Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

The Interim Head of Legal and Democratic Services gave advice regarding the potential personal and prejudicial interests that Councillors and / Officers may have on the agenda.

 

The Head of Democratic Services reminded Councillors and Officers that the “Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests” sheet should only be completed if the Councillor / Officer actually had an interest to declare. Nil returns were not required. Councillors and Officers were also informed that any declarable interest must be made orally and in writing on the sheet.

 

In accordance with the provisions of the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea the following interests were declared:

 

Councillors

 

1)            Councillor J E Burtonshaw declared a Personal Interest in Minute 80 “Mid Term Budget Statement 2016/17”;

 

2)            Councillors C Anderson, M C Child, C A Holley, P M Meara and M Thomas declared a Personal Interest in Minute 82 “Annual Report 2015/16 - Director of Social Services”;

 

3)            Councillor A S Lewis declared a Personal Interest in Minute 83 “Membership of Committees”;

 

4)            Councillor M Thomas declared a Personal and Prejudicial Interest in Minute 84 “Councillors' Questions – Question 8” and withdrew from the meeting prior to its consideration;

 

5)            Councillor C L Philpott declared a Personal Interest in Minute 85 “Notice of Motion”.

 

Officers

 

1)            Phil Roberts (Chief Executive) declared a Personal Interest in Minute 82 “Annual Report 2015/16 - Director of Social Services”.

To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the following Minutes be approved and signed as a correct record:

 

1)        Ordinary Meeting of Council held on 22 September 2016.

The Interim Head of Legal and Democratic Services submitted an information report setting out the written responses to questions asked at the last Ordinary Meeting of Council.

Congratulations

 

a)            British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Cymru Social Work Awards 2016

 

The Presiding Member was delighted to announce that a number of Council Officers were successful at the recent BASW Cymru Social Work Awards 2016.  These popular awards now in their 7^th year are open to social workers in Wales; whether they are BASW members or not.  The BASW Cymru Social Work Awards seek to promote the positive aspects of the Social Work profession, great social work practice and supportive organisations.

 

Vanessa Chambers won the Spirit of Social Work Award for the ‘I am me’ guidance she developed which is all about supporting children to understand their journey through life.

 

The Foster Swansea Team received a Certificate of Achievement for the Social Work Team Award.

 

Vanessa Chambers, Amanda Etherington, Martin Chapman and the Foster Swansea Team are present to receive their awards.

1)            Trade Visit to China

 

The Leader of the Council stated that the Lord Mayor, Lady Mayoress and he had recently undertaken a trade visit to China.  The trip included visits to Shanghai, Nantong and to Wuhan.  He stated that the trade visits had been worthwhile and that reciprocal visits would occur in the new year.

 

2)            Fire at Tycoch Campus, Gower College Swansea

 

The Leader of the Council thanked the excellent work of Council Officers who assisted Gower College Swansea following their recent fire at their Tycoch Campus.

 

3)            City Deal

 

The Leader of the Council provided an update on the City Deal.

Questions must relate to matters on the open part of the Agenda of the meeting and will be dealt within a 10 minute period.

A number of questions were asked by members of the public.  The relevant Cabinet Member responded accordingly.  Those questions requiring a written response are listed below:

 

1)        David Davies asked the Services for Children and Young People Cabinet Member a question in relation to Minute 82 “Annual Report 2015/16 – Director of Social Services”:

 

i)             Page 69 “A City that Cares”, Paragraph 2.

 

“It is particularly welcome to read the words that our City is recognised as a beacon of hope and a haven from hate and persecution.  Since Brexit, hate crimes have escalated, encouraged by extravagantly used language from politicians promoting their own unprincipled ideology.  I have witnessed two cases of extreme racism which I am pursuing.  The sentiments taken from the Swansea Story are an inspiration.

 

Could the Senior Officers and Cabinet Members responsible be officially recognised as examples of what is good in society today and their identities revealed at our next meeting?”

 

The Services for Children and Young People Cabinet Member stated that a written response would be provided.

This item was withdrawn.

The Section 151 Officer submitted a report which outlined the current year financial performance together with an updated assessment of likely savings requirements over the period of the Medium Term Financial Plan.

 

The Leader of the Council gave his response to the Statement by way of a presentation to Council.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1)        The comments made in the report be noted and the revised resources forecast and forecast of spending pressures be adopted in terms of future budget planning;

 

2)        The financial forecast in relation to the current year be noted and whatever actions are required in order to move towards a balanced revenue outturn for 2015-2016 be endorsed;

 

3)        Comments in relation to the funding of the Capital Programme set out in the report be noted and the funding shortfall continues to be addressed by a policy encompassing all asset sales.

