Agenda and minutes

Apologies were given on behalf of Councillors Fletcher, Hibbert, Smith and Wall. Councillor Smith subsequently arrived at the meeting at 14.40.

Councillor Ryder declared a personal interest in agenda item 8 as she has an interest in potential development land.

Councillor Garnham declared a personal and prejudicial interest in agenda item 8 as through his business he is promoting a site for development that is identified in the JCS. However, as this is only a Council Performance Report, he indicated he would stay in the chamber for the debate. He also declared a personal interest in agenda item 10 as both his wife and son are employees of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

13 May 2013

The minutes of the last meeting had been circulated with the agenda.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 25 March 2013 be agreed and signed as an accurate record subject to Councillor Reid’s apologies being recorded.

The Mayor thanked members who had attended her charity launch at the weekend. She encouraged members to attend the Real Ale Trail to be held on 5 July in aid of the Mayor's charities and to support the Rotary Club’s Poliomyelitis Challenge on 21 September in Montpellier Gardens.

She congratulated Saira Malin from Democratic Services and her husband on the recent birth of their son.

The Mayor advised members that she had removed the moment of reflection from the Council agenda which she hoped would enable everybody to attend from the start of the meeting.  She indicated that the Cambray room would be available for half an hour prior to the Council meeting for any members who wish to have some quiet time for reflection.

The Leader encouraged members to attend the Midsummer Fiesta to be held on 6 July. This had to be cancelled in 2012 because of bad weather so he hoped for a fine day this year.

These must be received no later than 12 noon on Tuesday 18 June.

None received.

Report of the Cabinet Member Corporate Services, Councillor Jon Walklett

Councillor Jon Walklett, Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report which had been circulated with the agenda. The report set out information and data taken from the council’s performance management system to enable Council to review the corporate performance of the organisation at the end of the financial year 2012-13.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services explained that the report was a realistic appraisal of the corporate strategy performance targets set out at the end of previous financial year.  The report tracked 78 milestones which had been identified in the 2012-13 action plan. Out of these, 56 (72%) milestones were completed at the end of the year, 16 milestones were classed as being amber as there are plans for the completion within a reasonable timeframe and 6 milestones are red as they will not be achieved within a reasonable time frame. The six milestones all related to the JCS programme or the Community Governance Review.  The 2012-13 action plan also identified 52 key performance indicators to track the council’s progress. 32 of these were indicators which CBC is directly accountable for and of these 81% had been met and there were positive initiatives in place to address the remaining three.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services said that 2012-13 had been a difficult year for most local authorities due to ever decreasing funding and he congratulated the Cabinet Member Finance for making funding streams available for projects in these difficult circumstances. He went on to highlight some of the positive achievements of the council including the work of the Participation and Engagement team with the police to reduce crime and the council’s work with CBH  to address the shortage of affordable and social housing.  Finally, he referred members to the update on two further indicators which had been circulated at the start of the meeting.

Councillor Garnham, as the leader of the Conservative group, was happy to support the report as he felt it shone a light on the weaknesses of the current administration and held it to account. He acknowledged that the council had performed well in areas of partnership working such as tackling crime and affordable housing.   By contrast, he felt the council had failed to meet targets on its own services and he highlighted waste and recycling, ICT, the Olympic legacy, the democratic accountability of Ubico and NEETs.  He felt these were all areas where the council could do better.

Another member asked for reassurance that staffing levels within the new Art Gallery and Museum and tourist information centre would still enable the best possible services to be delivered. In response, the Cabinet Member Sport and Leisure, confirmed that a full restructure was under way at the Art Gallery to ensure it was fit for purpose and staffing levels were set at appropriate levels to deliver the service required.  In response to the comment about the Olympic legacy, she had seen benefits in her local ward and she would be happy to supply Councillor Garnham a more detailed note  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Cabinet Member Corporate Services, Councillor Jon Walklett

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report. He explained that Gloucestershire County Council is responsible for setting up a Health, Community and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee and each of the district councils is entitled to appoint a member to the committee. At Selection Council on 14 May 2012, Council nominated Councillor Klara Sudbury to the committee and Councillor Colin Hay as a substitute. Following her election to the County Council in May 2013, Councillor Sudbury was now a county councillor member of the committee and as she cannot perform two roles, there was a vacancy for the district member.  The County Council had confirmed that the district nomination can be any member provided they are not a member of the authority’s Executive.   Group Leaders were requested to consider their nominations by the end of May and Councillor Penny Hall was nominated by Councillor Rob Garnham. No other nominations were received and Group leaders had indicated their support for this nomination.     

