plan which highlighted the most needy through the city which included the homeless, mental health, domestic violence, children leaving care and our travelling community.  And although this is not an exhaustive list we compile equality data on the impacts upon city residents through the Social Welfare Advice Partnership and Leicester food banks.  We also have numerous meetings with our VCS sector, partners, DWP, community groups and food banks to ensure we are capturing the real-life picture on the ground and not just taking it through stats and data, which we do on a regular basis.               

 

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

 

Councillor Waddington: Yes, thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Master for explaining the extensive monitoring system that is being undertaken. Could he ensure that we will be receiving reports on this monitoring, because in my situation, running a food bank, I find increased demand from those waiting for Universal Credit but no increased resources to provide for them. Thank you.   

 

Councillor Master: Absolutely Lord Mayor. As we did recently, earlier in the week, we had a feedback session that was hosted by a range of partners from across the local authority and the DWP. We are only 3-4 months into this so still collating data is quite new and unique at this moment for us. But I will take that undertaking for the whole group that we will bring some information back and make sure that we have the stats that you are looking for going forward.

 

Lord Mayor:  Question 3, Councillor Rae Bhatia. 

 

Councillor Bhatia: Thank you Lord Mayor. “The bus pass renewal process has a gap that sometimes leaves the elderly bus users in trouble.  When the bus pass is renewed or reissued the old one is immediately cancelled, although the validity on the expiry date is still there. By the time the bus holder receives their renewal or reissued pass they are unable to use the old one.  Can the Deputy Mayor kindly look into this and ensure that the system is changed to allow the intervening period on the old bus pass to remain valid until the original expiry date or for at least the next 30 days, whichever is earlier, thus removing the possibility of inconvenience to the holder?” Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Clarke.  

 

Councillor Clarke:  Thank you very much my Lord Mayor. I have had a chance to look into this and thank you for submitting the question to me earlier and that enabled me to have a little look into it. The process as you call it should not run how you have described it so I would like to kind of take up any individual cases with you if that is OK Councillor Bhatia. The system is designed so that renewing a card does not immediately cancel the existing one so that the old card remains valid. That is how the system is designed, until the expiry date.  The card renewal process begins approximately 40 days in advance of the expiry date and customers should always receive their card before the existing one expires. So, if there has been a glitch in the process then I would like to know about that and I will take that up on behalf of your resident personally and will take it from there.                         

 

Lord Mayor:  Any supplementary?

 

Councillor Bhatia: No, I would just like to thank you and I will bring the personal case to you.          

 

Lord Mayor: Question number 4, Councillor Osman.

 

Councillor Osman: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “How many children were taken into Council care over the last two years providing the ethnic, religious and gender breakdown, plus how long does the process take in determining before a final decision is taken?”      

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor Russell. 

 

Councillor Russell: Thank you Lord Mayor. Thank you to Councillor Osman for the question. Apologies to colleagues in the Chamber because I am now going to read out a whole series of numbers which actually on their own will seem a bit strange, so I would just urge all my colleagues around the table that if they do want to know these figures on a regular basis then they are very welcome at Corporate Parenting where we present them every two months for you all to be able to interrogate and ensure that we are fulfilling our duties appropriately. But having said that I will now answer the question as it was posed.  We took 454 children into care with care orders from the 1^st October 2016, 54% of these were male and 46% female which is 208 females and 246 males. Ethnicity - we had 46 Asian, 54 black, 62 mixed heritage, 263 white children, 18 children who classed as other and 11 who refused or whose ethnicity was unknown. With religion we had 2 atheists, 2 Buddhists, 42 Christians, 7 Hindus, 57 Muslims, 2 Orthodox, 1 Seventh Day Adventist, 6 Sikh, 6 other religion, 90 of no religion, 8 who declined to say, 231 who it was not recorded for. And the average time it takes for a child’s permanent place of residence to be is within 26 weeks, but that is specifically about where they are going to be living long term, there are many, many other factors involved in looking at a child coming into care, whether they are going to be remaining with the authority, whether they are going to be placed with their parents, how long the Care Order is going to last, whether they are going to become a ‘looked after child’ which is different to having a Care Order against them and a range of other things which I think it would  probably bore everybody to tears if I went into the detail of in that level this evening, but I am very happy to organise a separate session for Councillor Osman if he would like to understand, or any Councillors if they would like to understand the difference between each of those. Thank you Lord Mayor.                         

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Osman, a supplementary?  

 

Councillor Osman: Yes, thank you my Lord Mayor. Can I thank the Deputy Mayor for her answer, but can I have some reassurances from the Deputy Mayor in relation to parents at the outset or beginning of the process that are kept informed and are communicated to.                 

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor.      

 

Councillor Russell: Thank you my Lord Mayor and again thank you to Councillor Osman for the supplementary. It is something that the service endeavours to do, to not only keep parents informed but to help them understand the reasons why action is being taken, to try and engage them in all stages of the process.  We absolutely recognise that at a point that can be extremely traumatic for people involved for a variety of reasons that that information isn’t always received straight away and we need to get better at repeating that information to make sure that that opportunity to talk about the reasons for taking a child into care are had on a regular basis. It is something that I monitor through our independent reviewing officer’s report as to whether families feel that they understand the reasons for their children being taken into care, and whether they have confidence that the plan for the care around their child is going to keep their child safe, and again that data is all available to be shared. Thank you Lord Mayor.      

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Kitterick, question number 5.  

 

Councillor Kitterick:  Thank you very much Lord Mayor. “Does the City Mayor think Leicester’s NHS workers deserve homes that have more than 25 square metres of space to live in?”

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.   

 

City Mayor: The short answer to that is yes, but I think perhaps Councillor Kitterick wants a slightly longer answer than that because I suspect that this relates to the current Jarrom Street proposals and I see some nodding from Councillor Kitterick to confirm that. I have got to be a little bit careful as to what I say about the planning aspects of that because it is a live planning application and clearly I cannot and must not intervene in the decisions of the Planning Committee, but I do know if I talk rather more generally about it that Members generally and certainly Members of the Planning Committee have expressed some frustration that they have not been able, or they have been advised that they have not been able, to ensure that minimum space standards are met in all of the applications that come in front of them for approval.  I know that there is some wish to pre-empt what may be a better situation with the approval of the Local Plan and to provide some interim measures that will enable us to be rather more robust with applicants. I do know there have been occasions, however when, notwithstanding the absence of the apparent necessary powers, they have nonetheless turned down applications where they have felt that the development has been unacceptable.  I am particularly concerned that we should seek to use our various powers in a way that is properly co-ordinated.    That means that there are other powers, and we have talked about this in another forum, that we may be able to use more effectively, or at least alongside the planning powers, and there are certainly powers, and they may well apply in this case, that would enable us where we are land owner to seek to impose conditions that might not be available to us when land is completely outside of our control. So I am going to be a little careful as to what I say about this particular one because it is actually in the planning process, but I can assure Councillor Kitterick and other Members that, both in this specific case and more generally, I am very concerned we should use the full range of our powers to ensure adequate development and that does include our powers as land owner.                         

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Kitterick a supplementary?

 

Councillor Kitterick:  Lord Mayor, can I ask the City Mayor, not in terms of the City Council as a planning authority, but that 96 Jarrom Street would not be able to go ahead without City Council land being involved.  The original decision came as a disposal of land for key worker accommodation which, when I saw that that was the Executive decision, I had no problem with it. I did have a problem Lord Mayor when there are 177 studio flats of 25 square meters which is substantially below the government’s minimum standard, and in the design and access statement it says “the focus for the scheme is for key workers, nursing staff accommodation”. Can I ask the City Mayor that as a key partner in supplying the land for this development will he use his influence to get the proposers of this development to go back and think again and at least seek to achieve the government’s minimum standard and not fall below those?  It is easy for us to express our support for NHS workers and nursing staff, we have got to back up those words with our actual powers.       

 

Lord Mayor:  City Mayor.       

 

City Mayor: Yes, my Lord Mayor, like Councillor Kitterick when I saw this initial proposal I saw no reason to see it other than one of routine. Clearly the proposals that are being made are ones we may well conclude produce something that is sub-standard and unacceptable in our city.  I have, I think in my initial response, undertaken to look at both the specific and the general, but I think, I hope Members will understand, it is not, I think, wise for me to say too much about the particular case in advance of actually having looked at the detail.

 

Lord Mayor: Question 6, Councillor Kitterick.  

 

Councillor Kitterick: May I thank the City Mayor for that very positive response.  Question 6 is “What is the timetable for the development of the latest Local Plan for the Leicester City Council area?”    

 

Lord Mayor:  City Mayor.  

 

City Mayor: I think the short answer to that is that as a result of government action far too slow, but certainly it is nothing that we are doing to slow it down.  Because they made substantial changes to the national requirements for local plans, announced back in July, apparently, we now need to undertake an additional call in for sites consultation as well as undertaking some new work on housing design and the density policies to meet their new requirements.  This does mean I am advised that consultation on the draft local plan, and of course relevant in our earlier debate about the proposed Aylestone Village bypass, that consultation will now not take place until at least the first half of next year, which does mean that it will be later in the year before we actually get to the point of having something that is in the public domain for potential enquiry.  The detailed timetable for consultation arrangements are intended to be published in the very near future and I will make sure that they will be available to all Members.                  

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Kitterick?  

 

Councillor Kitterick: Lord Mayor, is the City Mayor aware that in a presentation to the Economic Development and Transport, Tourism Scrutiny Committee the PowerPoint hand-out actually said “we should be at the point but we are still not one year ago”. Does the City Mayor share my frustration in the fact that the lack of the development of the Local Plan means that we are holding up key policies, such as incorporating minimum space standards into our Local Plan.

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.  

 

City Mayor: Again, my Lord Mayor the short answer is yes it does indeed.  I mean the government keeps changing the rules and moving the goal posts, or whatever the appropriate metaphor might be, and it does leave us in the frustrating situation of not having a number of policies in place, one of which he has quite rightly drawn attention to being very important, that of minimum space standards.          

