Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield, S1 2HH

Contact: Paul Robinson, Democratic Services  Email: paul.robinson@sheffield.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes Silence - Death of Councillor Anne Murphy

Additional documents:

Minutes:

2.

Apologies for Absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

3.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 86 KB

Members to declare any interests they have in the business to be considered at the meeting.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

4.

Public Questions and Petitions and Other Communications pdf icon PDF 148 KB

To receive any questions or petitions from the public, or communications submitted by the Lord Mayor or the Chief Executive and to pass such resolutions thereon as the Council Procedure Rules permit and as may be deemed expedient.

 

 

(NOTE: There is a time limit of one hour for the above item of business.  In accordance with the arrangements published on the Council’s website, questions/petitions are required to be submitted in writing, to committee@sheffield.gov.uk, by 9.00 a.m. on Thursday 16th February. Questions/petitions submitted after the deadline will be asked at the meeting subject to the discretion of the Chair.)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

5.

Members' Questions pdf icon PDF 504 KB

5.1      Questions relating to urgent business – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(ii).

 

5.2      Questions relating to the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities (under the provisions of Section 41 of the Local Government Act 1985) and of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i).

 

5.3      Supplementary questions on written questions submitted at this meeting – Council Procedure Rule 16.4.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

6.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan and HRA Budget 2023-24 pdf icon PDF 73 KB

To approve, with or without amendment, the recommendations made by the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee, at its meeting held on 7th February 2023, in relation to the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan and Budget for 2023-24, as set out in the report of the Executive Director, Operational Services, published with this agenda.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

7.

Notice Of Motion Regarding "Driving Forward the Heritage Strategy for Sheffield" - Given By Councillor Janet Ridler And To Be Seconded By Councillor Tom Hunt

That this Council:-

 

(a)      believes the Heritage Strategy for Sheffield is unique in being a community-led strategy, created from the ground up by grass roots organisations;

 

(b)      notes that this Council has been involved in driving the Heritage Strategy forward since its earliest stages, welcoming the completed Strategy in January 2021, and subsequently joining the Heritage Partnership Board in February 2021 as a first step towards implementation;

 

(c)      believes that the aim of a Heritage Strategy is to protect and enhance a city’s heritage and invigorate interest and development; believing that Sheffield’s heritage is defined in its widest sense including not only physical assets such as historic buildings and structures, archaeological sites, historic townscapes and landscapes, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, but also museums and art galleries and their collections, archives, libraries, public art, natural habitats, people and communities, spoken stories and much more;

 

(d)      further, believes that Sheffield’s unique heritage is particularly inclusive, embracing the customs, traditions and skills developed locally, such as the 107 languages spoken, radicalism, anti-slavery campaigning, music, our working men’s clubs, and Sheffield as the Home of Football;

 

(e)      notes the importance of Heritage to our city and recognises its social, environmental, educational and well-being benefits and its economic potential;

 

(f)       celebrates and champions Sheffield's diverse heritage;

 

(g)      notes that Sheffield hosts the largest Heritage Open Days festival in the country;

 

(h)      believes that the Heritage sector is an important source of economic prosperity and growth with a total GVA (Gross Value Added) of £36bn, supporting over 500,000 jobs nationally;

 

(i)       also believes that the impact of Heritage as a means to stimulate investment is evident in the huge success of the Kelham Island development and the redevelopment of the City Centre; 

 

(j)       further, believes adopting the Heritage Strategy for Sheffield will demonstrate the Council’s strategic approach and commitment to Heritage, and that having this strategic approach will greatly improve the Council’s ability to attract external funding for a wide range of heritage projects;

 

(k)      notes that this city’s heritage does not belong to the city council, but to the people of Sheffield; and

 

(l)       resolves, therefore, to ask the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee to add the Heritage Strategy for Sheffield to its work programme and request that, within the next 3 months, the Committee calls upon the Sheffield Heritage Partnership Board to report on progress and co-develop a programme of actions which will drive forward the implementation of the Heritage Strategy for Sheffield.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

8.

