- From Members of the Public
- From Councillors
Minutes:
Lord Mayor: Moving on to questions from the members of the public. Would Michael Shenton please come forward to ask his question.
Mr. Michael Shenton: Good evening. Can everybody hear me OK? “In light of the unfolding disaster that is universal credit, I urge Leicester City Council to reverse the £200,000 cuts imposed on its welfare rights service which has led to a loss of nearly half of the workers, reduced telephone access and no training provision. This cut has been made without any equality impact assessment and at a time when the need for welfare rights advice has never been greater. I have already seen claimants who are financially worse off under universal credit and who could have avoided it if they had been correctly advised. In addition to this there is a big increase in the need to appeal universal credit decisions, for example in relation to EU nationals, sanctions, closure of universal credit claims etc. Leicester City Council promised that it had no plans to make cuts to its advice services and this cut has been made without any scrutiny and without consultation. Would the Council reverse this cut immediately and roll out welfare rights training across the city to all relevant agencies to ensure that claimants are aware of situations where they may have a choice between remaining on legacy benefits rather than dropping into universal credit?” Thank you.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Master.
Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Mr. Shenton for your question. Your letter is timely and in one sense a little out of date. I would guess nobody in this chamber would disagree with your use of the word “disaster” when describing universal credit. It is not a scheme that the Council supports or us as a Labour Party but a workable principle delivered and sabotaged by this failing and cruel Tory government. No-one in this chamber would also disagree with me if I was to use the word “savage” to describe the unprecedented levels of cuts to this Council and its budget and what we have seen over the past eight years. Eight years of austerity which seems to have no end. Nevertheless, both universal credit and cuts are done to us and we have to both manage within the resource we have and do what we can to help our citizens through this transition to universal credit amongst the many other challenges that we face. The decision to reduce the budget of the Council’s inhouse welfare rights was taken back in 2015, although it was not actually delivered until late last year. The reason for this was to ensure the wider provision of the social welfare advice across the city was taken into full consideration. This Council currently spends over three quarters of a million pounds per year specifically on the provision of welfare advice, with the majority of provision being commissioned within the voluntary sector and our partners. We are at the heart of the communities that use and utilise them the most. Yes the decision in 2015 reduces the in-house provision, however, this is in the context of reviewing the overall provision across the city which I must remind you is not a statutory function for the Council, but one we are not hiding behind. We are not required to fund or provide welfare advice at all and many councils up and down the country no longer do, but we here in the City of Leicester, in Labour’s city, have ensured this provision exists and have continued to support this area as we recognise it is important to our communities. I think we should acknowledged that despite having to make some difficult decisions we still spend over half a million a year with a number of well-regarded voluntary sector organisations who provide over 700 hours per week of advice. This, in addition to our own in-house team, which, yes, are smaller than they once were, but has been redesigned to deal with the most difficult and complex cases to maximise our efforts. So, to be clear three quarters of a million pounds is spent on welfare advice by this Labour Authority. To address specifically the point about the impact of universal credit it would appear the Minister for Works and Pensions, Esther McVey, who has the responsibility for this area has resigned from the Front Bench due to the failed Brexit negotiations. But rest assured it would seem a perfect opportunity for her to bail out of a sinking ship that is called universal credit. However, we must continue with our responsibility here in the city for universal credit, and we are extremely well prepared for the full service roll out in June this year. We applied due diligence and learnt from other city’s experiences and work closely with partners and colleagues from the DWP. We have been working collectively now for nearly two years to ensure we are best placed and in the best possible position. As a result we have funded high levels of additional resource, including housing advisors in every Job Centre Plus to ensure that the best support is available to those claiming universal credit for the first time or transitioning over to universal credit. We have not seen the devastation that other cities have seen but I am not saying this is without its challenges and of course we will continue to do our upmost as an authority as this scheme broadens. In addition this Council, a Labour Council, has maintained its level of discretionary funding support available to all our citizens when other cities again have cut theirs. We currently provide £2m each year of discretionary support for housing costs, council tax relief and crisis funding. So, I do not agree with some of your points, however, what I do commit to is to maintain an affordable and effective welfare advice offer for our city. A city as a Labour Authority that we will always stand up for.
Lord Mayor: Mr. Shenton do you have a supplementary question?
Mr. Shenton: I certainly do, I have got a great deal of time and respect for people in the voluntary sector, CAB etc, but they cannot deal, and they are not dealing, with the effects of universal credit. It is an absolute shambles. You get people ringing their help line, people have been told they have lost their benefits, people have got no money to feed their children, they’re ringing the help line and they are waiting an hour to be told come back in two or three weeks. So, you have not provided a good provision for it, in fact it is deplorable. I have also been informed that when we originally made this choice to cut £200,000 there was an assurance given that that would not affect welfare rights provision, yet we have lost one third of our welfare rights workers. So I get very emotional about this because I know some of those people who have been affected.
Lord Mayor: I understand Sir, but we need you to ask a question for the Assistant City Mayor.