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that Councillor Penny Hall be nominated to the Gloucestershire Health, Community and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Proposed Cllr Klara Sudbury

Seconded Cllr Chris Coleman

This Council is dismayed at the decision taken by the NHS community in Gloucestershire to permanently divert ambulances overnight between 8pm and 8am from CheltenhamGeneral Hospital to GloucestershireRoyal Hospital.

We are particularly concerned about the potential for increased mortality rates of patients being taken further across the county for emergency care, alongside the impact on waiting times at GloucestershireRoyal Hospital and on ambulance response times. We are also concerned that measures to mitigate access issues for Cheltenham patients being discharged from Gloucester remain uncertain.

In the light of the national review of urgent and emergency care, published on 17^th June, this Council agrees to write formally to the Board of the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to ask that the decision to downgrade Cheltenham A&E should only be temporary to:

a) allow more time for local and national workforce issues to be addressed and

b) allow the impact of the downgrading to be properly understood by the health community and the County's Health, Community and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Sudbury, seconded by Councillor Coleman, proposed the following notice of motion.

This Council is dismayed at the decision taken by the NHS community in Gloucestershire to permanently divert ambulances overnight between 8pm and 8am from Cheltenham General Hospital to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

We are particularly concerned about the potential for increased mortality rates of patients being taken further across the county for emergency care, alongside the impact on waiting times at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and on ambulance response times. We are also concerned that measures to mitigate access issues for Cheltenham patients being discharged from Gloucester remain uncertain.

In the light of the national review of urgent and emergency care, published on 17^th June, this Council agrees to write formally to the Board of the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to ask that the decision to downgrade Cheltenham A&E should only be temporary to:

a) allow more time for local and national workforce issues to be addressed and

b) allow the impact of the downgrading to be properly understood by the health community and the County's Health, Community and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

In introducing the motion, Councillor Sudbury, highlighted her concerns with the proposals which would result in 16 patients per night being transferred by ambulance to Gloucester. She referred to the recent meeting of the Gloucestershire Health, Community and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) she had attended as a county member and had submitted an amendment. After considering the proposals and the results of the consultation, the HOSC had given a green light to the NHS proposals. It had been suggested that the low number of people responding to the consultation was as a result of the public not caring about the A&E service. However she argued that the poor response was due to a badly timed consultation and confusion caused by the changes being made to the PCT at the time. She had been disappointed in the way the HOSC meeting had been managed and felt members had been prevented from asking questions of the health professionals present at the meeting. She acknowledged that there were difficulties in recruiting the necessary consultants to ensure the safety and supervision of trainees in A&E. However she felt it would be a mistake to make a permanent change whilst trying to resolve these resource issues. Finally she referred to research made available by Martin Horwood MP where consultants had reported concerns about the potential impact of several minutes delay on cases needing the A&E service.

A member acknowledged it was a difficult area. He felt it was appropriate to challenge and seek reassurance on the proposed changes and monitor future performance. However he suggested that the temporary solution proposed in the motion may provide staff with more uncertainty and potentially make recruitment more difficult.  For that reason his gut feeling was that the proposal for a centre of excellence was the way to go in order to optimise patient care.

Another member felt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

None received.

Appointment to Chair and Vice-Chair of Planning Committee

ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR OF PLANNING COMMITTEE

The Mayor had agreed to an urgent item being considered by Council, namely the appointment of a new chair and vice-chair to Planning Committee and asked the Cabinet Member Corporate Services to introduce the item.

He explained that at Selection Council on 14 May 2012, Council resolved that all nominations for chairs and vice-chairs of committees should be made at that Council meeting rather than separate meetings of those committees immediately following Council which had been done in previous years.  Councillor Helena McCloskey was duly elected as chair and Councillor Jacky Fletcher as vice-chair.

At Planning Committee on 20 June, Councillor McCloskey announced her intention to stand down as chair and similarly Councillor Fletcher had stood down as vice-chair.  Councillor Chris Coleman had indicated he was prepared to stand as the chair of Planning Committee and Councillor Penny Hall as the vice-chair.

As these appointments were made by Council it now falls to Council to appoint the new chair and vice-chair.  

Councillor McCloskey expressed her regret at having to step down as chair of Planning Committee but this was necessary because of her new commitments outside the council. Council wished to put down on record their thanks for her chairmanship. 

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that Chris Coleman be appointed as Chair of Planning Committee and Councillor Penny Hall as vice-chair.