Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest

The Chair read out the statement made by the Leader on 23 May 2013 relating to the tragic death of Drummer Lee Rigby:

"Our first thoughts must be with the victim of this despicable attack.  We also send our condolences to his family, friends and to his regiment, all of whom must feel utterly devastated.

"This was a vile and abhorrent attack on our democratic way of life.  To murder a soldier in support of a perverted political cause in this way strikes at the very heart of so much that is good about our great nation.  It must and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.  Our service people reflect all that is best about our country – they serve to protect us and deserve our thanks and tribute.  We think about all of those in our armed forces who must feel so much sorrow today.  We will stand by them always.

"Our community is enriched by the different cultures that create it.  Terrorist attacks such as this will never succeed.  We will never yield in our determination to cherish and defend how we live together."

The Chair then read out the statement made by the Leader today relating to the death of Lance Corporal Craig Roberts of the 3^rd Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment on the training exercise that had taken place in the Brecon Beacons on Saturday, 13 July:

"On behalf of the Council and all of its residents, I would like to pass on our condolences.  I also ask that you join me in holding Lance Corporal Roberts, his family, his friends and his comrades in our thoughts and prayers at this sad time."

All stood for a minute's silence as a mark of respect.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2013 were confirmed as correct.

The Assembly received and noted this report introduced by Councillor Gill, Deputy Leader, relating to the award of the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2013 to Steve Thompson, the MD of Dagenham and Redbridge Football Club in recognition of his services to the community.

Councillor Gill commended Steve's support for the young people of the borough and stated that he was a good friend to this Council.

On a personal note, Councillor Gill said that Steve had been a fantastic supporter of his (Councillor Gill's) late father's charity, Help for Heroes.

In recording their congratulations to Steve on this well deserved award, Members recalled not only his tireless work at Dagenham and Redbridge Football Club over many years, but also as a Governor of Barking College between 2002 and 2011 and his involvement in so many aspects of community life.

The Assembly received a verbal report from Councillor Gill, Deputy Leader, relating to the outcome of a JNC Appointments Panel meeting held earlier today, and as a consequence, the Assembly:

1.   agreed the proposed amendment to the secondment agreement for Graham Farrant into the role of Chief Executive at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, on the basis that rather than extending the agreement for a further twelve month period, there be no formal end date, but instead the agreement be subject to termination upon either the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham or Thurrock Council giving three months' written notice. This decision was made by the Panel on the basis that the current secondment agreement was meeting the needs of both organisations and delivering savings in senior management costs;

2.    noted the creation of the post of Chief Finance Officer that Jonathan Bunt had been assimilated into, which replaced the posts of Corporate Director of Finance and Resources and Divisional Director of Finance, and in so doing agreed to the appointment of Jonathan Bunt in that post, as the authority's Section 151 Officer.

Assembly further agreed the appointment of Councillor Phil Waker as the Village Ward representative on the Dagenham Housing Forum, following the resignation of Councillor Mullane from that post.

Assembly received this report introduced by Fiona Taylor, Head of Legal and Democratic Services relating to the appointment of Faith Representative (Church of England and Roman Catholic) Co-opted members of the Children’s Services Select Committee (CSSC).

Assembly agreed:

1.  the appointment of Ms Ingrid Robinson as Faith Representative (Church of England) Co-opted Member of the CSCC; and

2.  the re-appointment of Mrs Glenda Spencer as Faith Representative (Roman Catholic) Co-opted Member of the CSSC,

both appointments for a term of four years.

Assembly received this report introduced by Graham Farrant, the Chief Executive, pursuant to the motion passed by Assembly on 15 May 2013 relating to support for the GMB campaign against blacklisting of construction workers.

Assembly noted that:

·  the Council’s standard contract terms and conditions provide that contractors shall comply with all obligations under all relevant legislation and all Council policies and rules currently in force, which included the requirement not to discriminate in employment and the requirements of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010;

·  the Council’s standard Invitation to Tender prohibited unlawful discrimination in employment and required contractor compliance with all relevant legislation relating to its employees;

·  Legal Services and Corporate Procurement were looking to further strengthen current provisions in the Contract Rules and the tender and contractual documentation, including the introduction of an express requirement for contractors to note and acknowledge the requirements of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 and the Council’s policies;

·  all service contracts (which are smaller contracts) would be amended forthwith and implemented from the 1 August 2013;

·  a review of the Council’s Invitation to Tender documentation was due to conclude on the 19 July, and once agreed by procurement board, implementation of changes would be carried out from 1 September 2013.

Assembly received this report introduced by Fiona Taylor, Monitoring Officer and Head of Legal Services relating to the Codes of Conduct for Members.

Assembly noted the report and agreed to adopt with immediate effect the re-drafted:

(i)  Code of Conduct for Councillors (Appendix A to the report)

(ii)  Code of Conduct for Planning Matters (Appendix B to the report); and

(iii)  Code of Conduct for Licensing and Regulatory Matters (Appendix C to the report)

and to update the Council Constitution accordingly.

