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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Philippa Murphy  020 7527 3184

Items
No. Item

88.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 264 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting on 3 December 2015 be confirmed as a correct record and the Mayor be authorised to sign them.

89.

Declarations of Interest

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a)       Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation
            carried on for profit or gain.

(b)       Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your
expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including
from a trade union.

(c)       Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or
     your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the
     council.

(d)      Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e)       Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or
longer.

(f)        Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which
     you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

(g)       Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of
     business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the
     securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital
     of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

Minutes:

None.

90.

Mayoral Announcements

(i)            Apologies

(ii)           Order of business

(iii)          Declaration of discussion items by the Majority and Opposition parties

 

Minutes:

The Mayor welcomed the attendees to the meeting and advised that this was the most important in the Council year and because of the importance of the decisions being made, the rules around questions would be changed, to allow the meeting to focus on the budget.

 

(i) Apologies for absence

 

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Andrews, Comer-Schwartz, Hull, Kaseki and Ngongo. 

(ii) Order of business

 

The order of business was not changed.

(iii) Declarations of discussion items

 

None.

 

(iv) Mayor’s Announcements

Following a bad fall in December, the Mayor had been in hospital for some time and he thanked all the staff at the Royal London Hospital who looked after him with great care and expertise and thanked everyone for all the good wishes he had received.


Following the tragic deaths of
Alan Cartwright, Stefan Appleton and Vaso Kakko, the three young men who died as a result of knife Crime in the borough last year, the Mayor welcomed the announcement that we will be hosting a Crime and Safety Summit on the morning of Saturday 5 March in the Assembly Hall.  The Mayor advised that residents, community groups and young people are invited to attend to consider what the community can do to help prevent these crimes.  The special guest speaker will be Junior Smart, an ex-gang member and drug dealer who has turned his life around and is the founder of the SOS Gangs Project.  The Mayor urged everyone present to attend.

 

The Mayor congratulated Darey Cletus and Diana Lucia Gomez Paniagua on their election as Young Mayor and Young Deputy Mayor and looked forward to working with them.

Finally, the Mayor thanked everyone who supported the charity dinner on 11 February to celebrate Chinese New Year.  The figures have not been finalised yet, but the Mayor estimated that at least £2,000 had been raised for Music First.

 

 

91.

Leader's Announcements

Minutes:

Councillor Watts thanked the Mayor and advised that following the Local Government Finance Settlement announced in December, which promised further cuts to the council’s budget by central government of £17M per year until 2020, by which time 70% of the council’s funding will have been lost, he had called upon to government give some help to the most deprived areas of the country.  He had therefore been relieved when the government announced some additional funding for the councils that had been hardest hit by the cuts, only to find out that the councils receiving the funding were the big counties; Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, where David Cameron’s constituency is, all of which had proportionally much smaller cuts than Islington, whilst councils with high levels of deprivation, like Liverpool, Manchester and Islington got nothing.

 

Councillor Watts also said that the new Housing Bill was going to be one of the most damaging bits of legislation ever introduced.  It includes, ‘Pay to Stay’ forcing families to pay near-to or full market rent, it proposes an end to secure tenancies and it forces the council to sell family homes.  Councillor Watts advised that Councillor Murray had  done a great deal of work and led the opposition to this Bill and we are working with other boroughs to show the damaging effect of council house sales.  Councillor Watts advised that we’ve led marches, worked with the unions, given evidence and appeared in the media.  We are calling a public meeting between 6.30 – 8pm on Tuesday 8 March.  It is primarily for tenants, but everyone is welcome. Councillor Watts also invited everyone to join the rally against the Bill on 13 March advising that we will fight to protect tenants from the worst excesses of the government. 

 

Councillor Watts advised that the government have succeeded in removing 600,000 people off the electoral register through the new individual electoral registration system, but thanks to the hard work of the Electoral Services team here only 1,600 people in Islington have been lost off the register, a much smaller percentage than the national average or that of neighbouring boroughs.  Councillor Watts thanked the team for ensuring that people in the borough retained their democratic rights.

.    

92.

Petitions and Questions from Members of the Public pdf icon PDF 131 KB

Minutes:

PETITIONS:
 

Councillor Poole presented a petition on behalf of the residents of Compton Avenue and Hydes Place requesting that Compton Avenue become access only and for speed restrictions to be installed to prevent it being used as a rat run.

 

 

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC:

Councillor Alice Perry moved a motion under Rule 22(k) of the Constitution to suspend Rule 19.2 (l) and for the rest of Rule19.2 be suspended in so far as is necessary to restrict questions to those asked in advance of the meeting.

 

Councillor O’Halloran seconded.

 

The motion was put to vote and CARRIED.

 

Question (a) from Kiat Phua to Councillor Claudia Webbe, Executive Member for Environment and Transport:

 

Many parents are alarmed by the traffic accident outside Archway Children's Centre, Vorley Road on 28 Jan 2016. A speeding car spun 360 degrees and hit barriers outside the nursery entrance as it headed out to Junction Road. I understand the one-way traffic system on Vorley Road will be reversed from 2016/17. Could the Council make Vorley Road safer by banning left turns from Junction Road as part of the traffic reversal; and look into separating Vorley Road from MacDonald Road as part of the longer-term plan for more affordable housing in the area?

