Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Swansea. View directions
Contact: Democratic Services - 636923
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Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests. Minutes: The Chief Legal Officer
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: 1)
Councillors M C Child, P Downing, V M Evans, J W Jones, R D Lewis, B J Rowlands,
R C Stewart, G J Tanner and M White declared a Personal Interest in Minute 40
“Annual Report on Regional Working 2018/19”; 2)
Councillors M C Child, R Francis-Davies, L S Gibbard, E T Kirchner and R
V Smith declared a Personal Interest in Minute 42 “Leisure Partnerships Annual
Report 2017/18”; 3)
Councillors V M Evans, R C Stewart and D G Sullivan declared a Personal
Interest in Minute 43 “Joint Appointments Committee – Swansea Bay City Deal”. |
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To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record. Minutes: RESOLVED that the following Minutes be approved and
signed as a correct record: 1) Ordinary Meeting of
Council held on 27 June 2019. |
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Written Responses to Questions asked at the Last Ordinary Meeting of Council. PDF 94 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Chief Legal Officer
submitted an information report setting out the written responses to questions
asked at the last Ordinary Meeting of Council. |
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Announcements of the Presiding Member. Minutes: 1)
Education Buildings Wales Awards 2019 The Presiding Member stated that he was
delighted to announce that at the recent Education Buildings Wales Awards 2019,
the Pentrehafod Comprehensive School scheme was awarded “Highly Commended” for the category of “Innovation in Delivering a Sustainable Education Facility” and “Winner” in the category “Innovation in Delivering Value”. The award recognised the innovation of the
Team that helped to deliver a sustainable education facility that promotes
sustainable practices and behaviours by all users and the innovation that
helped contribute to value in the design of learning spaces, the value being
both monetary and experiential for the users of the facility. He congratulated
all involvement in the scheme. 2)
Honorary Fellowship of University of Wales
Trinity Saint David The
Presiding Member stated that he had great pleasure in announcing that Councillor
Robert Francis-Davies has recently been awarded Honorary Fellowship by the
University of Wales Trinity Saint David. 3)
Local Authority Pension Fund Forum National
Awards 2019 The
Presiding Member stated that it was pleasing to note that the Swansea Pension Fund
has been shortlisted for an award at the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum
National Awards 2019. It is one of 4
Pension Funds in the UK to be nominated in the Best Approach to Sustainable
Investing Category for their work in developing their Environmental, Social
Governance Policy and withdrawal from carbon related investments whilst
balancing their fiduciary responsibilities. The
winner will be announced on the 19 September 2019at an event in London. 4)
The Family that Learnt to Listen The Presiding Member stated that it was pleasing to refer to
a book which was written by a group of 7-11 year olds who have experience of
our care system in Swansea. Their aim
was to produce a book that can help Social Workers, Foster Carers, Families and
other Children listen to each other better, show the benefits when everyone
works together and highlight the fact that we all win when we take a children’s
rights approach. The group created an amazingly sophisticated narrative device
of a “magic mirror” in the story that allowed the family to reset their awful
day when no-one listened and allowed the family to start again and make a
positive difference. The key topic of
paramount importance for the group was to help other children get the ‘Best
Start’ in life, and essential to this was being listened. The Children discussed their own memories and stories and
used them to inform the story and direction the book would take, bearing in
mind, the brief that the book would be used to promote positive messages for
all families across Swansea and Wales.
This was a challenging task for the children considering their own
experiences in life. A concurrent thread throughout the entire process and for the
group as a whole was the importance of family, being listened, making a difference
and the best hope of having their own family in the future. The
book was led by ‘Best Start Swansea’ who exist to help support parents and
children across our city. The messages
were developed with parents and children in Swansea, for the parents and
children of Swansea by promoting helpful, positive, parenting messages that can
help prepare parents for birth, and children for nursery, school and beyond. This
is the third book in a series of stories that have been written by parents
around the Best Start Swansea Messages.