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Kitterick I understand that you are prepared to consolidate questions 7 through 13 so if you could just read each question out and we will take a consolidated answer and I will allow some latitude around supplementaries.  

 

Councillor Kitterick: All of these questions for the benefit of the Chamber relate to St. Leonard’s Court. You are all capable of reading the order paper.  I shall not delay the meeting any longer by reading them all out and I am quite happy to hear Councillor Connelly’s reply to all six of those questions.      

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Connelly.

 

Councillor Connelly:  Ok.  Having prepared the answers chronologically I will now try and respond to make sure I get the timescales correct because it is a little confusing.   St. Leonard’s lift was not working due to the recent breakdown from the 11^th September and was not brought back into use until the 27^th September. A total of 16 days regrettably. The lift was reported, quite correctly, by a tenant on the 11^th September, phoned through to the Customer Service call centre telephone number, which is the advice that tenants are given, and so it was reported to Customer Services on the 11^th who reported it to the contracted lift company, who then visited the site but also notified the Fire Service, as we are scheduled to do. Unfortunately, Customer Services did not inform Housing and it was only on the 14^th September were Housing made aware when a tenant contacted Housing directly.   

 

On the 14^th September officers visited St. Leonard’s Court and that visit included door to door home visits to all properties, telephone residents and face to face conversations and subsequently letters were placed on each floor to inform residents of the issues and contact information for officers with any issues occupants may have faced. Information letters continued to be regularly posted in the block to keep occupants updated about progress with the lift repair throughout the time the lift was not working.  

 

I was not informed until the 20^th September actually by a telephone call from Patrick.  Unfortunately, Housing Officers, and this may well be due to perhaps a key officer being on leave I understand, I was not informed so the first I heard about it was when Patrick phoned me up on Thursday 20^th September.  Imagine my despair when I got the message from Patrick to hear that the lift was not working and had not been working since the 11^th September. It was not true that a spare part had to be bought from overseas. My understanding is that the printed circuit board the PCB was faulty and it could not be replaced because the lift is that old apparently they no longer manufacture this particular PCB, so the PCB had to be sent away to be repaired and then when it was returned it was subsequently then fitted. 

 

On Monday 24^th I was informed by a message that the lift was back in operation.  The PCB had been fitted, so officers and myself assumed that the lift was now working.  On Monday Councillor Kitterick contacted me, phoned me again to see what the situation was. I told him that I believed the lift was back in operation but suggested to him that he should contact the tenant who had been in contact with him to confirm that was the case. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as the lift engineers had determined, although they fitted the printed circuit board, the PCB, they also determined that they were going to deal with some issues to increase the voltage to the lift and there had been an intermittent problem since July with the door rollers and they determined to repair that. It is a bit like taking your car into a garage for an oil change and being told you need 3 new tyres and a couple of brake pads. So, my understanding was that without consultation with Housing, the lift engineers determined they were going to deal with those particular issues whilst they were dealing with the underlying problem which was the PCB. 

 

The lift has been broken 10 times in the last 4 years and clearly when we get the second lift installed then the first lift will need to be replaced, but we can’t  do that until such time as we get the second lift installed and there has clearly been delays with that – recently with a leaseholder who has been holding us to ransom, and the negotiations are continuing with the lease holder and hopefully are going to come to an end very soon so that we can get on with getting that lift fitted. I don’t know whether I am going to be here next year, but I do hope that come May 2019 that lift would have been fitted so me and Patrick can launch it. It is unfortunate and as I say in respect of this fiasco recently, I will say I am greatly disappointed with the authority, Housing Division, Customer Services and certainly this is an issue the Chief Operating Officer will be pursuing and clearly there is a lot of miscommunication and lessons will have to be learnt by everybody involved. Thank you.     

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Kitterick do you have a supplementary? 

 

Councillor Kitterick:  Can I thank Councillor Connelly for his comprehensive reply and I will try and be as brief as I can. A lift broken for 16 days and nobody informed by Customer Services for 3 or 4 days. I have constituents who were in that lift. They do not recall after 10 days of it being broken a single letter or leaflet being put through any door at all. The Cabinet Member for Housing informed of an issue which he would not be unfamiliar with on the 20^th September. Then a lift that is so old that the parts have to be taken away specially and repaired. And then the Cabinet Member told by senior officers the lift was working and then when I told my constituents I said “oh the lift is working” imagine my embarrassment to be told that I was misleading them. Ten times in the last 4 years the lift has broken down. My question is and yet we get told it might be done by May of next year. Can I ask the Cabinet Member for Housing, does he not believe that there is serious cultural problems within the Housing Department? This is not just one mistake. It is mistake after mistake after mistake and all the Cabinet Member can come to here tonight says he hopes it will be solved by May 2019. Can I ask the Cabinet Member does he believe that there is severe cultural problems within the Housing Department, and what is he going to do to get that lift repaired, because clearly as this instance demonstrates, it could break down in the middle of winter and who knows how long people will not have access to getting out and about in Leicester?  

 

Lord Mayor:  Assistant Mayor.

 

Councillor Connelly:  I don’t accept that there was a culture within the Housing Department as Patrick is describing. I think the Housing Department, certainly in my view, we are more responsive then we have ever been. In respect of customer complaints, whether it be complaints from tenants, and I am of the view there is certainly not a problem with the culture. It is unfortunate, I will say, that the last breakdown of communications was so poor between everybody to be perfectly blunt and lessons will be learnt as a result of that and I will ensure that indeed happens. You can imagine there I am stood with my monthly argument with Tesco’s pharmacy I am having a conversation with Patrick about the fact that I told him the lift was repaired, he came back to say no it was not.  I can’t say it was a pleasant end to a Monday evening.  I am bitterly disappointed that the housing division were not informed until the 14^th and nobody within the Housing Division thought to inform me, bearing in mind we have regular debates in this Council Chamber about St. Leonard’s Court and the failure to get the lift installed. My understanding is, and I can’t give a definite timescale at the moment, my understanding is the remaining obstacle to having the lift installed is nearly resolved. It is disappointing that one of the leaseholders is determined that he would use the opportunity, who does not live in the block any more and I understand lives in Nottingham, I don’t think I can say too much about the individual, but it is disappointing that he has held us to ransom over getting the second lift installed. I do want to see the lift installed as quickly as possible, but I cannot say at this stage I cannot give a definite answer and it would be foolish of me to say it will be done by a particular day when at this stage we cannot give a date. However, the funding is still there, when Councillor Kitterick approached me about the second lift it was myself in consultation with officers who agreed that we would fund the second lift and we will fund a replacement of the first lift once we get the second lift installed. As I say I am disappointed, I apologised to Councillor Kitterick and his fellow Councillors and to the tenants of St. Leonard’s Court that the lift was out of service for 16 days, and I think there is a lesson to be learnt in respect of the relationship we have with the lift company who determined to extend the length of time it was not working without informing us accordingly.

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you. Now moving on to question 14, Councillor Kitterick.

 

Councillor Kitterick:  Thank you very much Lord Mayor. Again I am quite happy to collapse the three questions from 14 to 16 into one reply with the Deputy City Mayor for Children and Young People. Whilst Sarah gets the opportunity to see if that causes a problem I would just like to outline I shall not read them all out to Members but as far as to say there is report in the Leicester Mercury on the 24^th September about somebody who was the victim of child sexual abuse and the involvement of the police services and the Council in the placing of a known sex offender, but perhaps Councillor Russell’s responses will fill out more about the actual issue concerned. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor Russell do you want to reply to questions 13 to 16.

 

Councillor Russell: Thank you Lord Mayor. I think Councillor Kitterick just wants to throw us off our game by collapsing questions together today. This is an awful case and the impact on the individual I think has been well reported.   But I want to give Members in the Chamber today assurances that there have been a number of things put in place to avoid, wherever possible, the opportunity for this type of issue to happen again. So, the case was subject to a MAPPA serious incident review, it is a process that many organisations do, particularly in partnership whenever something goes wrong to go back and look at what can we do differently to try and prevent this sort of case reoccurring.  And a number of recommendations were made based on the findings of that.  Consequently, the locations of children’s homes are considered as part of all risk assessments carried out by the police, and both the MAPPA level 2 and level 3 meetings have representation from the City Council, from both Children’s’ Services and Housing in line with our statutory requirements. Both of those implies you get three separate extra levels of checks to ensure that wherever possible we try and prevent such issues reoccurring. In terms of the estimated costs, first of all just a clarity on the question. Whilst the initial judgment was made by the High Court, the appeal will be heard by the Court of Appeal and the costs of the appeal are covered by the Council’s insurance provisions. So as such there is no direct cost to the Council and the decision whether to appeal or not was not one on which we took the lead but was our insurer’s lead, and it was based upon the independent expert legal advice that they took. So, in terms of the issue being pursued I want to be absolutely clear that this is not being pursued primarily around liability. It is not about the amount of damages being awarded to the claimant, the case has the potential, and the way the wording of the case has been put or the judgment has been put, has the potential of setting legal precedent that does not just place the City Council at risk of significant further claims, but also local authorities and police forces around the country. So, the police are appealing, and we are protecting our position within the appeal process, but it is their lead in terms of the appeal. I hope that clarifies the issue for you. It isn’t something that I have had political engagement with because it has been something that our insurers and their lawyers have led with. Thank you Lord Mayor.

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Kitterick.

 

Councillor Kitterick: My Lord Mayor I appreciate that Councillor Russell has not taken part in it, but I would ask would Councillor Russell give an undertaking to have an oversight of this matter, because whilst it may be the technical answer is from insurers and lawyers, unfortunately it may appear that we have a victim who has suffered a great injury through being abused which the court interpreted was due to a decision by the City Council and Police  authorities to place a known sex offender near a children’s home. Will the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People please ensure that actually we do not come off as a City Council as a corporate organisation that is seeking to put a victim of sexual abuse through more trials and tribulations than is absolutely necessary?  

