| 79 | Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Boot, G Clarke, Feeney, Gregory and McCauley. Apologies were also received from Alderman Bill Peet. |
| 80 | The Mayor spoke about the recent Carol Service that she had attended and how much she had enjoyed hosting the choir from Westdale Lane School at the Civic Centre. She also thanked all staff that had attended a Christmas reception with her in the Parlour.
The Mayor allowed Councillor Pepper to address Council. Councillor Pepper apologised for remarks she made at a meeting of Council on 31 August 2011. |
| 81 | It was moved by Councillor WJ Clarke and seconded by Councillor Payne and: |
| 83 | None. |
| 84 | The Mayor invited Mr Paul Sellors to ask the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Environment, Councillor Creamer:
"When Gedling Borough Council's housing stock was transferred to Gedling Homes, the Council received monies to be spent on improvements in the public realm.
Can the Council tell me the following:
How much money Gedling Borough Council received and over what time frame was it to be spent;
What percentage of Gedling Homes' housing stock is in Calverton;
What percentage of the Gedling Homes Public Realms Money has been spent in Calverton; and
If Gedling Homes Public Realms Money has been spent in Calverton can you tell me where it has been spent?"
Portfolio Holder, Councillor Creamer replied:
"Thank you Mr Sellors for your question.
As part of the transfer of the Council's housing stock in 2008, agreement was reached with Gedling Homes to implement a five year programme of public realm improvements. To date, this has amounted to £2.368 million.
It is important to emphasise that this money has not been received by the Council, rather Gedling Homes commissions the works following agreement with the Council as to the priorities.
5% of Gedling Homes stock is within Calverton and to date, no works have been commissioned from the public realms works allocations. Just two requests have been received to date, neither of which were considered appropriate for reasons of land ownership." |
| 85 | In response to a question asked by Councillor B Andrews, Council Leader, Councillor WJ Clarke replied:
"Thank you Councillor Andrews for your question.
Gedling Business Partnership plays a valuable role in creating networking opportunities for local businesses. Only last week, at their most recent meeting, the Chair of the Partnership provided examples of where businesses had met at the Partnership and subsequently did business together.
With regard to creating new Apprenticeships, the Business Partnership is linked into the new service that is now operating from Arnot Hill House, involving South Nottingham College and the Recruit Local service and 18 apprenticeship opportunities have been identified within 13 Gedling employers - 12 of these have already been placed. A further 2 opportunities have been identified and recruited to with employers that are based outside the Borough. You might also be interested to know that the Council itself is doing its bit in terms of apprenticeships. We've currently got 3 on our books, 5 more are being recruited to right now and all Service Managers have been set a target to create at least one apprentice position next year. We've also set aside £20,000 to support small businesses create apprenticeships and, as many members will know, we hosted the launch of the Nottingham Post's 100 apprentices in 100 days and were the first Council in Notts to sign up to that.
Gedling has the lowest job density in the County - something that we have recently brought to the attention of the County Council, so we are very keen to support business start-ups. Just across the way at Arnot Hill House, our new partner, South Nottingham College, runs a regular enterprise club that supports people wanting to set up their own business. The Council also keeps a register of its own business premises that may be available for use and we also refer enquiries to the Inward Investment service for the County, Invest in Nottingham, which has a public search facility which highlights any commercially available property in the area. |
| 86 | Upon a notice of motion received in the name of Councillor Payne a proposition was moved by Councillor Payne and seconded by Councillor Ellis in the following terms:-
• This Council recognises the continuing hard work of its employees, particularly in tough times and a period of rapid reform for local government.
• This Council welcomes the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP's commitment to tackling low pay during a period of public sector pay freeze, which he gave on behalf of the government in his Budget statement to the House of Commons on 22nd June 2010. In his statement he put on record that:
‘...the Government is asking the public sector to accept a two-year pay freeze. But we will protect the lowest paid.
In the past I have said that we would be able to exclude the one million public sector workers earning less than £18,000 from a one year pay freeze.
Today, because we have had to ask for a two year freeze, I extend the protection to cover the 1.7 million public servants who earn less than £21,000. Together they make up 28 per cent of the public sector workforce. They will each receive a flat pay rise worth £250 in both these years, so that those on the very lowest salaries will get a proportionately larger rise.'
• This Council welcomes the fact that the promised once in a year payment of £250 given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his 2010 Budget statement has been paid by the Treasury to teachers, prison officers, the armed forces and NHS employees (excluding dentists and doctors).
• This Council notes the average hourly rate of Gedling Borough Council employees is just over £8.70 an hour or £16,800 a year, 65% of staff (FTEs) are paid below the figure referred to in the 2010 Budget statement of £21,000 and that 28% of our jobs are paid at a rate below the living wage.
• This Council notes that the mean annual salary within the Gedling parliamentary constituency for 2012, as referenced in Office for National Statistics' Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings is £30,644, whilst the mean annual salary (2012) for the East Midlands is £29,840 and for the UK is £32,708.
• This Council supports the principle set out by the coalition government of providing support to low paid public sector workers in difficult times, particularly in light of the current public sector pay freeze.
• This Council is committed to introducing the living wage for its employees as soon as possible and using its best endeavours to ensure Gedling becomes a living wage borough.
• This Council thanks its entire staff for their continuing hard work, wishes them well for the festive season and a Happy New Year.
Councillor Hughes, seconded by Councillor Gillam, proposed an amendment to the motion. This was put to a vote and the amendment was lost. Council continued to debate the motion as it stood.
After discussion and on the requisition of two Members the motion was put to a named vote and the motion was carried.
For the motion:
Councillors Ainley, P Allan, R Allan, Bailey, P Barnes, S Barnes, Beeston, Blair, Brooks, J Clarke, Collis, Creamer, Ellis, Ellwood, Fox, Gillam, Glover, Hewlett, Hollingsworth, Hope, Hughes, Key, Lawrence, Paling, Payne, Pulk, Quilty, Truscott, Tunnicliffe, Weisz, and Wheeler.
Against the motion:
No members.
Abstentions:
Councillors B Andrews, P Andrews, Barnfather, Bexon, Hewson, Nicholson, Parr, Poole, Powell, Prew-Smith, Spencer and Tomlinson.
Councillor Pepper was not present for the vote. |
| 87 | Consideration was given to a report of the Service Manager, Housing and Localities, which had been circulated previously, presenting the Joint Tenancy Strategy for Broxtowe, Gedling and Nottingham for adoption, as endorsed by Cabinet. |
| 88 | Consideration was given to a report of David Wakelin, Corporate Director, informing Members of the progress made in producing the new Gedling Gambling Statement of Principles and seeking adoption of the new Gambling Statement. |
| 89 | Consideration was given to a report of Corporate Director, Stephen Bray, which had been circulated previously, outlining the draft recommendations of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) with regard to the future warding pattern for the Borough and seeking agreement for the Council's response to those recommendations. |
| 90 | Consideration was given to a report of Corporate Director, Stephen Bray, which had been circulated previously, informing Members of a request received from the Labour Group Business Manager to make changes to representation on the Performance Review Scrutiny Committee and on the Groundwork Trust. |
| 91 | It was moved by Councillor W J Clarke and seconded by Councillor Payne and |
| 92 | The recommendation from Cabinet, with the addition of wording as circulated to all Members in the Chamber, was moved by Councillor WJ Clarke and seconded by Councillor Payne and |
| 93 | It was moved by Councillor W J Clarke and seconded by Councillor Payne and |
| 94 | In accordance with Standing Order 11.01, a number of comments were made and responded to by the appropriate Cabinet Member or Committee Chair. |
| 95 | None received. |