Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors A Bridges, J Bridges and J Ruff, who was having difficulties being released by her employer.

Members are reminded that any declaration of interest should be made having regard to the code of conduct.  In particular, members must make clear the nature of the interest and whether it is 'pecuniary' or ‘non pecuniary'.

Councillor J Legrys declared a Disclosable Non-Pecuniary interest in item 7 – Motions (2), due to his association with Friends of Snibston.

Councillors S Sheahan and M B Wyatt declared a Disclosable Non-Pecuniary interest in item 7 – Motions (2), as Members of Leicestershire County Council.

The Chairman announced that the Deputy Chairman had attended several events, as had he and his Consort.  He reported that he had a busy diary of events over the summer.

Members are reminded that under paragraph 11.1 of part 4 of the Constitution, questions can be asked of the Leader and Cabinet Members without notice about any matter contained in any address.  Questions shall be limited to five minutes in total for each announcement.

Councillor R Blunt spoke in recognition of the end of an era for Moira fire station.  He noted that a number of Members had campaigned in support of the fire station, however it would sadly close on 31 July.  He wished to place on record his thanks to the on-call crew who had shown such commitment and dedication in serving the people of the District.

Councillor S Sheahan echoed Councillor R Blunt’s comments, adding that it was a great shame to see the fire station close.  He stated that it was only through the efforts of David Taylor and others that the date of closure had been extended until the premises were available at Castle Donington.  He added that premises had now been leased.  He expressed great sadness at the closure and reported that a service was being held at a local church on 29 July to commemorate the fire station.

On behalf of himself and Councillor A V Smith, Councillor T J Pendleton commented on the District Council’s contribution towards the Download Festival which was the largest event in the District and attracted 80,000 – 100,000 people each year.  He acknowledged that as with every event of this size and scale, there were impacts upon local communities, both positive and negative.  He stated that the District Council had invested a significant amount of resource into the planning of the event and he thanked all staff across the environmental health, community safety, stronger safer and waste teams for their contribution to the best ever Download Festival in terms of community impact.  He reported that this year had seen a huge 70% reduction in crime and disorder, which was in no small part due to the hard work of the community safety team led by Sarah Favell.  He reported that for the first time in his recollection, there had been no complaints received by the District or Parish Council in respect of noise, which was a testament to our officers’ work on pre-event planning and on-site noise management.  He stated that the aim was to repeat this next year, adding that work would continue with partners as there was always room for improvement.  He expressed thanks to all staff involved, commenting that their hard work had paid off.

Councillor T J Pendleton stated that since 2007, the Council had been investing in the quality of new developments and had employed an Urban Designer to help fulfil the Council’s vision that North West Leicestershire would be a place where people and businesses felt they belong and were proud to call home.  He added that this had led to much more well-considered developments being built.  He reminded Members that the Council had won the Urban Design Group’s first ever Urban Design Awards and were a leading authority on Built for Life.  He added that the standard of what was being built was improving all the time and was heading in the right direction.  He announced that in April the Council were awarded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

To receive questions from members of the public under procedure rule no.10.  The procedure rule provides that members of the public may ask members of the Cabinet any question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the District, provided that three clear days’ notice in writing has been given to the Head of Legal and Support Services.

There were no questions received.

To receive members’ questions under procedure rule no.11.  The procedure rule provides that any member may ask the chairman of a board or group any question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the District, provided that three clear days’ notice in writing has been given to the Head of Legal and Support Services.

The Chairman reported that nine questions from Members had been received for the meeting this evening, and in view of the number received, each question would be limited to 3 minutes in total, including the response and any supplementary question.  He explained that this would ensure fairness to all members, given that the overall time limit for dealing with questions was 30 minutes.  He reminded Members that should the 3 minutes elapse before the relevant Portfolio Holder was able to respond to a supplementary question, a written response would be provided after the meeting.

Councillor J Legrys put the following question to Councillor A V Smith:

“Memorial Square Coalville

Most of the land surrounding the Clock Tower at Memorial Square Coalville is owned by the County Council as ‘Highway’.

Can the Lead Member please:

·         Tell me what powers NWLDC has to close the square to enable events to take place on County Council land?

·         The formal process of closing the square to traffic – including a list of Consultees?

·         Are event organisers required to keep a vehicular corridor free to enable Emergency Service vehicles to be driven through the square in the event of an emergency elsewhere?”

Councillor A V Smith gave the following response:

“The District Council does not own any land in Memorial Square, it is all owned by the County Council.

The District Council has powers under The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (Section 21) (TPCA) to close roads i.e. highway land to enable certain events such as public processions, rejoicings and illuminations to take place. These powers have limited application for Memorial Square in that they can be used to close the square but they cannot be used to impose or suspend waiting restrictions or any other Traffic Regulation Order which is a function of the County Highway Authority. The District Council currently only uses the TPCA in Coalville for the annual Remembrance Day parade.

In the main, when the District Council receives any requests to temporarily close or restrict access to a highway (such as Memorial Square) or to amend an existing Traffic Regulation Order applicants are directed to the County Council (roadclosures@leics.gov.uk). 

As part of the County Council’s procedure the Emergency Services, Public Transport, District and Parish Councils and the respective County Council Member(s) are advised of the application on initial submission and again two weeks in advance of the event/restrictions taking place.

