Agenda item

To consider the following Motions on Notice under Standing Order 22:

 

Motions submitted for consideration directly by Council, in accordance with Standing Order 22.1

 

(i)           From Cllr K Taylor

Maximising opportunities to build consensus in times of crisis

“Council notes:

·        the unprecedented challenges our city faces in relation to the social, economic and health impacts of Coronavirus;

·        that these impacts will be far reaching and long lasting;

·        that years of damaging austerity created an already difficult financial environment for council services pre-Covid;

·        that changing demographics continue to add pressure to vital but stretched statutory services.

Council believes:

·        that York residents want to see Councillors acting responsibly and collaboratively at all times but particularly in times of crisis;

·        that constructive challenge shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘playing party politics’ and can in fact lead to better decision making;

·        that elected councillors and council officers must think creatively about how we support our communities and get the most out of limited resources;

·        that as we approach our most challenging winter in modern history we need to make an extra effort to show goodwill and maximise room for consensus in decision making.

Council resolves:

·        to request that Executive builds on the constructive steps taken last year on budget setting and to actively improve collaboration, particularly where decisions will have long-reaching impacts, by giving all city councillors headline budget savings targets and draft savings proposals by mid-December 2020;

·        to request that Executive Members invite shadow portfolio holders to attend any pre-meeting briefings before their Decision Making sessions, and encourage their attendances at said Decision Sessions by default throughout the duration of this crisis;

·        to request that the Executive Member for Culture and Communities works closely with all city councillors to:

a)   instigate a review of the use of devolved Ward Budgets, in the context of unprecedented financial pressures, so as to maximise their efficiency, value for money, and impact for residents across the whole city; and

b)   as part of this review and within the next month, authorise a trial for a flexible, city-wide, fund with each councillor allocating £2,000 from their ward budgets over the next 6 months, to build a resource of almost £100,000. This resource will focus on supporting residents, irrespective of ward boundaries, deemed vulnerable, isolated, or in need of other essential help through the funding of community, voluntary and other organisations working to combat the worst effects of Covid 19;

·        to request that Executive Members and Officers actively seek to maximise any and all further opportunities to build consensus around decision-making.”

 

(ii)         From Cllr Aspden

Covid-19: Response and Recovery in York

“The Coronavirus pandemic has presented our city with an unprecedented challenge, with residents and businesses having to work hard to adapt to public health guidance and new ways of life.

Local authorities across the country have been instrumental in the response to the Coronavirus pandemic by providing constant and crucial support to businesses and local communities.

As the country and the city faces the second wave of the pandemic, the Government must step up and provide the necessary support to keep York’s residents safe and businesses open.

Council notes:

·        The excellent and selfless work of the city’s key workers, including those in the NHS, volunteers and public health staff throughout the pandemic;

·        Since the pandemic was declared, the Council has prioritised resources to deliver crucial and urgent support to residents and businesses across the city.

o   To support businesses, local emergency funds were set up to support the city’s businesses, £100m of grants and funding was distributed to over 4,000 businesses in record time and rent was suspended on all 350 of Council’s commercial properties for six months.

o   To support residents, community hubs were set up in strategic locations around the city, with some of the 4,000 registered volunteers delivering 900 food parcels and making 6,000 phone calls to vulnerable or medically shielded residents, working in collaboration with the charity and voluntary sectors. Local emergency funds were also set up to support residents facing financial hardship.

·        Demand for services has increased, income has considerably fallen, leaving the Council with an estimated budget shortfall of £20 million.

·        Latest Local Government Association report estimates that local authorities face a £5 billion funding gap by 2024;

·        The government had guaranteed to cover all local government expenditure associated with supporting residents and businesses through the pandemic;

·        Urgent support is needed to continue providing crucial services and support residents, and business, particularly as enhanced public health restrictions mean businesses are not able to trade to full capacity;

·        The ongoing lobbying campaign to call on the government to provide appropriate funding to Council to provide crucial services, support business and enable a sustainable long-term recovery;

·        The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies along with leading health experts and Ministers has emphasised how crucial an effective Test, Trace and Isolate system is to slowing down the infection rate of the virus;

·        The national Test, Trace and Isolate system is failing to provide the capacity, agility and accessibility promised and required.

Council believes that in order to ensure that residents and businesses are protected and supported in the second wave of the pandemic, further urgent government support is required to help keep our city and each other safe.

Consequently, Council resolves:

·        To thank all of York’s key workers, volunteers and public health and Council staff for their ongoing efforts in supporting the city and resdents;

·        To lobby the Government to provide additional testing capacity, more timely reporting of results and urgent financial support to Public Health teams to aid the delivery local contract tracing scheme, which would enhance the national programme;

·        To call on the Government to release resources for the creation of an additional walk-in testing facility in the city, in order to provide residents with improved opportunities to access testing;

·        To call on the Government to provide urgent and comprehensive support to residents and businesses in York, for example, by introducing an extended furlough scheme and a trial of Universal Basic Income.

·        To formally back the Council’s ‘Back York’ lobbying campaign, urging the Government to provide additional funding for York, in order to seize the opportunities that are unique to the city and drive recovery in the region.”

(i)                   Free School Meals (Motion moved without notice)

Cllr Lomas moved, and Cllr Myers seconded, that Standing Orders 23.1 and 23.3 be suspended to enable a motion to be moved without notice in respect of free school meals, the text of which had been circulated to Members before the meeting.

 

Council having agreed to so suspend Standing Orders, the motion was moved by Cllr Webb and seconded by Cllr Fisher, as follows:

 

“Council notes;

·        The 2728 York pupils who are in receipt of free school meals;

·        The significant and long lasting impact of the Covid19 pandemic, following years of Austerity, on family household incomes;

·        The impending economic shock of Brexit;

·        And welcomes £43,000 from the Council to ensure that children and young people have access to meals during October half term.

Council believes:

·        That every child should have access to at least one hot meal every single day of the year;

·        That parents and carers routinely do all they can to put food on the table;

·        That the Conservative Government’s recent refusal to back Marcus Rashford’s call for a repeat of the holiday free school meal scheme throughout the Covid19 pandemic is unforgivable.

Council resolves:

·        To fund a voucher scheme of £15 per pupil per week for York’s pupils who are in receipt of Free School Meals for the duration of the Christmas holidays;

·        To request that the leaders of all York’s political Groups jointly write to the Secretary of State for Education demanding that York be reimbursed for the cost of providing the above-mentioned voucher scheme and to allocate further funding such that an equivalent scheme can be delivered for the remainder of the school holidays in the 2020/21 academic year.”

 

Cllr Warters then moved, and Cllr Rowley seconded, that Standing Orders be suspended to enable an amendment to be put to the above motion.  On being put to the vote, the motion to suspend Standing Orders was declared LOST.

 

A named vote was then taken on the original motion, with the following result:

 

For	Against	Abstained
Cllr Aspden		Cllr Doughty
Cllr Ayre		Cllr Rowley
Cllr Barker		Cllr Warters
Cllr Barnes
Cllr Carr
Cllr Craghill
Cllr Crawshaw
Cllr Cullwick
Cllr D’Agorne
Cllr Daubeney
Cllr Douglas
Cllr Fenton
Cllr Fisher
Cllr Fitzpatrick
Cllr Galvin
Cllr Heaton
Cllr Hollyer
Cllr Hook
Cllr Hunter
Cllr Kilbane
Cllr Lomas
Cllr Mason
Cllr Melly
Cllr Musson
Cllr Myers
Cllr Norman
Cllr Orrell
Cllr Pavlovic
Cllr Pearson
Cllr Perrett
Cllr Runciman
Cllr Smalley
Cllr D Taylor
Cllr K Taylor
Cllr Vassie
Cllr Waller
Cllr Wann
Cllr Waudby
Cllr Webb
Cllr Widdowson
Cllr Looker (Lord Mayor)
41	0	3

 

The motion was therefore declared CARRIED and it was

 

Resolved: That the above motion be approved.¹

 

(ii)                 Maximising Opportunities to Build Consensus in Times of Crisis

 

Moved by Cllr K Taylor and seconded by Cllr Fitzpatrick.

 

“Council notes:

·        the unprecedented challenges our city faces in relation to the social, economic and health impacts of Coronavirus;

·        that these impacts will be far reaching and long lasting;

·        years of damaging austerity created an already difficult financial environment for council services pre-Covid;

·        that changing demographics continue to add pressure to vital but stretched statutory services.

Council believes:

·        that York residents want to see Councillors acting responsibly and collaboratively at all times but particularly in times of crisis;

·        that constructive challenge shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘playing party politics’ and can in fact lead to better decision making;

·        that elected councillors and council officers must think creatively about how we support our communities and get the most out of limited resources;

·        that as we approach our most challenging winter in modern history we need to make an extra effort to show goodwill and maximise room for consensus in decision making.

Council resolves:

·        to request that Executive builds on the constructive steps taken last year on budget setting and to actively improve collaboration, particularly where decisions will have long-reaching impacts, by giving all city councillors headline budget savings targets and draft savings proposals by mid-December 2020;

·        to request that Executive Members invite shadow portfolio holders to attend any pre-meeting briefings before their Decision Making sessions, and encourage their attendances at said Decision Sessions by default throughout the duration of this crisis;

·        to request that the Executive Member for Culture and Communities works closely with all city councillors to:

a)   instigate a review of the use of devolved Ward Budgets, in the context of unprecedented financial pressures, so as to maximise their efficiency, value for money, and impact for residents across the whole city; and

b)   as part of this review and within the next month, authorise a trial for a flexible, city-wide, fund with each councillor allocating £2,000 from their ward budgets over the next 6 months, to build a resource of almost £100,000. This resource will focus on supporting residents, irrespective of ward boundaries, deemed vulnerable, isolated, or in need of other essential help through the funding of community, voluntary and other organisations working to combat the worst effects of Covid 19;

·        to request that Executive Members and Officers actively seek to maximise any and all further opportunities to build consensus around decision-making.”

 

Cllr Pearson then moved, and Cllr Smalley seconded, an amendment to the motion, as follows:

 

“In sub-paragraph b) of the 3^rd bullet point under ‘Council resolves’:

-      delete ‘authorise a trial for a flexible, city wide, fund’ and insert ‘prioritise the flexible use of ward budgets;

-      delete ‘from’ after ‘£2,000’ and insert ‘within’;

-      delete ‘build’ after ‘months, to’, and insert ‘utilise’, then after ‘a’ insert ‘focused’;

-      in the second sentence, after ‘residents’, delete ‘irrespective of ward boundaries’.”

 

A named vote was taken on the amendment, with the following result:

 

For	Against	Abstained
Cllr Aspden	Cllr Barnes	Cllr Carr
Cllr Ayre	Cllr Crawshaw
Cllr Baker	Cllr Doughty
Cllr Barker	Cllr Douglas
Cllr Barnes	Cllr Fitzpatrick
Cllr Craghill	Cllr Heaton
Cllr Cullwick	Cllr Kilbane
Cllr D’Agorne	Cllr Lomas
Cllr Daubeney	Cllr Melly
Cllr Fenton	Cllr Musson
Cllr Fisher	Cllr Myers
Cllr Galvin	Cllr Norman
Cllr Hollyer	Cllr Pavlovic
Cllr Hook	Cllr Perrett
Cllr Hunter	Cllr Rowley
Cllr Mason	Cllr K Taylor
Cllr Orrell	Cllr Webb
Cllr Pearson	Cllr Looker (Lord Mayor)
Cllr Runciman
Cllr Smalley
Cllr D Taylor
Cllr Vassie
Cllr Waller
Cllr Wann
Cllr Waudby
Cllr Widdowson

 

[Note: Cllr Warters was not present for the above vote.]

 

The amendment was therefore declared CARRIED and the motion, as amended, now read as follows:

 

“Council notes:

·        the unprecedented challenges our city faces in relation to the social, economic and health impacts of Coronavirus;

·        that these impacts will be far reaching and long lasting;

·        years of damaging austerity created an already difficult financial environment for council services pre-Covid;

·        that changing demographics continue to add pressure to vital but stretched statutory services.

Council believes:

·        that York residents want to see Councillors acting responsibly and collaboratively at all times but particularly in times of crisis;

·        that constructive challenge shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘playing party politics’ and can in fact lead to better decision making;

·        that elected councillors and council officers must think creatively about how we support our communities and get the most out of limited resources;

·        that as we approach our most challenging winter in modern history we need to make an extra effort to show goodwill and maximise room for consensus in decision making.

Council resolves:

·        to request that Executive builds on the constructive steps taken last year on budget setting and to actively improve collaboration, particularly where decisions will have long-reaching impacts, by giving all city councillors headline budget savings targets and draft savings proposals by mid-December 2020;

·        to request that Executive Members invite shadow portfolio holders to attend any pre-meeting briefings before their Decision Making sessions, and encourage their attendances at said Decision Sessions by default throughout the duration of this crisis;

·        to request that the Executive Member for Culture and Communities works closely with all city councillors to:

a)   instigate a review of the use of devolved Ward Budgets, in the context of unprecedented financial pressures, so as to maximise their efficiency, value for money, and impact for residents across the whole city; and

b)   as part of this review and within the next month,prioritise the flexible use of ward budgets with each councillor allocating £2,000 within their ward budgets over the next 6 months, to utilise a focused resource of almost £100,000. This resource will focus on supporting residents deemed vulnerable, isolated, or in need of other essential help through the funding of community, voluntary and other organisations working to combat the worst effects of Covid 19;

·        to request that Executive Members and Officers actively seek to maximise any and all further opportunities to build consensus around decision-making.”

 

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

 

Resolved:  That the above motion, as amended, be approved.²

 

(iii)        Covid-19: Response and Recovery in York

 

Moved by Cllr Aspden and seconded by Cllr D’Agorne.

 

“The Coronavirus pandemic has presented our city with an unprecedented challenge, with residents and businesses having to work hard to adapt to public health guidance and new ways of life.

Local authorities across the country have been instrumental in the response to the Coronavirus pandemic by providing constant and crucial support to businesses and local communities.

As the country and the city faces the second wave of the pandemic, the Government must step up and provide the necessary support to keep York’s residents safe and businesses open.

Council notes:

·     The excellent and selfless work of the city’s key workers, including those in the NHS, volunteers and public health staff throughout the pandemic;

·     Since the pandemic was declared, the Council has prioritised resources to deliver crucial and urgent support to residents and businesses across the city.

o  To support businesses, local emergency funds were set up to support the city’s businesses, £100m of grants and funding was distributed to over 4,000 businesses in record time and rent was suspended on all 350 of Council’s commercial properties for six months.

o  To support residents, community hubs were set up in strategic locations around the city, with some of the 4,000 registered volunteers delivering 900 food parcels and making 6,000 phone calls to vulnerable or medically shielded residents, working in collaboration with the charity and voluntary sectors. Local emergency funds were also set up to support residents facing financial hardship.

·     Demand for services has increased, income has considerably fallen, leaving the Council with an estimated budget shortfall of £20 million.

·     Latest Local Government Association report estimates that local authorities face a £5 billion funding gap by 2024;

·     The government had guaranteed to cover all local government expenditure associated with supporting residents and businesses through the pandemic;

·     Urgent support is needed to continue providing crucial services and support residents, and business, particularly as enhanced public health restrictions mean businesses are not able to trade to full capacity;

·     The ongoing lobbying campaign to call on the government to provide appropriate funding to Council to provide crucial services, support business and enable a sustainable long-term recovery;

·     The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies along with leading health experts and Ministers has emphasised how crucial an effective Test, Trace and Isolate system is to slowing down the infection rate of the virus;

·     The national Test, Trace and Isolate system is failing to provide the capacity, agility and accessibility promised and required.

Council believes that in order to ensure that residents and businesses are protected and supported in the second wave of the pandemic, further urgent government support is required to help keep our city and each other safe.

Consequently, Council resolves:

·     To thank all of York’s key workers, volunteers and public health and Council staff for their ongoing efforts in supporting the city and resdents;

·     To lobby the Government to provide additional testing capacity, more timely reporting of results and urgent financial support to Public Health teams to aid the delivery local contract tracing scheme, which would enhance the national programme;

·     To call on the Government to release resources for the creation of an additional walk-in testing facility in the city, in order to provide residents with improved opportunities to access testing;

·     To call on the Government to provide urgent and comprehensive support to residents and businesses in York, for example, by introducing an extended furlough scheme and a trial of Universal Basic Income.

·     To formally back the Council’s ‘Back York’ lobbying campaign, urging the Government to provide additional funding for York, in order to seize the opportunities that are unique to the city and drive recovery in the region.”

 

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

 

Resolved:  That the above motion be approved.³