 

Reply:

 

I was shocked to hear about the accident that took place outside the Children’s Centre on Vorley Road. The council takes the safety of all road users seriously.  Speeding is unacceptable and will be controlled. We will arrange for speed surveys to be undertaken on Vorley Road to assess vehicle speeds.

 

The transformation of the Archway Gyratory will of course see the bus stands currently located opposite the Children’s Centre on Vorley Road moved to on-street locations, which will allow the Council to deliver new much needed affordable homes for local people right here in the heart of the Archway town centre. 

 

The relocation of the bus stands and the significant reduction in the number of buses on Vorley Road should help I think to improve safety on Vorley Road, in particular directly outside the Children’s Centre where buses currently pull out of the bus stand.

 

Whilst banning the left turn is not in the initial road scheme, I am certainly open to the idea of doing so, but after we’ve understood how the traffic actually behaves. There are some difficulties that would be created if we did ban the left turn, in particular for Bredgar Road, where Hargrave Park School is located. I therefore want to make sure that banning the left turn, which is entirely within the powers of the Council, would be fully justified, before consulting on a proposal to introduce such a change. We don’t have a crystal ball so we will monitor traffic flows closely with TfL and review how the scheme is working up to and including 6 months. It’s at that point when we will look at whether to ban the left turn from Junction Road.

 

I hope that ultimately the changes to traffic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92.

93.

Amendment to the allocation of Executive Functions pdf icon PDF 164 KB

Minutes:

 

Councillor Perry moved the recommendations in the report.  Councillor Poyser seconded.

 

The recommendations were put to the vote and CARRIED.

RESOLVED:

That the change in Executive functions detailed in Point 3.1 of this report be noted.

 

94.

Budget Proposals 2016-17 pdf icon PDF 243 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Watts moved the recommendations in the report.  Councillor Burgess seconded.

Councillor Russell moved two amendments. 

Councillors Caluori, Chowdhury, Murray, Heather, Fletcher, Jeapes and Doolan contributed to the debate.

Councillors Watts and Russell exercised their right to reply.

The first amendment was put the vote.  Voting was recorded as follows:

For: Councillor Russell.

Against: Councillors Burgess, Caluori, Chowdhury, Convery, Court, Debono, Diner, Donovan, Doolan, Erdogan, Fletcher, Gallagher, Gantly, Gill, Greening, Hamitouche, Heather, Ismail, Jeapes, Kay, Khan, Klute, Murray, Nicholls, O’Halloran, O’Sullivan, Parker, Alice Perry, Rupert Perry, Picknell, Poole, Poyser, Shaikh, Smith, Spall, Turan, Diarmaid Ward, Nick Ward, Watts, Wayne, Webbe and Williamson.
 

The amendment was LOST.


The second amendment was put the vote.  Voting was recorded as follows:

For: Councillor Russell.

Against: Councillors Burgess, Caluori, Chowdhury, Convery, Court, Debono, Diner, Donovan, Doolan, Erdogan, Fletcher, Gallagher, Gantly, Gill, Greening, Hamitouche, Heather, Ismail, Jeapes, Kay, Khan, Klute, Murray, Nicholls, O’Halloran, O’Sullivan, Parker, Alice Perry, Rupert Perry, Picknell, Poole, Poyser, Shaikh, Smith, Spall, Turan, Diarmaid Ward, Nick Ward, Watts, Wayne, Webbe and Williamson.
 

The amendment was LOST.

 

The recommendations in the report were put to the vote.  Voting was recorded as follows:

For: Councillors Burgess, Caluori, Chowdhury, Convery, Court, Debono, Diner, Donovan, Doolan, Erdogan, Fletcher, Gallagher, Gantly, Gill, Greening, Hamitouche, Heather, Ismail, Jeapes, Kay, Khan, Klute, Murray, Nicholls, O’Halloran, O’Sullivan, Parker, Alice Perry, Rupert Perry, Picknell, Poole, Poyser, Shaikh, Smith, Spall, Turan, Diarmaid Ward, Nick Ward, Watts, Wayne, Webbe and Williamson.

Abstained: Councillor Russell.


The recommendations were CARRIED.


RESOLVED:

 

The General Fund Budget 2016-17 and MTFS (Section 3 of the report)

1.1         That the 2016-17 net Council cash limits as set out in Table 1 (Paragraph 3.1.4 of the report) and the MTFS at Appendix A of the report, which includes the revenue savings in Appendix B of the report and revenue growth of £0.5m for investment in keeping the borough’s young people safe, be agreed.

1.2         That the report of the Policy and Performance Scrutiny Committee on 21st January 2016 in reviewing the ‘Budget Proposals 2016-17’ be noted.

1.3         That the requirement to report on the number of maintained schools that have completed the Schools Value Financial Standard (SVFS) by 31st March to the Department for Education by 31st May each year (Paragraph 3.2.13 of the report) be noted.

1.4         That the fees and charges policy and the schedule of 2016-17 fees and charges be agreed, and that the delegated authority for the Corporate Director of Children's Services, in consultation with the Executive Member for Children and Families, to agree new childcare charges following consultation in the summer term be noted.  (Paragraphs 3.2.14-17 and Appendices C1 and C2 of the report).

1.5         That the Council’s policy on the level of General Fund balances and the estimated use of the Council’s earmarked reserves be agreed (Paragraphs 3.2.19-21 and Table 3 of the report).

The HRA Budget and MTFS (Section 4 of the report)

1.6         That the balanced HRA 2016-17 budget  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.