The Section 151 Officer submitted a report which outlined a mid year review of the Revenue Reserves position and to agree any suggested reclassification of reserves based on current requirements..

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1)        The following re-classification of earmarked reserves be approved:

 

Category of Earmarked Reserve	Current Balance 31/3/15 £’000	Proposed Change   £’000	Recommended Position   £’000
Technical/Third party	1,027	0	1,027
Insurance	14,092	0	14,092
Job evaluation	0	2,500	2,500
Transformation and efficiency	2,292	0	2,292
Schools delegated reserves	9,547	0	9,547
Equalisation reserves	52	0	52
Commuted sums	5,122	0	5,122
Repair and Renewal funds	2,935	0	2,935
Profit share on disposals	1,121	0	1,121
Service earmarked reserves	4,840		4,840
Capital Reserves	5,496	0	5,496
Restructuring costs reserve	9,497	-2,500	6,997
Total earmarked reserves	56,021	0	56,021

 

The Director of Social Services presented his Annual Report 2015-2016 for information.

The Transformation and Performance Cabinet Member submitted a report which sought approval of the nominations / amendment to the membership of Council Bodies.  The Head of Democratic Services verbally added some late additional changes to membership of Committees.

 

He referred to the report stating that the Leader of the Council had also made the following changes to the membership of the Authority’s Outside Bodies:

 

1)            Inter Authority Agreement for Food Waste

Remove Councillor M C Child;

Add Councillor A S Lewis.

 

RESOLVED that the membership of the Council Bodies listed below be amended as follows:

 

1)            Development Cabinet Advisory Committee

Remove Councillors P M Matthews and G J Tanner.

Add Councillors J C Bayliss and N M Woollard.

 

2)            Prevention and Social Care Cabinet Advisory Committee

Remove Councillors C R Doyle and J A Hale.

Add Councillors J C Bayliss and E T Kirchner.

 

3)            Social Services Rota Visits

Remove Councillors V M Evans, B Hopkins and P B Smith.

Add Councillors J C Bayliss, N M Woollard and Independent Group Vacancy.

 

4)            Trustees Panel

Remove Councillor D J Lewis.

Add Independent Group Vacancy.

1)         Part A ‘Supplementary Questions’

 

Eight (8) Part A ‘Supplementary Questions’ were submitted.  The relevant Cabinet Member(s) responded by way of written answers contained in the Council Summons.

 

The following supplementary question(s) required a written response.

 

Question 1

 

a)            Councillor M H Jones asked:

 

i)             “Swansea International Festival of Music and Arts.  Has the cut in funding had any detrimental effect?”

 

ii)            “Can you explain why we are paying £31,500 for the Dylan Thomas Exhibition which is a Heritage Lottery Funded programme and the Dylan Thomas Centre £143,000”.

 

iii)           “Swansea is a member of the European Network of Cultural Cities.  What are the costs associated with it and what benefit has it for Swansea?”

 

The Enterprise, Development and Regeneration indicted that a written response would be provided.

 

b)           Councillor P M Black asked:

 

i)             “Why is there a big jump in funding for the Brangwyn Hall when the music programme has been discontinued?”

 

ii)            Why has there been an increase in funding for the Dylan Thomas Centre when the exhibition is funded separately by Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)?”

 

The Enterprise, Development and Regeneration indicted that a written response would be provided.

 

Question 6

 

Councillor J W Jones asked:

 

“Is the borrowing being amassed for future use?  What will the borrowing be used for?”

 

The Next Generations Cabinet Member indicted that a written response would be provided.

 

 

Question 7

 

Councillor I M Richard asked:

 

“At a meeting with the community very recently, four senior INNOGY project Managers clearly stated that the project (if ever done) would be 33.6 MW and not as they had previously always said 48MW capacity (although hidden in the small print of the Planning Application it always said 32MW to 48MW.

 

I ask for clarification and that true figures be given; not out dated figures:

 

The final figure precisely in the answer to Council should reflect the now set true capacity figure as 33.6MW.

 

In this recent community meeting INNOGY also accepted and did not disagree that the average output would now be just 8MW from Mynydd y Gwair.

 

INNOGY also confirmed that dropping the capacity from 48MW to 33.6MW would drop the Community Fund from £240,000 to £168,000 p.a. (£72,000 less!).