Notice Of Motion Regarding "The Local Plan in Beighton" - Given By Councillor Kurtis Crossland And To Be Seconded By Councillor Gail Smith

That this Council:-

 

(a)      welcomes the approval of the emerging Local Plan to go forward to public consultation, given at the December meeting of Full Council, however:-

 

(i)       regrets that the process of developing the emerging Local Plan has been held back by numerous delays on the part of previous Council administrations between May 2011 and May 2021; and

 

(ii)       believes that, as a result of delays to the emerging Local Plan, this Council has been left unable to oppose controversial housing developments such as the site at Hollin Busk Road, which was recommended by Full Council to be removed from the Local Plan as a Housing Site on the 14th of December, and despite this, plans for the development of 75 houses were approved at a Planning Committee meeting on the 10th of January;

 

(b)      believes that local residents know what is best for their own communities, and as such, welcomes the numerous representations, feedback, and petitions from members of the public concerning allocations and policies in the emerging Local Plan;

 

(c)      regrets that engaged local democracy is only now possible at this relatively late stage, and regrets that Local Area Committees and local councillors have had limited formal input into the plan development process;

 

(d)      believes that local residents of South East Sheffield have made their voices clear on the issue of the site east of Eckington Way (referred to in the Emerging Local Plan as site SES 03), which has been allocated for use as a ‘General Employment and Traveller Site’, and notes that a petition opposing the proposed site has received 2,773 signatures as of the 8th of February;

 

(e)      notes that democratic discussion of how the Council should discharge its duty to provide Gypsy and Traveller accommodation can regrettably sometimes attract discriminatory and racist views and therefore condemns in the strongest terms all forms of racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, and Travelling Showpeople communities, and especially any use of discriminatory stereotypes within political campaigning;

 

          (NB. An alteration, to remove 10 words from the above paragraph, as originally published, was agreed at the meeting of the Council on 20th February.  Those words have been removed from the published record at the request of the Council’s Monitoring Officer on the grounds that they were likely to identify an individual.)

 

(f)       believes that the site in question is not suitable for use as industrial employment and traveller pitches, for the following reasons:-

 

(i)       congestion on Eckington Way is a significant issue, as:-

 

(A)      the site is very close to the Crystal Peaks shopping centre and Drakehouse Retail Park;

 

(B)      there have been 13 collisions on the road and roundabout in the last five years, 5 of them serious;

 

(C)      Ward members regularly receive complaints from constituents regarding the large volume of congestion on Eckington Way; and

 

(D)      the site’s proposed use for employment and travelling showpeople, with Eckington Way as its only access point, would significantly add to congestion on this street; and

 

(ii)       the  ...  view the full agenda text for item 8.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

9.

Notice Of Motion Regarding "Marking the Success of the Committee System in Sheffield" - Given By Councillor Angela Argenzio And To Be Seconded By Councillor Bernard Little

That this Council notes:-

 

(a)      the successful campaign by the “It’s Our City” group to establish a Committee system and remove the “Strong Leader” model in Sheffield, with 65% of voters supporting the committee model in the referendum;

 

(b)      Sheffield is the first city in the country to adopt the Committee system;

 

(c)      the greater collaboration between Councillors across political groups in policy formulation and in the decision-making processes of the Council;

 

(d)      the Committee system’s role in helping overcome party political tribalism to achieve positive outcomes;

 

(e)      the involvement of a wider number of Councillors in the decision-making of the Council;

 

(f)       the greater accountability of Councillors to the electorate due to their involvement in decision-making;

 

(g)      that autocratic top-down decision-making is reduced by the Committee system;

 

(h)      that the possibility of the Council making decisions that are misjudged, due to the lack of involvement of a wider number of members and political groups, is diminished;

 

(i)       the successful work, across the committees, to address the Council’s current financial crisis, with Councillors having worked together to reach an understanding of the issues and consensus over the ways to address them;

 

(j)       that part of the reasoning behind moving to a committee system was greater involvement of communities in decision making, and more work should be done to achieve this by the committees;

 

That this Council believes:-

 

(k)      the Council being in “no overall control” has been good for the Council and the people of Sheffield, and that this, combined with the new modern committee system, has led to improved cross-party working and better outcomes for our city;

 

(l)       the change in culture needed across political groups to embed the benefits of the Committee system is still “work in progress” and all groups should embrace this positive new way of governing the Council to realise its benefits fully;

 

(m)     that the Committee Chair’s role is not the equivalent of the old style Cabinet Member’s role and work is still needed to ensure that this is understood by Councillors and Officers and the public to deliver more collaborative and consensual working across political groups;