Mr. Shenton: Yes I do want to ask a question. I would like ask the Councillor something. We need to bring the Executive to account for what they do. For cutting the welfare rights service and staff by a third when they are most needed by the poorest and most vulnerable households in Leicester, over a third of households in this city receive benefits of one kind or another. Don’t say you can’t afford a proper welfare rights team. Other cities with the same level of poverty as Leicester are increasing their welfare rights service. They know that as well as the improvements in the health and wellbeing.
Lord Mayor: It needs to be a question.
Mr. Shenton: It is, it is a question.
Lord Mayor: Well at the moment I can’t see… I can’t work the question out myself.
Mr. Shenton: Yes I will ask… When I have finished the question you will realise the full importance of it.
Lord Mayor: If it is possible to…
Mr. Shenton: I feel like a politician more every day now. They know that as well as the improvements in health and wellbeing it brings to hard up families every £1 spent on advice and support work generates at least an extra £14 of benefit income which is spent in local shops. It doesn’t go to shareholders it goes to the people of this city and they are being denied it.
Lord Mayor: Can we please get to the question in the next few sentences please.
Mr. Shenton: OK. Even if the City Council’s own research, and this goes into what you said about economy, about having to raise money, even the City’s own research shows that just in one year, 2016, welfare rights staff secured an extra £2.45m for claimants by changing DWP decision. This doesn’t include all the new money they brought in by encouraging people to claim what is rightfully theirs.
Lord Mayor: Mr. Shenton.
Mr. Shenton: I have just got two paragraphs.
Lord Mayor: No, no I can’t have two paragraphs. The next thing needs to be the question or I will unfortunately have to move on and you won’t get an answer, so I really encourage you to ask the question now. Thank you sir.
Mr. Shenton: Ok, what I am saying is that more money you put into welfare rights the more money you get back in this city and I would ask you to get people back into welfare rights. Don’t just get the people that we had, increase it because if you want an economic city if you want to work for the economy of this city, it is the people that are going to get the money and by cutting welfare rights what are you doing, you are destroying people’s lives. Thank you.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Master can you…do you want to respond to that if you can take a question from it.
Councillor Master: I don’t know what the actual question was but just on a few of the points. This decision that we have taken has had the relevant scrutiny. It has been to scrutiny, it has been to OSC, it has been through Executive, it has been here when we made the decision. In terms of the welfare rights team, we reviewed the welfare rights team in the broader scheme of social welfare advice and put that in a package that was going to be best served to serve the communities here across the whole of the city, and through universal credit we are looking at that, we are exploring it all the time. It is new, it has been brought in, we have offered to review it over a period of time when we can get the data and I am sure if I were to bring back to this Council to say that we need some additional support in areas because there are concerns, I am sure we would consider that, but at this moment in time I think the procurement is going out for the social welfare advice, the welfare rights team is in place, universal credit has just started in June. I think we are doing a good job at this moment in time. What happens in the future we will wait to see and then we will come back to it.
Lord Mayor: Thank you, and I would like to thank Mr. Shenton for his questions. I do try to work within the procedural rules of the Council to accommodate the public as much as possible, but I think we appreciate that as I am going to have to be rather strict with Councillors later there does need to be a limit to the tolerance that I give. Right, the next item, can we move on to questions from Councillors. I am just going to remind people, although, and given the attendance this evening it might not all be relevant. Can I request that where 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 be seeking to curtail any Member that does not comply with these requirements. The first question is from Councillor Cutkelvin.
Councillor Cutkelvin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “With knife crime very much in the national press and anecdotal evidence suggesting an increase in knife carrying in certain pockets of Leicester City, what are the Council doing in partnership with others to discourage this worrying behaviour at every opportunity?”
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you for Councillor Cutkelvin for asking this question. The Leicester City Council with the police have conducted joint visits last year and this year to premises that sell knives in locations where knife crime has previously been experienced or there has been some concern raised, and at that time this resulted in some regards to inappropriate sales that last year being highlighted, and following suitable awareness raising and the follow up, a repeat of the exercise was conducted this year, I am very pleased that it was very satisfactory and 100% actually we have achieved that none of those shops have actually sold to the test purchasers who were sent round to actually ask them if they could sell to underage persons, and actually there has been, then, some awareness through police and other agencies that hope we can actually raise awareness what this knife sale and inappropriate sort of purchase can damage the whole sort of system. My Lord Mayor on top of that the Youth Service has led awareness raising campaign, for example a production called a “slice of reality” has been created by and for young people in Leicester, and moreover, the youth offending services are working very closely with habitual knife carriers, and here intelligence and information is shared to encourage people to keep away from knife crimes, and also my Lord Mayor the Council is supporting awareness into schools across Leicester city. For example, the City who has been very successful working in partnership with the police for their campaign #livesnotknives has encouraged all schools to have input into year 6 and with secondary schools, and that work is also still ongoing. The City Council also participates in partnership meetings across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and the Council is a key member of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland wide prevention and protection activities and designing new methods to inform and reach young people across the city who have been involved and probably there are some pockets where those main examples were noted.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Cutkelvin a supplementary?
Councillor Cutkelvin: Thank you. Thank you for a very broad overview of what the City Council can do in response to knife crime. We see that the police response, both here in Leicester and in other major cities such as London is to actually increase their presence on the streets and use their stop and search powers to discourage knife carrying. Can we assure the public that as a local authority we also have capacity to respond in an equally targeted way as the need emerges using our schools and youth services.
