Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Eddie Lavery, Michael Markham, John Riley and Scott Seaman-Digby.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2017 (attached)

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2017 be agreed as a correct record. 

The Mayor announced that, to date, she had now attended more than 100 engagements including, since the last Council meeting, the funeral of Dunkirk veteran, Gunner Peter Chesney, at Breakspear Crematorium.  The funeral had been attended by more than 100 people, including British Legion bikers and 10 standard bearers. 

The Mayor encouraged those present to attend her next charity quiz night on Wednesday 13 September 2017 where any money raised would be match funded by Barclays.

5.1       QUESTION FROM MS JEANNE SMITH OF STRATFORD ROAD, YEADING TO THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL - COUNCILLOR PUDDIFOOT:

"The Council's formal complaints procedure for handling complaints about services that the Council directly provides, is clear, open and transparent and it is easily understood by members of the public. Democratic Services can supply a hard copy of the procedure and it can be downloaded from the Council's website.The Council's formal complaints procedure follows the standard three stages of resolution adopted by all public bodies:

·      Stage 1 at the lowest level,

·      Stage 2 at Director level when witness statements are admitted,

·      Stage 3 at The Chief Executive level.

"Following that, a complaint can be escalated to the Ombudsman and that is the final stage of the formal complaints process.

"The same set of clear, open and transparent standards, with set times for investigating, does not apply to complaints made to the Council by a resident, a non-resident, or a partner organisation, or any other body, that is deemed not to fall under the category of a 'formal complaint'.

"Democratic Services cannot supply a copy of the due process and procedures followed by officers in investigating non-formal complaints. Neither is the due process and procedure available to download on the Council's website. Will the Council now urgently review the matter, to ensure that this grey area of complaints handling is seen to be fair, open and transparent with set timescales, that follows due process and procedures, and that is available to the public, via Democratic Services and the Council's website?"

Councillor Puddifoot responded that, where complainants were not happy with the action taken by officers to resolve issues raised in an informal complaint, they were given the opportunity to have it dealt with through the formal procedure as detailed by Ms Smith in her question.  The formal complaints procedure detailed the way in which the Council would deal with complaints informally and noted that it stipulated that complainants would be given response timescales.  Councillor Puddifoot could not, therefore, agree with Ms Smith that this informal complaints procedure was not transparent. 

For information, Councillor Puddifoot reported that there had been 478 complaints received by the Council in 2016/2017.  68 of these had been escalated by the complainant to the Local Government Ombudsman and only 5 of these had been upheld.  This equated to around 1% of complaints received. 

i)          URGENT IMPLEMENTATION OF DECISIONS

Councillor Puddifoot moved the recommendations as set out in the report.  This was seconded by Councillor Simmonds and it was:

RESOLVED:  That the Urgency decisions detailed in the report be noted.

ii)         REVIEW OF COUNCIL CONSTITUTION - RESIDENTS' SERVICES SCHEME OF DELEGATIONS AND STATEMENT OF LICENSING POLICY

Councillor Puddifoot moved the recommendations as set out in the report.  This was seconded by Councillor Simmonds and it was:

RESOLVED:  That for all functions under the Licensing Act 2003 and the Gambling Act 2005, the Residents Services Scheme of Delegations, (Administrative, Technical & Business Support section) be amended to include the following wording:

"Where a Ward Councillor makes representations upon an application within their ward, in writing, to the Head of Administrative, Technical and Business Services within the appropriate statutory period of consultation for the application, that application shall be submitted to the Licensing Sub-Committee for determination. The Ward Councillor must include in their representations the reasons why they wish the application to be determined by the Sub-Committee."

In addition the role of the Ward Councillor within the Statement of Licensing Policy be amended accordingly.

To consider the recommendation of Cabinet regarding the adoption of the SPD.

Councillor Burrows moved the recommendation as set out in the report.  This was seconded by Councillor Corthorne and it was:

RESOLVED:  That the 'Accessible Hillingdon' Supplementary Planning Document be adopted with immediate effect for planning policy purposes.