 

(n)      that greater clarity is needed on which decisions are made by which committees as this is sometimes unclear;

 

That this Council resolves to:-

 

(o)      affirm its support for the Committee System in Sheffield;

 

(p)      work together across political groups to build on the successes we have already seen the committee system achieve;

 

(q)      promote a greater understanding of how the committee system works among the public, members and officers;

 

(r)       achieve greater involvement of the public in Council decision-making, such as by committees making more extensive use of the engagement toolkit;

 

(s)      develop protocols to be clear about the way committee decisions are made in a no overall control context; and

 

(t)       encourage a culture in the Council that matches the new cooperative way of working needed in a committee system.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

10.

Notice Of Motion Regarding "Levelling-up - Why we need to take back control from Whitehall to deliver economic growth for Sheffield" - Given By Councillor Minesh Parekh And To Be Seconded By Councillor Ben Miskell

That this Council:-

 

(a)      believes that too many places across the country have had nothing but crumbs from the Government’s table in the latest round of ‘levelling-up’ funding;

 

(b)      notes that many communities in great need have lost out in the recent round of funding, and believes that the way this funding is distributed pits communities against one another, forced to compete in a contest where Whitehall Ministers pick winners and losers;

 

(c)      notes that the total cost of work producing bids for levelling-up funding for councils in England is at least £27 million, with the vast majority seeing no return on this spending;

 

(d)      notes that of the 80 successful bids to the second round of levelling-up funding in England, only half are in the 100 most deprived areas of the country;

 

(e)      notes that, compared to the first round of funding, Yorkshire and the Humber has seen its share drop by 5.3%, the West Midlands drop 4.1%, the East Midlands by 3.5%; and the North East’s share drop 0.7%;

 

(f)       believes South Yorkshire’s transport offer is being badly let down by this Government, noting that both bids to the Levelling-up Fund from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority for support for the bus network have been rejected, and from March, Government bus cuts could see a third of services lost;

 

(g)      believes that this is unacceptable, and notes that this Council has called for bus franchising to be enacted as quickly as possible to bring buses under greater public ownership, and that the Labour Group is committed to seeing Sheffield buses and trams under full public ownership;

 

(h)      believes it takes extraordinary arrogance from the Government to expect gratitude for their failed ‘levelling-up’ policies and the marginal funding associated with this, when they have decimated vital local services like childcare, buses and social care;

 

(i)       notes that the Council has had to endure huge cuts for thirteen years; with the annual grant the Council receives from the Government now £288m less in real terms than in 2010, with a staggering £2.1billion being lost, in real terms, over the same period, which is around £9,000 per household in Sheffield;

 

(j)       notes the Parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee calls for the Government to take steps to level up cultural opportunities and production across the country, and explicitly incorporate support for local arts and culture into the Government's First Statement for Levelling-Up Missions; and believes support for cultural industries must be included in levelling up efforts;

 

(k)      believes that Britain isn’t working - after 13 years of virtually no growth our cherished public services are strained, our high streets are still boarded up, transport is getting worse, crime is on the rise and work simply doesn’t pay sufficiently for many;

 

(l)       believes that the Government’s only answer is an ineffectual system of short-term, competitive pots of money that pits communities against each other, and believes that this is the kind of sticking plaster politics that the Leader  ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

11.

Appointments to Chief Officer Posts - Approval of Salary Packages pdf icon PDF 110 KB

To approve, with or without amendment, the recommendations in the report of the Director of Human Resources and Customer Services, published with this agenda, seeking approval to the salary packages for the new posts of Chief Operating Officer and Strategic Director of Children’s Services.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

12.

Changes To The Constitution pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To approve, with or without amendment, the recommendations in the report of the Director of Legal and Governance (Monitoring Officer), published with this agenda, regarding changes to the Council’s Constitution.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

13.

Minutes Of Previous Council Meetings pdf icon PDF 95 KB

To receive the records of the proceedings of the special and ordinary meetings of the Council held on 14th December 2022 and to approve the accuracy thereof.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

14.

Memberships Of Council Bodies and Representatives To Serve On Other Bodies pdf icon PDF 53 KB

To consider any changes to the memberships and arrangements for meetings of Committees etc., delegated authority, and the appointment of representatives to serve on other bodies.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes: