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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services - 636923 

Items
No. Item

33.

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”.

34.

Minutes. pdf icon PDF 189 KB

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.

35.

Written Responses to Questions asked at the Last Ordinary Meeting of Council. pdf icon 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.

36.

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.

37.

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.

38.

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.

39.

Presentation - None.

Minutes:

No Public Presentations were received.

40.

Annual Report on Regional Working 2018/19. pdf icon 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.

41.

Annual Report 2018/19 - Director of Social Services. pdf icon 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.

42.

Leisure Partnerships Annual Report 2017/18. pdf icon 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.

43.

Joint Appointment Committee – Swansea Bay City Deal. pdf icon 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.

44.

Amendments to the Council Constitution. pdf icon 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.

45.

Membership of Committees. pdf icon 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.

46.

Scrutiny Dispatches – Quarterly Impact Report. pdf icon 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.

47.

Councillors' Questions. pdf icon 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.