Agenda and minutes

Reverend Michael Taylor, Mayor’s Chaplain, delivered the opening prayers.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Gillam, Glover, McCauley and Nicholson.

The Mayor informed Members that she had attended 50 engagements since the last meeting of Full Council.

The Mayor highlighted her recent visits to Carlton and Arnold Fire Stations, where she was shown the contents of a fire engine and ate dinner with the fire crews.

The first Pride of Gedling Awards were recently held to recognise people’s contributions to their community and were well attended and received.

The Mayor also attended a recent children’s book presentation held by New Writers UK. The Mayor reflected that in this age of technology, it was nice to see that children are still enthusiastic about reading, writing and producing their own hand written materials.

The Mayor also spoke of the recent opening of the Men in Sheds project at Jubilee House, Arnold and thanked the Corporate Director, Public Protection and Facilities colleagues and Age UK for their work on the project.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the above meeting, having been circulated, be approved as a correct record.

The Mayor, on behalf of all Members of the Council, declared a non-pecuniary interest in the petition received from the Friends of Ethel Avenue, as the Council owns a section of the access that the petition relates to.

Jed Brandreth and Myles Kirk, of the Gedling Youth Council, asked a question of Councillor Wheeler, as the Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing, in the following terms:

“Every year, bullying is raised as one of the most prominent issues that the young people of Gedling have.

We feel that teachers can be out of touch with the new forms of bullying and are uneducated about spotting it.

Could the Council get in touch and influence schools to improve this, if so how?

We would be very grateful if we could receive feedback on any movement in this area.”

Councillor Wheeler provided the following response:

“I would like to thank the young people from the Gedling Youth Council for attending Council this evening. I am aware that the Youth Council is working in theme groups to tackle some of the issues most important to young people in Gedling, including bullying, and am pleased to report that Members Grant funding of £1,200 has been given to help the Youth Council to deliver its action plan this year.

It is great that young people feel that they can come to the Council and ask a question about a real important issue that affects all young people in the Borough – namely teachers’ inability to spot the new forms of bullying and subsequently stop it.

As a Council we have also recognised that Cyber Bullying in particular is a new issue which we cannot ignore.  Last October our Netherfield Community Safety week focused upon Cyber Crime.  We arranged presentations and interactive drama workshops in the two local primary schools and also at Carlton le Willows Academy.  The presentations informed of what both 0 to 9 year olds and 9 to 16 year olds are currently doing on-line and highlighted the risks and benefits of this activity.    Activity includes social networking sites, sharing sites (such as Instagram), gaming, use of mobile technology and webcams.  They also offered advice to parents and children about how to manage use of technology and how to identify the dangers and signs of cyber bullying. 

A short video was also produced in partnership with Netherfield Primary School showing the importance of parents taken the time in their busy lives to recognise potential signs of cyber bullying.  This video is currently available on You-Tube.

We also agreed with the three schools to run Cyber Bullying workshops for teachers.  The purpose so teachers could deliver similar sessions themselves within school and promote greater understanding around the issues of cyber bullying.  The Heads of all three schools felt this issue was becoming a real problem within their schools and that staff were not necessarily sufficiently skilled enough to deal with it.

The Council now plans to purchase merchandise around cyber bullying to raise the profile of the issue and this will offer links to some helpful websites. We plan to distribute this merchandise at various events over the summer months.

The question posed tonight by the Youth Council prompts us a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

None received.

Councillor Collis left the meeting.

Report of the Service Manager Elections and Members’ Services.

Mr Andrew Robinson, on behalf of the Friends of Ethel Avenue, presented the petition, outlining the history of the site and the current issues relating to the petition. Mr Robinson and the petition requested that the Council do all in their power to reopen the footpath, not make available for sale the section of land owned by the Council and to support a decision by Nottinghamshire County Council to open the section of land as a bridleway.

The Mayor formally accepted the petition on behalf of the Council.

It was proposed by Councillor Clarke, seconded by Councillor Barnfather and

RESOLVED to:

1.     Support the Friends of Ethel Avenue to ensure continued access for walkers and cyclists (as established by over 130 years of continued and well documented public use) to the grassed footpath section of Ethel Avenue between Emmanuel Avenue and Kenrick Road which has been unofficially blocked since July 2013;

2.     Strongly urge Nottinghamshire County Council to prioritise the decision regarding the recent application to have this section of Ethel Avenue registered as a public bridleway in order to protect this very much valued local route, in the light of the current residential planning application which threatens continued public access to this route;

3.     Ask Officers to write to Nottinghamshire County Council requesting that the recent application be prioritised;

4.     Recommend to the Executive that the decision to sell the strip of land in the Council’s ownership is reconsidered in light of this petition and in the event that the land is sold that the sale is subject to continued public access being preserved; and

5.     Request that Planning Officers continue to monitor the site and consider enforcement action if appropriate.

Councillor Collis entered the meeting.

In accordance with Standing Order 11.1, a number of comments were made and responded to by the appropriate Cabinet Member or Committee Chair.

None Received.

None received.