Assembly received this report introduced by Jonathan Bunt, the Chief Finance Officer, in accordance with the Revised CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management in the Public Services.  The report included details of the outturn position for treasury activities and highlighted compliance with the Council’s policies previously approved by the Assembly.

The Assembly:

(i)  noted the Treasury Management Annual Report for 2012/13;

(ii)  noted that the Council complied with all 2012/13 treasury management indicators;

(iii)  noted that the Council did not borrow to finance its capital programme in 2012/13 but utilised internal cash in line with its strategy;

(iv)  noted the change required in the 2013/14 Treasury Management Strategy Statement to the wording for the counterparty limit for Lloyds TSB, as outlined in section 6.3 of the report; and

(v)  approved the actual Prudential and Treasury Indicators for 2012/13 as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

None received.

None.

Question from Councillor Ahammad:

"This question for the Leader is to get more information about a good news story for Barking and Dagenham. 

What was the impact of the Community Games on 5 and 6 July 2013? 

I understand that the Council obtained external funding for the event.  What was the cost of the Community Games and which organisations helped fund the event? 

How many schools and youth groups were involved, and how many children and young people took part? 

 Is this a one-off activity or will it be an annual event, please?"

Response from Councillor Gill, the Deputy Leader of the Council, in the absence of Councillor Smith:

“Thank you for asking this question about the Community Games, which is a key element of the Council’s aim to get children and young people involved in sport.  In particular the Games have been developed as a way of encouraging children and young people who aren’t members of local clubs or in school teams to have a go at sport.  Councillor Worby will no doubt also remind us about obesity rates in the borough.

In terms of the question, the cost of presenting the Community Games was about £12,000 once sponsorship and external funding of £20,000 was taken into account.

Twenty five local schools participated with a total of 932 children and young people taking part, including 188 disabled children and young people and 11 local sports clubs helped to deliver the Community Games programme.

Two other important benefits from the Community Games are that by involving local clubs in the delivery of the Community Games and providing them with some funding to do this, this Council is helping them to grow and develop.

There were over 100 young leaders supporting the delivery of the Games from six of the borough’s secondary schools and they will be our sports coaches of the future.

What makes the Games different to events like the London Youth Games is that all of the sports represented at the Community Games will have follow on sessions running through the Council’s "Summer's Sorted" holiday activity programme over the school holidays, which is free for young people from the borough. 

In this way anyone participating in the Games who enjoyed having a go at a specific sport will have the opportunity to keep trying it over the summer holidays.  After the summer we will then help them to join a local sports club so they can continue to participate if they wish to.

We have a wonderful athletics arena, which is a great example of our Olympic legacy.  The Select Committee at the House of Commons wanted to know about that legacy and how we as a borough are tackling health issues.  We think that this carefully considered approach will have a long term impact on the health and well being of our children and young people. This is essentially what an Olympic Legacy should be about.

We are planning to run the Community Games as an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

GQ1 fromCouncillor Mullane:

"I understand that the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) have decided to close the Walk-in Centre at Broad Street. My experience, and that of a lot of local residents, is that it is very hard to get an appointment quickly to see a GP even during their normal consulting hours let alone in the evening or weekends. Surely it cannot be in everyone’s best interests for more people to feel they have no alternative for urgent help to go to A&E at Queen’s Hospital.  Given the report to their Governing Body accepted that for this to work then local people would need to have better access to their GPs, are you confident the proposals you have seen are strong enough to make the new system work when the Walk-in Centre at Broad Street closes next March?"

Response from Councillor Worby, Cabinet Member for Health:

“Thank you for asking this question.  I am not going to take the easy option by saying “no”.  As you quite rightly pointed out, we have got an A&E service that is failing in our local hospital. 

The CCG says it has concerns about a hospital that has 150,000 visits when it was built for 90,000, but say that it will not be a problem, as no one will go to A&E because our GPs are going to provide 25,000 new appointments a year.  It is no good providing 25,000 appointments that fall within normal surgery times.  That is not what emergency is all about.  Our residents need appointments at times that work for them.  Are the GPs going to open at weekends?  I doubt it.  Will all the practices have these appointments available?  It's not clear.

This is not the only issue. The minute Broad Street is not open, people will go to Upney and there is already a four hour wait at Upney.

So, no, I have no confidence.  We have made it clear at the Health & Wellbeing Board and the Health & Adult Services Select Committee that we do not see how this is going to work.  The CCG are planning to introduce a pilot on improvements to primary care in August this year and shutting Broad Street in March 2014.

We will be doing our best to make sure that we make them change their minds.

GQ2 from Councillor Carpenter:

"Can the Cabinet Member let us know about the steps being taken to ensure that mid- Staffordshire will not happen in our local hospitals?"

Response from Councillor Worby, Cabinet Member for Health:

"Thank you for asking this question.

To be perfectly honest, we have not got a Mid-Staffordshire here.  They had a whole system failure – quality of care, attention to the patients.  An NHS system that was basically getting numbers through the door rather than asking what the patients were there for in the first place.  And this year we are celebrating 65 years of the NHS.

The Francis report published earlier this year, has acknowledged  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.