Agenda item

Notices of Motion

Minutes:

Motion A

 

Proposed by Councillor Clucas

 

Seconded by Councillor Fisher

 

In view of the warnings issued by scientists in relation to Climate Change and its effects, including the IUCN report, that points out the threat to native trees, plants and species, this council recognises the importance of LGS. This has been reflected recently by government, both in the NPPF and Ministerial statements, which have underlined the importance of green space in fighting climate change,.

 

It therefore asks officers to prepare a draft plan, in conjunction with SVPC, to look at planting indigenous trees in the Swindon Village buffer zone to encourage species protection and population growth.

 

In so doing, the effect of carbon reduction, through green space and tree planting, be noted and the potential to reduce further be included in the local plan.

 

In proposing the motion, Councillor Clucas clarified that the IUCN was the International Union for Conservation of Nature which represented 15000 recognised experts in their field. She explained that their recent report indicated that 400 tree species were at risk of extinction, including the horse chestnut. She believed there was an opportunity to enhance what Cheltenham did in terms of tree planting and biodiversity. In the light of a major housing development planned for Swindon Village she wished that every school child in the ward receive an oak tree to plant and take ownership of it by watching it grow, develop and mature. Whilst this was a ward issue, there was potential for tree planting in the whole of the borough and she aspired to receiving a road map illustrating how this could be achieved.

In seconding the motion, Councillor Fisher believed this was a great opportunity for young people to be involved in planting trees as a positive environmental contribution, particularly in Swindon Village which was faced with a major housing development.

Councillor Britter supported the motion but proposed an amendment to remove specific reference to Swindon Village and replace with “across the borough” as he believed this was such an important issue that it should be town wide. He welcomed the proposal to get children in the borough involved.

Councillor Clucas accepted the amendment which was incorporated into the substantive.

The amended motion was supported by Members, recognising its importance for the whole borough.

A Member highlighted the fact that Local Green Space represented a small subset of green space and wished to emphasise that the motion should focus on all green spaces around the town.

In summing up, Councillor Clucas thanked Council for its support of the motion which would be of great value to the town.

RESOLVED (with one abstention) THAT

In view of the warnings issued by scientists in relation to Climate Change and its effects, including the IUCN report, that points out the threat to native trees, plants and species, this council recognises the importance of LGS. This has been reflected recently by government, both in the NPPF and Ministerial statements, which have underlined the importance of green space in fighting climate change.

 

It therefore asks officers to prepare a draft plan, in conjunction with local community groups, to look at planting indigenous trees across the borough to encourage species protection and population growth.

 

In so doing, the effect of carbon reduction, through green space and tree planting, be noted and the potential to reduce further be included in the local plan.

 

Motion B

 

Proposed by Councillor Baker

 

Seconded by Councillor Wilkinson

 

This Council recognises the huge amount of damage caused by plastics. Experts warn that they are one of the greatest threats facing our seas and oceans. It is estimated that 300 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year and 5 million tonnes of this figure is used by the UK (Plastic Waste, 2019). Roughly half is disposable and enters landfill or into waterways leading to our seas and oceans.

 

The impact upon our seas and marine life is appalling, a quite shocking example being a sperm whale found washed up on a beach with 6 kilograms of plastic trash in its stomach comprised of 100 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags and hundreds of other pieces of plastic.

 

These figures are shocking. Across the world over 1 million plastic water bottles are purchased every minute while up to 500 Trillion plastic carrier bags are used per year in the world (UN Environment, 2019)

 

We all need to do our bit, at a personal level, at a business level and at a Local and National Government level.

 

The motion :

 

This Council pledges to remove single-use plastics from its own premises and to work with partner organisations such as Leisure@, the Town Hall, the Pump Room and others to persuade them to adopt the same approach by 30th June 2020.

 

This Council supports the local Plastic Free Community in all the work they are doing and will actively work with them and encourage them. In addition a Councillor will be nominated to serve on the Steering Group of Plastic Free Cheltenham.

 

This Council, working with Plastic Free Cheltenham, will investigate the introduction of a scheme for local businesses to commit to being single use plastic free, those businesses will be publicised on the Council web site and will receive a certificate for display in their premises or shop front.

 

Councillor Baker proposing the motion gave a brief introduction to the matter. He explained that a lot had already been done on the council to reduce its single use plastic consumption and the reason for the motion was that the council doesn’t have a policy on the matter. He was presenting it on behalf of the Plastic Free Cheltenham group who did a lot of work throughout the town. He explained that Plastic Free Cheltenham needed to attain 5 pillars to achieve a plastic free community status and the adoption of the motion was one of those pillars. So far, 70 communities had achieved plastic free status and 500 more were on track to achieve that, and he felt it was important that Cheltenham followed suit. He stressed the importance of working with the group once they had achieved plastic free status to promote it around the town.

Councillor Wilkinson seconding the motion highlighted the import work that Plastic Free Cheltenham do, which included litter picks, and working with local businesses to encourage them to reduce single use plastic.

