Agenda and minutes
PDF 156 KBVenue: The Meres Leisure Centre, Trent Rd, Grantham, NG31 7XQ
Contact: Democratic Services Email: democracy@southkesteven.gov.uk
Note: Please note, public seating for this meeting will be limited in order for social distancing measures to be followed
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Apologies for absence
Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors George Chivers, Mike Exton, Jan Hansen, Charmaine Morgan, Dr Peter Moseley and Hannah Westropp.
Council agreed to extend its best wishes to Councillor Mike Exton for a speedy recovery, who was currently recovering from a recent operation.
(Councillor Jan Hansen joined the meeting at 14:34) |
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Election of the Chairman of South Kesteven District Council
Minutes: Members were invited to make nominations for the Chairman of the Council.
A proposition was made and seconded that Councillor Breda Rae Griffin be re-elected as the Chairman of South Kesteven District Council.
A vote was taken and the Council AGREED:
To elect Councillor Breda Rae Griffin as the Chairman of the Council
The Chairman was invested with the chain of office and Members offered their congratulations with a round of applause.
The Chairman thanked Members for their support and committed to do her very best to get the district noticed for the right reasons, reporting that she would continue with the same two charities she had supported in the previous municipal year. |
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Election of the Vice-Chairman of South Kesteven District Council
Minutes: Councillor Ian Stokes was proposed and seconded for the role of Vice Chairman of South Kesteven District Council.
A vote was taken and the Council AGREED:
To elect Councillor Ian Stokes as the Vice-Chairman of South Kesteven District Council.
Councillor Stokes was invested with the Vice-Chairman’s medallion and members of the Council congratulated him on his election with a round of applause. He took the opportunity to thank Members for their vote of confidence in him to undertake the role. |
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Communications (including Chairman's Announcements)
Minutes: The Council noted the Chairman’s engagements.
The Chairman welcomed Councillor Penny Robins to her first meeting of Council since her election, representing Glen Ward. |
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Disclosure of Interests
Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting. Minutes: No interests were disclosed. |
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Minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2021
Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2021 were proposed, seconded and agreed as a correct record. |
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Announcement by the Leader of the Council on the size and membership of the Cabinet and Cabinet Members' remits
Minutes: Councillor Kelham Cooke, Leader of the Council, reflected that this meeting of Council was taking place at the Meres Leisure Centre following the recent ruling of the High Court that the Authority’s public meetings could not be held remotely or via a hybrid of physical and remote meetings. The meeting would, however, be live streamed and meetings of the Council’s Committees would continue to be held in the Council Chamber, where sufficient social distancing could be maintained. These meetings would also be live streamed. Councillor Cooke confirmed that he would continue to lobby for the ability to hold public meetings remotely or via a hybrid option through the Local Government Association.
The Leader made reference to the Covid-19 vaccination programme which he said had been an astounding success, protecting communities and assisting with the easing of restrictions, stating how fantastic it was to see town centres becoming busy again and businesses reopening.
The Council continued to provide the key services residents and businesses needed throughout the pandemic whilst swiftly reacting to ensure that the right support was in place at the right time for those who needed it. A number of examples included:
· dealing with approximately 122,000 enquiries over the telephone; · responding to approximately 30,000 emails; · supporting over 2,700 businesses with grant funding, equating to just under £50 million; · supporting 631 people and preventing them from becoming homeless; · contacting approximately 18,000 people at the commencement of the pandemic by way of personal contact to ensure that they were receiving the support they needed; · re-deploying staff across the Authority and protecting the most vulnerable people in the district’s communities; · operating a ‘business as usual approach’, with the household waste collection team being an example whereby over 80,000 household waste bins continued to be collected every week.
The pandemic had left a significant impact on the Council’s resources, with deficits made up through the Council’s reserves without any detriment to frontline services.
The Leader was proud that the Council had led the way, providing community leadership and working with the NHS and other partners to support and enable the first vaccination centre in Lincolnshire to open in Grantham. The South Kesteven Community Hub was also established quickly and provided help to those shielding or those residents within the vulnerable category.
South Kesteven District Council had also been extremely active on the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum throughout the pandemic and Councillor Kelham made the comment that he had never experienced such strong partnership working between all District Councils and the County Council in Lincolnshire before.
The Leader took the opportunity to thank officers for their rapid transformation and the way in which the agile project enabled over 400 people to work remotely from home and ensure key services and support could continue to be delivered.
Councillor Kelham reminded Council that it had adopted a Corporate Plan which encompassed five priorities, all of which would be supported by an action plan and key deliverables, underpinned by performance indicators which would be reviewed by frequent meetings ... view the full minutes text for item 7. |
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This report sets out the requirements placed on the Council for the appointment of members to its Committees and Panels, and the appointment of their Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen.
Additional documents: Minutes: Members were presented with a report of the Chief Executive on the appointments to Committees, (including Overview and Scrutiny Committees) and Panels of the Council and the appointment of Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen.
Group Leaders were responsible for nominating Members from within their respective Groups to each Committee, in accordance with Political Balance, as appropriate. The appointment of Chairman and Vice-Chairman of each Committee, in accordance with Article 4.4.1(a)(viii) of the Council’s Constitution were to be appointed by The Leader of the Council.
Members considered the Group nominations and noted that the Conservative Group had gifted 1 seat to the non-aligned Member of the Council in respect of the Planning Committee. Councillor Ian Selby thanked the Conservative Group for the gifting of the seat, for the forthcoming Municipal Year.
A number of Members wished to express their concern regarding the proposed change to the Chairmanship for the Planning Committee. Those Members who had served on the Planning Committee conveyed their support and gratitude to Councillor Bob Adams for his time as the Chairman and requested that the Leader reconsider his recommendation for the Committees Chairmanship. Councillor Adams thanked those Members for their support and wished the proposed new Chairman luck in their new role.
The Leader thanked Members for their consideration of his recommendations and confirmed that the appointments to each Chairman and Vice-Chairmanship were in line with the requirements of the Constitution. The Leader added further thanks for those kind words expressed from Members regarding Councillor Adams.
The recommendations of the report were proposed and seconded. Enough Members as prescribed in the Constitution indicated their request for a record vote, which was held as follows:
For: Councillors Adams, Bellamy, Bosworth, Broughton, Cooke, Cottier, Crawford, Dawson, Dobson, Fellows, Goral, Griffin, Jeal, Johnson, Kaberry-Brown, Kingman, Lee, Manterfield, Mason, Reid, Nick Robins, Penny Robins, Sandall, Selby, Jacky Smith, Judy Smith, Stevens, Adam Stokes, Ian Stokes, Thomas, Trollope-Bellew, Trotter, Ward, Hilary Westropp, Whittington, Woolley, Linda Wootten and Ray Wooten. Against: Councillors Bisnauthsing, Baxter, Clack, Dilks, Fellows, Kelly, Knowles, Milnes, Moran, Steptoe, Jane Wood and Paul Wood Abstain: Councillor Wheeler
The recommendations were AGREED.
DECISIONS:
That the Council 1. Noted the political balance on its Committees and Panels as set out in Appendix 1 to the report. 2. Appointed members to its Committees and Panels taking account of the requirements for political balance. 3. Appointed the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of its Committees. 4. The Leader appointed one of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairmen to act as the Chairman of the joint meetings of Overview and Scrutiny Committees referred to in Article 7 of the Council’s Constitution.
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Appointment of Representatives to Outside Bodies
In accordance with Article 4 of the Council’s Constitution, the annual meeting of the Council will receive nominations of councillors to serve on a variety of outside bodies. Minutes: Members received a report of the Chief Executive on the appointment of Representatives on Outside Bodies, in accordance with Article 4 of the Council’s Constitution.
