Agenda item
Notices of Motion
To consider the following Notices of Motion under Standing Order 12:
A – Motions referred from the Cabinet in accordance with Standing Order 12.1(a)
None
B – Motions submitted for consideration directly by Council, in accordance with Standing Order 12.1(b)
(i) From Cllr Burton
“Council notes the reduction in rights at work under the Conservative Liberal Democrat Government and the subsequent rise in the use of 'zero hour contracts'.
Council believes rights of people at work are extremely important and that zero hour contracts undermine these rights.
Council calls upon Cabinet to ensure that, so far as is consistent with the law, the Council’s procurement activity promotes good employment practice and does not permit the exploitative use of zero hours contracts.”
(ii) From Cllr Watt
“This Council has no confidence in the Cabinet Member for Health, Housing and Adult Social Services and calls upon her to resign. The Cabinet member is called upon to resign because of her failure to deliver the ‘Affordable Housing’ that York needs and her consistent action over many years to support and implement housing policies that could only curtail or prevent the construction of new Affordable Homes.”
(iii) From Cllr Aspden
“Save our Pubs
Council Notes:
Well-run pubs play an invaluable role at the heart of our local communities, providing safe, regulated and sociable environments in which people can interact whilst enjoying a drink responsibly.
The New Economics Foundation estimates that 10.2% of money spent in supermarkets is retained locally compared to 20.6% of money spent in pubs.
The decline of community pubs in recent years means 26 pubs are closing every week across the UK (CAMRA, 2013), as the use of pub properties for other means has become increasingly financially lucrative.
York currently has a successful pub and beer scene, as highlighted by CAMRA’S 2014 Good Beer Guide, but it is not immune from economic and legislative pressures.
The new National Planning Policy Framework and the Localism Act 2011 establish new responsibilities and tools for local councils to promote and protect local pubs. However, the flexibility for a pub to be converted into a wide range of uses without planning permission still means local communities are often denied a say in what’s happening in their neighbourhoods and are unable to protect valued local pubs.
Council Supports:
Efforts by CAMRA and Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland to lobby government and campaign to put local pubs back at the heart of our communities.
The decision by the Coalition Government in March to axe the beer duty escalator and introduce a 1p cut in beer duty - the first time beer duty has been cut since 1959.
Council Resolves to:
Support community groups who wish to register their local pubs as Assets of Community Value;
Submit a proposal under the Sustainable Communities Act calling on the Government to help protect community pubs in England by ensuring that planning permission and community consultation are required before pubs are allowed to be converted to betting shops, supermarkets and pay-day loan stores or other uses, or are allowed to be demolished;
Investigate the use of CAMRA’s Public House Viability Test as a tool when considering planning applications involving pubs;
Write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, urging him to freeze beer duty in next year’s Budget.”
(iv) From Cllr Barnes
“Council notes the considerable social and economic contribution students give to York.
Council notes the Liberal Democrats reneging on their 'no tuition fees' manifesto pledge to agree with Conservatives to triple tuition fees to £9,000 a year.
Council believes the Conservative Liberal Democrat Government privatising £890m of student debt (1990 and 1998) through selling to private companies for under one-fifth of its value, as well as considering cutting £350m (around a quarter) from Student Grants affecting 500,000 students, is economically illiterate and immoral.
Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to write on behalf of the council to both the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable expressing concern at the future sales of student debt and seeking a guarantee this Conservative Liberal Democrat policy will not lead to an increase in the interest rate graduates are currently paying. Furthermore Council seeks written assurances Students Grants will not be cut.”
Minutes:
(i) From Cllr Burton
“Council notes the reduction in rights at work under the Conservative Liberal Democrat Government and the subsequent rise in the use of 'zero hour contracts'.
Council believes rights of people at work are extremely important and that zero hour contracts undermine these rights.
Council calls upon Cabinet to ensure that, so far as is consistent with the law, the Council’s procurement activity promotes good employment practice and does not permit the exploitative use of zero hours contracts.”
Amendment proposed by Councillor Taylor as follows:
Delete the first sentence and replace with:
Council notes, according to the Office for National Statistics the number of people employed on zero-hour contracts rose from 134,000 in 2006 (0.5 per cent of the workforce) to 208,000 (0.7 per cent) by the end of 2012. Other estimates put the unofficial figure higher.
The Resolution Foundation and UNITE have both put this increase in the wider context of the growing trend of under-employment in the UK economy evident since 2008.
A November report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) concluded that while workers on zero-hours contracts are more likely to be happy with their work-life balance than other staff and just over half of zero-hours workers did not want more hours, there was a need to improve poor practice such as notice periods given when work is cancelled.
In the second sentence insert the words “can in some instances” after the word “contracts”.
