Venue: Main Hall, Town Hall
Contact: Bernie Carr
No. | Item | |
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Declarations of Interest To receive
any declarations of interest. Minutes: Councillor
Coupe declared a non-pecuniary interest in Agenda Item 11 – Stainton and
Thornton Neighbourhood Plan, as Councillor for the Stainton and Thornton Ward. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the Extraordinary Council meeting held on 17 November 2021 and the Ordinary Council meeting held on 24 November 2021 were submitted and approved as a correct record. |
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Announcements/Communications
Minutes: The Chair congratulated Councillor Nicky Gascoigne on her election as
Councillor for the North Ormesby Ward on 16 December
2021. The Chair announced with sadness, the recent death of former Middlesbrough Councillor, Joe Michna
who represented Park Ward from 1988 –
2015, first as a Liberal Democrat then as the Council’s first Green Party
councillor. The Chair also announced the
sad death of former County Councillor, John Garvey who represented the Park End
Ward from 1985 until 1996 when Cleveland County was abolished. The Chair asked members to
join him in a minutes silence as a mark of respect. |
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Questions from Members of the Public (if any). PDF 182 KB Minutes: The
Chair announced that two questions had been received from members of the
public. The details of the specific questions were included at Agenda Item 5. The
Chair invited the member of the public that had submitted Question 1/21 to read
her question out. The Chair invited Councillor Smiles to respond. The
Executive Member thanked the member of the public for her question. In
response to the question, the Executive Member advised that the relevant
service responsible for the issue was the Middlesbrough Sensory Teaching
Advisory and Resource Service. The Executive Member advised that she had spoken
to officers about the situation and had been advised that the Council would be
able to assist families with any difficulties in accessing services. There was
a dedicated Social Worker dealing with children with hearing difficulties. The
officer concerned would be able to work with parents who had children with deaf
or hearing impaired difficulties to assist them in applying for specific
funding to meet the child’s needs. The
Council also worked with a number of different charities, including the ESME
Foundation and the Birkdale Trust and Family Fund. Middlesbrough College was
also providing British Sign Language courses, free of charge, for any person
who did not have a Level 3 qualification.
The
Chair advised that the member of the public who submitted question 2/21 was
unable to attend the meeting. The Chair read the question out and advised that
a written response would be provided. |
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Mayor's Statement and Report Minutes: The Mayor
stated that he wished to speak on the following issues: Anti-social
behaviour The Mayor
stated that anti-social behaviour was an issue across the whole of the country.
Although progress had been made in some areas, anti-social behaviour was still
too high in Middlesbrough. The Mayor
advised that there had been longstanding issues with anti-social behaviour in
the Hemlington area. Many of the issues were mainly due to a small group of
people who were committed to carrying out acts of anti-social behaviour. The
police were unable to police the area 24 hours a day and there was a limit to
what they were able to do. The Council
could spend more money on youth services, but more needed to be done. There
needed to be consequences for bad behaviour. The Mayor urged people to continue
to report anti-social behaviour and crime in the area, so that the police had
enough data/evidence to prosecute the offenders. Twenty four new security
cameras had been ordered, and were due to be installed throughout the
Hemlington area. The delivery had been delayed due to Covid, but they were due
to arrive in three weeks. It was anticipated that the cameras would deter crime
and capture any incidents in the area. This would assist in any action being
taken against the offenders. More resources would be allocated to Hemlington in
the near future. The Mayor
stated that every Ward had some elements of anti-social behaviour/crime, but by
continuing to report it, hopefully the perpetrators would be caught and
prosecuted. BOHO X The Mayor
advised that it was anticipated that BOHO X would be completed in the following
ten months. The Council was currently in advanced discussions with those
interested in occupying the site. Tollesby
Shops The Mayor
advised that Tollesby shops had been derelict and an eyesore for a number of
years and the site had attracted anti-social behaviour and damaged people’s
mental health. Following the Council’s acquisition of the Tollesby shops, there
would be new apartments for retired people and shops for the community would be
put in place of the old shops. The Mayor urged people to get in touch if they
had any issues regarding sites that had become an eyesore and the Council would
try and deal with the issue. Cleveland
Centre The Mayor
advised that the Council had purchased the Cleveland Centre for two reasons.
