Agenda item

To receive and consider a written report from the Leader and, to answer questions on the work of the Executive, and the Executive recommendations for approval, as set out below:

A       Executive Leaders Report

A written report was received from the Executive Leader, Cllr Chris Steward, on the work of the Executive.

Members were then invited to question Cllr Steward on his report and questions were received from the floor from the following Members in relation to the subjects listed:

·        Cllr S Barnes – Letter from Cuadrilla regarding the exploration of fracking in the area and reference to the greater protection of communities as requested by the Local Plan Working Group

·        Cllr Kramm – minimum distance to drill sites from human settlements not being specified in the Council’s Joint Minerals and Waste Plan

·        Cllr Levene – changes in Council Tax benefits

·        Cllr Kramm – the allocation of sites in the Green Belt as starter homes for young families and whether this was possible in York

·        Cllr Lisle – development of small scale sites in the Green Belt

·        Cllr Levene – changes to Universal Credit

·        Cllr S Barnes – inclusion of Whinthorpe site in Local Plan

Cllr Steward responded directly to all the questions put to him.

B       Executive Recommendations

Capital Programme – Monitor 2 2015/16

Cllr Steward moved, and Cllr Aspden seconded the following recommendation contained in Minute 83 of the Executive meeting held on 26 November 2015:

Recommended: That Council agree a decrease in the 2015/16 capital programme of £901k as detailed in the report and contained in Annex A.

Reason:     To enable the effective management and monitoring of the Council’s capital programme.

On being put to the vote, the recommendation was declared CARRIED and it was

Resolved:   That Council agree the above recommendation in respect of a decrease in the 2015/16 capital programme.^1.

York Central and Access Project

Cllr Steward moved, and Cllr Aspden seconded the following recommendation contained in Minute 95 of the Executive meeting held on 15 December 2015, details of which were circulated at the meeting:

Recommended: That Council delegate the Executive the agreement of all future expenditure against the £10m capital budget allocated to the delivery of the York Central capital budget.

Reason:              To enable timely progress on delivery of the York Central site.

On being put to the vote, the recommendation was declared CARRIED and it was

Resolved:   That Council agree the above recommendation in respect of delegation of expenditure in relation to York Central.^2.

Council Tax Support – Consultation Decision Report

Cllr Steward moved, and Cllr Aspden seconded the following recommendation contained in Minute 96 of the Executive meeting held on 15 December 2015, details of which were circulated at the meeting:

Recommended: That Council agree to increase the Council Tax Support (CTS) cap by 7.5% to 77.5% cap at a cost of approximately £300k pa, which following changes to welfare benefit will deliver an average annual benefit to CTS customers of approximately £55 pa.

Reason:              To support financial inclusion and protect financially vulnerable customers from planned Welfare Benefit changes.

Cllr N Barnes then moved, and Cllr Cannon seconded, an amendment to the above motion, as follows:

In the second line of the recommendation delete the figures ‘7.5% to 77.5% cap’ replace with ‘13% to an 83% cap’ followed by the additional words ‘in line with the recommendations of Advice York’,

In the third line of the recommendation delete ‘£300k pa’ and replace with’ £487k pa’

In the fifth line delete ‘customers’ and replace with ‘recipients’

Also in the fifth line delete ‘£55 pa’ and replace with ‘£94 pa’

On being put to the vote, the above amendment was declared LOST.

The original motion was then put to the vote, and declared CARRIED and it was

Resolved:     That the original Executive recommendation in respect of an increase to the Council Tax Support cap be approved. ^3.