Agenda item - Notices of Motion.

(a)      Automatic Rate Relief for Small Businesses

 

(b)            Fuel Poverty and Excess Winter Deaths

 

(c)            Reopen the Wealden Line

 

(d)            Millicent Fawcett and the Fawcett Charter

 

(e)            Keep Royal Mail Public

 

(f)              Accept £9m for Local Schools

 

(g)            South Downs National Park

 

(h)            Housing and Homelessness Services for Young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans People in Brighton and Hove

 

(a)            Automatic Rate Relief for Small Businesses

 

71.1       The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor Fallon-Khan and seconded by Councillor Kemble.

 

71.2       Councillor Hamilton moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Morgan which was put to the vote by the Mayor and lost.

 

71.3       The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion to the vote:

“This Council notes that:

1.     Business rates are the third largest cost to small firms, after salaries and rent. Yet, many small businesses are unaware of, or do not apply for, the rate relief to which they are entitled.

 

2.     In England more than half of small businesses miss out on claiming back up to £1,200 off their business rates.

 

3.     Every year, around £400 million – calculated and ear-marked by the Treasury for eligible businesses – goes unclaimed, even though this money poses no extra cost to the Government or tax payer.

 

4.     Automatic rate relief is currently available to small firms in Wales but not in England.

 

In January 2009, it was estimated that there were over a 1,000 small businesses in Brighton & Hove that could be eligible for rate relief but were not claiming. This meant that local small firms could be losing up to one million pounds in revenue to the Government.

 

This Council welcomes the current Administration’s recognition of the low uptake of rate relief by local small firms and the action it has taken to promote awareness and increase uptake.

 

However, this Council considers that all qualifying small businesses should be entitled to automatic rate relief. This would provide them with much needed additional financial resources during the recession. Furthermore, it would save both small firms and local billing authorities time and money applying and operating the current complex application system.

 

Therefore this Council:

1.     Supports the automatic rate relief campaign started by the Federation of Small Businesses.

2.     Welcomes the ‘Small Business Rate Relief (Automatic Payment) Bill’ tabled by Peter Luff MP and hope to see it made law.

This Council instructs the Chief Executive to:

1.     Write to Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform requesting that he introduce automatic rate relief for small businesses.

2.     Write to Brighton & Hove’s three MPs calling upon them to sign the current Early Day Motion supporting the Automatic Rate Relief campaign.

3.     Make a letter of support for the Automatic Rate Relief campaign available to download on the Council’s website.

71.4       The motion was carried.

 

(b)            Fuel Poverty and Excess Winter Deaths

 

71.5       The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor Elgood and seconded by Councillor Watkins.

 

71.6       Councillor Caulfield moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Ken Norman which was accepted by Councillor Elgood.

 

71.7       The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion as amended to the vote:

 

“This Council notes with regret that according to figures from the Office of National Statistics there were 110 excess winter deaths in the three Brighton and Hove Parliamentary constituency in 2006/7. Most of these deaths are caused by cold homes, or fuel poverty as it is known. Thousands more people suffer from living in poorly insulated homes that leak heat.

 

This Council welcomes the extensive local grants programme offered by Brighton & Hove City Council to help tackle fuel poverty, which is worth more than £1 million per annum. This includes:

 

·       the Warm Homes Initiative, which offers free insulation for residents receiving benefits and for those aged 70 and over

 

·       the new Family Insulation Grant, which will provide funding for up to 3,500 families in the city to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

 

This Council also notes that David Heath MP (Liberal Democrat), supported by John Gummer MP (Conservative) and Alan Simpson MP (Labour), has tabled the Fuel Poverty Bill, which seeks to develop a strategy to tackle this problem.

 

The Bill is being promoted by the Fuel Poverty Coalition, a wide range of organisations concerned with the elderly, poverty and the environment – including ACE, Friends of the Earth, Help the Aged, Age Concern and others.

The Bill will reinstate the duty to end fuel poverty. It requires the homes of the fuel poor to be brought up to the minimum energy efficiency standards enjoyed by new homes. It also requires energy suppliers to offer social (i.e. reduced rate) tariffs to vulnerable householders in the short term. The Bill will help to lower energy bills and save carbon emissions.

 

This Council calls on the city's three MPs to do all they can to assist in the passage of this important legislation by supporting it through all the relevant parliamentary stages of the Bill. During this process, they should make it clear that the financial burden of any additional energy efficiency work should not fall on local authorities. Furthermore it requests that the Acting Chief Executive writes to the three MPs who have tabled the Bill to inform them of the strength of feeling of the Council.”

 

71.8       The motion was carried.

 

(c)            Re-open the Wealden Line

 

71.9       The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor Davey and seconded by Councillor Randall.

 

71.10    Councillor Theobald moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Smith which was put to the vote by the Mayor and lost.

 

71.11    The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion to the vote:

 

“This council notes

 

1.     The frequent severe disruption to train travel caused by engineering works on the line between London and Brighton particularly at weekends.

 

2.     The inconvenience that this presents to travellers and the extra pressure it puts on the areas already congested roads.

 

3.     The adverse effect that this disruption has on the city’s economy by discouraging visitors from coming here at those times and potentially on other occasions as well.

 

4.     The general congestion on the London to Brighton line which acts as a serious bottleneck limiting the number of trains able to serve both Brighton and Hove particularly at peak times, leading to overcrowding.

 

In order to help address these problems this council would like the government to urgently begin work to reopen the Wealden railway line between Lewes and Uckfield.

 

In response to a recent No. 10 petition calling for the reopening of this line the government quoted Network Rails 2008 report that showed:

“that there are no physical obstructions which would preclude the rebuilding of the railway between Lewes and Uckfield” and “The total capital cost for these works was estimated at £141.0 million including a 30% contingency allowance.”

The government is currently offering to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to improve transport infrastructure in regions outside of London. This council believes that the priorities for the South East of England should be on public transport infrastructure including rail rather than on building more roads. Previous experience shows that building roads leads to more traffic and more congestion. This in turn raises levels of air pollution and increases carbon emissions. We need to be investing in rail for the future not repeating the mistakes of the past. At £141m this project represents excellent value for money compared to the costs of building more roads.

This council believes that reopening this rail link will.

1.     Provide a general boost to the Sussex economy in particular that in Brighton & Hove

2.     Relieve pressure on the London to Brighton bottleneck so providing opportunities to improve the train service into the city

3.     Provide an invaluable alternative route into the city when engineering works are being carried out on the mainline.

4.     Represent a significant shift away from increasing car dependency towards a future grounded in sustainable transport and a low carbon economy.

For these reasons this council calls on the government and particularly Lord Adonis the Minister of State responsible for the railways to begin work as soon as possible to re-open this vital missing link on the regions railway network.

The council therefore asks the Acting Chief Executive and the City’s Three MP’s to write to Lord Adonis in support of this proposal.”

71.12    The motion was lost.

 

(d)            Millicent Fawcett and the Fawcett Charter

 

71.13    The Mayor noted that the notice of motion as detailed in the agenda had been printed incorrectly and the paragraph beginning ‘As one of …’ should include the reference to ‘ask the Cabinet to consider to:’ which was correctly shown in the proposed amendment detailed in the addendum papers.

 

71.14    The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda with the correction outlined by the Mayor was proposed by Councillor Kennedy and seconded by Councillor Wakefield-Jarrett.

 

71.15    Councillor Mears moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Simson which was put to the vote by the Mayor and lost.

 

71.16    The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion to the vote:

 

“This Council notes that:

 

1.     The Fawcett Society is the UK’s leading organisation promoting equality for women.  It campaigns for women’s representation in politics and public life; equal pay and pensions, and the fair treatment of women in the workplace.

 

2.     Having begun as the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in 1866, the Fawcett Society takes its name from Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who made it her life’s work to lead the peaceful campaign for women’s votes.

 

3.     Millicent Fawcett was married to Henry Fawcett, MP for Brighton from 1865 to 1874, and in 1897 she spoke to the NUWSS Conference in Brighton Town Hall.

 

4.     Today the Fawcett Society continues to campaign for equality for women in all areas of life, and is currently calling for employers to sign up to the Fawcett Charter, which represents a coalition of firms and organisations committed to challenging the objectification of women at work.  Signatories include BT, Barclays Wealth, Matrix Chambers, and Oxfam GB.

 

As one of Brighton & Hove’s largest employers, with a stated commitment to equalities for all in the workplace, this Council therefore resolves to ask the Cabinet to consider:

 

1.     Signing up to the Fawcett Charter, demonstrating:

 

·       Support for Fawcett’s aim of challenging the objectification of women;

·       A commitment to audit employee expenses to ensure local authority money is not being spent in lap dancing clubs;

·       A commitment to review internal policies and procedures to ensure they adequately address potential occurrences of objectification.

 

2.     Request that the Commemorative Plaques Panel considers erecting a blue plaque outside Brighton Town Hall to honour the memory of Millicent Fawcett.

 

71.17    The motion was carried.

 

(e)            Keep Royal Mail Public

 

71.18    The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor Mitchell and seconded by Councillor Lepper.

 

71.19    Councillor Oxley moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Fallon-Khan which was accepted by Councillor Mitchell.

 

71.20    Councillor Fryer moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Taylor which was accepted by Councillor Mitchell.

 

71.21    The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion as amended to the vote:

 

“This Council notes the Early Day Motion 428, as supported by the Brighton MPs, which backs a;

“supported vision of a wholly publicly-owned, integrated Royal Mail Group; welcomes the conclusion of the Hooper Report that the current universal service obligation offered by Royal Mail, including six days a week delivery, must be protected and that the primary duty of a new regulator should be to maintain it; further welcomes the recommendations in the Report that the Government should take responsibility for the pensions deficit which followed an extended contributions holiday; endorses the call for a new relationship between management and postal unions and welcomes the commitment of the Communication Workers Union to negotiate an agreement which would support the modernisation of the industry; observes that in 2007 the Government agreed to a £1.2 billion loan facility on commercial terms to modernise Royal Mail operations; rejects the recommendation of the Hooper Report to sell a minority stake in Royal Mail which would risk fracturing one of Britain's greatest public services; further notes that the Government is currently advertising for a new Chair of Royal Mail; and urges the Secretary of State to appoint a Chair and management team who are committed to the principles of a modern public enterprise.”

Further, this council notes that the Postal Services Bill as introduced by Business Secretary Peter Mandelson

 

-    represents the part privatisation of the postal services

-    has been condemned by union leaders representing the Communication Workers Union, Unite, Unison and the GMB

-    and that these same union leaders maintain that the Government's plans break a Labour Party pledge to keep the Royal Mail "wholly" publicly owned. ”

This Council notes the cross party support that the EDM has received but acknowledges that it is contrary to Labour Government policy and the content of the Postal Services Bill. It further notes that taking no action to bring additional investment to Royal Mail would have repercussions for all of the City’s residents and importantly, including its postal workers.

Asks that this Council seeks to assure postal workers in the City of its support for (i) maintaining the universal service obligation; (ii) ensuring Royal Mail is properly capitalised; (iii) maintaining deliveries six days per week; (iv) adequate funding of Royal Mail pensions.

 

Therefore, this Council requests that the Acting Chief Executive write to the Business Secretary and the Shadow Business Secretarystating the authority’s position.

 

71.22    The motion was carried.

 

(f)             Accept £9 Million for Local Schools

 

71.23    The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor Hawkes and seconded by Councillor Mitchell.

 

71.24    Councillor Mrs. Brown moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Alford which was put to the vote by the Mayor and carried.

 

71.25    The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion as amended to the vote:

 

“This Council supports action to ensure that children will benefit from the £9 million of government funding for local investment in education for 2010/11for better equipment and new building repairs and improvements.

 

This Council recognises and supports the boost to the local economy that this kind of work will bring to the City, increasing construction jobs and the amount of work available.