The price of the centre had fallen from £100m to £12m and the rental that the
Council received from the occupiers of the Centre, exceeded the cost of the
loans and the interest that the Council had to pay. Doing nothing was not an
option, and the centre needed to be looked after. Captain
Cook Square Shopping Centre The Mayor advised that the builders were currently on site in the former T J Hughes store. A private company had taken over the premises. The plans for the site, included an indoor Go Carting/Golf/Bowling Centre which would be open from 10.00am until 2.00am. It ... view the full minutes text for item 21/91 |
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Amendment to the Executive Scheme of Delegation PDF 282 KB Minutes: As
required by the Council's Constitution, a report was submitted setting out the
revised membership of the Executive, appointed by the Mayor, together with
details of the amended Executive Scheme of Delegation. ORDERED that the report be noted. |
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Report of the Overview and Scrutiny Board PDF 310 KB Minutes: Council received and noted a report of the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board outlining the work of the Board and Scrutiny Panels. |
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Calculation of Council Tax Base for 2022/23 PDF 257 KB A recorded vote will be
carried out in respect of the above item. Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 places a duty to declare an interest on any
councillor who is two or more months in arrears with their Council Tax payments
if they attend any meeting involved in setting the Council Tax rate for the
local authority. They must abstain from any vote involved in the setting of the
Council Tax rate until they are no longer in arrears. Additional documents: Minutes: The Director of Finance and
the Executive Member for Environment, Finance and Governance submitted a
report, the purpose of which was to set
the council tax base for the financial year 2022/2023 by the statutory deadline
of 31 January 2022. The
Executive Member for Environment, Finance and Governance presented the report. The
Council had a legal obligation to calculate a council tax base each financial
year. The calculation of the council tax base was a part of the Council’s
budget strategy which formed part of the Council’s Policy Framework, and as
such must be agreed by Full Council. The Deputy Monitoring Officer
reminded Members that any Member who was more than 2 months in arrears with
their Council Tax must make a Declaration of Interest under Section 106 of the
Local Government Finance Act 1992 and must not take part in the
voting. The Deputy Monitoring Officer
conducted a Recorded Vote. The result of the vote was as follows: Votes
For: (30) Councillors
Bell, Branson, Cooke, Cooper, Coupe, Dodds, Garvey, Hellaoui, Higgins, Hill, C Hobson, J Hobson, Hubbard,
Hussain, Mason, Mawston, McTigue,
Nugent, Platt, Polano, Rooney, Sands, Saunders, Smiles, M Storey, Thompson, Uddin, S Walker, Wilson, Wright Against:
Councillor J Rathmell (1) Abstentions: Mr A Preston (1) ORDERED as follows: That the Council notes the contents of the report. That the Council approves the council tax base for
2022/2023 as 35,228. That the Council approves 2,168 and 1,240 as the
council tax bases for the parishes of Nunthorpe and
Stainton & Thornton respectively for 2022/2023. That the Council agrees to
notify the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Cleveland Fire Authority and the
Parish Councils of the 2022/2023 council tax base. |
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Corporate Debt Write Off Policy PDF 549 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Director of Finance and the Executive Member for Environment,
Finance and Governance submitted a report the purpose of which was to seek
approval of the Corporate Debt Write Off Policy. The purpose of the new policy was to provide a corporate approach
to the writing off of bad and irrecoverable debts in a fair and timely manner,
whilst seeking to maximise the opportunity for collection thereby minimising
the need for write off. All
service areas were required to follow this policy to allow the Council to
operate a consistent approach to debt write off, whilst having due regard to
the customer’s ability to pay. Whilst
some parts of debt write off were governed by particular legislative requirements
such as Council Tax, Business Rates, Adult Social Care Debt, etc., wherever
possible the overall principle of debt write off should be efficient and
effective, always giving consideration to the financial impact on the Council
when debt was written off. The
policy would underpin any specific recovery strategies and would be applied
across all directorates. The
new policy would also support cross directorate communication where a shared
customer base existed. It was envisaged
that the approach would work within Data Protection legislation, and should be
considered at a corporate level to reduce multiple officer engagements across
directorates with the same resident and or business base. Following a vote, it was ORDERED as
follows: That a) the Corporate Debt
Write Off Policy be approved. b) he Budget Policy
Framework and the officer delegated scheme of delegation be amended c) delegated authority
be given to the Section 151 Officer to approve any future modifications to the
Corporate Debt Write Off Policy. |
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Stainton and Thornton Neighbourhood Plan PDF 412 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Director of
Regeneration and Culture and the Executive Member
for Regeneration submitted a report, the purpose of which was to seek approval of the
Stainton & Thornton Neighbourhood Plan, incorporating the recommendations
of the Independent Examiner’s Report. The
Executive Member for Regeneration presented the report. Under
the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, parish councils and
neighbourhood forums could prepare Plans that put in place a vision and
planning policies for the development, and use of land within their designated
Neighbourhood Area. Stainton
& Thornton Parish Council had prepared its draft Neighbourhood Plan, which
had been assessed by an Independent Examiner.