 

Now the complicated bit which is always “twisted” by all Renewable Energy producers is the fact that they have Renewable Obligation Certificate Contracts.  This means effectively that the Electric Power National Grid is obliged to accept all they produce.  Their outputs vary all the time, due to erratic wind and sun conditions and can never be precisely forecast.  So in simple terms other power sources have to continually “give way” and the more renewables we get the more complex it becomes. Coal power operation is too slow to give way. Nuclear is unsafe to play about with so it cannot give way.  So it is gas power that gives way as it can react quickly to demands and quickly react up or down.

 

The Grid is a very complex capacitor.  In the sixties when I worked in the Steel Company of Wales (SCOW) we would occasionally get emergency phone calls from National Grid to shut down our big steel cold reduction mill to allow the Grid to maintain flow in a power crisis, this was called load shedding.  This one mill consumed as much energy as a domestic town the size of Neath, SCOW would be compensated.  Now they have “spinning reserve” a wasteful costly reserve.

 

So what is done; they slow down the easiest to control input – gas power to allow in the Renewables under their obligation contracts.  The complicated bit is that Renewable Developers at current levels of their outputs give out Carbon Saving statistics as if they are displacing coal pure carbon power (or the mix power).  The carbon savings are then inflated as false figures. The true reality is that they are displacing GAS which has far less carbon and mostly hydrogen and produce mostly steam and not carbon.  So my question asked for true carbon displacement figures according to the real situation of the “wobbly” Grid.

 

This is something that needs understanding. That’s why I chose the “balloon” as an example. That’s also why they now hope to build a new medium sized Gas Power Station between Mawr Ward and Llangyfelach to burn gas from Iran and Russia via Milford Haven to steady the wobbly grid as more and more Renewable Wind Turbines and Solar Panels and Tides come into the Grid.  Apart from Tidal the other two are totally erratic and unpredictable – short term or long term.

 

Also in giving displacement of Carbon statistics they always compare it with Renewables capacity or Maximum and never with the reality of true average outputs – 25% for Wind and 10% for Solar and not the untruth of 100% for both!  A huge exaggeration or untruth!”

 

The Enterprise, Development and Regeneration Cabinet Member indicted that a written response would be provided.

 

Question 8

 

Councillor M H Jones asked:

 

“Can the Cabinet Member provide a simple definition of “Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)?”

 

The Services for Adults and Vulnerable People Cabinet Member indicted that a written response would be provided.

 

No supplementary questions required a written response.

 

2)        Part B ‘Questions not requiring Supplementary Questions’

 

No (0) Part B ‘Questions not requiring Supplementary Questions’ were submitted.

Making the Next Census Count for our Armed Forces Community

 

Motion in Support of Count Them In

 

This Council notes:

 

1.     The obligations its owes to the Armed Forces community within the City and County of Swansea Council as enshrined in the Armed Forces Covenant; that the Armed Forces community should not face disadvantage in the provision of services and that special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given the most.

 

2.     The absence of definitive and comprehensive statistics on the size or demographics of the Armed Forces community within the City and County of Swansea. This includes serving Regular and Reserve personnel, veterans, and their families.

 

3.     That the availability of such data would greatly assist the council, local partner agencies, the voluntary sector, and national Government in the planning and provision of services to address the unique needs of the Armed Forces community within the City and County of Swansea.

 

In light of the above, this council moves to support and promote The Royal British Legion’s call to include a new topic in the 2021 census that concerns military service and membership of the Armed Forces community. We further call upon the UK Parliament, which will approve the final census questionnaire through legislation in 2019, to ensure that the 2021 census includes questions concerning our Armed Forces community.

 

The following motion was proposed by Councillor J E Burtonshaw and R C Stewart.

 

“Making the Next Census Count for our Armed Forces Community

 

Motion in Support of Count Them In

 

This Council notes:

 

1.            The obligations its owes to the Armed Forces community within the City and County of Swansea Council as enshrined in the Armed Forces Covenant; that the Armed Forces community should not face disadvantage in the provision of services and that special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given the most.

 

2.            The absence of definitive and comprehensive statistics on the size or demographics of the Armed Forces community within the City and County of Swansea. This includes serving Regular and Reserve personnel, veterans, and their families.

 

3.            That the availability of such data would greatly assist the council, local partner agencies, the voluntary sector, and national Government in the planning and provision of services to address the unique needs of the Armed Forces community within the City and County of Swansea.

 

In light of the above, this council moves to support and promote The Royal British Legion’s call to include a new topic in the 2021 census that concerns military service and membership of the Armed Forces community. We further call upon the UK Parliament, which will approve the final census questionnaire through legislation in 2019, to ensure that the 2021 census includes questions concerning our Armed Forces community.”

 

RESOLVED that the motion as outlined above be approved.