 

Lord Mayor:  Thank you.  Deputy City Mayor.  

 

Councillor Russell: Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Kitterick for the follow up question. I think there are a couple of things. First of all the perpetrator was the one who carried out that action, the Police placed an individual, not directly near, but in the vicinity of a children’s home. I think everybody recognises that there were potential issues around that and that is what has been taken through the court process. I am absolutely clear that any victim of sexual abuse must be properly supported to be able to seek justice for the impact of the crime against them and I will continue to fight to make sure that any victims of crime in this City, particularly victims of sexual abuse and particularly of children, are able to have their cases heard and are able to be supported through court processes and those are not dragged out unnecessarily. Thank you.       

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Kitterick, question 17.    

 

Councillor Kitterick: Lord Mayor. “What preparations are Leicester City Council making for problems caused by a shortage of NHS beds this coming winter?”

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Clarke.

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you for the question Councillor Kitterick. It is probably worth noting that the most significant problems arise within the hospital and flow within our hospitals in the city, particularly at the Emergency Department performance and ambulance handovers, when we get those horror stories of ambulances backing up at hospitals around the country as we do most winters nowadays. Under the leadership of Councillor Dempster, Adult Social Care plays a role supporting people to remain in the community and to avoid unnecessary admissions through the reablement service and crisis response services that Adult Social Care delivers, and also by ensuring that people are not stuck in hospital beds and their transfer of care is delayed. Our performance I am told as a Council in relation to delayed discharges is exemplary. In July, when we had the converse as we have over winter, an incredibly hot summer, we were the top performing local authority nationally. Our integrated crisis response service is also recognised as national best practice supporting over 600 people each month at home. As with previous winters, we are confident that Adult Social Care will perform and support the whole system effectively. We are, through my chairmanship and through the membership of the Health and Wellbeing Board, fully engaged with the whole system winter preparedness plan which I cautiously welcomed at the last Health and Wellbeing Board, and which the CCG was questioned on in great detail and with great passion by Councillor Dempster and Councillor Russell at that meeting to ensure that the hospitals were learning from last winter. The Council supports, through prevention work, flu jabs for care staff, advice to care homes in managing infection control.  Beyond that the Council’s public health responsibilities are corporate so there are severe weather emergency protocols where we open up beds over the winter for those that might be in need of the Dawn Centre for instance and One Roof Leicester, we work in partnership there, and we also, through the Housing Department, perform emergency boiler repairs, which offers a public health function and supports people in their homes, and there is 24 hour working in Housing over winter too. In my area, in the energy team section, we have something called health through warmth which keeps people warm through the winter if there is a very cold period that could result in illness that might take one to hospital and we make use of our energy company obligations there, and I don’t need to talk possibly to the chambers about the great work our transport team does in gritting our roads, making sure our bus routes are covered and that there are ambulances in particular amd can ensure that people who have experienced difficulties can get to the hospital in a way so they can be treated in good time.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Kitterick.

 

Councillor Kitterick: Thank you very much Lord Mayor. We have had a proper summer and it looks like we are having a proper autumn, my fear is that if we have a proper winter that the shortages that we see every year will get to crisis point. I welcome the comprehensive list of measures the City Council and the Cabinet Member is taking and leading in preventing this, but would the Cabinet Member agree with me that this absolutely points to the folly, which many people fear, of the running down and eventual closure of Leicester General Hospital and how that would make all the problems that we will face this winter, good winter or bad, many times worse.   

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you my Lord Mayor and it was pointed out by the UHL at the last Health and Wellbeing Board that they are concerned about bed numbers even though they have put contingency in place. What I will say about the STP is, which Councillor Kitterick referred to, is we do not know enough about it and what we need is much more transparency from our CCGs in talking to us about the plans that they have going forward and the proposal, the long running – which has run for not quite as long as the Evesham Road link – but it is a long running proposal that has been put forward previously.  What we wish on behalf of the City as truly accountable Members of this Council and I am sure as Members of Parliament will wish, that those in the CCG and UHL talk to us in much more depth, much more quickly about their plans and their proposals going forward and that is the case that I have been making, it is the case that myself and the City Mayor and I made only this week.    

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Barton, question 18.

 

Councillor Barton: “There are rumours that the central area of Saffron Lane Sports Centre which has been the site of athletics field events such as long and high jump, shot put, javelin and discus throwing, is to be redeveloped as football, rugby and perhaps American football pitches. Athletics is something that can be pursued by all abilities, including athletes with disabilities, both competitively and in the quest for personal bests. Can we have a reassurance that any development will include the continuing provision of facilities for both track and field athletics disciplines please?” 

 

Lord Mayor:   Deputy City Mayor Clair.

 

Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. Thank you too Councillor Barton for asking this question. The City Council is consulting on modification of Saffron Lane Athletics Stadium as part of an £85,000 investment to improve and change those facilities. Proposals would see the centre of the Stadium converted so that it can be used as a multi-sports opportunity for many number of sports including as you mention in your question, American football, rugby and even baseball. The site has ample grandstand and parking facilities for spectators. This has already been done at a number of cities that they have tested and it is practice that they have been able to reconfigure those field events and it is a great success. I can assure Councillor Barton that Saffron Lane is primarily an athletic track, and athletics events and training will continue to take priority as a main function. The Council has worked closely with UK Athletics identifying suitable places at the Stadium to relocate the jumping and throwing areas. Initial plans have been approved by UK Athletics and this would mean that the Stadium would continue to keep its UK Athletics certification for hosting competitions. So, these draft plans were consulted on at a public meeting on 4^th September with people with the intention to give them some heads up before the proper consultation process will be actually starting. So, I know that there have been a number of concerns raised and there are a number of people and users that have raised their concern, but I can assure Councillor Barton and those service users that this consultation is now underway, which will be completed on 4^th November, for 6 weeks. We are not trying to rush to any conclusion. We will give ample opportunity for all service users to put forward their opinion and views and that will be fully consulted upon and also we will give the feedback of consultation and go back to consult those clubs and service users to make sure it is done properly and I can rest assured Councillor Barton that it is the only athletics track in Leicester and Leicestershire. I understand the next one would be at Loughborough University and it is a prime site we need to give priority for athletics but at the same time we need to bring some more uses in a different form so that we can enhance the users of this centre for the health and wellbeing of a wide range of users and our citizens. So I can assure you this will be done through proper consultation and which is on the way.      

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Barton do you have a supplementary?

 

Councillor Barton: Thank you. I am pleased that it will continue to be used for athletics, as I say athletics is important for people of all ages and abilities.  Also, one of the other issues that has occurred recently away from the athletics facility and Saffron Lane, is that I am still getting a lot of emails about problems regarding access to swimming facilities because of new timetables and sometimes facilities are booked up by outside groups such as water polo teams at a time when the public would like to use them. I know that is perhaps going a little way from what I asked in the first question but it is something that people have been asking me particularly over the last few days.

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Clair: My Lord Mayor I am aware that you know one particular issue which was raised at that consultation meeting, especially the relocation of long jump and high jump, and officers are mindful that they provide proper protection to the service users when athletics events are happening, that those children in particular from schools and colleges who would be choosing that facility for their athletics meet and competition, they are actually given proper safety net and there is a proper barrier and I can assure that any local, national – perhaps we don’t hold any international athletics events – school events and school athletics meet would be given priority and they will be happening as normal.

 

Lord Mayor: And just as reassurance, Councillor Barton because of the implication in the question, football, rugby and American football are also sports which can be played by people with disabilities. I know from experience having played rugby at university with a one-armed German prop.  I hasten to add that being German was not the disability.  He was only able to play loose head.  OK moving on Councillor Cutkelvin.  

 

Councillor Cutkelvin:  Thank you Lord Mayor.  “What capacity does the City Council have in supporting tenants in privately rented accommodation?” 

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor Connelly.

 

Councillor Connelly: Thank you to Councillor Cutkelvin for the question.  Within our Housing Options Service the homelessness prevention officers and private sector officers work with private tenants and landlords to support them with protection from eviction and also harassment from other tenants.  This will also include reconciliation work with private landlords.  We also commissioned additional housing related support, particularly for private rented tenants and the current provider is P3. They can help with all housing related matters and referrals are made by the Council where we feel that the tenant would benefit from additional support, especially if they are facing homelessness.  We also commission housing related support within its provision of community law services, which includes housing advice, including legal representation with the provider Citizens Advice. Obviously with the introduction of the extension of the mandatory licensing for HMOs that was introduced on Monday and whereby the previous criteria of them having to be three stories or higher will obviously mean that we will have a greater involvement with inspecting, particularly inspecting HMOs and issuing licences, which will obviously help protect tenants in those properties, and indeed we have private landlords complain both to the City Mayor and myself about the support we provide to private tenants.  I have obviously taken over, not taken over that is the wrong term, I also have responsibility now for private sector housing and I have regular briefings.  One of the disappointments of my first meetings was that they were unable to provide any performance data, and they are now providing that.  I also think there is a role for Housing Scrutiny Commission to be looking at issues in the private sector as well as just purely within the Council and housing associations.      

  

Lord Mayor: A supplementary question?

 

Councillor Cutkelvin: Yes thank you my Lord Mayor. Yes I agree in that Scrutiny should be looking at the private rented sector as well as our own in-house provision, but with the housing market as it is and nationally we have seen a dramatic increase of people renting accommodation and renting accommodating for life, the Assistant Mayor has clearly given us an outline of what our regulatory capacity is with privately rented accommodation, but I would also just like to have some assurances about our public health duty which runs through all that we do. I believe that it is essential that we recognise that actually living in privately rented accommodation poses many issues including insecure tenancies, and this has a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of our city’s residents. I believe that when we are looking at private rented accommodation we should recognise this from the outset, and I would just ask that the Assistant Mayor works closely with the Deputy Assistant Mayor for Health on matters that arise around the private rented accommodation sector.     