The Jack family were created and developed by Swansea school children,
and their stories have, so far, promoted the importance of play in early
childhood, and also the importance of being as healthy as you can be, and
spending time together. This third book
focuses on the importance of listening, and the children have created a
brilliant story from scratch to support this important aspect of early
childhood and beyond. Thomas
and Helen Docherty are a team of author and illustrators who worked on the book
and both preceding books. Other key
partners who supported the creation of this book were Kate Phillips, Gary
Mahoney and Tom Jones. He
congratulated all involved. 5)
Corrections /
Amendments to the Council Summons i)
Item 10
“Annual Report 2018/19 – Director of Social Services”. Amend the recommendation on Page 31 to read
“2018/19” instead of 2017/18. ii)
Item 13
“Amendments to the Council Constitution”.
Amend the renamed Committee to read “Equalities & Future Generations
Policy Development Committee”.
References on Pages 125, 129 & 130. |
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Announcements of the Leader of the Council. Minutes: 1) Swansea Bay Region City
Deal - Update The Leader of the Council stated that he was
delighted at the commitment by the Welsh & UK Governments to release £18
million of the money committed to the City Deal. He stated that further monies would be released
once the Programme Director was appointed and the recommendations from the
review actioned. 2) Local Authority Pension Fund Forum National Awards
2019 The Leader of the Council congratulated Councillor
Clive Lloyd and the Pension Fund Committee as the Swansea Pension Fund has been shortlisted for an award at the Local
Authority Pension Fund Forum National Awards 2019. It is one of 4 Pension Funds in the UK to be
nominated in the Best Approach to Sustainable Investing Category for their work
in developing their Environmental, Social Governance Policy and withdrawal from
carbon related investments whilst balancing their fiduciary responsibilities. 3) West Wales Metro The Leader of the Council reiterated his support
for the West Wales Metro and stated that the recent announcement by the UK
Government of £20 million towards a Swansea Parkway Railway Station would only
work as part of a wider transport infrastructure. 4) Honorary Freedom of the City for Catherine Zeta-Jones The Leader of the Council outlined the success of
the events relating to Catherine Zeta-Jones being awarded the Honorary Freedom
of the City. He thanked all those
involved especially Councillor Robert Francis-Davies. |
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Public Questions. Questions must relate to matters on the open part of the Agenda of the meeting and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period. Minutes: There were no public
questions. |
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Presentation - None. Minutes: No Public Presentations were
received. |
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Annual Report on Regional Working 2018/19. PDF 178 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Leader of the Council submitted a report which
sought provided an update on the progress made in relation to Regional Working
during 2018-2019 specifically for Education through Regional Working (ERW),
Western Bay (West Glamorgan Regional Partnership) and the Swansea Bay City
Deal. Resolved that the report be noted. Note: Councillor M H Jones asked
a question relating to the lack of Scrutiny relating to Western Bay (West
Glamorgan Regional Partnership).
Councillor M C Child explained that the Regional Partnership would
welcome being scrutinised. The Leader of the Council stated that he would
write to the Chair asking for an update on the issue of scrutiny. |
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Annual Report 2018/19 - Director of Social Services. PDF 144 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Director of Social Services submitted a report
which provided his account of the Council’s improvement journey to 2018-2019,
and how well the Council was at meeting statutory requirements under the Social
Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014. The report also looked back at the previous year’s
areas for improvement, the challenges faced and sets new priorities for
2019-2020. The report tells the story of
changes that have taken place within Social Services to achieve progress
towards national well-being outcomes. Resolved that the Annual Report of
the Director of Social Services 2018-2019 be received and noted. Note: Councillor P M Black asked a question relating to the response that he
received in relation to Councillor Question 10.