 

This Council notes that the agreed schools capital programme for Brighton & Hove has been based on drawing down the money over three years in line with the original Government proposals. The Council intends to deliver the projects as outlined in the capital programme as this is in the best interests of the children of Brighton & Hove and will allow the CYPT to spend the money most effectively.

 

Contrary to recent reports, this Council further notes that the £9 million will still be available to the CYPT in 2010/11, as the Government originally planned.

 

This Council asks the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People to continue with the current programme of investment in school building and refurbishment programmes which will boost jobs in the City and enhance the educational opportunities of all the city’s children.”

 

71.26    The motion was carried.

 

(g)            South Downs National Park

 

71.27    The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor West and seconded by Councillor Rufus.

 

71.28    Councillor Theobald moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Caulfield which was put to the vote by the Mayor and lost.

 

71.29    The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion to the vote:

 

“This council, a long-standing supporter of the South Downs National Park, recognises:

 

·       The vital importance of the South Downs to our tourist economy 

·       The recreational benefits it offers to local people and visitors

·       The additional economic benefits National Park status will bring to Brighton and Hove

·       The physical and mental health benefits that access to a high quality landscape will bring to the City.

·       The protection National Park status will offer to the fragile and pressured national environment of the South Downs.

·       That Brighton and Hove is a natural major gateway to the proposed park.

 

It notes:

 

·       The Government plans to announce its decision on the South Downs National Park in the ‘early summer’

·       The efforts of the South Downs Campaign to persuade Ministers to include the chalk hills, The Western Weald, Ditchling and Lewes in the confirmed National Park.

·       The need for Brighton and Hove City Council to look beyond designation and plan for the benefits of the National Park on the city.

 

It therefore resolves to:

 

·       Commend the South Downs Campaign for its tireless work,

 

·       Ask the Cabinet to consider establishing a working group to develop a comprehensive strategy to reap the benefits for the city of a South Downs National Park.

 

·       Ask the city’s Chief Executive to write to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, urging him to include the chalk hills, the Western Weald, Ditchling and Lewes in the confirmed national park.

 

·       Call on the city’s three MPs to write to Mr Benn urging him to include the chalk hills, the Western Weald, Ditchling and Lewes in the confirmed national park.”

 

71.30    The motion was carried.

 

(h)            Housing and Homelessness Services for Young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans People in Brighton and Hove

 

71.31    The Notice of Motion as detailed in the agenda was proposed by Councillor Randall and seconded by Councillor Kennedy.

 

71.32    Councillor Caulfield moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Mears which was put to the vote by the Mayor and lost.

 

71.33    The Mayor then put the following Notice of Motion to the vote:

“This council:

1.     Acknowledges the work of the city’s housing services in helping young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) homeless people in Brighton and Hove.

 

2.     Notes the findings of the report, Count me in too (LGBT lives in Brighton and Hove), which was published in 2008 by the University of Brighton and Spectrum.

 

3.     In particular, it notes the section on homelessness, which reveals that 18 per cent of LGBT young people who have moved to Brighton and Hove in the past five years have been homeless in the city and that many of them have experienced abuse, harassment or violence at the hands of a family member or someone close to them.

 

4.     Also notes that 57 per cent of those who have experienced homelessness in the city told University of Brighton/ Spectrum researchers they would like to see the introduction of specialist LGBT services for homeless people.

 

5.     Notes the successes of the Albert Kennedy Trust, which works in Manchester and London with young people aged 16 to 25 from the LGBT community who are homeless or living in a hostile environment. It provides a programme of training, policy advice, and practical support, which includes supported lodgings schemes, mentoring and befriending services. It has also launched a Quality Assurance Mark, offering a model of best practice to mainstream housing and homelessness organisations.

 

The council therefore resolves to request the Cabinet member for Housing to consider the possibilities of:

 

1.     Joint working with the Albert Kennedy Trust,

 

2.     Ways in which ways the Trust’s services could be used to help young LGBT homeless people in Brighton and Hove.”

 

71.34    The motion was carried.