Members fully supported the motion, and made the following comments:

 

·         They requested that Ubico work with third sector organisations that normally have to pay for commercial recycling or waste collection to make sure that recyclable plastic is collected from them. One Member confirmed that third sector organisations are already being offered this facility.

·         There needed to be more awareness throughout the town that cafes will refill your water bottle and suggested a campaign to make people dispose of cigarette butts. 

·         One Member nominated Councillor Baker to serve on the Steering Group of Plastic Free Cheltenham which was agreed by Members.

 

The motion was unanimously passed.

 

Motion C

 

Proposed by Councillor Willingham

 

Seconded by Councillor Atherstone

 

This Council notes with concern that just 17% of Tech/ICT workers in the UK are female, only one in ten females are currently taking A-Level computer studies, and yet there is a looming digital skills gap where the UK needs one million more tech workers by 2020.

 

Council further notes that the Tech Talent Charter (https://www.techtalentcharter.co.uk/) was founded by a number of organisations across the recruitment, tech and social enterprise fields and was supported in the government’s policy paper on the UK Digital Strategy in March 2017 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-strategy). The Tech Talent Charter is run as an industry collective, in recognition that only through working together and joining forces, can any real meaningful change happen.  There is no charge to join the Tech Talent Charter and the Tech Talent Charter Strategy group includes DDCMS and has over 350 organisations signed up as signatories.

 

The Tech Talent Charter encourages and supports signatories to tackle this lack of diversity and inclusion head-on by undertaking to:

? Support attraction, recruitment and retention practices that are designed to increase the diversity of their workforce;

? Define their own timetable for change and implement the strategy that is right for their organisation (acknowledging that all signatories will have different starting points);

? Measure the diversity profile of their UK employees and to share this data for (anonymous) collective publication.

 

Recognising our public sector equality duty pursuant to s149 of the Equality Act 2010, Council is concerned about this imbalance, and believes there should be a more diverse, inclusive, fairer and commercially successful tech workforce and industry.  Ensuring that the processes, culture and ethos of this Council are inclusive is essential in tackling not just a lack of gender diversity, but also supporting under-represented groups such as those from the LGBT, BAME, disabled or neuro-diverse communities.

 

The Tech Talent Charter states that “To effect meaningful change, signatories of the Tech Talent Charter pledge to:

1. Having a senior-level, named representative with responsibility for the Charter commitments;

2. Adopting inclusive recruitment processes, working toward a goal that, wherever possible, women are included on the shortlist for interviews;

3. Ensuring they have employment policies and practices that support the development and retention of an inclusive and diverse workforce;

4. Working collectively with other signatories to develop, share and implement protocols and best practice for the practical implementation of the aims of this Charter;

5. Contributing their employment diversity data into a common central anonymised database, for sharing amongst signatories bi-annually, and for publishing publicly in an annual report.

 

In light of this Council’s investment in, and commitment to, the Cyber Park, the Council should lead by example.  Therefore, this Council resolves to support and sign up to the Tech Talent Charter in its own right, and through Officer and Member influence to also encourage the shared services providers that we work with (including, but not limited to: Cheltenham Borough Homes, One Legal, Publica, Southwest Audit Partnership, The Cheltenham Trust, and Ubico) to support and join the Tech Talent Charter too.

 

In proposing the motion Councillor Willingham said this was about the council acting and showing local leadership, particularly in light of the plans for the cyber park. He explained that only 17 % of the workforce of the tech industry were female which represented a massive disparity. He reported that 350 organisations had signed up to the Tech Talent Charter. Whilst ICT within the council was delivered by Publica, this motion, if adopted, this would be forwarded to them, and the Tech Charter could be included in our recruitment and retention practices. He emphasised that this did not only concern gender diversity and highlighted that if this was not addressed for gender it may not be addressed for other protected equality characteristics.  The council could set its own timescale for implementation but it could learn and contribute and show also that this was something it would wish organisations coming to the cyber park in the future to aspire to.

 

In seconding the motion Councillor Atherstone highlighted the need for greater gender diversity in the UK’s tech industry. Gender imbalance in this field was something that CBC and businesses in the town needed to address together. She quoted that in the UK alone only 1 in 10 girls took computer science at A’level last year and this was in the light of the tech industry being one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK with no apparent signs of slowing down. Demand for digital transformation was forecast to grow by 12 % by 2024. The tech industry was therefore critically important for business and the UK economy at large.

 

She believed that it was vital to act now with the mission of attracting, recruiting and retaining females to the industry to show that we are committed to diversity among the workforce and adopt the mindset for continuous improvement. Together with other organisations it was vital to capitalise the long term societal and economic benefits the tech talent charter could bring us.

 

Members supported the motion and believed that embedding the charter was key. It was recognised that there was, more widely, a huge deficit in girls wishing to study STEM subjects in general.

 

In summing up Cllr Willingham acknowledged that the Tech Charter did not represent a panacea solution but committed the council as an employer to try to address the imbalance since many of the professions in the council required STEM qualifications. He requested that Members represented on outside bodies and officers representing CBC on external organisations also promote the Tech Charter.

 

Upon a vote, the motion was unanimously carried.

Supporting documents: