Agenda and minutes

The Mayor, elected Members and all those present observed a Minute’s Silence in respect of those who had lost their lives to terrorist atrocities across the world.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2015 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2015 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

The Mayor invited appropriate declarations of interest.

Councillor Susan Hall declared a non-pecuniary interest in that she had a business in Wealdstone, which was the subject of a public question and a petition.  She would remain in the room whilst the matters were considered and voted upon.

(i)            The Mayor drew Council’s attention to the tabled Procedural Motions. The Motions were agreed.

(ii)          The Mayor drew Council’s attention to the amendments to the Harrow £159 Campaign Motion and the Government Cuts making Harrow Residents poorer Motion contained in the Tabled Documents.  The amended Motions were agreed.

(iii)         The Mayor also drew Members’ attention to a further tabled amendment.

The Council received a cross party Motion in the names of Councillor David Perry, Councillor Susan Hall, Councillor Keith Ferry and Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane.

“This Council notes:

·                     The shocking events in Paris on Friday 13^th November, where 132 innocent people were killed in terrorist atrocities.

·                     The recent terrorist attacks across the world; with 224 people losing their lives in the bombing of a Russian passenger plane, 40 people killed in bombings in Beirut, 5 people shot to death at a Jerusalem synagogue and 20 people killed at a hotel in Bamako.  Terrorism knows no borders, and these horrific incidents are just some examples of the lives lost to terrorist atrocities over the past few weeks.

·                     The outpouring of condolences from across our many communities in Harrow, with declarations of support and solidarity with the families who have lost loved ones in terrorist atrocities across the world.

This Council believes:

·                     Harrow’s diversity is our strength; we are proud to be a Borough where people of different backgrounds and faiths respect each other.

·                     Elected representatives of all parties should work together to keep our residents safe and to condemn acts of terror that threaten our shared values of democracy and freedom of expression.

The Council resolves:

·                     To hold a minute’s silence at Full Council to mark with respect and sorrow all of the victims of terrorist atrocities across the world.

·                     To condemn anyone who would try to promote fear or hatred in our Borough.

·                     To show strong local leadership in promoting tolerance, respect and cohesiveness amongst our many communities; events like the Paris shootings should not divide us.”

Upon a vote, the Motion was agreed unanimously.

RESOLVED:  (Unanimously)

That the Motion, as set out above, be adopted.

In accordance with the Council’s Petition Scheme, a petition containing more than 2,000 signatures will be considered/debated by full Council.  The Petition to rescue Pinner Memorial Park meets the threshold of signatures needed to engender a Council debate.

A representative of the petitioners will read the terms of the petition on behalf of the petition signatories.  There is a period of one minute allocated to present.  A period of ten minutes is permitted for Members to debate the Petition terms and issues.

Following discussion the Council may choose to refer the petition to the Cabinet, a Committee or Corporate Director to determine the matter, taking into account the views expressed by Council.

In accordance with the Council’s Petition Scheme, Council received a petition containing over 2,000 signatures as follows

(i)            Petition submitted by residents containing approximately 5,029 signatures in relation to the “Rescue of Pinner Memorial Park” and to “Bring back Tracy Full time”.  

(ii)          Debate was held on the content of the petition.

RESOLVED:  That the petition be referred to the Chief Executive for consideration.

In accordance with Rule 10, the following petition was presented

(i)            Petition submitted by Councillor Susan Hall containing 2,400   signatures requesting that the Council re-think the plans for a new Civic Centre in Wealdstone.

[The petition stood referred to Council for debate on 25 February 2016 in accordance with the Petition Scheme]. 

To note that one question from a member of the public had been received and responded to, and the recording of this question and the answer given had been placed on the Council’s website.

(i)            The Leader of the Council, Councillor David Perry, introduced the item highlighting the achievements, challenges and proposals since the last ordinary meeting.  He also paid tribute to Clifton Jackson and Keith Chilvers who had recently passed away.

(ii)          Other Members of the Council spoke and/or asked questions of the Leader of the Council which were duly responded to.

RESOLVED:  That the Harrow Youth Offending Partnership Youth Justice Plan 2015-18 be approved.

Report of the Head of Paid Service.

RESOLVED:  That

(i)            the revised Licensing Policy be approved; and

(ii)          the revised Gambling Policy be approved.

Report of the Director of Legal and Governance Services.

RESOLVED:  That the amendments to the Constitution set out in the report be approved.

Report of the Director of Legal and Governance Services.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.

Six Councillor questions were received and were responded to and a recording placed on the Council’s website. 

The following Motions have been notified in accordance with the requirements of Council Procedure Rule 14, to be moved and seconded by the Members indicated:

Further to the procedural Motion previously agreed, at item 13 the Council received two Motions:

(i)            Motion in the names of Councillor David Perry and Councillor Sachin Shah.

“Harrow £159 Campaign – Motion

Council notes:

·           That previous administrations, both Labour and Conservative, have both campaigned to get Harrow a fairer grant deal from Central Government.

·           The report by LG Futures (Analysis of Funding Drivers, October 2014) was commissioned to understand Harrow’s funding context in comparison with other London boroughs, and the rest of the UK. The report made a number of findings that have raised concerns about Harrow’s spending power and how our Government grants are calculated.

·           In respect of spending power, the analysis found that in Harrow our residents have £39.8m less spent on them than the London average – that is £159 less per person than the average Londoner.

·           The formulas used by Government date back to 1978 and do not reflect Harrow’s current needs, particularly given the pressures from homelessness and welfare changes.

·           Harrow receives less funding than the London average on account of a range of factors including its lower population density, having less residents on welfare, amongst other technical points.

·           Harrow also receives less funding than the national average on account of it being in London and “Damping”, a process by which boroughs take additional reductions to buffer other boroughs, reallocates a lot of Harrow’s funding elsewhere.

·           This unfair funding from Central Government is a double blow on top of the £83m of cuts imposed on Harrow Council and our residents by central Government.

·           The Chancellor’s announcement at the Comprehensive Spending Review on Wednesday 25^th November that over the course of this Parliament all Local Authorities Revenue Support Grant will be phased out, and instead Local Authorities will have full retention of their local business rates.

·           The Council’s commitment to being an efficient and well run organisation, including it’s ambitious commercialisation programme that will create £5m of income by 2018/19, to help make up the shortfall caused by central Government cuts.

Council believes:

·           The funding formulas need to be updated so that Harrow gets the money necessary to continue Building a Better Harrow, protecting frontline services and ‘Making a Difference’ to our community.

·           We have not been given sufficient detail by Government about how they will administer and implement the change in Local Government finances to a new system whereby Council’s will have the full retention of local business rates, whilst the Revenue Support Grant will be phased out entirely.

·           In Harrow our falling business rates, in part due to the government’s disastrous ‘Office to Residential’ scheme, means that this will amount to a further cut to local services.

·           Greater fairness in the funding system, so that:

o    “Damping” is reduced, and Harrow’s resources are not pulled into an endless cycle of re-allocation to other boroughs.

·           The weighting of resources and government grants is changed to reflect the changing nature of London. The future settlement needs to acknowledge the role of outer London  ...  view the full minutes text for item 139.

Having been put to the vote it was

RESOLVED:  That in accordance with Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business for the reasons set out below:

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.