CONSERVATIVE Group Amendment

NOTICE OF MOTION

GETTING COUNCIL SERVICES BACK TO WORK

That deletions are made as shown with strikethrough below and additional recommendations are added as shown in bold italics below.

This Council

1.       Notes the high volume of complaints that Councillors receive from residents rightly angry about basic council services failing to deliver – from missed refuse, recycling and garden waste collections; to overgrown weeds; to graffiti and litter on our streets, beaches and in our parks; to mismanagement of parking permits; and the general maintenance, upkeep and cleanliness of our city;

2. Notes that responsibility for the above predominantly results from proposals made by the Official Opposition using existing Council machinery including Committees and meetings of Budget Council such as:

a.    Ending the use of glyphosates with immediate effect, without an alternative plan in place for clearing weeds (Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, November 2019).

b.    Cutting the City’s graffiti budget (Budget Council, February 2021).

c.    Opposing six measures to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour, including tackling graffiti, overflowing bins, and seafront hotspots (Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee, 23 June 2020).

d.    Neglecting an invitation to apply for Safer Streets Funds to improve lighting in the city (Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture, 2019-20).

e.    Altering the system for issuing public parking permits, without a suitable delivery plan in place, causing widespread disruption (Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, 2019).

f.     Failing to reform City Clean, especially in 2019, which left the City vulnerable to strike action (Policy and Resources Committee, 2019).

3        Notes that the Council’s own 2020-21 year-end Corporate KPI results reflect the complaints from residents, and show the Council is performing below-target on the delivery of some essential services, and that some of these failures are systemic and long-running;

4       Recognises the challenges the pandemic has presented, and the hard work council staff have undertaken over the past year, however, also recognises that lockdown is over and we need to urgently put our Council services back to work and start meeting the expectations of our residents;

This Council resolves to ask the Policy & Resources Committee to:

1.      Urgently establish a cross-party Member led Working Group consisting of six Members, two from each political party, and chaired by a Member of the official opposition on the Council. It would have the remit to investigate, review and discuss solutions to the systemic management failures behind the delivery of basic council services, namely waste and refuse collection, parking permits and street cleanliness, and provide recommendations to the Policy & Resources Committee and the Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee on ways to improve these services.

Review the current number of Working Groups following the creation of excessive numbers of these groups under the previous Administration leading to service failure across the Council.

Proposed by: Cllr Brown                                       Seconded by: Cllr Bell

Motion to read if carried:

This Council

1. Notes the high volume of complaints that Councillors receive from residents rightly angry about basic council services failing to deliver – from missed refuse, recycling and garden waste collections; to overgrown weeds; to graffiti and litter on our streets, beaches and in our parks; to mismanagement of parking permits; and the general maintenance, upkeep and cleanliness of our city;

2.       Notes that responsibility for the above predominantly results from proposals made by the Labour Group using existing Council machinery including Committees and meetings of Budget Council such as:

a.    Ending the use of glyphosates with immediate effect, without an alternative plan in place for clearing weeds (Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, November 2019).

b.    Cutting the City’s graffiti budget (Budget Council, February 2021).

c.    Opposing six measures to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour, including tackling graffiti, overflowing bins, and seafront hotspots (Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee, 23 June 2020).

d.    Neglecting an invitation to apply for Safer Streets Funds to improve lighting in the city (Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture, 2019-20).

e.    Altering the system for issuing public parking permits, without a suitable delivery plan in place, causing widespread disruption (Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, 2019).

f.     Failing to reform City Clean, especially in 2019, which left the City vulnerable to strike action (Policy and Resources Committee, 2019).

3        Notes that the Council’s own 2020-21 year-end Corporate KPI results reflect the complaints from residents, and show the Council is performing below-target on the delivery of some essential services, and that some of these failures are systemic and long-running;

4       Recognises the challenges the pandemic has presented, and the hard work council staff have undertaken over the past year, however, also recognises that lockdown is over and we need to urgently put our Council services back to work and start meeting the expectations of our residents;

This Council resolves to ask the Policy & Resources Committee to:

1.      Review the current number of Working Groups following the creation of excessive numbers of these groups under the last Labour Administration leading to service failure across the Council.