Agenda and minutes

The Deputy Mayor informed Council of the sad news of the death of the sister of Councillor Christine Jenkins who was also the Sister in Law to Councillor Harvey.

Members and officers passed on their condolences to the family and friends of both councillors.

The minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2017 were confirmed as a true record by Council and were signed by the Deputy Mayor.

The following appointments were agreed:

Governors:

• Eveswell Primary – Janet Morgan
• Lliswerry Primary – Maggie Bain
• Llanwern High – Chris Humphrey

The Deputy Mayor welcomed Superintendent Matthew Williams to the meeting. Superintendent Williams explained that he was the new Lead Officer for East Gwent policing area.

Superintendent Williams passed on thanks from Superintendent Glyn Fernquest for the support given by local members in Newport

Superintendent Williams updated elected members on recent police activity to address criminal activities, some of which had been significant. He also reported operations focussing on specific problems and antisocial behaviour

Councillor Truman raised issues around parking. He applauded the recent concentrated efforts in the city centre but asked for the problem to be addressed in other areas. Superintendent Williams explained that issues around decriminalisation were work in progress. He stated that he would do what was possible through the ‘Your Voice’ initiative and he would feed concerns back to local inspectors.

Councillor Rahman referred to concerns about match days parking in the Rodney Parade area, which had been exacerbated by new developments. He also mentioned local issues of drug use and antisocial behaviour in specific areas of the ward.  Superintendent Williams agreed to discuss these issues with local officers.

Superintendent Williams agreed to discuss with local officers issues raised by Councillor Whitehead about parking in Bettws.

Councillor Critchley praised operations such as Operation Ironside, saying that they helped build public confidence. Superintendent Williams assured members that the police will address priorities proactively and in operations such as this as necessary.

Councillor Morris was concerned that young people make heroes of young criminals Superintendent Williams that all agencies needed to look at ways of making provision for young people. Councillor Morris was of the view that proceeds of crime could be used to help make provision to encourage young people.  

Superintendent Williams assured Councillor Jenkins that her difficulties in setting up a meeting with local inspectors would be addressed

Superintendent Williams agreed with Councillor Guy that there was an increase in the use of technology to commit crimes. He explained that work was in place to provide proactive online policing

Superintendent Williams agreed to discuss with local officers issues raised by Councillor Linton about off road bikes in Ringland

Superintendent Williams agreed to discuss with local officers issues raised by Councillor White about parking issues in Marshfield.

Superintendent Williams agreed to discuss with local officers issues raised by Councillor Cornelious about drug use close to a local school 

Superintendent Williams agreed to discuss with local officers issues raised by Councillor Jeavons about speeding HGV’s   in the ward

Councillor Suller was concerned about the lack of continuity in the community policing teams. Superintendent Williams agreed the shape of policing and the availability of resources had changed in the recent years but every effort was made to maintain continuity in teams as much as possible.

Councillor C Evans and Cleverly passed on thanks to local officers in the respective wards. 

The Leader of the Council introduced a report which brought together all the relevant strands of the Council’s financial management including the recommended increase in Council Tax, the consequential overall revenue budget, capital budget, treasury management and the Medium Term Financial Plan.

The Leader initially referred to the treasury management strategy, saying that it had been reviewed by the Audit Committee and in essence, the strategy is unchanged from that which had been in place for a number of years which is; to defer actual long term borrowing to fund our capital programme as long as possible and utilise our surplus cash wherever possible. This is more cost effective and reduces investment risk and is a strategy used by most Council’s and recommended by the Council’s Treasury Advisers. 

The completion of the current work on the sale of the Friar’s Walk development would have a significant impact on the strategy and proceeds would be used to repay loans taken out for this purpose or if not sold, to re-finance those loans. 

In practical terms, the strategy should mean, outside of the Friars Walk loans, that no new long term loans will need to be taken out in 2017/18, we will hold relatively minimal cash holding for most of the year and use short term loans and investments to manage our day to day cash requirements.

The Leader then referred to the capital programme which is a key driver to the treasury management strategy. The Leader stated that a new 5 year programme, starting in 2018/19 would be developed over the next few months, and given the pressure on revenue funds, there are no easy solutions to expand the capital programme through additional borrowing, though demand for capital resources, as usual, is high.