 

Lord Mayor:  Assistant City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Connelly: Do I really have to work with Adam! I am quite happy to accept the suggestion from Councillor Cutkelvin and we should recognise in the city private landlords. We think we have about 30,000 privately rented properties in the city, bearing in mind that we as an authority have just over 20,000 at the moment. So clearly private sector housing and rented private sector housing makes up a large number of properties within the city, and we do need to ensure we are taking a co-ordinated approach to the problems that private tenants have sometimes with their landlords and their properties. 

 

Lord Mayor:  Question 20, Councillor Cutkelvin.

 

Councillor Cutkelvin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “With a dramatic increase in the use of new psychoactive substances such as spice, what actions can the City Council take to prevent further uptake and support users?”

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Clarke.   

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you my Lord Mayor. It is a case of both enforcement and support that we seek to provide with our partners in the police. We have made it clear through the Public Space Protection Order that what were formerly known as legal highs are not acceptable in the city centre through that PSPO, and the sale of those substances is illegal and we support the police action against those who supply NPS. As well as that robust enforcement regime, as Councillor Cutkelvin knows, those users of NPS are encouraged to get help from No. 5 Hill Street and through other agencies that we commission and work with in the city such as Turning Point which is commissioned by the public health team that I oversee, and that is paid for through the ring fenced public health grant.  These agencies, along with other agencies including school nurses, I understand, are trained to support people and give advice around NPS. Furthermore, investigatory work is taking place currently with myself working alongside Councillor Myers where we are looking at entrenched substance misusers and the connection with mental health issues.  And I am very pleased in the previous question you alluded to the public health link to housing, because that is certainly one of the areas that this piece of work is looking into also.  So, I believe we do have robust systems and procedures in place and support in place more importantly.  Of course, these substances are not only a blight on society and our communities, but also on those users and the families of those users as well and we must seek to provide support, not only for them but for the communities we seek to serve.       

 

Lord Mayor:  Councillor Cutkelvin a supplementary?

 

Councillor Cutkelvin: Yes, thank you my Lord Mayor. In my opinion it is essential that we see this type of drug use, particularly things like the zombie drug, as first and foremost a mental health issue. I mean who wants to use zombie drug unless you want to escape the realities of the life that you exist.  What I would urge or ask the Deputy Assistant Mayor to do is to work very closely with our partners in both the NHS and with the Police in terms of our first response to people who are using new psychoactive substances on our city streets. I think we need a clear strategy in how we deal with those individuals. You know is it EMAS’s responsibility, is it the Police’s responsibility, is it our responsibility as the local authority in terms of protecting tourism?  I would like to see a really clear strategy going forward.     

 

Councillor Clarke: It is all our responsibility, thank you my Lord Mayor, and all those above. We work very closely with the Police and with our NHS partners around this issue and you are absolutely right, you know there is usually always a mental health element when working with these particular users, and it is incumbent upon us to have multi-agency partnerships and I know that Members of the Council have been down to look at the work of St. Mugos in London and St. Mungos indeed have come up to talk to us about their great multi-agency work which goes beyond those agencies that you have actually described there.  So that we have real multi-agency partnerships across services that recognise the needs of those users and the families of those users and the wider community.                

 

Lord Mayor: Question 21, Councillor Cole.  

 

Councillor Cole: Thank you Lord Mayor. “During my trips around the Ward the elderly residents that I have spoken to tell me that they feel forgotten by the Council and this is something that they say repeatedly, and they also fear the outcome from Brexit should that turn out to be a bit of a disaster. Now with winter on the horizon and Brexit only a few months away what assurance can the City Mayor give to these residents on both concerns please?”   

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: My Lord Mayor, can I thank Councillor Cole for this question because I think it is a reminder to us that in a large city like Leicester there are inevitably those who feel marginalised. I say it is inevitable that they feel that, but that does not mean to say that we should just accept that that is a situation that is acceptable and be complacent about it. We must be continually aware of the need to inform people what is happening in the city, understand their concerns about what is happening in the city, and particularly understand their concerns about their neighbourhoods and their households, their families and their friends. That is why I do feel that it is very important that all of us elected Members, not just me as Mayor, do our very best to engage with communities and to engage with those who perhaps don’t have opportunities to express their concerns through being vociferous in this chamber or from writing to the Mercury or whatever it might be or even from telephoning up to Radio Leicester for talk ins and so on. There are lots of people out there that perhaps don’t feel that they have the confidence or the ability to do that effectively, and I think it is important that we are all aware of those who may feel marginalised and neglected and forgotten in our urban environment. On the other side to it my Lord Mayor I do sometimes feel like, and I think it was in the Life of Brian wasn’t it where the question was asked what have the Romans ever done for us, and I do often find myself having to explain to people and to communities just what the Council does do for them. I just scribbled a few things down. The schools, the roads, the swimming pools, litter picking, libraries, bin collections, street lights, care of the elderly, protection of children, and indeed for many of them the provision and the maintenance of their homes – 20-odd thousand still are our direct responsibility. So there are lots of things that we do for the community but we mustn’t believe that we are necessarily doing everything that is needed and we must not forget that sometimes that when people feel marginalised it is because they are.     

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Cole a supplementary?

 

Councillor Cole: Can I thank the City Mayor for his response Lord Mayor. Can I say to the City Mayor that whilst myself and fellow Councillors are very sensitive to the parts of the Wards where these issues are arising, I just wondered if there might be some provisions that officers might have that might help to reassure these residents, especially the elderly ones who are on their own and feel completely cut off?

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: Yes my Lord Mayor. Perhaps you know I may be pre-empting a question that is coming later, but the fact is that cities like Leicester have suffered dramatically and appallingly at the hands of the present government’s austerity agenda and the way in which they have used councils to implement cuts at local levels that have impacted very hard on some of the most marginalised and most disadvantaged in our communities, and it is a sad fact that as a result of that Leicester and similar councils do not have as many people out there on the ground in communities as was once the case, and are not able to provide the levels of service that was once what we wanted to provide and what people expected of us. That is something that I very much regret and inevitably I look forward to the election of a Labour government committed to the end of austerity and committed to working in partnership with local councils up and down the land who, like Leicester, have felt that they have been unable under austerity to do all that they would need to do and feel morally obliged to do to connect with the people of our city and to ensure that their needs are met and that they are not still further pushed out into the shadows. 

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Cole, Question 22.

 

Councillor Cole: “If as mentioned in the press the government is putting up two billion pounds for housing in England can the Assistant City Mayor for Housing say how the City Council is positioning itself to ensure that we here in Leicester get our share of the funding to build the much needed houses in the city?”

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Connelly: Thank you Councillor Cole for the question.  Unfortunately, the money being given by the government, the two billion pounds that he quotes, unfortunately is not targeted at councils and is indeed all targeted at Housing Associations. So we as a council will not see any benefit from that two billion pounds in respect of providing council housing, but clearly Housing Associations will use that money to develop affordable housing and for Housing Associations. We will continue to work and encourage Housing Associations in the city to identify sites and assist them to deliver new affordable housing in Leicester on the understanding that we have the nomination rights to those properties. So, we have just recently invested one million pounds in using our right to buy money which otherwise would have to be returned back to the government. We have invested that one million pounds through the Riverside Housing Association to deliver 46 affordable units in Beaumont Leys in Somerset Avenue, and that will clearly take 46 families off our housing register, which has at the moment over 6,000 people on it. Now that the 1% rent reduction has ceased, which clearly had an impact on our finances, as all council housing has to be funded through the housing revenue account and we have a cap on the amount that we can borrow, but we have recently set up our own housing company and called it the Housing Leicester Limited. My thanks for that very imaginative name. We will start to deliver new affordable council houses, first phase of up to 50 new homes will be on site in spring 2019, and we have ambitious targets to build up to 300 new homes in the next three years.  I do welcome Teresa May’s announcement yesterday that the government is proposing to remove the cap from councils so we can borrow more to build more council houses. We clearly need to see the fine print.  

 

Lord Mayor: A supplementary Councillor Cole?

 

Councillor Cole: There would have been Lord Mayor but I think my good friend has answered my supplementary already. Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: Question 23 then Councillor Cole.

 

Councillor Cole: “With cuts to local authority budgets by the central Conservative government still an integral part of local government’s reality, how will the Deputy City Mayor for Children and Young People Services ensure that those non-mandatory services, such as youth services does not get wiped off the City Council’s landscape, thereby abandoning young people who rely heavily on the service to their own devices?”

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Russell.

 

Councillor Russell:  Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Cole for the question. The most basic answer is continue to campaign relentlessly for a Labour Government and continue to have a Labour Council that recognises the vital work that is done with the new services across the city and protect those wherever we can. Non statutory services – it is one of those terms that is banded about a lot, statutory and non-statutory services, and there are usually lots of grey areas I think it is fair to say within it. I think one of the things that we have been absolutely clear on is understanding how we can continue to provide services, working with partners so we have worked with Leicester City Football Club to significantly increase the offer across the city, beyond that that we were able to provide ourselves, we have made sure we have protected services particularly for young people who have greater vulnerabilities, so those with special education needs and disabilities, our young carers, those who need support looking around particular issues. We have kept 1:1 support, we have got an amazing participation services in the city that does some phenomenal work and we continue to do open access and street based youth work across the city. This is something I think we need to be proud of as a city and I would hope that with a future Labour government we could grow that service again rather than having to look at how we can balance very, very difficult budgets.  Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: A supplementary Councillor Cole?

 

Councillor Cole: Can I thank the Assistant City Mayor for her answer Lord Mayor. I guess the concerns from speaking to youth workers is that they would like some reassurance that the budget for youth service isn’t going to experience any further severe cuts because should that be the case then they themselves are wondering how they are going to do their job and carry out their function effectively.  

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Russell: Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Cole for the follow up question, and I think I have stated what I think the best route is to protecting youth services and I will reiterate that a government that recognises the importance of youth services and in fact is committed to make them a statutory service would be the easiest route for that. In the meantime, I think we have to collectively look at how our budgets are allocated and I think actually we also have a duty, myself leading the youth service and all the people involved in working in it, in demonstrating what an amazing impact it can have.  I think something that we have struggled with as children’s services previously is demonstrating what impact we do have and I know anecdotally some of the incredible experiences young people have, but I think then we are having to look at every different area of council spend it is incumbent on us all, particularly, those of us who are responsible for leading particular services to make sure that we are able to understand where they are having impact, where might be missing out and how we can maximise what they can offer, particularly as I say by working with partners and understanding where, if we are going to target further resources, where they are going to have the greatest impact for young people in our city. Thank you Lord Mayor.

 

Lord Mayor: Question 24, Councillor Cole.

 

Councillor Cole: Thank you Lord Mayor. Unfortunately I could not collapse my 6 questions into 1 so here goes. “Given the great success of the ice rink in Jubilee Square last Christmas, can the City Mayor confirm whether the ice rink will be back again this Christmas and does he have any other pleasant surprises in store for the residents of Leicester this Christmas?”

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: I feel a bit like Santa Clause. My Lord Mayor the ice rink was, as Councillor Cole has said, last year indeed a great success. We had over 25,000 skaters on the ice which I don’t think anybody had anticipated would be the sort of numbers we would get. It came of course last year 10 years after we last had I think a much smaller ice rink in the city centre. The high numbers that we had last year show that this is a family leisure offer that was very much appreciated and it was indeed a family leisure offer because there were people there of all ages actually having a go, some like me desperately holding on to the edge and some clearly much more experienced and much more confident doing some really quite fantastic things on that ice. I can confirm that it will be back this year. It will not just be back, it will be back 50% bigger with a better overall skating experience, that is the phrase I was given. It will open to the public on the 6^th December and run through to the 6^th January. It will include dedicated time slots for school parties, opportunities for corporate events so people can book it for their special event and have exclusive use during that period and there will also be special themed evenings. But Councillor Cole invited me to talk about other things in the city centre. The wheel of light will be returning to Jubilee Square again from Friday 16^th November to Monday 7^th January.  We have got the Alice in Wonderland tableau in Town Hall Square on the Bishop Street side and of course you know it is important to remember that Christmas is a religious festivity and that we continue to recognise that with a nativity scene which will be displayed on Horsefair Street on the Horsefair Street side of the Town Hall Square. Just for Member’s diaries the Christmas light switch on is on Thursday 22^nd November at 5pm in Humberstone Gate, and I think Lord Mayor you have that in your diary to actually do the switch, I hope you do, I think you do. We have also got here amongst my notes a 14-meter tree lit by over 6,000 white tea lights that is coming to the city centre as well, and of course there are lots of other things happening out and about in the city – DeMontfort Hall’s pantomime, Peter Pan, will be taking place and of course both the Haymarket Theatre and Curve have their own special events as does the Little Theatre with their delightful pantomimes that I always find a special joy.   So my Lord Mayor I hope that has whetted the appetite of Members generally and reassured Councillor Cole that Christmas their year will be white and even better.

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Cole was that a thorough enough answer or do you have a supplementary?

 

Councillor Cole:   No I did not have a supplementary. Can I first thank the City Mayor for his answer and I am now going to cancel my Christmas holiday because it is clearly going to be quite exciting here in Leicester. But can I suggest to the City Mayor that can we have some diversity of lights on the Christmas tree please. 

 

City Mayor: I can reassure Councillor Cole that they won’t all be single coloured lights and that they will reflect all of the communities of Leicester, and I can also say that as I have mentioned on many other occasions, one of the wonderful things about Leicester is the way in which all communities share their festivities, and of course as I said earlier on when I was talking about this it is a Christian celebration at its heart, but like so much else that happens in the city it is something that when you go out in the streets you see people from all different communities enjoying and sharing, not just those for whom it is a very special celebration, it is a special celebration for the city.  

 

Lord Mayor: Question 26, Councillor Cole.

 

Councillor Cole: I haven’t asked question 25 Lord Mayor. 

 

Lord Mayor: Sorry I have crossed out one too many. Question 25, I was just hoping that’s all. 

 

Councillor Cole: This might cheer you up Lord Mayor. “Given the positive mood at the recent Labour conference and the disaster the government is making of Brexit and the NHS, does the City Mayor think we here in Leicester should prepare ourselves for a brighter day ahead under an imminent Labour government?”

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: You can tell by the reaction around the chamber my Lord Mayor that I could just say yes and sit down on this one, but I will say a few more words because I perhaps pre-empted it when I was talking earlier on in response to an earlier question. The short answer is I hope so, and the sooner that General Election comes the better. It is very clear as I was saying earlier that the Tory’s austerity agenda has very cynically hit hard the most deprived communities in the city and indeed has hit hardest the cities and urban areas up and down the land where there is the highest levels of depravation and that has been exacerbated by what the Tories have done. I think it is very appropriate and quite right that the Labour Party has sought to adopt the moto that we are a party for the many and not the few, and with respect my Lord Mayor I don’t think that can be said of any other party in the country, and one that I think we are proud to adopt as our slogan as we go into what we hope will be a very early General Election. I also look forward beyond that General Election to beginning the process – because it is not something that will be easy or happen overnight – beginning the process of repairing the damage that the Tory government have done, and I think you know the reality of what is needed in our city is going to require a lot of partnership working between a Labour administration here and a Labour government nationally. 

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Cole.

 

Councillor Cole: Can I thank the City Mayor for his answer Lord Mayor and I really don’t think I need to follow up on that one because I think we all know what we are looking forward to very soon in terms of a Labour government.   Lord Mayor.  

 

Lord Mayor: Question 26.

 

Councillor Cole: Thank you Lord Mayor. “On my recent holiday to some of the richest cities on the planet I could not help notice that homelessness was not a situation unique to England and particularly to us here in Leicester.  Consequently, I could not help wondering if governments are doing all that they can to address this very serious moral issue.  Can I ask the Assistant City Mayor for Housing if we are absolutely sure we are doing all that we can to address the needs of the homeless citizens in Leicester?”

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Connelly: Thank you Councillor Cole for his question. Next time he goes on a holiday around all the richest cities on the planet could I squeeze into his suit case. He asked whether I am absolutely sure we are doing all that we can to address the needs of our homeless citizens here in Leicester. I believe that we are but I am sure that there is always more that we can do. As I often say one person rough sleeping in Leicester is one person too many rough sleeping in Leicester. We recognise that it continues to be a problem in Leicester, as it does elsewhere in the country, and indeed on the continent and around the world.  We as an authority spend £5.6m per year in housing related services for people who are homeless and threatened with homelessness, and we have indeed as a result of that we have had some successes. In a previous homelessness strategy we changed the emphasis to preventing homelessness and we were able to provide 3,000 households who were facing eviction, we were able to help those 3,000 households preventing that from happening so they were able to maintain their current home while we found them alternative accommodation. Clearly whilst we have had success in preventing families from becoming homeless, the issue of single and couples being homeless and rough sleeping continues to be a problem.  We have had a working group looking at St. Mungos and how they deal with the issue in London and how they look to tackle entrenched and complex homelessness, and indeed we have a report as a result of that working group coming to the Executive on the 8^th November, and I look forward to seeing that report. We continue to work with the voluntary sector, particularly Action Homeless and One Roof, to try and provide services to reduce the number of rough sleepers: clearly the Dawn Centre for many of the rough sleepers is not an option and we are looking at alternativeaccommodation models to see if we can entice some of our entrenched rough sleepers off the street and into secure accommodation. We continue to work with the Diocese, and indeed all Members will be receiving an invitation to the launch of the city Homelessness charter on the 29^th October which the City Council, the Diocese and again the voluntary sectors and anybody interested in resolving the issue of rough sleeping will join together to draw up a homelessness charter for Leicester. Finally, over and above the £5.6m we already invest in our homelessness services, we have also been successful in securing further funding through the rough sleeping initiative programme and indeed we obtained £265,000 in 2018/19 and we have also got the offer of conditional funding 2019/20 for further £350,000. This will enable us to extend the Outreach Team so they are out longer than they used to do previously, and we are able to recruit more Homelessness Prevention Officers and we recruited four so far. So are we doing enough? We are doing the best that we can and I am sure there is more we can do, but we will not be blind to the fact that whilst the city may well be prospering there are those who get left behind and I think it is all our responsibility to ensure they get left behind for the least possible period and we provide them with secure accommodation and get their lives back on track. 

 

Lord Mayor:  A supplementary Councillor Cole?

 

Councillor Cole: Can I thank the Assistant City Mayor for his comprehensive answer Lord Mayor and just to say that with Christmas coming if there is anything he can do to improve their lot then it would be clearly a great statement to make even though it is a temporary statement.   

 

Lord Mayor: I don’t think there is a question there so we will move to Question 27, Councillor Chaplin.

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you. It sounds like Christmas is a big deal in Councillor Cole’s house. He seems to be prepping us all early. Thank you, my Lord Mayor. “As well as buying unoccupied homes and bringing them back into use, what work has been done to consider buying rented homes which are occupied that landlords are repossessing, evicting tenants and then selling on.  This could save families from going through the devastation and disruption of homelessness and take pressure off the Council’s homelessness services?”

 

Lord Mayor:  Assistant City Mayor.

 

Councillor Connelly: My thanks to Councillor Chaplin for the question.  It was an intriguing journey for me in respect of her question because at the beginning of the week I had one response and now finally I have come to having quizzed the officers we have come to what I think is a more positive response.  I will be asking officers to investigate the option to purchase where the owner selling the property is the cause of an eviction in order to support this. So we will be looking at what you are proposing Lucy.It isn’t without its problems. Clearly we don’t want landlords trying, for want of a better term, to blackmail us into buying their properties. At the moment we are using buy-back to buy ex-council properties that were sold through right to buy, when they become available we have been buying those back. We have also obviously got the policy in respect of the empty homes strategy whereby if we can’t convince the landlord to bring that property back into use we will CPO it, we will compulsorily purchase it and then we will sell it on, on the understanding that whoever buys it has to bring that property back into use. I do think what you have suggested Councillor Chaplin will be another weapon in our armoury in tackling homelessness. So thank you for your question and I am obviously quite happy to report back once we have concluded our investigation into what you are proposing, but I am of the view it is something we can do and we should be doing. 

 

Lord Mayor: Cllr. Chaplin a supplementary?

 

Councillor Chaplin: I am delighted to hear the progress and I know these things can take time Councillor Connelly. I wondered also because obviously he is talking about private rented accommodation and Councillor Cutkelvin has asked about it, but I wonder if Councillor Connelly would be able to bring us up to date, possibly outline the proposals for a selected private landlord scheme in the city, which I know residents from Stoneygate Ward, my Ward, have petitioned for and raised issues about and I asked questions about before and whether or not it is feasible and what the likely timetable of implementation might be? Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Connelly: My thanks to Councillor Chaplin for the supplementary.  We are indeed investigating the opportunity to introduce selective licensing for private landlords in the city. The experience of Nottingham was that it unfortunately takes around two years from beginning to the end to get a selective licensing agreement from the government. It is the intention to go out to public consultation, hopefully before Christmas. If not before Christmas hopefully after Christmas. Initial public consultation to see what the views are of the public. We are fairly certain what they will be, but it will help us obviously when trying to convince the government of the need to have a selective licensing scheme in the city. The only concern I do have is that with the extension of the mandatory licensing of HMOs of less than three storeys, if the problems we are having in the city are indeed with significant numbers of HMOs that we have got and we resolve those through the new mandatory licensing, it might undermine our argument for a selective licensing scheme, but I have the pleasure of speaking to the Landlords Association next Tuesday at their conference  at what I know as the Grand Hotel. I am hoping I will get out of there alive because I can’t imagine I will get a particularly favourable response when I tell them what we are proposing to do. 

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin, question 28.

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. Courage Councillor Connelly.   “Why is the Executive considering cuts to VCS, voluntary sector organisations, that support lunch clubs, carers, visually impaired people etc when the Council has given a commitment to reduce isolation and promote mental wellbeing in Leicester?”

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor Dempster.

 

Councillor Dempster: Thank you very much for this question, it gives me an opportunity to address Council regarding cuts. You all know that I don’t need to continually say this date over budget because of central government and secondly adult social care I am afraid spent 40% of the Council budget. So there is no way that I can say that cuts are not going to affect adult social care.  Of course we have to be looking at it. But what I would want to say to Council is that the savings that are made have to be made with the clear rationale behind them, and in terms of the rationale that means that we have to protect statutory services.  We have to I think reconfigure our existing services to the 21^st century, albeit with a smaller budget.  We also have to work with groups to enable them to be self-financing. So I would just like to look at a couple of examples. So the carers contract for example – we have looked to reconfigure the service so into one contract, and yes whilst the funding pot is reduced monitoring information from the existing contracted organisations shows that some of the existing services are actually underutilised. And it is also really important to remember that these services are not the only services that are available to carers.  We provide statutory services to carers, we fund a statuary service so that carers are assessed and if they are assessed as having eligible needs they may receive support such as respite or more help with the person that they care for. So these services are not exclusive, there are a range of services. Similarly in terms of lunch clubs, and I know that many of you are aware of lunch clubs and social activity clubs that are in your Ward that receive no financial support from the Council whatsoever. They are self-funding, they are funded from the people that attend, they make a weekly contribution.   However, for many years, and I am talking decades, a small number of lunch clubs have received a share of a £130,000 plus pot of money. It is a historical anomaly with no rationale and I have to say it has led to some inequality across the city. So it is absolutely right that we look at it. We know from the existing lunch clubs and social activity clubs that it can be done, that they can be self-sustaining, but of course we don’t want to rush people into that so what we have actually done is we are offering a three year tapering and that will give plenty of time for those groups to become self-sustaining. Now I would want to just point out that despite the financial difficulties the Council does continue to meet its commitment to reduce isolation and promote mental wellbeing in numerous ways by various departments across the Council. So we have the work that is done for example in our children’s centres in our most deprived communities.  Part of their role is reducing isolation and promoting good mental wellbeing.  We have also got the role of public health, we have got the role of our community service department. All of those departments are working towards, as well as all the other issues, reducing isolation and involving communities.  But specifically in terms of adult social care I want to reassure Council that we are continuing to explore and develop cost effective services to address the issue of loneliness and isolation across all of our service user groups.  So let me just give you a couple of examples. We have an enablement service; now that is a fairly new service. The early signs are actually that this service is cost neutral and it is achieving good outcomes. What do we mean by good outcomes, it is promoting and improving independence for individuals, and it is also helping them to engage in their local community. Absolutely excellent and that work is primarily achieved with people with learning disability and mental health needs. In terms of our older people we are working closely with the Leicester Aging Together project and I know that is in I think five of our Wards across the city. But you know it is £5m and it is going to come to an end.  It is really important that we work with them, that we look at what has worked well, we learn from that and we capitalise on it. One of the particularly good outcomes from this has been that they have over 200 voluntary community connectors, volunteers in their own communities who can connect, make those connections with isolated people within their own communities and perhaps with a little bit of money from the Ward community meeting, working with Councillors can develop the sort of services that will help to address issues around loneliness.  So yes we are not really spending the hundreds and thousands of pounds, but are we meeting need in innovative ways, yes we will continue to do so. So I hope that gives reassurance to Council that we are taking steps to mitigate the effects of any cuts and also we are trying to be innovative in addressing issues as they arise. Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin any supplementary?

 

Councillor Chaplin:  I do my Lord Mayor. Thank you Councillor Dempster. I wonder if I can ask today if the Executive will pause this because your predecessor, Councillor Palmer, started this process and was so concerned about some of the consultation that was coming back that he actually paused it so that there could be further consultation and it is worrying in the papers, the consultation papers, sorry my Lord Mayor this is context, that as the impact on stopping isolation is not given the weight that I believe that it should be given, and I would ask Councillor Dempster if she will give an undertaking to pause this given especially that the City Mayor this evening has told us that it is not just up to the Council to provides services and that the voluntary sector is as you said yourself, surely some of these groups are some of the services that we should be signposting people to. So I hope that you will be able to pause this so that we can look at it carefully in the round. Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Dempster: OK. Thank you. First of all in terms of the consultation, I mean I think Councillor Palmer’s concerns were some considerable time ago and in terms of consultation and scrutiny I would want to reassure Council, if they are not already aware, that this matter has gone to scrutiny on several occasions and was scrutinised in some depth and was universally supported by scrutiny. However, having said that I did, and have given a commitment to, discuss the matter with political colleagues and of course I will honour that commitment.  

 

Councillor Chaplin: Does that mean that the decision is paused? I don’t understand.

 

Lord Mayor: I think you will have to ask Councillor Dempster when we have a break after questions. Question 29, Councillor Chaplin.

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. Sorry it may just have been a long evening and I’m.. yeh. “When will the Council liaise with the Leicester Royal Infirmary to improve the road signage and review the suitability of so many road humps on Jarrom Street to the new adult emergency department main entrance, oncology car park and all the buildings on the routes from the north and the east of the city?”

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Clarke. 

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you very much my Lord Mayor and thank you very much for the question Councillor Chaplin. I understand that this is a question that has also been put to Councillor Cutkelvin at Scrutiny commission.  I believe a more in-depth answer is being given, so in the interests of brevity the next phase of the Legible Leicester programme is actually looking at road signage around the city, particularly our hospitals are obviously going to be a key part of that review. I will leave it to Councillor Cutkelvin, the piece of work that she has asked to take place within transport and highways for that more detailed answer to come to you. 

 

Lord Mayor: A supplementary Councillor Chaplin?

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you and I am heartened to hear that that information is on its way. I ask this question on a slightly more personal note but I have been asked to ask this question, is that the number of street humps on Jarrom Street. There are six sets and if you are a patient who is on daily route to perhaps radiotherapy or chemotherapy or even if you are a heavily pregnant woman or somebody with back pain, having to go over those street humps is excruciating. It does not do much for cars either and I really do hope that something can be done about this because I have noticed on my recent trips there on a daily basis that people have started to use the bus lane on Welford Road early and go down the route that is to the children’s A&E and through the back entrance, which is supposed to be for ambulances and disabled people only, but it is the only hump free way of actually getting through to oncology, to the car park and to all of the buildings…

 

Lord Mayor: Could I just encourage you to make a question.

 

Councillor Chaplin: ..and I would ask Councillor Clarke if he could urgently speak to the Royal Infirmary about that and liaise with highways to make sure that something is done about it because it is probably costing the NHS more in pain relief than anything else. 

 

Councillor Clarke: I do hear your question Councillor Chaplin, but I think it is worth saying that speed humps, particularly in the area that those speed humps will have been put in will have been put in because of the risk of people being killed or seriously injured on those streets, so we need to look at the risk of removing traffic calming. Of course I have regular dialogue with the hospitals and I approach them and ask them to approach me if they have got any concerns around people accessing the hospital in a way that they should not be.  

 

Lord Mayor: Question 30, Councillor Chaplin.

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you. It is certainly a bitter pill to swallow that previous issue. “Following the decision to have a hotel on the Haymarket Shopping Centre, what consultation with patients and potential patients has the Council done regarding the final building work and in situ briefings to make sure that the entrance to the new public health facility, including the sexual health clinic, is discrete, welcoming and feels safe for those visiting it?”

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you very much my Lord Mayor and thanks again Councillor Chaplin for the question and for her interest in this new sexual health clinic. There has been regular ongoing engagement of current and potential users of sexual health services regarding the design, layout and even the name of the new provision. Indeed I think yesterday, or definitely earlier this week, the Young People’s Council were consulted and we have also been working with DeMontfort University students around the actual design of the service as well, and there is a competition there that was judged by the Haymarket management who obviously understand the needs of the tenants of their shop units too, and those conversations and that consultation is ongoing as I say.  Young people were consulted as early or as late as yesterday, October 3^rd. 

