Agenda and minutes

Councillor Roger Plumb declared a personal interest in view of his appointment as the City Council representative to the Preston & Western Lancashire Racial Equality Council as this organisation was referred to in the report.

The Cabinet decision on Community Cohesion (Minute 12) taken by Cabinet on 3^rd June 2008 has been requested to be called in by Councillors Bray, Langhorn, Brown and Towers (Overview and Scrutiny) and Councillor Rogerson.  This request was subsequently agreed by the Chief Executive.  The decision has been called-in in accordance with Part 4, Section 5, Sub-section 16 of the Council’s constitution.

Councillor Roger Mace (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member with responsibility for ensuring the development and implementation of a Community Cohesion Strategy) and Councillor John Gilbert (Cabinet Member with responsibility for ensuring an improvement in the score against the Equality Standard for Local Government) have been invited to attend to outline the basis on which the decision was made.  Mark Cullinan (Chief Executive) will attend the meeting as the author of the report to Cabinet.

q       Call-in Procedure

q       Call-in Notice

q       Reports to Cabinet

q       Cabinet Minute Extract

Members were advised that the Cabinet decision in relation to Community Cohesion, Minute 12, had been Called-in by the following five Members:

Councillors Susan Bray, Stuart Langhorn, Kenneth Brown, Jude Towers and Sylvia Rogerson.

Members were informed that the Call-in had been made on the basis that the decision of Cabinet had not been made in accordance with all the principles set out in Article 13 (Decision Making) of the Constitution, in particular:

(b)        Due consultation and the taking of professional advice from Officers

(e)        Aims and desired outcomes will be clearly expressed

(f)         Options that were considered and the reasons for arriving at the decision will be explained.

The Chairman outlined the procedure to be followed and summarised the reasons for the Call-in.

The Chairman invited Councillors Mace and Gilbert to explain the reasons for the decision of Cabinet.

Councillor Mace explained to the Committee that as he had voted against the decision it would be difficult for him to defend the decision.  Councillor Gilbert informed the Committee that in view of improving the Equality Standard level being a recent addition to his portfolio it would be more appropriate for the author of the report to provide the clarification required.

The Chairman invited signatories to the Call-in to ask questions and the Chief Executive, as author of the report, responded.

The Chairman invited Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to ask questions and the Chief Executive responded.

The meeting adjourned at 7.05pm to enable members of the public to make statements to the Members. Councillor Greenall left the meeting.

 The meeting reconvened at 7.18pm.

On behalf of the Call-in signatories it was proposed by Councillor Langhorn and seconded by Councillor Bray:

(1)        “That Cabinet do not appoint a Community Cohesion officer at the present time.

(2)        That Cabinet consider alternative ways of achieving the aims of the Corporate Plan on cohesive communities.  Overview and Scrutiny draws the attention of Cabinet to priority outcome 16 and highlights that:

q       The Community Cohesion Strategy could be achieved through working with the LSP and voluntary sector.  A future programme of spending on Community Cohesion should be based upon this strategy.

q       Area Based Grant money could be used to implement the Children and Young People Strategic Plan.

q       Area Based Grant money could be used to achieve the aim of a civic programme that celebrates our heritage and benefits our communities.

(3)        That Cabinet reconsiders the issue of achieving Level 2 of the Equality Standard as an issue separate from the spending of the Community Cohesion Area Based Grant monies.”

It was moved by Councillor Plumb by way of amendment, which was accepted as a friendly amendment by the mover and seconder of the original proposition, that reference to ”working with the universities” be included in recommendation (2).

Upon being put to the vote, 5 Members voted in favour of the proposition and 2 Members against, whereupon the Chairman declared the proposal to be carried.

Resolved:

(1)        That Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.