To consider the adoption of an Article 4 Direction

Councillor Burrows moved the recommendation as set out in the report.  This was seconded by Councillor Bianco and, following debate (Councillor Duncan), it was:

RESOLVED: That the results of the consultation be noted and the commencement of the Article 4 Direction from 22 November 2017, be approved.

9.1       Question submitted by councillor FLYNN TO THE Cabinet Member for Education & Children's Services - COUNCILLOR simmonds:

"Will the Cabinet Member please consider the introduction of a playing out scheme in Hillingdon?"

Councillor Simmonds advised that the playing out scheme enabled residents to close a road (or a group of roads) for the purpose of allowing local children to play safely in the street away from the traffic for a fixed and defined period of time on a regular basis.  Residents could apply to the Council to request legal permission and powers to do this in the same way as they might if they wanted to organise, for example, a street party. 

The scheme had been implemented in a number of other local authorities, notably in Bristol and some other London boroughs, and had proven to be both very successful and extremely popular with local residents as it had enabled children to cycle and skateboard safely in streets that were normally the scene of busy traffic.  The scheme had also had a positive impact on building the coherence of communities; bringing together neighbours who might not otherwise meet each other.  This positive impact had prompted a number of residents to ask whether Hillingdon might consider the scheme. 

Councillor Simmonds had initiated discussions with the Deputy Chief Executive in relation to the introduction of a playing out scheme in the Borough.  He offered to update Members as the process of consultation commenced and advised that the scheme would form part of the administration's commitment for the election manifesto in 2018.

There was no supplementary question.

9.3       Question submitted by councillor HIGGINS TO THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL - COUNCILLOR PUDDIFOOT:

"Would the Leader of the Council please provide an update on the situation regarding the future of the Hillingdon Outdoor Activity Centre?"

Councillor Puddifoot was aware that this had been a matter of concern for Councillors Palmer and Higgins as well as the residents of Harefield and the young people of the Borough for some time.  He thanked the Ward Councillors for their hard work on this issue over the past three years. 

The High Speed 2 Act that received Royal Assent in February had confirmed that the route from London to Birmingham would travel directly through the HOAC site on a large viaduct.  Both HOAC and the Council had robustly maintained that HOAC could not coexist with HS2 on its current site.  After long deliberations, this had finally been accepted and an alternative site identified at Denham quarry. 

A planning application had been submitted in June 2016 with the aspiration of having the new facilities in place by October 2018.  HS2 had estimated that the new facility would cost £26½m and had agreed to pay that sum.  Shortly after submission of the planning application, HS2 announced that it had reworked the costings as £56m and the Secretary of State had written to HOAC informing them that the scheme was too expensive and that HOAC would need to continue to operate on its current site.  Councillor Puddifoot had suggested that the Council be given £26½m and it would complete the project but this idea had been rejected. 

However, with the assistance of Boris Johnson MP and Nick Hurd MP, the project was now back on the agenda.  Discussions had recommenced with Council officers who had worked tirelessly through multiple drafts of the proposed agreement.  A final agreement had been signed on 17 August and £26½m funding had been secured.  Councillor Puddifoot had asked Councillor Bianco to proceed with the provision of facilities for HOAC in the Denham quarry or elsewhere.  HS2's dithering had made this an enormous task but HOAC now had a realistic chance of being able to continue.  This would not have been possible without the unwavering support of this Council and local residents.

There was no supplementary question.  Councillor Higgins thanked officers for their hard work on this issue.

9.4       Question submitted by councillor STEAD TO THE Cabinet Member for FINANCE, PROPERTY AND BUSINESS Services - COUNCILLOR BIANCO:

"Can the Cabinet Member for Finance, Property and Business Services please tell me how the Borough has done in this year's Green Flag awards?"