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin a supplementary?

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you Councillor Clarke and thank you my Lord Mayor. So given that I was told this development of the hotel is actually an material change in terms of the earlier consultations. I am pleased to hear that there has been some discussions with young people, but I wondered if you would consider having more specific consultation, just to make sure that patients feel safe, secure and also that it is discrete given the fact that there is actually a material change to the entrance area? Thank you.   

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I will obviously take that on board. Like I said it is ongoing consultation. There is very good relationships between all parties involved. This is a model that has been developed elsewhere. I am quite convinced that there is sufficient consultation taking place, but I will certainly take that back to the people leading the project and ask if the question that she was asking to be asked is being asked sufficiently.

 

Lord Mayor: Question 31, Councillor Chaplin.

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “When were the pavements along the ‘way’ roads in Stoneygate Ward last upgraded?” Councillor Master I think is answering this one and he is my co-councillor.

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor.

 

Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you for the question Councillor Chaplin. As I looked into this it was quite interesting to find some stats which I thought I might share with Council today, but there is 1,300 miles of footpath, 530 miles of roads and approximately 3,000 actual streets that highways as a department manage and maintain, which I thought was quite impressive, so I thought I would share that. But in regards to the answer to your question, the last major reconstruction works along the ‘way’ roads was in 2007 and 2008. The ‘way’ footways are traditionally what is known as flag footways, which highways services consider to be in a fair and reasonable condition.  The paths are inspected at least twice a year for dangerous defects and the number of defects year on year shows no serious signs of deterioration in this footway. 

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin, a supplementary?

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I have asked about this issue before and I am actually surprised about how recently there has been what is considered to be improvements and refurbishment of those streets, because the state of some of the paving stones is horrendous and given the fact that there are several planning applications that come in from Stoneygate Ward and particularly in that area, and the number of trades vehicles which are heavy or are delivering building materials on a regular basis, it doesn’t seem like there is sufficient inspection, and I wondered whether or not we could have some information published and available so that residents know that it is their duty to make sure that tradesmen are not parking on the pavement and cracking our pavements otherwise they will get charged for it, the tradesmen will?  Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor. I have had actually one of these incidents from a constituent within the Ward in regards to trades people leaving the footway in an ill manner, and they managed to get the details of the company that they felt were responsible and we chased that down and they were liable to repair the footway. So if there are instances where constituents feel that they have identified areas of footpath that trade vehicles have caused damage to, then please let me know because we can chase those down and I have had personal experience of where highways have done that previously.

 

Lord Mayor: Question 32, Councillor Chaplin.

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor, you are doing a sterling job.  “When will the details of the draft local plan, I know we have already been told this City Mayor, but when will details of the draft local plan and the second stage consultation, including public meetings, the timetable etc, be available?”

 

Lord Mayor: Should be an easy one City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: I could just answer and say yes we have indeed already had a question to which I have given a very full reply.  Just though to go through the headlines of that. As a result of substantial changes to the national requirements that were announced in July the timetable has now been pushed back by the government and it does require us to undertake this call for sites consultation and new work on housing design and density policies to meet their new requirements. This does mean that a consultation draft local plan is unlikely to be published until well into next year and I would hope that in the very early part of next year we can announce what will inevitably be wide spread consultation on that and a timetable associated with it. I don’t think we are near being able to do that now as a result of as I say this further change in government policy. 

 

Lord Mayor: Supplementary Councillor Chaplin?

 

Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor and I can hear the frustration perhaps of about being asked twice, but it is about the fact that there is a delay because you know City Mayor the interest there has been in the local plan in Stoneygate Ward. I know you live there yourself but we actually have residents who are taking this very seriously and contribute to meetings and give ideas.  I wondered, we were told initially my Lord Mayor that when the local plan is being developed that the precedents there have been in the past that policies that are likely to be changed in a new local plan would have to be taken into consideration in that interim period.  I know Councillor Kitterick has asked about the size of homes. I would ask can we not do something about the concentration of takeaways, especially in Evington Road, and I have asked about this before and I know that you share frustrations about the lack of clear policy about this and I wondered if the Executive would be able to make some specific guidelines to departments about what the likely new policies would be because in the interim we are getting more and more takeaways and it is putting more and more pressure on already stretched services. So would the Executive take some initiative on that to try and give some better direction?

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: Yes, thank you my Lord Mayor. I am indeed frustrated about the time that the local plan process is taking but it is important that we do it thoroughly and that we do meet government guidelines even when they change, and take account of them in the submission that we ultimately make.  I think there are some things that it may be possible to bring forward interim policies on. I am not sufficiently aware but I do recognise that the Chair of Planning is sitting here and he may have views on behalf of his colleagues on the Committee. I do know that of course you know there are those who are concerned about change taking place in their area and one of the very notable changes that I am very well aware of is the increase in the number of takeaways in some parts of the city and Councillor Chaplin mentions Evington Road as an example of that. But I do know that there are mixed views about the growth of takeaways and that actually the reason for their growth is often because of their popularity, and it is not simply a question of saying well there are too many, it may be a question of saying well how do we cope with those that are growing in the way in which people’s eating habits are changing in the 21^st century. 

 

Lord Mayor: Question 33, Councillor Cutkelvin.

 

CouncillorCutkelvin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “Would the Deputy City Mayor with responsibility for public health and health integration like to comment on the proposals from the Clinical Commissioning Group and University Hospitals of Leicester to move the intensive care beds from the General Hospital?”

 

Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Clarke: Thank you very much my Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Chaplin for the question. It gives me the opportunity to congratulate Councillor Chaplin, sorry I mean Cutkelvin (I just saw her out of the corner of my eye, Cutkelvin), thank you my Lord Mayor. I will congratulate you as well Councillor Chaplin because you are a member of the committee. To congratulate members of the Scrutiny Commission in the  city and also beyond the city who so diligently scrutinised the proposal to remove the intensive care beds, particularly the wording of the motion which talked again about the interests of openness and transparency and this is the third time I think tonight I have mentioned the need for our health partners to move forward in a way that is open and transparent, because it is something that is of genuine concern to residents of the city, the impact on our own Council services, but also the impact on the care that residents of the city and beyond receive. Now as I understand it at this point it is for the UHL and its CCG partners to consider the scrutiny committee motion and for them to consider how they proceed.  I would expect that they respond in a way that recognises the lack of openness and transparency they have shown thus far and in a way that reflects the seriousness of the motion as it was put forward. 

 

Lord Mayor: A supplementary?

 

Councillor Cutkelvin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I think through the silence that we have seen from them on the Sustainable Transformation Plan Better Care Together over the last 18 months has allowed the public and politicians to run away with many misconceptions. But they have promised to try and fix this and to hold better consultation and come to Scrutiny more in the future.  But I do fear it is possibly slightly too late. There was a question it has now gone.  Thank you. 

 

Lord Mayor: Nice tactic.   

 

Councillor Clarke: Can I just respond to that. In January of this year Councillor Cutkelvin – we are both losing the plot but let’s try and work this one through – in January this year I wrote to the person managing the STP process and said that there needs to move forward with more openness and transparency.  That was last January. We are yet to see that openness and transparency.   We have heard that they recognise now that they need to be much more forthcoming both in engagement and consultation. The formal consultation process is the least they can do, that is why they have to do it statutorily.  What we want is more engagement with the people of the city and this Council as we move forward so that we can fully consider the proposals that many people in this city are so concerned about. 

 

Lord Mayor: Question 34, Councillor Singh.  

 

Councillor Singh: Thank you Lord Mayor. “Would the City Mayor inform the Council of the money spent in the individual city Wards pro rata from the 2010 and 2017 on the future estimates of expenditure up to and until the next Council election 2019 May?” Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor.

 

City Mayor: I could spend a lot of time trying to give a lot of detail of a lot of aspects of the Council’s budget but the fact is that all the Council’s spending, well the majority of it, takes place in our Wards across the city. We do spend, as I said in an answer to an earlier question, somewhere just under £1b a year on all the range of services and the major politics we deliver. Now our spending for the most part is not determined by either administrative boundaries or the boundaries on which councillors are elected to the council chamber. Our parks and neighbourhoods are where they are regardless of the lines that are put on the maps for electoral purposes and I think as we are well aware sometimes they include many neighbourhoods with which people identify within a single Ward and sometimes they cut through what the public would perceive as their neighbourhood, their community. Of course the city centre is at the heart of the city regardless of the lines on the maps. I talked earlier on about you know when I made the joke about what have the Romans ever done for us about the range of services that the council provides, but if you just think about it our schools education our children in the surrounding localities regardless of those lines on the map. In the last financial year alone we spent £19m improving and expanding our primary and secondary schools regardless of the lines on the map. We spend £18m on improving our council houses regardless of the lines on the map, and I was actually criticised in the Mercury today in a letter for actually talking about Eyres Monsell when I was taking about a Ward in an area that people actually perceive as Saffron because it is Saffron. Now you know that was me actually falling in to the trap of looking at the lines on the map you know rather than actually what people perceive as their community.  It was talking about Saffron Newry schools, which you know are in Eyres Monsell Ward, I believe, but are actually in the Saffron neighbourhood. And I think that sort of emphasises my point really. We spent £10m maintaining and improving the facilities in our buildings across the city. Again it is not our administrative boundary we are looking at when we do that. Last year we spent £100m supporting the 5,100 adults in need of care and support. Again it is very difficult to say which Wards they lived in and you know what benefit was there to the local community from doing that. Similarly with looked after children, you know, the children we look after are spread around the city in a fairly haphazard manner and it is not focusing on the needs of a particular geographic area in the city as defined by those elementary boundaries, it is focusing on the needs of the children. And so of course refuse collection that I was talking about earlier on is something that we try to provide to every household in the city, £15m that cost us, and it is not related to particular Wards. So I am not giving you I am afraid Councillor Singh you know a very helpful answer perhaps from what you were seeking to get, but what I am trying to say is that while it might be possible to identify some expenditure at ward level the overwhelming majority of what we do is city wide. The overwhelming majority of the service we provide are city wide and while of course you know it is important to always draw attention to what we are doing in neighbourhoods and localities really I think what matters is that we talk about the neighbourhoods and localities as people living there understand them rather than ones that obviously matters to us which are the administrative boundaries often quite arbitrary ones for the election of Councillors.