The Independent Examiner had submitted his report to the Council, and
recommended that a number of amendments, needed to be made before the Plan could
proceed to the referendum stage of the Neighbourhood Planning process. Officers
had incorporated the necessary amendments to the Plan and the Parish Council had
agreed that the Plan accorded with the Examiner’s recommendations. Approval
was sought from the Council, for the Plan with the incorporated amendments to
proceed to the referendum stage of the Neighbourhood Planning process. Once approved, a decision statement would be
issued and placed on the Council’s website outlining its decision that the
Plan, should proceed to a referendum. Following
a successful outcome of the referendum, a further Council report would be
prepared, in order for the Neighbourhood Plan to be formally adopted by the
Council, as part of its Statutory Development Plan, against which future
planning applications within the designated Neighbourhood Area would be
determined. Following
a vote, it was ORDERED as follows: That the Stainton &
Thornton Neighbourhood Plan, incorporating the recommendations of the
Independent Examiner’s Report, be approved. |
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Urgent Items
Minutes: There were no urgent items submitted for this meeting. |
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Members' Question Time Minutes: There were no questions submitted within the specified deadlines for Members' Questions for this meeting. |
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Notice of Urgent Motions (if any) Minutes: There were no Urgent Motions submitted within the specified deadlines for Urgent Motions for this meeting. |
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Update - Council Constitution PDF 458 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Monitoring Officer
submitted a report which proposed the following amendments to the Council’s
Constitution: ·
amendments to
the Contract Procedure Rules, Financial Thresholds. ·
an
amendment to the wording for rules in relation to Ordinary Motions at Paragraph
76 of the Council Procedure Rules. ·
an amendment to Page 8 – paragraph 3 of the
Officer Employment Procedure Rules - Change of wording for the Appointment of
Head of Paid Service to provide for the appointment to be made by Full Council
or by recommendation from the Chief Officer Appointments Committee. ·
insert Procedure and Guidance for Councillor
Calls for Action into the Constitution. ·
insert Political Balance Procedure Rules into
the Constitution. ·
amendment to the Standards Committee and
Corporate Affairs and Audit Committee, Terms of Reference. The report also
sought approval of a Social Media Framework: Policy and Guidelines for Elected
Members to be included in the Members’ Handbook. Following a vote, it was ORDERED that Council approve the
following: (a)
The proposed
changes to the Constitution as detailed in the report and notes that the
Monitoring Officer will, under delegated powers, amend the Constitution
accordingly. (b)
The Social Media Framework:
Policy and Guidelines for Elected Members for inclusion within the Members
Handbook. (c)
That the
Monitoring Officer, under delegated powers be authorised to amend the
Constitution and make any necessary minor textual changes or further adjustments
to comply with any subsequent legislative changes, changes to reflect decisions
taken by Council and/or Executive and changes which are of
typographical/drafting error nature. |
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Council Committees - Vacancies PDF 218 KB Minutes: The
Monitoring Officer submitted a report, the purpose of which was to seek Members’ approval to nominations for
appointment, arising from vacancies, as a result of resignations from
Committees. The
Deputy Monitoring Officer requested Council to agree appointments, arising from
vacancies and resignations from the following Committees: Children
and Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel 1 Vacancy – Open to Conservative
Councillors initially 1 nomination: Councillor D Coupe – Councillor Coupe appointed Vice-Chair
of Children and Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel 2
nominations: Councillor Hellaoui and Saunders Following
a vote, Councillor Saunders was
appointed. Corporate
Health and Safety Steering Group 1 Vacancy – Open to all Councillors 1
nomination was received for Councillor Higgins – Councillor Higgins appointed. Culture
and Communities Scrutiny Panel 1 Vacancy – Open to Conservative
Councillors initially No nominations were received from the
Conservative group 1
nomination was received from Councillor Nugent – Councillor Nugent appointed. |