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.
Councillor Clair: Yes Chair, now, as we already have a very close partnership with the police and many other agencies like our probation services and even I Chair the Safer Leicestershire Partnership Board where knife crime is one of the tasks which I have undertaken to work with the police. So that meeting is attended by a wide range of agencies., and also there are some complaints which are focussing on those areas and pockets of the city where this is highlighted, but I am happy to work with the police and also work with the Police and Crime Commissioner and Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner that how much we can actually call for police resources. I think that remains one of the priorities and also that the Safer Leicester Partnership Board’s action plan is also, I understand, going to Neighbourhood Scrutiny as I believe it was one of the items on the agenda so that will be discussed further there how we can work proactively to keep this issue in control.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. Councillor Cutkelvin next question.
Councillor Cutkelvin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “I am told that the number of empty council homes in Saffron is at an all-time high with it taking longer for properties to be ready for new tenants. Is this something that is reflected across the whole of the city, and if so why?”
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor Councillor Connelly.
Councillor Connelly: Thank you Lord Mayor. Thank you Councillor Cutkelvin for your question. I can confirm that the number of vacant Council houses in Saffron is not any higher than normal and nor is the average time for turning around the void any higher than normal. The issue of voids are subject to regular reports to the Housing Scrutiny Commission and I am sure we are all concerned about how long it takes for us to return a vacant council property back into use. Obviously, the time it takes to re-let them depends on the condition they are left in by the previous tenant and the volume of work we have to do to make sure they reach the required letting standard. We have had a couple of void properties in Saffron recently that have required significant amounts of work before the new tenants are able to move in. This included asbestos removal and the fitting of new kitchens. These are now complete and the new tenants are very happy with their new properties.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Cutkelvin a supplementary?
Councillor Cutkelvin: Yes thank you my Lord Mayor. My supplementary is really if Andy would meet with me to discuss this matter because the information he has given this evening is contrary to information I have received from housing officers. I am told that the normal level of empty homes in Saffron is round 10 and that has been the stable level for about three years and that recently over the last six months it has gone up to about 26. That, if it’s true, is very worrying and along with this we are told that the properties are taking much longer to be turned around. So my question is if Andy will meet with me to discuss this further?
Councillor Connelly: I am always happy to meet with Councillor Cutkelvin or any other Councillor who would like to meet with me.
Lord Mayor: Question 3, Councillor Riyait.
Councillor Riyait: Thank you Lord Mayor. “When will the school parking plans for Alderman Richard Hallam be implemented?”
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor Councillor Master.
Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor and Councillor Riyait for his question. I am happy to enlighten my colleague with some welcome news. Already, as he is aware, the school keep clear signs have been upgraded and new guarded rails have been installed. I can also confirm the number of 24 bollards on street corners and near the school entrances have been scheduled to be installed within January and February of next year, and this will include eight pencil bollards, the same ones the distinctive type that we have put in other schools around the city. There is also going to be a review of some planned crossings which will be assessed which I think has been raised by some of the parents at the school previously; so they are going to have a look at that in the new year too. Alongside that making sure the Traffic Regulation Orders to introduce parking restrictions to make the school keep clear markings enforceable will also happen during 2019. Just to ensure that we can maximise our enforcement opportunities.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Riyait have you got a supplementary?
Councillor Riyait: Yes, thank you for that welcome information. I think one of the plans was to look at double yellow lines on the corners of some of the streets there. I just wondered, I don’t think I heard anything about that - is that sill part of the plans or Coming forward?
Lord Mayor: Assistant Mayor.
Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor. It is not listed as part of the works that we are going to carry out going forward early in the new year, but I would be happy to have a look at that if there are any opportunities to do that, especially around the corners where the schools are that need the TROs changing to make it safer. I would be happy to look at that with you going forward.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Riyait, question 4.
Councillor Riyait: Thank you Lord Mayor. “What can be done to alleviate the concerns by Belgrave St Peter’s school regarding the loss of the school crossing patrols, the high levels of large lorries that pass on Thurcaston Road on to Wesley Street for access to Wastecycle and the speed of traffic coming down Abbey Lane past the school?” Thank you.
Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor. Question 4 that has 3 parts to it so I will try and break it down for Councillor Riyait just to make sure that I cover all his points. In regard to the two school patrol crossing staff, both of those have resigned. So, they have not been withdrawn and we are working currently with the school, some of the parents as well, and I know you have been involved in that trying to recruit some more crossing patrols. It is an area that we struggle to recruit to, but we are still continuing with those efforts and as soon as we get someone in place then I am sure they will be reinstated back to the school. The second question in regard to the number of lorries, I think it was in and around the area of Thurcaston Road, well, since we have introduced the bus lane enforcement for Thurcaston Road, that has reduced the traffic hugely as you are aware. I think me and Councillor Riyait went on a patch walk to have a look at that and saw how they would be done. There is a new 20mph zone that came into force, no, comes into force on Monday 19th November. So that is the new Belgrave St. Peter’s 20mph zone will come into force on Monday 19th November covering both school entrances on Thurcaston Road and for the Wastecycle site on Wesley Street, and, in regard to your third point around the speeds on Abbey Lane, Abbey Lane does have a signal crossing on it and the average speed on Abbey Lane at this moment in time is 40mph. If you feel there is a need to look at that in terms of giving consideration to reduce the speed to 30mph then we can try and look at that going forward next year. A review of accidents going back as far as 2010 has shown there have been no accidents on Abbey Lane and Thurcaston Road junction that has involved pedestrians or school children, which is of course great to hear, and since 2010 there have only been nine accidents in total involving vehicles which is also considered a low accident rate. One of the reasons just why the change of speeds has never really been considered before, but if you feel that it is a local issue and something that you want to look at again we can pick that up.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Riyait have you got a supplementary?
Councillor Riyait: Yes, I want to recognise the work that has already been done, obviously the automatic number plate recognition system that the City Mayor agreed to I think has made a difference there and also as Councillor Master has said we are now getting a 20mph zone. My request is whether we can look at maybe some signage aspects which I think would be relatively simple things and that perhaps we can perhaps discuss that at another time. Thank you.
Councillor Master: I am happy to do that Lord Mayor.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Riyait next question.
Councillor Riyait: Thank you Lord Mayor. “A resident on Heacham Drive wants to know if any Section 106 monies from the Blackbird Fields housing development can be used to patch some of the already identified damaged sections of Heacham Drive?”
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor.
Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor. In regard to 106 general maintenance funding for this type of work would not normally be part of any Section 106 agreement for development. Officers are aware of the condition of the carriageway on Heacham Drive and are monitoring that section of concrete, so they are aware of the issues that you raise and the surface which is cracked. They have at this moment in time assessed it as not being dangerous, but they are monitoring that for further defects if that were to change. Heacham Drive has already been identified as a potential maintenance scheme going forward which will come out of the highways capital maintenance programme. In developing that it will probably be in the 2019/20 works programme and then we can do a full assessment of the work that is needed and get that built in to next year’s highway capital maintenance programme.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Riyait a supplementary?
Councillor Riyait: No.
Lord Mayor: And your next question.
Councillor Riyait: Lord Mayor. “When will traffic calming be implemented on Halifax Drive on the downhill stretch towards Beaumont Leys Lane?”
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor.
Councillor Master: Thank you Lord Mayor. There are a lot of highways issues in that part of the city. Draft proposals for traffic calming features such as splitter islands or speed cushions are being developed and we are costing those out at this moment in time, so we can see what that will look like going forward. Of course any proposals would then need to be assessed alongside other local safety schemes across the city, but the earliest time for any measures to be implemented it would be in the scheme 2019/20 which would come out of the highways and transport work programme.
Lord Mayor: Supplementary Councillor Riyait?
Councillor Riyait: Yes, I just want to make a plea for him to look at this quite urgently because this has been an ongoing issue, so we did do work on traffic calming on the other side of Halifax Drive going down towards Red Hill which has been effective. The issue with the downhill stretch towards Beaumont Leys Lane is that it has the concrete sections which as traffic comes down there, not only is there potential speed issues, but the noise generated by that and that is something that has been raised with Ward Councillors and also the local MP of the time. Thank you.
Councillor Master: Again, Lord Mayor, happy to look at that. I am sure this is one of the Councillor Riyait’s top three Ward priorities for his highway schemes across the city and I will look at that register to make sure it is. Thank you.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. Question 7, Councillor Kitterick.
Councillor Kitterick: Thank you very much Lord Mayor. “Will the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care extend the deadline for consultation on the independent living support (supported housing service) by eight working days in order to give the users of the service and/or their representatives the opportunity to address the January full Council meeting on the 24th January 2019?”
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor Councillor Dempster.
Councillor Dempster: Thank you Councillor Kitterick for that question. There are two organisations that are affected by this proposal and I have to say that they have been aware of the proposed changes since June of 2018. We were going to start the consultation in July but then one of the organisations asked for us to delay it whilst they looked to see if they could come up with any other ideas. So we did, we have already delayed this consultation by a number of months and so instead of starting in July we did not actually start until the 15th October, and it actually doesn’t close until the 14th January, and Council will know that as part of the consultation we will be talking to the organisations and the users that once the consultation has ended there will then be a report, that report will go to Scrutiny. There will be plenty of opportunity for both Councillors and Norton Housing to continue to be involved and therefore I really don’t see the necessity for that eight-day issue.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Kitterick, a supplementary question?
Councillor Kitterick: Lord Mayor, the financial situation the Tory government might put us in might require us to make cuts, but we can at least make the victims of those cuts have the right to address this Council meeting like any other resident of this city would do so. I do not believe that asking for an extension of eight working days in order that citizens of this city, from across this city, can come and petition the Council and make their voice heard. Some people in this chamber may not care.
Lord Mayor: Do you have a question for the Assistant City Mayor.
Councillor Kitterick: Chair, I would ask the Assistant City Mayor is, it is all very well, does she believe it is all very well to talk the talk about listening to the voices of those who have mental health issues, but if you turn down the request to delay a consultation for a service that has been going for 30 years by eight days so people can address this Council meeting if they believe that all of that is exactly that – just talk.
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor.
Councillor Dempster: I am sorry I will try and keep to the facts. The facts of the matter are that we have already deferred this for some considerable time. The fact of the matter is that they knew in June, June. The fact of the matter is that for months already and continuing for months we will be engaging with them. No decision is being made. Now the other thing that I did not actually want to bring up is the fact that my understanding is that even if an additional eight working days was to be agreed, that would not actually help them because there is an issue around having to submit it in a timely manner so that everything can be verified. But that is not the reason for refusing the eight days. The reason for refusing the eight days is the fact that a decision is nowhere near being made. The clue is in the word consultation.
Lord Mayor: Question number 8, Councillor Chaplin.
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “For each of the past four years: how much Section 106 money has been generated by developments in Stoneygate Ward, and how much has been spent in Stoneygate Ward and on what?”
Lord Mayor: City Mayor. Councillor Clair, Deputy City Mayor.
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor and to Councillor Chaplin for asking this question to me. I am provided with a list of all those 106 monies which have been given to the City Council either received, spent or planned to be spent since November 2014, and I am happy to provide that list this week either via email or by hard copy to all three Councillors of Stoneygate, and that breakdown sheet tells me that there is a total of £158,000 and £90,000 has been spent, which is the majority of that is for enhancement of open space and the rest of the money is planned to be spent and I will advise officers and ask officers to work with local Ward Councillors so that they should actually work with them and what are the priorities in their Ward so that that money is spent as it may be required and as it may be desired of the local Ward Councillors.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin a supplementary question?
Councillor Chaplin: I’m getting distracted by a vibrating phone here. It is not mine. Thank you, my Lord Mayor. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Clair. I am actually quite surprised by the amount of money and I am delighted that you are going to share the lists with us, that would be very helpful. What I would ask is we have, certainly I have for a long time, been asking that the money be spent in the Ward on facilities for young people. We were successful with the Onslow Park development. I have got a question about Prebend Gardens in a minute, but we have also talked about the priority for the Ward is a space for young people and youth, so they have got somewhere to go. Cedar Park and the ball park area would be really helpful to actually look towards that for something for young people. So, will the Deputy City Mayor consider proposals that if they are put forward by the Ward. Thank you.
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. If I just now remind myself that whenever any planning application actually comes and there are negotiations with the developers that what will be the condition and what this money would be actually spent on, probably that is one thing I need to clarify, and as I said in my first reply there has been some meeting scheduled earlier this year between the three Deputy City Mayors to undertake that sort of task with local Ward Councillors in each three constituencies and I have checked with Councillor Adam Clarke, Deputy City Mayor, that he said just those meeting was called and it was the opportunity at that time for Leicester South constituency members to come and actually share that information, but I am happy to work with all three Ward Councillors and I am happy to instruct officers to actually just explore those possibilities and discuss with them what their local priorities may be and all they can do to actually help and support to achieve those ambitions that Councillor Chaplin and other co-Councillors may have.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin, question number 9.
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you again my Lord Mayor. “What is the update on the work to improve Prebend Gardens?”
Councillor Clair: Just my Lord Mayor if I recall exactly now precisely that earlier this year there has been some leaflet drop and some public consultation on Prebend Gardens how local members and also local Ward Councillors may desire to see this Prebend Gardens shaped up with a mix and match of seating arrangements and some health and fitness equipment, may be how they want to improve the little area of the lake and that work has been complete, and now there is a meeting on 29th of this month at the African-Caribbean Centre to share that design which officers have a set of options while local people and local Ward Councillors to actually you know give some steer and also I have asked officers to take this with the consent of local Ward Councillors on I think 6th December to their Ward meeting in Stoneygate. So once local Councillors give some steer on the options which are the best suited for the requirements of the local people for Prebend Gardens I will instruct officers that work is scheduled and I am hopeful that if that is done then it will be done by the early part of next year by February, March or April.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin do you have a supplementary?
Councillor Chaplin: I do my Lord Mayor. Thank you again Deputy Mayor Councillor Clair. So, I hear what you say about a meeting earlier this year for people and Councillors from Leicester South. I myself was unable to attend that. I am not going to go into the details of why but I had not been well and I would hope that you don’t just rely on one Ward Councillor attending from Stoneygate Ward for those meetings and that you will already have had requests from co-Councillors about the money for 106 funding and we certainly would want the work on Prebend Gardens to be funded from 106 money. Is that going to be the case?
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.
Councillor Clair: Thank you Chairman. I am surprised by this. I would advise Councillor Chaplin that all three Ward Councillors should speak to each other and should actually share that information and if it has not been possible for Councillor Chaplin to attend previous meetings and these two meetings for which I have given dates and venues, I would be more than happy to brief Councillor Chaplin with officers personally myself.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. Question 10, Councillor Chaplin.
Councillor Chaplin: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “What is the update on the scheme to replace windows in council homes in the conservation areas of Stoneygate Ward?”
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor Councillor Connelly.
Councillor Connelly: Thank you Lord Mayor. Thank you Councillor Chaplin, for the question. We have 316 properties across the city that are either listed or fall within conservation areas of which 108 of these are in the Stoneygate area. In the summer this year we carried out a full windows condition survey of all of these properties and where planning consent has been previously given, we have replaced those properties with UPVC windows with new UPVC windows. (mobile phone rings)
Councillor Westley Sorry, my phone has gone.
Councillor Connelly: I can tell.
Lord Mayor: Whilst Councillor Westley is turning his phone off could I just remind Councillors, whilst I understand that mobile phones can be useful in Council meetings and a number of people are using them, could everybody make sure they are on silent or do not disturb and it may be useful to frequent yourself with how to use these functions before attending meetings. Assistant City Mayor do you want to carry on?
Councillor Connelly: Perhaps not surprisingly I won’t be asking Councillor Westley for his ring tone
Lord Mayor: It did seem appropriate.
Councillor Connelly: It did indeed. So, Lord Mayor as I was saying planning consent however is normally only granted if the replacement of original the windows with UPVC to the rear elevations of these properties. Our officers are currently at the stage of collating and analysing this condition survey data, and once this process has been concluded options will be considered and agreed for the remaining wooden windows. A programme of works which has yet to be agreed is likely to commence in the 2019/20 financial year.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin is there a supplementary question?
Councillor Chaplin: Yes, there is my Lord Mayor. It was a hideous ring tone wasn’t it.
Lord Mayor: Do you want me to put that motion to Council.
Councillor Chaplin: If you would like to do that my Lord Mayor then I am pretty sure that the vote will be carried. Thank you very much for the information Councillor Connelly. I am aware that the City Mayor earlier this year had talked about this and had recognised the need for homes where there are large windows because perhaps they have been big houses split into flats or maisonettes and the planning rules for the conservation areas obviously make it slightly more complicated and the City Mayor earlier this year had talked about this as an important role, not just in terms of the greener and energy saving, but also given the universal credit and the poverty that is bringing in I would hope that we would be able to look at that as something that could be prioritised in the next financial year and perhaps put in our manifesto for the election next year because
Lord Mayor: Councillor Chaplin rather than making suggestions for your manifesto which I am sure would be better made in Labour Group could you get to the question.
Councillor Chaplin: The question is will it be prioritised in the next financial year, recognising the poverty that the extra energy use with the heat escaping from people’s homes and the universal credit that is causing poverty? – will that be brought in and I hope it is in our manifesto?
Lord Mayor: Assistant City Mayor.
Councillor Connelly: Thank you Councillor Chaplin for your supplementary question which I am pleased to say was not interrupted by a ring tone. I think it is due credit to the City Mayor who recognised the issue around these particular properties. He instructed for the survey to be carried out. Clearly in respect of replacing the wooden windows with new wooden windows when there is so many of them there is an economy of scale that is required. Clearly in consideration of all of the different factors I am certain we will be having a discussion both in Labour Group and within the Executive about where this should be prioritised in respect of our programme of works for next year and I am sure we will also have a discussion about the manifesto.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Waddington, question 11.
Councillor Waddington: Thank you my Lord Mayor and in the absence of Councillor Russell I see I am to address my question to the City Mayor. So “Could the City Mayor please tell the Council if there are any proposals for more academies or free schools to be built or opened in the City between 2019 and 2023? How does the Council plan to deal with any such proposals?”
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: My Lord Mayor much has been made of the foreign policy errors of the Tony Blair Labour Government and quite rightly, but there are two areas of domestic policy that I think, looking back on it, deserve to be apologised for. There are many things to be proud of but there are two things that I think were very fundamentally mistaken. One was the private finance initiative and the other was the promotion of academies. I think also looking back there were two big policy mistakes of the then Labour leadership of the City Council. One was to take advantage of PFI schemes and the waste collection scheme is one such PFI scheme that was commissioned during that period, and the other is their promotion of academies in Leicester, particularly the facilitation and promotion of the Samworth Academy which they promoted and which has so sadly failed and let down and blighted the lives of so many young people, denying them the education that they need in our city. I personally have consistently campaigned, and I did during that period when they were proposing Samworth Academy, against academisation, and oppose the creation of that school and it gives me no satisfaction to say that the fears that I had at that time have proved correct even though they were brushed aside by the then Labour leadership of the Council. My Lord Mayor, the academisation of our schools and the creation of free schools here in Leicester and elsewhere has led to the fragmentation of education in the UK and has led to it being moved out of accountability to elected representatives to those such as ourselves who are expected by the people of the city to ensure their children get the education that they ought to get. So not only do I regret what the Labour government did, I regret what the Labour leadership of this Council did and I regret what the Tories are doing now.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Waddington do you have a supplementary question for the City Mayor?
Councillor Waddington: No I am still asking the first question Lord Mayor if you don’t mind. The answer I got was interesting but it did not actually answer the question which talks about academies from 2019 to 2023. Thank you.
Lord Mayor: The point is taken Councillor Waddington and I will just ask the City Mayor do you have the figures for the first question.
City Mayor: My Lord Mayor the numbers of city schools that have already academised, taken their lead from the Labour leadership at that time of this Council and from the lead given by the Labour government and accelerated by the Tory government, are on the record and readily available. Now I would be happy to provide them but I look forward to the election of a Labour government that is committed to reversing academisation. I look forward and will work for a Labour government to commit to the return of our school system and the quality of that school system back to local accountability and I regret that the last Labour manifesto did not make that commitment. What it did was commit to the rebranding of the regional schools commissioners in the label of a national education system. Well frankly that is not good enough and I will continue to campaign for a Labour government that is committed to the return to democratic control at a local level of all of those schools that have been so fragmented and to ensure that we are able to do as people expect us to do which is to ensure that children get the highest quality of education that they deserve.
Lord Mayor: City Mayor, just before I ask Councillor Waddington if she has got a supplementary did you want to….well I was going to take it as did you want to reply to the detail on the number of free schools to be built in the city between 2019 and 2023?
City Mayor: My Lord Mayor it is on public record that a very significant number of our schools as a result of the lead that was given have already academised and many more will no doubt wish to do so in the intervening period. What matters is not the number, what matters is the commitment to ensure they are brought back under local democratic control.
Councillor Waddington: Thank you my Lord Mayor I will respond to that by asking a further question and thank the City Mayor very much for his answer. He and I are on the same political side. I oppose academisation and free schools too and I look forward to all schools being brought back under local authority control, but what I would not like to see is this Council working now to enable further academisation when are about to see the Conservative government, forgive me Lord Mayor, crumble, and a General Election and new policies from a Labour government so we will no longer have to support further academies or free schools.
City Mayor: Well Lord Mayor I am very happy to answer that again although it is an unusual process of having a series of supplementaries and I thought I had given a very clear answer. But the fact is that, while local authorities maintain a legal responsibility to provide a sufficiency of places, it is now the case that as a result of what the Labour government started and the Tories have finished, they no longer have control over academies, multi-academy trusts or free schools. So, the short answer is that it is not in our hands to determine whether they continue. What is in our hands is to work to make sure that the Labour government and the Labour Party has a commitment to actually returning those back to local democratic control and then working together to make sure that government is elected.
Lord Mayor: Just to counter-balance and clarify with Council on the way I have just handled that. Councillor Waddington put out at the start of a supplementary that she did not believe that she had got an answer. I intervened and asked if the City Mayor wanted to provide that. In that I think I then made the point ambiguous, I think it was unfair of me not to allow Councillor Waddington to come back with a supplementary question. So it may appear that she has asked an additional supplementary question, and I apologise for the ambiguity that I let in the chairing and that is the reason why and I don’t think that Councillor Waddington has taken an additional question it is just the way that I have chaired it and apologies if anybody is not happy with that. Councillor Waddington, question 12.
Councillor Waddington: Thank you my Lord Mayor. “Should acts of misogyny be treated as hate crimes or hate incidents by the Leicestershire Police? Has there been any consultation on this question with Leicester City Council or the wider public?”
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor Councillor Clair.
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor and thank you to Councillor Waddington for asking this question. Anyone reporting a hate crime or incidents of misogyny or misandry where they feel that there has been hostility or prejudice because of their sex should be reassured that the issue they are reporting to the police will be taken seriously with action taken as appropriate. Under these circumstances such reports should be recorded in the category of hate crime or hate incidents or other. But my Lord Mayor at this moment in time we do not, and the police do not, record this crime in a stand-alone category. However, the issue of hate crime has been discussed within police meetings such as Community Gold. Furthermore, however, my Lord Mayor we understand that the police continue to work further to consider how they might record such crimes and incidents in the future. Currently it has not been determined locally to record misogyny or misandry as categories on their own, and it is further understood that national guidelines are still awaited on that and once those guidelines is actually provided then the police will be able to take this matter of classification and then probably we can actually work with the police to get it a separate or it should be a separate category.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Waddington a supplementary?
Councillor Waddington: Thank you. Is Councillor Clair aware of the work undertaken by Nottinghamshire police on this matter where it has been decided that incidents of misogyny will be recorded and research undertaken by the University of Nottingham Trent has discovered that there have been during the period of reporting quite high levels of misogyny. For example, 174 reports of which 73 were crimes, the rest were incidents, and it is young women who are the ones who are mainly affected by this. Young women who have been subject to sexual assault, indecent exposure, groping, threatening and intimidating behaviour, being followed home and so on. So, I would ask Councillor Clair if, although I know the police are very, very overburdened and with very low resources at the moment, whether we could have a discussion, a consultation on this to see what the Leicester people think and whether they feel that raising awareness of this will help reduce the incidents that we know are occurring. Thank you.
Lord Mayor: Deputy City Mayor.
Councillor Clair: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I actually was made aware of the Nottingham situation prior to this meeting and I am happy to ask for the situation and get that, secure that information from that. Further from that, the motion was considered by this Council, now I think the last Council or the Council meeting before, on that I think I met recently with both Councillor Waddington and Councillor Riyait, last week where Councillor Waddington has actually brought to my attention that this should be a considered at a category alone. I have asked for officers and I am waiting for that report to come and want to design and work with the police. As soon as that information becomes available as the three of us agreed with officers that we will have another opportunity to see that document and draft all that will address that issue. So I am happy to work with both Councillors Waddington and Riyait who were the mover and seconder of that motion.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Barton, question number 13.