The report detailed those appointments which were to be made for 1 year only and asked Members to note those appointments which were made in 2019 and 2020, which were for a period of 3 or 4 years.
A proposal was made that the appointee for the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Panel be changed, Councillor Ray Wootten to be replaced by Councillor Sarah Trotter, for the remainder of the appointment, which was due to expire in May 2023.
The recommendation of appointments to Outside Bodies were proposed, seconded and AGREED:
That the Council
1. Considered nominations and made appointments to the Outside Bodies set out in Table 1 for one year: · Councillor Kelham Cooke, Leader of the Council being appointed to: · East Midlands Councils · The Local Government Association · Councillor Barry Dobson, Deputy Leader of the Council being the Leader’s named substitute. 2. Notes those appointments made in 2019 and 2020. 3. That Councillor Sarah Trotter be named as representative on the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Panel, until the expiry of the appointment in May 2023.
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Programme of meetings of Council and Committees for 2021/22
Under Article 4.4.1(a)(x) of the Constitution, it is the business of the annual Council meeting to approve a programme of ordinary meetings of the Council for the year. This report also sets out the dates for meetings of the Cabinet, overview and scrutiny committees and other committees of the Council. Additional documents: Minutes: A report of the Chief Executive on the Programme of meetings of the Council’s Committees, Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny Committees and other Committees of the Council. for 2021/22 was presented to Members.
The Chairman informed Member of some proposed changes to the schedule of meetings, which was appended to the report.
· The Governance and Audit Committee on Thursday, 10 June 2021 to be moved to Wednesday, 9 June 2021
· The Governance and Audit Committee Monday, 20 December 2021 to be moved to Wednesday, 22 December 2021
· The Governance and Audit Committee Thursday 17 March 2022 to Wednesday 16 March 2022
The recommendations of the report, along with the changes noted by the Chairman, were proposed, seconded and AGREED.
DECISION:
That Council approved the dates of all Committee meetings of the Council, as attached as Appendix A to the report, subject to the changes noted for meetings of the Governance and Audit Committee.
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Governance and Audit Committee Annual Report for year ending 31 March 2021
The purpose of this report is to advise Council of key outcomes arising from the work of the Governance and Audit Committee for 2020-21 and to approve the indicative work plan and timetable for 2021-22.
Additional documents: Minutes: Members received a report of the Chairman of the Governance and Audit Committee, which presented the Annual Report of the Committee, for the year ending March 2021. The Annual Report advised Member of the key outcomes arisen from the work of the Committee 2020/21 and asked for the indicative work plan for 2021/22 to be noted.
Members noted that the Committee had achieved a considerable amount of work during the past year. It was requested that the Committee consider the inclusion of the Council’s successes and failures, in future years’ reports.
The recommendations of the report where proposed, seconded and AGREED.
DECISIONS:
That full Council
1. Accepted the Annual Report of the Governance and Audit Committee for 2020-21. 2. Noted the indicative work plan and timetable for 2021-22, which reflected the terms of reference of the Committee.
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Decisions made under urgency provisions and delegated powers
This report sets out those decisions that have been made under urgency provisions set out within the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 and the Council’s Constitution. Additional documents: Minutes: A report of the Leader of the Council, on Decisions made under urgency provisions and delegated powers, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 and the Council’s Constitution.
Two decisions had been taken by the Chief Executive; Adoption of Land on Collins Avenue, Stamford and Acceptance of Green Grant Funding.
Members were in agreement that the decision taken regarding the Green Grant Funding was particularly welcomed and were looking forward to hearing of its progress.
The recommendation of the report was proposed, seconded and AGREED:
DECISION:
That Council noted the contents of the report.
(Councillor Graham Jeal left the meeting at 14:44, during consideration of the above item). |
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Close of meeting
Minutes: The Chairman closed the meeting at 14:49. |