Agenda item

Notices of Motion

Meeting of Council, Monday, 18 September 2017 6:30 pm (Item 12.)

i) Councillor Smith to propose and Councillor Birch to second:

“This council will mark the centenary of women gaining the right to vote by honouring Margaret Bondfield as the first ever Woman MP for Northampton. Afterwards she became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK, when she was appointed Minister of Labour.

The women’s forum will be asked to consider a commemoration event in the Guildhall.

The Council further commits to honouring Margaret Bondfield by commissioning a statue of her to be placed in the Courtyard of the Guildhall. This will be paid for through external sponsorship.

This Council notes that 2018 is the centenary of the year in which women won the same voting rights as men. This gave propertied women aged 30 and over the right to vote for the very first time. Universal suffrage for both men and women followed 10 years later.”

ii) Councillor Stone to propose and Councillor Ashraf to second:

“This Council notes the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government made a recent speech to the Local Government Association where he recognised ‘there is a serious shortage of decent affordable housing’ and went to talk about the stark inequalities in housing and said he was willing to listen to proposals from ambitions councils to try to address these issues.

In Northampton we have recognised for some time there is a desperate need for more social housing and have stated our aim to address this. We are an ambitious council and agree that members and officers will work together on a proposal to finance and build new social housing locally and put forward a proposal to government for their support and approval.”

iii) Councillor Davenport to propose and Councillor Culbard to second:

“This Council notes that some parts of the town have a proliferation of HIMOs. This is causing problems in terms of noise, excess rubbish, lack of community cohesion and car parking pressures.

This Council further notes that in recent times it has introduced tougher restrictions with Article 4 directive in certain areas of town restricting HIMOs to 15 per cent in a 50 metre radius.

This Council believes it now needs to go further and consult on a policy similar to that of other local authorities; which is that Houses In Multiple Occupation will not be permitted at a greater density than 10 per cent of dwellings within a 50 metre radius (subject to legal and planning law).

The areas requiring Article 4 directives need to be kept under constant review”.

iv) Councillor Beardsworth to propose and Councillor B Markham to second:

“To make the budget process both fairer and more transparent ,council calls on the administration to scrap the special expenses charges, when preparing the 2018/19 draft budget”

v) Councillor Beardsworth to propose and Councillor Meredith to second

“The use of Bed and Breafast to provide temporary emergency accommodation for homeless people, in particular families, should always be a last resort. B & B is particularly unsuitable and disruptive for families and at a time of growing homelessness and represents poor value for money within a stretched budget.We believe that it is time for the authority to follow Reading Council and others and use prefabricated units to create a stock of temporary emergency housing to provide homes for families while they are waiting authority-owned or other social housing”.

vi) Councillor B Markham to propose and Councillor Beardsworth to second:

“This council believes that motions passed by a majority vote are important and that the public would expect them to be acted on.

There should we believe be a report-back process on action taken and where appropriate results.

Where the authors of a motion have specifically requested that the matter be referred to Overview and Scrutiny then the matter can be dealt with by them but in other cases there should be an item on the council agenda to cover progress on such motions.

We request that an all-party and officer working party be set up to determine the format in which such reports are presented.

This working party should also review how we feedback information about petitions submitted by members of the public. The working group to report back to council by the end of 2017”.

vii) Cllr Hallam to propose and Councillor King to second:

This Council recognises the value of its parks and open spaces that are well used by residents and visitors. Therefore, it shares the community’s concern about illegal encampments occupying our parks and open spaces as well as private areas across the Borough.

Councillors and Officers have been in continual contact with local residents during the periods of many illegal encampments throughout this year, and have been extremely concerned by the reports of anti-social and threatening behaviour, as well as fly-tipping and damage to parkland around the encampments.

Northampton Borough Council (NBC) subscribes to the Countywide Traveller Unit (CTU), a joint initiative between councils, and led by Northamptonshire County Council. NBC also delegates its powers under sections 77 and 78 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to the CTU. For several years this has proven to be the most effective way of dealing with illegal encampments. We recognise that the legal process is lengthy and can cause a good deal of inconvenience and anxiety to the local residents.

NBC seeks to achieve a balance between actively discouraging illegal encampments and maintaining access for residents, recognising that it is not possible to completely secure parks from those who are determined to set up illegal encampments without affecting residents’ rights of access to their local parks and open spaces. Bollards and posts can be an effective means of preventing unauthorised access to our parks and open spaces. The bollards are designed to prevent any motorised vehicles gaining access as they all have the potential to damage green spaces, and more importantly, put the people who use our parks at risk. Therefore, NBC has last month again started the installation of bollards and posts around our town’s green spaces.

While most people respect the signage we have in place, installing bollards is one of the ways we can make sure that our parks can be maintained to a high standard for everyone to enjoy.