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Singh a supplementary?

 

Councillor Singh: Thank you Lord Mayor. I appreciate the information that has been provided by the City Mayor. However, I would impress upon him that it is absolutely vital and I hope that he will take note and move in this direction in the sense that to provide figures which are easily assimilated for the general public so that the perception that somehow we are city centric is overcome by the fact that these expenditures, even if we referred to the £18,000 Ward funding and over £80,000 that is £144,000 for social projects, it is vital that this message is somehow communicated through the website for public consumption. I hope that he will take that on board because I think that message is so important. People don’t always understand the millions that we obviously do and I as chair in the Task Group …

 

Lord Mayor: …can you ask your question.

 

Councillor Singh: Thank you Lord Mayor and I note that you have been very persistent in advising all Members with regards to that. Thank you very much. 

 

Lord Mayor: City Mayor, do you want to reply?

 

City Mayor: Thank you Lord Mayor. I will just go back to what I was saying earlier on that schools are across the city, the roads are across the city, the swimming pools are across the city, the litter picking is across the city, the libraries are across the city, the bin collections are across the city, the street lights are across the city, the care of the elderly is across the city and the protection of children is across the city, and I hope Members when people ask what does the Council do for us we will remind them that what we do actually is make Leicester a civilised place to live in.

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Singh, question 35.

 

Councillor Singh: Thank you Lord Mayor. “Would the Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhood Services answer the question that is on the order paper in my name please?”. Is that better?

 

Lord Mayor: If it makes you happy Councillor Singh. Deputy City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I am pleased to inform Mr. Singh that Leicestershire Police have a hate incident and hate crime policy which is underpinned by supporting guidance and legislation which recognise the seriousness of hate crime and investigate all hate incidents and hate crime rigorously and properly.  Hate crime and incidents are broken down as he asked in his question into the following categories for recording purposes:  racial, religion/faith, sexual orientation, disability, transgender, alternative sub-culture or others. Race equated to approximately 73% of recorded hate crime for the city in the previous year. Between May 2017 to April 2018 there have been in total 1,013 hate crimes recorded in the city area, of which 21% were detected with a positive outcome and in some cases charges and summonses were brought. Other crimes with no positive disposal will include those where it was not possible to identify an offender or the case closed due to lack of evidence.  So there are also a small number of offences which are still under investigation or where the suspects have been released under investigation. Leicestershire Police hold quarterly hate crime scrutiny panels that review the cases to ensure service delivery standards are complied with. The police also have dedicated hate crime officers who work closely with the City Council’s community safety team who in turn link into the Safer Leicester Partnership which I chair and that actually has multi-agency  from probation, police and different organisations sit on that board to address the under reporting issues, improve confidence in communities and monitor community tensions that may be associated with hate crime or incidents.    

 

Lord Mayor: Councillor Singh a supplementary?

 

Councillor Singh: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I am extremely grateful to the Deputy Mayor for giving a very comprehensive breakdown of the types of offences. I just want to mention the fact that in spite in the last 30 years and to date we still have up to 72% of crimes which fall into the race and racism category as opposed to only 13% in the religion and faith category and that is very significant and I do congratulate the fact that work is being done.    Can I also ask the Deputy Mayor to please be aware that this is a duty on all public authorities, particularly on the council estates where there is anti-social behaviour that the City Council also has a responsibility to monitor and record offences in relation to both race, faith and any type of hate crime that we are fully aware of that happens out there. Would he ensure that that continues to happen as well? Thank you.

 

Lord Mayor:  Deputy City Mayor. 

 

Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I really first of all want to put here my appreciation of the way in which the community safety team at the City Council work so proactively in particular to deal with anti-social behaviour complaints and there is a mechanism, the way in which members of the public can ask for trigger of a complaint and there is a form they have to fill in, the guidelines which are established and monitored and also I agree with Councillor Singh regarding race crime which is 73%. I think that is something we take very seriously. As there is not only Leicester community safety team but there is Safer Partnership Board which looks after city wide and also there is a Safer Community Partnership set at County level and officers communicate with each other and take those issues on board and actually address those issues.  I hope that the good work of officers and all those agencies will continue to achieve and reduce the hate crime in critical rates to race and faith. 

 

Lord Mayor: OK. Councillor Cleaver rang and informed us before Council that she would not be able to attend this evening, but having had the notification we have agreed to pose the questions to the City Mayor. I won’t try to imitate Councillor Cleaver I don’t think I could do her justice. So I will just say City Mayor can you respond to question 36 on the order paper and then to question 37.

 

City Mayor: Thank you Lord Mayor and I am sorry Councillor Cleaver is not here to ask them herself. She has been unwell for the last few days and she was finally persuaded today that she really ought to take a break and go home and stay warm, and I wish her well and I hope she will soon be better.  In answer to the first of her questions this arises from the fact that we are one of only 10 cities that have been set to receive a share of the government’s £840m transforming cities fund.  Now how much will actually come our way of course is a matter for us to seek to persuade them about over the next period, but it is a fund that will be available over the next 4 years and it is designed to improve sustainable transport links and to increase access to jobs.  What it will do for us is to help us to ensure that businesses have the infrastructure they need to thrive and reflecting really on the discussion we were having earlier about the Aylestone Village bypass, I think it is important that in using this money we focus on improving the city’s cycle ways, our bus corridors and our bus and our rail transport hubs and certainly they will be major elements of what we bid for.  Though of course and the fact that I think we have been successful thus far with this bid, is because I think we are able to build on our major recent achievements in city transport through the Connecting Leicester programme and the highways schemes in the north and west of the city. We will be receiving an initial £50,000 to develop a detailed case for investment which will be to submit to the government by next summer for a final funding decision. I hope it will be a Labour government we are submitting that to by then lord Mayor, but whatever the political calibre of the government I know it will be a very strong case that we are able to make and we will also be bidding for a share of the £60m of shorter term funds that are available to be spent over the next year.  I think securing these funds shows our determination to get many more people using buses, more people cycling, more people walking. I think it is a recognition that we know that is good of course for the economy, it is good for clean air, it is good for quality health and it helps cut congestion, and of course it helps more generally in improving the environment of our city. So obviously I very much welcome this news and look forward to sharing with the Council more details as we develop our plans.

 

Lord Mayor: Was that one question or two? We should move straight on to question 37 City Mayor. Sorry I was losing track there.

 

City Mayor: Thank you my Lord Mayor. It is in fact many years, probably some decades, since in this chamber I have criticised the Leicester Mercury, and it is many years and probably some decades since I felt the need to do it. I generally take the view that those of us in public life and in politics particularly ought to take the good stories and the bad stories equally and recognise that sometimes we may feel aggrieved and misrepresented and sometimes we may feel that we have got away rather lightly with that one. But the sensational Mercury front page headline, last Friday I think it was, which Members will no doubt have seen, £5.4 million of council land sold off for £9 is something that I really can’t ignore because it has next to it a picture of me and it has around it parcels of land, and any casual reader of that, and we know that some people don’t read beyond the headlines, any casual reader of that could only conclude that the person pictured on front page is either very stupid or very corrupt. Why else would anybody sell £5.4m of council land for just £9. Stupidity or corruption – one of those is what the casual reader would conclude. Indeed the defamatory on-line commentary attacking me that went unmediated on the Mercury’s website and their subsequent publication of a very misleading letter without any further clarification or interpretation of what was the actual fact behind that headline suggests that the Mercury has been very successful for many of their readers in giving that impression that I am probably both stupid and corrupt, because that is certainly what the on-line commentary reflects. What it also reflects is that that story has been very effective click bait. Now of course a reporter will argue that they don’t write the headlines and don’t take responsibility for that.  Normally I understand that, on this occasion that is not credible.  Prior to writing the story the author went to considerable lengths over several days to get the Council to put notional values on each of the sites that he has had pictured on the front of the paper. Even though most of them were not put up for sale, and apart from using this mechanism would never have been developed in the foreseeable future. But he went to considerable efforts to get a figure for each of them and to add them together. He added those notional figures together to enable them, together, to be used for that misleading headline. Then, and some Members may have read beyond the front page, to justify the headline he pretended in his story that the issue of selling that land is the same issue as that raised by Councillor Gugnani relating to community asset transfers, on which he has asked for some further investigation and some further reports. Now we know that they are distinctly different issues, and the reporter knows that they are distinctly different issues, but he conflated the issues within the story to stand up that headline.  He knows well that his readers will not understand the distinction that we understand and that he well understands. You will see on the inside pages the picture of Councillor Gugnani and he will I know confirm that what he has asked for has nothing whatsoever to do with those particular land sales. It has to do with community asset transfers. As the reporter well knows these land sales, mostly directly to social housing providers, are an extremely cost effective way of producing affordable, mostly rented houses, homes for desperate families on the council housing waiting list, nearly 300 of them. By using public land assets in this way the Council has enabled nearly 300 families on the waiting list to have decent affordable rented homes with social housing providers. Had we sought to do that ourselves on that land it would have cost us somewhere in the region of £30m more than the value of that land. So by enabling that land to be used in that way we brought into the city an extra £30m of investment and nearly 300 homes for people in desperate need. That is something to be very proud of and something that I am very angry to have misrepresented in the way that it has been. The reporter knows very well the reality behind this story.  Unfortunately that reality does not provide a front page story, does not provide damaging headlines and does not provide clicks on the website. 

 

Lord Mayor: And that concludes questions.