Agenda and decisions

To receive any announcements from the Mayor and Chief Executive.

The Mayor advised of a change in the order of the Agenda Summons, and that Agenda Items 10 and 11 would be received in reverse order.

The Chief Executive advised of changes to Cabinet Portfolio responsibilities, as attached.

In regards to Agenda Item 9, Council were reminded of the requirements of the of Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 in regards to voting.

Group Business Managers to submit any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Akhtar, D Firth, Hill, Lawson, O’Neill, Palfreeman, Patrick, J Taylor, Sheard and Smaje.

To agree and authorise the Mayor to sign as a correct record the Minutes of Council held on 13 December 2017.

Approved as a correct record subject to the deletion of Councillor Gemma Wilson from the list of attendees.

The Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items of the Agenda in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of them items or participating in any vote upon the items, or any other interests.

Details to follow.

To receive any Petitions from Members of the Council in accordance

with Council Procedure Rule 9.

No petitions were received.

The Committee will receive any petitions and hear any deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also hand in a petition at the meeting but that petition should relate to something on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 (2), Members of the Public should provide at least 24 hours’ notice of presenting a deputation.

Kath Middleton and Jimmy Paxton gave a deputation and submitted a petition in regards to the Flockton Bypass campaign.

The Committee will hear any questions from the general public.

Council received questions from (i) Caroline Goodwill regarding the Whitcliffe Mount site, Cleckheaton and (ii) Kath Middleton regarding (a) the Flockton Bypass and (b) highways funding.

To receive the Minutes of the Meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority held on 5 October 2017.

Received and noted.

To consider the report.

Contact: Steve Bird, Welfare and Exchequer Services

(i)            That the Council Taxbase 2018/2019 for Kirklees, and the five Parish and Town  Council areas, be approved as follows;

-       Whole of Kirklees £117,770.00

-       Denby Dale £5,732.57

-       Holme Valley £9,960.21

-       Kirkburton £8, 861.25

-       Meltham £2,761.79

-       Mirfield £6,599.19

(ii)          That approval be given for the full Government Council Tax Reduction Scheme Grant to be passed to Town and Parish Councils at the same level as previous years and that it be noted that a review will be undertaken in advance of next year’s budget to ascertain the appropriate level of funding.

(iii)         That authority be delegated to the Service Director (Finance, IT and Transactional Services) to adjust the taxbase to reflect any changes that may be agreed by Members, and to recalculate the taxbase pursuant to Section 3 1B (1) and S67 (1) and (2A) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

To receive written questions to the Leader, Cabinet Members, Chairs of Committees and Nominated Spokespersons in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12/12(1).

The schedule of written questions will be tabled at the meeting.

Council will receive presentation updates on the Council’s arms-length management arrangements for (i) Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing and (ii) Kirklees Active Leisure, prior to the Key Discussion debate.

(Under the provision of Council Procedure Rule 5(5), the Key Discussion shall commence no later than 7.00pm. Council Procedure Rule 18 (23) permits a maximum of 60 minutes for this item).

Presentations were received from Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing and Kirklees Active Leisure, followed by questions and comments.

Arising from the comments and discussion regarding the KNH presentation it was noted that a future key debate would be scheduled to take enable further discussion of housing issues.

To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors N Turner, A Pinnock, Burke, Marchington, Lawson, Eastwood and Wilkinson.

This Council notes that:

1)    Last year, a number of young people (aged 16 or over) left the care of Kirklees local authority and began the difficult transition into adulthood;

2)    The recent Ofsted report on the authority’s Children’s Services identified the experiences and progress of care leavers as requiring improvement and recommended proactive support;

3)    A 2016 report by The Children’s Society found that when care leavers move into independent accommodation, they begin to manage their own budget fully for the first time. The report showed that care leavers can find this extremely challenging and with no family to support them and insufficient financial education, are falling into debt and financial difficulty;

4)    Research from The Centre for Social Justice found that over half (57%) of young people leaving care have difficulty managing their money and avoiding debt when leaving care;

5)    The local authority has a duty of care to care leavers.

This Council believes that:

1)    Care leavers need support to make their transition from care to adult life as smooth as possible and to reduce the chance of falling into debt as they begin to manage their own finances;

2)    Care leavers are a particularly vulnerable group for Council Tax debt.

This Council, therefore, resolves:

1)    To investigate options to exempt care leavers from Council Tax until they are 25;

2)    To report back to Council in time for budget setting for 2018/19.

Item not considered (due to time constraints).

To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors N Turner, A Pinnock, Burke, Marchington, Lawson, Eastwood and Wilkinson.

This Council notes:

1)    In September 2017, the government announced that the 1% public sector pay cap would be lifted, which was confirmed in the Autumn Budget, with ministers given ‘flexibility’ about pay awards;

2)    There was an announcement that police and probation officers would receive a small pay rise last year, although the pay increase will be met through existing departmental budgets;

3)    In England, many public sector workforces are covered by independent Pay Review Bodies. In spring and summer 2018, Secretaries of State will consider the recommendations of Pay Review Bodies and will make final decisions on pay awards;

4)    Pay bodies will take recruitment and retention difficulties into account when recommending pay increases and negotiations around pay rises will be partly linked to productivity improvements;

5)    There has been no government announcement confirming pay rise increases for all public sector workers and there has been no allocation of specific funding to raise pay;

6)    Public sector earnings have fallen by 4% in real terms since 2009-10 according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, while an Office of Budget Responsibility forecast shows that the average annual wage will be £1,000 lower in 2020 than predicted at the 2017 March Budget;

7)    That the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was 3.1% in November 2017.

