Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Bailey, Cowling, Cussons, Frank, Goodrick, Jainu-Deen, Di Keal, Sanderson and Elizabeth Shields.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of Council held on 6 September 2018.

The minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of Council held on 6 September 2018 were presented.

Resolved

That the minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of Council held on 6 September 2018 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillor Clark advised the meeting that his motion on the use of glyphosate, which had been referred to the Policy and Resources Committee, would be coming back to the next meeting of Full Council, and also suggested that the Constitution Working Party should review the process for dealing with motions referred to committee from Full Council and how they come back.

There was one item of urgent business which the Chairman considered should be dealt with as a matter of urgency by virtue of Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended):

·         A motion arising from the report of the IPCC on changes to climate change targets. 

The reason for urgency was that the motion was prompted by an announcement made after the agenda had been published and therefore the motion could not have been included on the agenda, and the issue was of great concern to many Members of Ryedale District Council.

No interests were declared.

The Chairman noted that there were a number of Members who were North Yorkshire County Councillors.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman and/or the Head of Paid Service.

The Chairman made the following announcement:

·         To congratulate Next Steps on being awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Service.

1.         To Councillor Farnell, Chairman of the Planning Committee, from Councillor Wainwright:

“In your role as the Staff Champion at RDC have you seen the Scrutiny Committee draft report into their investigation into alleged bullying at Ryedale District Council?”

2.         To Councillor Clark, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, from Councillor Wainwright:

“Please will you inform members of any progress made since the last Full Council meeting of your Committees investigation into alleged bullying of Staff here at Ryedale District Council?”

1.         Councillor Wainwright submitted the following question:

To Councillor Farnell, Chairman of Planning Committee:

“In your role as the Staff Champion at RDC have you seen the Scrutiny Committee draft report into their investigation into alleged bullying at Ryedale District Council?”

The Chairman of Planning Committee, Councillor Farnell replied:

“The answer to that question is no.”

Councillor Wainwright asked the following supplementary question:

“Councillor Farnell, I believe that you as our Staff Champion and someone who's spoke strongly in favour of an investigation into bullying 18 months ago should have had sight of the report. Then you would have been able to answer any pertinent questions put to you by the staff to reassure them that if bullying has been found steps have been taken to prevent its recurrence. Don’t you agree?”

Councillor Farnell replied:

“In actual fact no I don't agree because that report was asked for by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee not by myself. I am in regular contact with staff, through meetings regularly with the Chief Executive, with the Head of Human Resources and I attend a staff working group also on a regular basis.”

2.         Councillor Wainwright submitted the following question:

To Councillor Clark, Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

“Please will you inform members of any progress made since the last Full Council meeting of your Committees investigation into alleged bullying of Staff here at Ryedale District Council?”

The Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Clark replied:

“May I start off by marking your homework the same as I did last time. You referred to last time, if you look at the minutes, you referred to it as his Committee and I pointed out to you that it is not my Committee. This time you've amended that to your Committee, it is still not my Committee, it is the Committee of this Council. That's the first point of clarification for you. The second correction is that you've just asked the Staff Champion has she seen the draft report into the investigation. Unfortunately there isn't a draft report into the investigation, so it's a little unreasonable to ask her to see a copy of a draft one that doesn't exist but never mind. Coming to your question that you've asked me, the answer is exactly the same as it was on pages 5 and 6 of the minutes that we've just agreed.”

Councillor Wainwright asked the following supplementary question:

“Thank you Councillor Clark for correcting my wrongful description of your Committee. So, my supplementary then is in answer to one of my previous questions you said that I'd twice voted against a Scrutiny investigation into alleged bullying and now you can understand why. I believe that at that time it was an impossible task and that no positive result would be forthcoming and that it would be waste of residents' money and with that I feel I was correct. I'm assuming that we have not had a Scrutiny report on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

Policy and Resources Committee – 27 September 2018

Minute 33 – A Local Fund for Ryedale

Policy and Resources Committee – 27 September 2018

Minute 33 – A Local Fund for Ryedale

It was moved by Councillor Ives and seconded by Councillor Steve Arnold that the following recommendations of the Policy and Resources Committee be approved and adopted.