This Council resolves to:

1) Call on the police to make use of all powers at their disposal to remove as soon as possible any illegal encampments from our parks and open spaces, bearing in mind the legal duties placed on the council to assess the welfare needs of relevant groups

2) Investigate further legal opportunities to prevent / deter illegal encampments;

3) Continue to work closely with the CTU and the police to increase efficiency and identify ways of speeding up the eviction process whilst continuing to abide by all the legal requirements.

viii) Councillor King to propose and Councillor Larratt to second:

“The Keep Safe Scheme aims to support people with learning disabilities to keep safe and get help in an emergency when out and about in Northamptonshire. Keep Safe, together with Safe Places, works under the Safe Places Organisation, which unites all the Safe Place (and Keep Safe) schemes by having all the information in one place so everyone can see it.

Northampton Borough Council recognises the importance of the Keep Safe Scheme and will be training all new staff at the one stop shop during their induction.

Northampton Borough Council aims to be a Keep Safe place, accessible to all”.

Minutes:

i) Councillor Smith accepted an alteration to the original motion as published on the agenda. The altered motion was seconded by Councillor Birch.

Council agreed to the altered motion which was debated below:

The women’s forum will be asked to consider a commemoration event in the Guildhall.

The Council further commits to honouring Margaret Bondfield by commissioning a statue of her to be placed in the Courtyard of the Guildhall during the next financial year.

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

ii) Councillor Stone accepted an alteration to the original motion as published on the agenda. The altered motion was seconded by Councillor Ashraf.

Council agreed to the altered motion which was debated below:

In Northampton we have recognised for some time there is a desperate need for more social housing and have stated our aim to address this. We are an ambitious council and agree that members and officers will continue to work together to develop a proposal to finance and build new social housing locally. The proposal will be submitted to government for their support and approval.”

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

Mr Huffadine-Smith addressed Council on motion iii) and commented that held concerns about the number of HIMOs and the associated problems such as on-street parking, feral cats and refuse issues and commented that there were some landlords who were motivated by greed and the consequence was a loss of family homes. He hoped that the Council would extend the area that Article 4 Directive was proposed to cover.

iii) Councillor Davenport accepted an alteration to the original motion as published on the agenda. The altered motion was seconded by Councillor Culbard.

Council agreed to the altered motion which was debated below:

This Council notes that some parts of the town have increasing numbers of HIMOs.

This Council further notes that in recent times it has introduced tougher restrictions with Article 4 directives in certain areas of town restricting the concentration of HIMOs to 15 per cent in a 50 metre radius.

This Council believes it now needs to review the current policy, using evidence to assess the extent and impact of HIMOs in relation to their impact on existing localities and communities, including reviewing the concentration of Class C4 (Houses In Multiple occupation), and mixed C3/C4 use or sui generis Houses in Multiple Occupation use (more than six people sharing) uses within the 50m radius.

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

iv) Councillor Beardsworth accepted an alteration to the original motion as published on the agenda. The altered motion was seconded by Councillor B Markham.

Council agreed to the altered motion which was debated below

“This Council recognises the burden of special expenses and how they impact on parished areas of Northampton and the residents thereof.

In order to relieve the burden special expenses have on parish taxpayers, this Council is working closely with parishes to encourage them and afford them the opportunity to take on the freehold of premises and open spaces within their areas. This will lead to special expenses not being charged for transferred premises and land.

We are also reviewing the designation of our parks and open spaces in order to ensure that in parish areas special expenses apply appropriately”

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

v) Councillor Beardsworth proposed and Councillor Meredith seconded:

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was lost.

vi) Councillor B Markham accepted an alteration to the original motion as published on the agenda. The altered motion was seconded by Councillor Beardsworth.

Council agreed to the altered motion which was debated below

“This council believes that motions passed by a majority vote are important and that the public would expect them to be acted on.

There should we believe be a report-back process on action taken and where appropriate results.

To ensure that the proper process exists, it needs to be enshrined in the Constitution of this authority and Council resolves to address this as a part of a Constitution review in the very near future”.

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

Mr Huffadine-Smith addressed Council on motion vii) and commented that the Council needed to provide for travellers as the amount of places they could dwell had diminished and urged Councillors to read the DCLG ‘Guidance on Gypsy and Traveller sites’ and commented that this could reduce the cost of preventing travellers from accessing public spaces.

vii) Cllr Hallam proposed and Councillor King seconded:

This Council resolves to:

2) Investigate further legal opportunities to prevent / deter illegal encampments;

3) Continue to work closely with the CTU and the police to increase efficiency and identify ways of speeding up the eviction process whilst continuing to abide by all the legal requirements.

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

viii) Councillor King proposed and Councillor Larratt seconded:

Members debated the motion.

Upon a vote, the motion was carried.

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Agenda item

Notices of Motion

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