Councillor Barton: Thank you. Unlucky for some I have got question 13. “Parents and carers of children at Dovelands School were sent a letter last Friday warning them that the school may have to close because of an inadequate and faulty heating system. Could the City Mayor reassure those parents and carers that the heating system will be repaired adequately and that children and staff will be warm and that the school will not have to close because of a faulty boiler?”
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Thank you my Lord Mayor. I think Members can imagine we have got over 80 schools across the city and taken together I don’t think I have actually done a full count but it is certainly over 200 boilers that we have responsibility for maintaining, and some of them do cause problems at times. We do have in place systems that enable us to go in quickly if they do have problems and also to provide supplementary heating if we can’t fix it immediately. I understand that the problem with one of the three boilers, and it is one of three boilers at Dovelands, has been a problem not so much with the boiler itself but with the control systems on it, and this has been an intermittent fault over quite a considerable period of time now. It has been fixed whenever it has occurred and as far as I know the school has not had to close as a result of those problems. In fact I say as far as I know I think I probably would know on this occasion because of all of the primary schools in the city this is the only one where I can say that for the last seven years, and it has been different children, I have throughout that seven year period had at last one grandchild at the school. And I am absolutely sure that had they been sent home because of a faulty boiler their mum would have told me. But the fact is that clearly there are issues with this boiler and we have been in this week again to fix it, and we have had a lot of co-operation and collaboration with the premises officer obviously but also with the Head about the problems that they have been experiencing. I am just pleased to be able to reassure Susan and I hope she will pass it on to the school and indeed to the parents, that we are determined that it should not have to close as a result of issues with even one of the three boilers over this summer and also perhaps, this is the really good news, we are just in the process of approving the children’s schools capital programme for investment in property improvements over the coming months and that does have as a total some £4.31m in investment into properties which is going into some 24 primary schools and two secondary schools, and most particularly relevant to this it does include extensive heating and boiler works at several schools including Dovelands.
Lord Mayor: Councillor Barton do you wish to make a supplementary?
Councillor Barton: Thank you and thank you for that reassurance over the improvements to the boiler and heating system at Dovelands. There was another question which is regarding heating in all schools over the winter. I know that boilers and things seem to have a tendency to go wrong just when the weather is at its coldest. What are the plans for emergency heating should any school find that their heating fails and are there standby sort of Calor gas things that can come in or what do we do?
Lord Mayor: City Mayor.
City Mayor: Chair, as I think I indicated actually initially that we do have the ability to send people in at very short notice to fix problems, but as we know like domestic boilers, sometimes they can be fixed immediately, sometimes they just need something cleaning or something, a small part replacing. Sometimes it is something more fundamental than that. And where we can’t fix them we do have the ability to take in supplementary heaters and do that. Occasionally, and it is only occasionally, when we think about 200 boilers across 80 schools, you know it takes a bit of a while to fix it and very occasionally schools do have to close for a day, but that is a rare occurrence I am glad to say and that is very much down to the fact of our preparedness and our continued programme of investing in out of date boilers and you know knowing where boilers are nearing the end of their economic life and when it is time to replace them in advance of them becoming unreliable. But as I say it does sometimes happen that we have to move in quickly and I like to think that we generally do it very effectively.
Lord Mayor: Thank you. And now unusually I refer Council to question 14 as detailed on the Council script and which the City Mayor is aware there will be no supplementary. City Mayor.
City Mayor: In which case my Lord Mayor I will give a particularly long answer. In fact I am genuinely very grateful to him for asking this question Lord Mayor and I do know that you have had a long engagement in dealing with the flooding issues in that part of Knighton Ward, particularly flooding from Holbrook and the effect that has on Carisbrooke Road, And I know you have sometimes physically intervened there to try and avoid some of the impact of that and to slow down some of the buses I think was one of your most notorious interventions there. But we are aware of these proposals and obviously it is complicated by the fact that on this particular side of the city, the city boundary is artificially very close in, and although we have got major interests, obviously in the Knighton area, a lot of the water that is generated is just beyond the boundary in what is effectively now part of the city but is designated as part of Oadby and Wigston. That does mean that it is Oadby and Wigston Borough Council who will be the planning authority for whatever happens on this site. We have also raised our interest with them, we have told them that we want to be involved in this, and we have also raised our interest with the County Council, who of course, are the lead local flood authority for this area and also have highway development control authority for this particular area just beyond our boundary. We are expected to work closely with them as we generally do on these sorts of issues and we have also informed Severn Trent, who, as you will know Lord Mayor, have been actively involved with us in looking at the issues in the area. I think perhaps I will say that clearly an inappropriate development on here could be problematic. The right development on here, albeit, I know it is probably one that Oadby and Wigston will have reservations about because of the way in which that land is designated; but the right development on here could give an opportunity to do some beneficial work in terms of flood risk within the city and could provide an opportunity to deliver flood water storage upstream on Holbrook; that I know we have, in the past, considered to be desirable but potentially unaffordable. The short answer Lord Mayor is that we are engaging with this process and will seek to look both at the negative and potentially the positive impact of any development there.
Lord Mayor: Thank you City Mayor. That concludes questions from Councillors.