On being put to the vote the amendment was declared LOST.
On being put to the vote, the motion, was declared CARRIED and it was
Resolved: That the above motion be approved.1.
(ii) From Cllr Watt
“This Council has no confidence in the Cabinet Member for Health, Housing and Adult Social Services and calls upon her to resign. The Cabinet member is called upon to resign because of her failure to deliver the ‘Affordable Housing’ that York needs and her consistent action over many years to support and implement housing policies that could only curtail or prevent the construction of new Affordable Homes.”
On being put to the vote, the motion, was declared LOST and it was
Resolved: That the above motion, be not approved.
(iii) From Cllr Aspden
“Save our Pubs
Council Notes:
Well-run pubs play an invaluable role at the heart of our local communities, providing safe, regulated and sociable environments in which people can interact whilst enjoying a drink responsibly.
The New Economics Foundation estimates that 10.2% of money spent in supermarkets is retained locally compared to 20.6% of money spent in pubs.
The decline of community pubs in recent years means 26 pubs are closing every week across the UK (CAMRA, 2013), as the use of pub properties for other means has become increasingly financially lucrative.
York currently has a successful pub and beer scene, as highlighted by CAMRA’S 2014 Good Beer Guide, but it is not immune from economic and legislative pressures.
The new National Planning Policy Framework and the Localism Act 2011 establish new responsibilities and tools for local councils to promote and protect local pubs. However, the flexibility for a pub to be converted into a wide range of uses without planning permission still means local communities are often denied a say in what’s happening in their neighbourhoods and are unable to protect valued local pubs.
Council Supports:
Efforts by CAMRA and Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland to lobby government and campaign to put local pubs back at the heart of our communities.
The decision by the Coalition Government in March to axe the beer duty escalator and introduce a 1p cut in beer duty - the first time beer duty has been cut since 1959.
Council Resolves to:
Support community groups who wish to register their local pubs as Assets of Community Value;
Submit a proposal under the Sustainable Communities Act calling on the Government to help protect community pubs in England by ensuring that planning permission and community consultation are required before pubs are allowed to be converted to betting shops, supermarkets and pay-day loan stores or other uses, or are allowed to be demolished;
Investigate the use of CAMRA’s Public House Viability Test as a tool when considering planning applications involving pubs;
Write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, urging him to freeze beer duty in next year’s Budget.”
On being put to the vote, the motion was declared CARRIED and it was
Resolved: That the above motion be approved. 2.
(iv) From Cllr Barnes
“Council notes the considerable social and economic contribution students give to York.
Council notes the Liberal Democrats reneging on their 'no tuition fees' manifesto pledge to agree with Conservatives to triple tuition fees to £9,000 a year.
Council believes the Conservative Liberal Democrat Government privatising £890m of student debt (1990 and 1998) through selling to private companies for under one-fifth of its value, as well as considering cutting £350m (around a quarter) from Student Grants affecting 500,000 students, is economically illiterate and immoral.
Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to write on behalf of the council to both the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable expressing concern at the future sales of student debt and seeking a guarantee this Conservative Liberal Democrat policy will not lead to an increase in the interest rate graduates are currently paying. Furthermore Council seeks written assurances Students Grants will not be cut.”
Amendment proposed by Cllr Aspden as follows:
After the first sentence insert the words:
Council notes that the last Labour Government introduced tuition fees in 1998 and increased them in 2004 despite the promise in their 2001 manifesto that “we will not introduce 'top-up' fees”. Furthermore, Labour’s ‘Education (Student Loans) Act 1998’ led to the sale of around £2billion worth of student loans and this was followed by Labour’s ‘Sale of Student Loans Act 2008’ which enabled further sales of the student loan portfolio.
Delete the second sentence and replace with:
Council notes that following their failure to secure an overall majority the Liberal Democrats were unable to implement their manifesto pledge for ‘no tuition fees’.
Delete the third sentence and replace with:
Council notes the public concern over the decision by the Coalition Government to go ahead with privatising £890m of student debt (1990 to1998) through selling to private companies for £160m.
Council believes it is right that a recommendation to increase interest rates for 3.6 million borrowers who took out student loans over the past 15 years, contained in the 2011 Rothschild study on selling student debt, was rejected by the Coalition Government.
Council believes that it would be wrong to cut £350m of grants from more than 500,000 students from lower income backgrounds after 2015, and is concerned by The Guardian report (November 23rd) which claimed that plans to do this had been drawn-up by the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willets.
In the final paragraph insert the words “noting public concern” after ‘Cable’ and further after ‘seeking a’.”
The amendment on being put to the vote was declared LOST.
On being put to the vote, the motion was declared CARRIED and it was
Resolved: That the motion be approved. 3.