This Council believes:

1)    That the continuation of the public sector pay restraint is having an unreasonable effect on the living standards of many public sector staff, and is also affecting recruitment and retention across the public sector. Holding down pay has become the default position for making efficiencies, while workforce issues are being neglected;

2)    Rising inflation shows how urgent it is to address the sense of unfairness around pay restraint, with public sector workers effectively receiving real-term pay cuts. The 2017 Autumn Budget has failed to deliver any substantial improvements for public sector workers;

3)    The government’s current approach in relation to public sector pay is unfair and counter-productive, because:

·         it is not sustainable;

·         it is resulting in staff recruitment and retention issues;

·         resources are being used to alleviate the issues resulting from recruitment and retention challenges, which includes millions of pounds being spent by schools and NHS trusts every month to pay for job adverts. Declining staff numbers are driving increased use of agency staff to plug the gaps at a significant cost;

4)    Higher wages among public sector workers would lead to increased spending, additional tax revenues and benefits savings, with a significant portion of funding required to lift the cap returned to the Treasury;

5)    The benefits of increasing public sector pay and the multiplier effect could be huge for the economy.

This Council, therefore, agrees that:

The Chief Executive should write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to request that:

·         The recommendations of Pay Review Bodies and the results of  ...  view the full agenda text for item 13:

Item not considered (due to time constraints).

To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors N Turner, A Pinnock, Burke, Marchington, Lawson, Eastwood and Wilkinson.

This Council notes:

• There is an emerging crisis in dental care in England, with 48% of dental practices not accepting new adult patients and 40% not accepting new child patients on the NHS;
• According to Public Health England, just over £3bn is spent each year on providing NHS dental care, which represents 3% of the total NHS budget in England;
• The issue of lack of access to NHS dentistry is conspicuous across West Yorkshire. In Kirklees, it is estimated that 96% of dental surgeries will not take on new NHS patients;
• The NHS Choices website, which lists dentists and provides details of those accepting new NHS patients. In the Huddersfield/valley area there is only 1 dentist practice accepting new NHS patients, but in many other areas of Kirklees, including Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Mirfield and Denby Dale, no provision is available. Significant numbers of residents are struggling to find NHS dentists for routine NHS treatment;
•  The disparity and unequal access to NHS dentists across Kirklees, with NHS dental spending considerably less in North Kirklees. For instance, in 2015, NHS dental spending in Greenhead ward was an estimated 14 times higher than in Dewsbury West. The charity, Dentaid, provided a mobile dental unit and offered free treatment at several locations in North Kirklees earlier this year;
• In March 2017, NHS Digital revealed that 1 in 3 children in Kirklees have not seen an NHS dentist in the past 12 months, while approximately 29% of 5-year-olds in Kirklees have decayed, filled or missing teeth;
• The work being undertaken by patients’ rights charity, Healthwatch Kirklees and the West Yorkshire Local Dental Network, in undertaking research and working on ways to improve access to local dental services;
• NHS England North has implemented a pilot access project within Kirklees and Bradford, while an Access Strategy Group will consider access to NHS dental services across Yorkshire and Humber, to prioritise areas of highest need of additional services and to maximise current provision.

This Council believes:

• Dental health is essential to the wellbeing of local people. However, a shortfall of NHS dentists is resulting in many Kirklees residents being unable to access treatment, forcing some to use A&E;
• Many people are unable to afford private care. Everyone should be able to access good-quality NHS dental services and should not be forced to travel for care;
• The figures around lack of access to NHS dentists across Kirklees and elsewhere in the country are not inevitable; rather, they are a consequence of ministers trying to keep costs down. The system for funding NHS dentistry is not working;
• There is a lack of information available to patients in Kirklees and elsewhere about the availability of NHS dentists;
• The lack of dentists accepting new NHS patients is symptomatic of a wider failure to provide adequate facilities and infrastructure in Kirklees at the same time as more houses are being built  ...  view the full agenda text for item 14:

Item not considered (due to time constraints).

To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors N Turner, A Pinnock, Burke, Marchington, Lawson, Eastwood and Wilkinson.

This Council notes:

• The high demand from people seeking social housing for rent in Kirklees;
• The continuing decline in the availability of social housing for rent as a result of the Right to Buy;
• The stated, urgent need for more specialist housing for older and disabled people, as described by the Cabinet member for social care.

This Council, therefore, resolves:

To request that Cabinet prioritise the use of council-owned land, already allocated for housing in the Local Plan and UDP, to meet these known needs. This can be done by offering these sites to specialist housing developers in partnership with the Council on a first refusal basis.

Item not considered (due to time constraints).