Councillor Bianco advised that Hillingdon had achieved 47 Green Flags this year, 48 including Stockley Park - the highest number in the UK.  These had been evenly distributed across the north and south of the Borough.  This was a testament to the work of officers and volunteers throughout the Borough who had enabled residents to enjoy these green spaces.  Councillor Bianco was proud of this achievement and advised that he and the Mayor would be raising the flag in Brunel Ward in the next month. 

There was no supplementary question.

9.2       Question submitted by councillor PALMER TO THE Cabinet Member for Education & Children's Services - COUNCILLOR simmonds:

"Could the Cabinet Member please provide an update following the Children's Centre review?"

Councillor Simmonds reminded Members that the Council had embarked upon a review of children's centre provision which had led to petitions from the public and a number of commitments being given by the administration.  The Council had sought to demonstrate that it was taking account of what was being said by the interested parties, including Councillors Palmer and Higgins who had made very clear representations about the role of the children's centre in Harefield which had led to it being designated as the lead centre as part of the review process. 

When this issue had last been debated in the Chamber, the Council had been about to commence the process of taking on the direct management of the children's centres.  This had now been completed and staff that had previously worked for a variety of different organisations had now all transferred to the direct line management and employment of the Council.  

As was promised at the time, a BID review of the children's centres had been undertaken to seek to make the service as efficient as possible.  This BID review had identified a number of inconsistencies in service provision to residents across the variety of different children's centres. 

Following the BID review process, changes had been agreed for implementation with a view to ensuring that there was a consistently high-quality and standard of service across all children centres operating in the Borough and ensuring that the Council continued to learn from residents' experience.  For example, the Council was currently in discussions with the NHS to expand the number of clinics that were run for very young children in a number of children's centre premises so that parents with young children, who might be finding it difficult to access baby clinics, weighing, etc, would be more easily able to access that kind of service.  Councillor Simmonds would be pleased to update Members further about progress in due course. 

There was no supplementary question.

10.1    MOTION FROM COUNCILLOR EAST

Councillor East moved, and Councillor Eginton seconded, the following motion:

"That this Council calls upon the Leader to write to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, supporting the National Joint Council Pay claim and seeking additional funding to fund a decent pay rise and the Pay spine review."

Following debate (Councillors Allen, Corthorne and Simmonds), the motion was put to a recorded vote:

Those voting for: Councillors Allen, Birah, Burles, Curling, Dheer, Dhillon, Dhot, Duncan, East, Eginton, Gardner, Garg, Jarjussey, Khatra, Khursheed, Lakhmana, Money, Morse, Nelson, Oswell, Sansarpuri, Singh and Sweeting.

Those voting against: The Mayor (Councillor Melvin), the Deputy Mayor (Councillor Morgan), Councillors Ahmad-Wallana, Barnes, Bianco, Bridges, Burrows, Chamdal, Chapman, G Cooper, J Cooper, Corthorne, Crowe, Dann, Davis, Denys, Duducu, Edwards, Flynn, Fyfe, Gilham, Graham, Haggar, Hensley, Higgins, Jackson, Kauffman, Kelly, Lewis, D Mills, R Mills, O’Brien, Palmer, Puddifoot, Simmonds, Stead, White and Yarrow.

Those abstaining: None.

The motion was lost.

10.2    MOTION FROM COUNCILLOR DHILLON

Councillor Dhillon moved, and Councillor Duncan seconded the following motion:

"That this Council is concerned that building control abuses by private companies appears to be increasing, including within our borough. The Council therefore calls upon the Leader to make these concerns known to the government and request that a more rigorous oversight of these companies be enacted."

Councillor Puddifoot moved, and Councillor Bianco seconded an amendment to:

·         remove the words "by private companies" in the first sentence.

·         remove the words "these companies" in the second sentence and replace with the words "building control".

Following debate (Councillor Dhillon), the amended motion was put to the vote and carried.  Following further debate (Councillor Duncan), the substantive motion was then put to the vote and it was:

RESOLVED:  That this Council is concerned that building control abuses appear to be increasing, including within our borough. The Council therefore calls upon the Leader to make these concerns known to the government and request that a more rigorous oversight of building control be enacted.