The Leader was pleased to report the Council had been successful in the last few years in investing in schools and the city centre as well as the usual cyclical investments in ICT. The Leader welcomed the securing of Welsh Government funding, matched with Council funds, to expand the C21 school programme in particular. The Leader stated that the Council could now look forward to new, exciting and much needed schools and buildings over the next 1 – 2 years.

In terms of the proposed overall budget and Council Tax, the Leader stated that the budget continues to be challenging. The revenue support grant would reduce by 0.4%, approximately £900k in cash terms.

The Council also had new pressures and responsibilities and when these were included, the reduction was 0.7%, nearly £1.5m. The Leader explained that this grant makes up some 80% of the Council’s current total funding

There were other unfunded significant financial pressures to be faced such as:

• Funding the increasing costs of the new National Living Wage, which will see our social care community care costs increased by nearly £450k in 2017/18 and around £2m over the next 4 years
• Funding of the new Apprenticeship Levy at nearly £320k

These came with no additional funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Leader of the Council stated that at the last meeting of the Council, she had informed members that the Social Services and Wellbeing Act places a duty on the Council, the four local authorities across the region and the Health Board to produce a regional Population Needs Assessment (PNA)

The Population Needs Assessment has to be formally agreed by the individual local authorities and Health Board before being forwarded to WG by 1^st April 2017. 

The Leader informed members that the document presented to Council sets out the regional joint priorities across health and social care; and is the foundation for partnership working, joint commissioning, health social care integration and preventative working.

The summary of feedback during the development of the Population Needs Assessment had been set out in the report

The Leader informed Council that if members agreed this version, the Assessment will be published on the Council’s website.

The cabinet member for Adult Social Services and Housing paid tribute to those involved in the development of the assessment and mentioned specifically the work of Mr Phil Diamond.

Resolved

To approve the Population Needs Assessment report, priorities and suggested actions so that in accordance with statutory requirements, the final PNA can be approved before March 31^st and then the PNA will subsequently be published on the Newport City Council website.

To provide an opportunity for councillors to ask questions to the Chair of the Cabinet in accordance with the Council’s Standing Orders.

Process: No more than 30 minutes will be allocated at the Council meeting for oral questions to the Leader

If members are unable to ask their question orally within the allocated time, remaining questions will be answered in writing. The question and response will be appended to the minutes.

The question must be addressed through the Mayor or the person presiding at the meeting and not directly to the person being questioned

There were no questions to the Leader on this occasion

To provide an opportunity to pose Questions to Cabinet Members in line with Standing Orders

Process:

No more than 10 minutes will be allocated at the Council meeting for questions to each Cabinet Member.

Members will have needed to submit their proposed questions in writing in accordance with Standing Orders. If members are unable to ask their question orally within the allocated time, remaining questions will be answered in writing. The question and response will be appended to the minutes.

The question must be addressed through the Mayor or the person presiding at the meeting and not directly to the person being questioned.

Questions will be posed to cabinet members in the following order:

      I.        Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment Sustainability and Transport

    II.        Cabinet Member for Education & Young People

   III.        Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

  IV.        Cabinet Member for Community Services, Work and Skills

    V.        Cabinet Member for Regulatory Functions

  VI.        Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Investment

 VII.        Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services & Housing

VIII.        Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport

For Information: A digest of recent decision schedules issued by Cabinet, Cabinet Members and Minutes of recent meetings of Committees has been circulated electronically to all Members of the Council.

There were no questions to the cabinet members on this occasion

I. Scrutiny Committees

·         Community Planning and Development

·         Learning, Caring and Leisure

·         Street Scene, Regeneration and Safety

II. Planning Committee

III. Licensing Committee

IV. Democratic Services Committee

Process: No more than 10 minutes will be allocated at the Council meeting for questions to each Chair.

Members will have needed to submit their proposed questions in writing in accordance with Standing Orders. If members are unable to ask their question orally within the allocated time, remaining questions will be answered in writing. The question and response will be appended to the minutes.

The question must be addressed through the Mayor or the person presiding at the meeting and not directly to the person being questioned.

There were no questions to the Committee Chairs on this occasion

The minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 16 February 2017 were received by the Council