He stated that the response did not answer his question, instead it gave details of the Council's contract with the
YMCA. The YMCA are not contracted to
carry out statutory assessments of young carers. He asked that the Director of Social Services provide
an amended answer addressing all the points in the original question? The Director of Social Services stated that a
written response would be provided. |
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Leisure Partnerships Annual Report 2017/18. PDF 153 KB Minutes: The Investment, Regeneration & Tourism Cabinet
Member submitted a report which provided information regarding the partnership
operations of key facilities within the Cultural Services Portfolio. Resolved that the report be noted. |
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Joint Appointment Committee – Swansea Bay City Deal. PDF 110 KB Minutes: The Leader of the Council submitted a report which sought
to establish a Swansea Bay City Region Joint Appointments Committee to appoint
a Programme Director. Resolved that: 1)
A Swansea Bay City Region Joint Appointments Committee be established. The Joint Committee being responsible for the
appointment of a Programme Director for the Swansea Bay Region City Deal; 2)
The Leader of the
Council (Councillor R C Stewart) and Councillor J P Curtice (Non-Executive
Member) be appointed to the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Appointments
Committee; 3)
The shortlisting
of the applicants be delegated to the Council Leaders of the four Authorities. |
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Amendments to the Council Constitution. PDF 122 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The
Presiding Member, Monitoring Officer and Head of Democratic Services jointly
submitted a report, which sought to make amendments in order to simplify,
improve and / or add to the Council Constitution. The
proposed changes related to the following area of the Council Constitution: a)
Part 2 -
Articles of the Constitution – Article 4 “The Council Meeting”; b)
Part 3 -
Responsibility for Functions – Scheme of Delegation; c)
Part 3 –
Responsivity for Functions – Terms of Reference – Policy Development Committees
(PDCs); d)
Part 4 - Rules
of Procedure – Financial Procedure Rules. The
amendments to Part 4 - Rules of
Procedure – Financial Procedure Rules as outlined in Appendix A of the report
were presented for information only, as the changes had already been
implemented by the Monitoring Officer following discussions with the Chief
Finance Officer under Article 15 “Review and Revision of the
Constitution”. The
Head of Democratic Services stated that the proposed change of name of the
Transformation & Future Council Policy Development Committee should read
Equalities & Future Generations Policy Development Committee. The Chair and Membership of the renamed
Policy Development Committee remains the same as the original body. Resolved that: 1)
The amendments to Part 2 - Articles of the Constitution – Article 4 “The Council Meeting”
as outlined in the report be approved; 2)
The amendments to Part 3 -
Responsibility for Functions – Scheme of Delegation as outlined in the report
be approved; 3)
The amendments to Part 3 – Responsivity for Functions – Terms of Reference – Policy
Development Committees (PDCs) as outlined in the report be approved; 4)
The Chair of the Equalities & Future Generations Policy Development
Committee shall be paid a Senior Salary. |
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Membership of Committees. PDF 91 KB Minutes: The Business Transformation & Performance
Cabinet Member submitted a report which sought Council approval to the
nominations / amendments to the membership of Council Bodies. He also added some amendments to the report. Resolved that the membership of the
Council Bodies listed below be amended as follows: 1)
Trustees Panel Remove Councillor W Evans. Add Labour Vacancy. |
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Scrutiny Dispatches – Quarterly Impact Report. PDF 127 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair of the Scrutiny Programme
Committee submitted an information report setting out the Scrutiny Dispatches -
Quarterly Impact Report. |
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Councillors' Questions. PDF 196 KB Minutes: 1)
Part A ‘Supplementary
Questions’ Seven (7) Part A
‘Supplementary Questions’ were submitted.
The relevant Cabinet Member(s) responded by way of written answers
contained in the Council Summons. Those supplementary
question(s) required a written response are shown below: Question 1. Councillor P N May asked: “What types of evidence does the Council require in order to gain the
likely prosecution of a person for fly tipping?” The Environment &
Infrastructure Management Cabinet Member stated a written response would be
provided. Question 5. Councillor E W Fitzgerald asked: “How many residents wrote in, sending their car parking tickets in as
proof of purchase following them having a Parking Enforcement Ticket due to a
failure to display their ticket?” The Environment &
Infrastructure Management Cabinet Member stated a written response would be
provided. Question 6. Councillor A M Day asked: “1) Are Council’s being
consulted with as a body in relation to bank branch closures? 2)
How will the digitally
excluded access banking services following the closure of bank branches?” The Care, Health &
Ageing Well Cabinet Member stated a written response would be provided. 2) Part
B ‘Questions not requiring Supplementary Questions’ Four (4) Part B ‘Questions not requiring Supplementary Questions’ were submitted. |