That Ryedale District Council does not support the establishment of The Local Fund for Ryedale (LFR) in partnership with the Two Ridings Community Foundation (TRCF).

Upon being put to the vote the motion was carried.

Resolved

That Ryedale District Council does not support the establishment of The Local Fund for Ryedale (LFR) in partnership with the Two Ridings Community Foundation (TRCF).

Voting Record

20 For

0 Against

0 Abstentions

Proposed by Councillor Potter and seconded by Councillor Clark

Once every 3 months Policy and Resources and Overview and Scrutiny receive a report ‘Delivering the Council Plan’.  It provides a list of performance indicators – some annual, some quarterly.

The indicators are measured against targets; red for not achieving target; amber for very close to target; green for targets achieved.

Some appear as red or amber on a repeat basis.  Some may be “not available”.

Council, while recognising improvements made over the last year, resolves to improve this monitoring process further by ensuring that on a repeat of “unavailable”, red or amber a report is produced for the appropriate committee.  An explanation to be given as to why the target is close or missed on more than one occasion.  Members to agree / recommend to Full Council appropriate changes so that actions can be implemented.

1.     It was moved by Councillor Potter and seconded by Councillor Clark

“Once every 3 months Policy and Resources and Overview and Scrutiny receive a report ‘Delivering the Council Plan’.  It provides a list of performance indicators – some annual, some quarterly.

The indicators are measured against targets; red for not achieving target; amber for very close to target; green for targets achieved.

Some appear as red or amber on a repeat basis.  Some may be “not available”.

Council, while recognising improvements made over the last year, resolves to improve this monitoring process further by ensuring that on a repeat of “unavailable”, red or amber a report is produced for the appropriate committee.  An explanation to be given as to why the target is close or missed on more than one occasion.  Members to agree / recommend to Full Council appropriate changes so that actions can be implemented.”

Upon being put to the vote, the motion was carried.

Recorded Vote

For

Councillors Joy Andrews, Paul Andrews, Clark, Farnell, Hope, Jowitt, Maud, Potter, Raper, Thornton, Wainwright and Windress.

Against

Councillors Steve Arnold, Val Arnold, Cleary, Duncan, Gardiner and Ives.

Abstentions

Councillors Acomb and Oxley.

Resolved

That the Council further improves its quarterly monitoring process of performance indicators relevant to ‘Delivering the Council Plan’ by ensuring that on a repeat of “unavailable”, red or amber a report is produced for the appropriate committee.  An explanation to be given as to why the target is close or missed on more than one occasion.  Members to agree / recommend to Full Council appropriate changes so that actions can be implemented.

[Councillor Paul Andrews left the meeting.]

There was one item of urgent business:

A procedural motion was moved by the Chairman and seconded by Councillor Clark to suspend Council Procedure Rule 11 to allow the motion to be considered.

Upon being put to the vote, the procedural motion was carried.

Voting Record

13 For

2 Against

1 Abstention

Councillor Clark proposed and Councillor Thornton seconded the following motion:

“The IPCC has changed its target from 2°C to 1.5°C.  This Council wishes to play its part in the delivery of this objective.

Council therefore requests Overview and Scrutiny to carry out an initial scoping exercise as to the RDC position in relation to this change.  If time permits O and S is also requested to look at changes/impacts across Ryedale.

Council requests O and S to produce a report (or interim) by the next meeting of Full Council.”

Upon being put to the vote, the motion was carried.

Recorded Vote

For

Councillors Acomb, Joy Andrews, Steve Arnold, Val Arnold, Clark, Cleary, Farnell, Gardiner, Jowitt, Maud, Oxley, Potter and Thornton.

Against

Councillors Hope, Raper and Wainwright.

Abstentions

Councillors Duncan, Ives and Windress.

Resolved

Council requests Overview and Scrutiny to carry out an initial scoping exercise as to the RDC position in relation to this change.  If time permits O and S is also requested to look at changes/impacts across Ryedale.

Council requests O and S to produce a report (or interim) by the next meeting of Full Council.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8pm.