When the traffic movements around the clock tower were consolidated to one side of the Square, Leicestershire Fire & Rescue requested that provision be incorporated into the design allowing a fire engine to travel through the square in the event of the roads being congested. Therefore a route through the Square is required to be maintained when events are held and organisers are made aware of this requirement”.

Councillor J Legrys acknowledged the time spent by staff and stated that he was pleased to receive an answer.  As a supplementary question, he expressed concern that the land  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

1)       To consider the following motion received from Councillor T Neilson:

“Our tenants should not be made prisoners in their own homes. When they need extra work to be done on their house so that they can more easily look after themselves then we should be make that as easy as possible. This council believes that 14 months to get an adaptation to a council house is too long. We therefore will introduce a service level agreement with our tenants to ensure that the vast majority (say 90%) of adaptations are done within a maximum of 10 months for routine adaptations and 6 months for more urgent adaptations.

This will of course be subject to the same budgetary restrictions and caveats relating to planning applications as the current policy”.

2)       To consider the following motion received from Councillor J Legrys:

“Motion of Economic Impact of the Closure of Snibston Exhibition Hall

 This Council’s Constitution requires the Cabinet/Executive to:

“To carry out the Authority’s responsibilities for improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of the District and increasing the availability and equality of access to employment”.(Article 16 page 41)”.

Motion:

In light of Leicestershire County Council’s consideration to close the Exhibition Hall at Snibston Discovery Museum this Council will undertake an Economic Impact Assessment to examine the affect of such a closure on Coalville and the wider District.

The Economic Impact Assessment(EIA) will be an assessment of different options for the future of Snibston including an appraisal of the economic impact of:-

1.    Maintaining the Exhibition Hall and current collections intact at the current location at Snibston Discovery Museum and continuing towards increased commercialisation as described in the Business Plan detailed in the Black Radley Ltd report dated 15^th March 2011.

2.    Closing & demolishing the Exhibition Hall, redistributing collections away from Coalville with a view to building new housing or employment on the vacant site.

3.    Transferring control of Snibston Discovery Museum, including the Scheduled Ancient Monument, Gallery, Park and Century Theatre and all associated land and artefacts into a charitable trust with a with a view to increasing footfall and private sector investment as referred to in the Black Radley Ltd report on pages 23 and 24.

4.    A ‘low key’ weekend/holiday only opening of the Scheduled Monument with no Main Gallery attraction”.

3)       To consider the following motion received from Councillor J Legrys:

“Minimum Size of Vehicular Garages on New Developments

Elected Members are receiving complaints from residents that many garages on new developments are so small that it is impossible to be used for vehicular parking.  The re-visit of the Local Plan will provide an opportunity to examine current policy and practice.

Motion

This Council will deliver a new policy to insist that developers provide minimum internal garage dimensions that will:

 Provide Garage door width that will enable most cars to enter/leave the garage and allow most drivers of an average (model) sized vehicle to open the vehicle door(s) and to enter/exit the  ...  view the full agenda text for item 23.

The Chairman encouraged all Members to make their submissions on the motions received in a timely manner.

Motion (1)

Councillor T Neilson moved the following motion:

“Our tenants should not be made prisoners in their own homes. When they need extra work to be done on their house so that they can more easily look after themselves then we should be make that as easy as possible. This council believes that 14 months to get an adaptation to a council house is too long. We therefore will introduce a service level agreement with our tenants to ensure that the vast majority (say 90%) of adaptations are done within a maximum of 10 months for routine adaptations and 6 months for more urgent adaptations.

This will of course be subject to the same budgetary restrictions and caveats relating to planning applications as the current policy”.

 Councillor T Neilson stated that the motion originated from some of the experiences Members had been hearing about when knocking on doors.  He added that more and more casework related to adaptations, and the issues to be discussed were dignity and quality of life.  He stated that to ask people to wait more than a year to have their needs addressed was poor in the 21^st century, and completion timescales varied.  He believed that through implementing challenging targets, the Council could start to show disabled tenants it was working for them.

The motion was seconded by Councillor J Legrys who reserved his comments.

Councillor R D Bayliss urged Members to reject the motion as he believed it was badly drafted, would be difficult to implement, was not costed in terms of the consequences and was ill-informed as to the present policy.  He acknowledged that there were occasional regrettable failures in performance but felt that this did not detract from the policy itself.  He reminded Members that the starting point had been a no star, poor performance service with uncertain prospects, and therefore Members would understand why he was not prepared to listen to lectures on the quality of the policy or the service.  He also reminded Members that the present policy had been adopted by the Council in May 2008 and had succeeded in the audit.  He explained that minor adaptations were implemented within 28 days, fast track adaptations within 5 months or less, and other adaptations were completed within 8 months if they were relatively urgent.  Routine adaptations could take upto 14 months and some could take longer.  He outlined some of the factors that could impact upon timescales, such as reports from occupational therapy, planning permissions, procurement issues and contracting for works, which demonstrated that the process could not simply be sped up.  That said, he advised that the policy was currently under review and would be reported to Cabinet before the end of the calendar year.  He reminded Members that they could call the issue in or refer it to Policy Development Group if they were so minded.

The Chairman advised Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

To receive petitions in accordance with the Council’s Petition Scheme. 

No petitions were received.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 13 May 2014.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 13 May 2014.

It was moved by Councillor G A Allman, seconded by Councillor T Gillard and

RESOLVED THAT:

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 May 2014 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillor C Large left the meeting at 7.04pm during the discussion on item 6 – Questions from Councillors, and returned to the meeting at 7.09pm.