Meeting of Middlesbrough Council

Meeting of Middlesbrough Council14 January 2009.

MEETING OF MIDDLESBROUGH COUNCIL

At a Meeting of Middlesbrough Council, lawfully convened, and held in the Council Chamber, Middlesbrough on 14 January 2009.

PRESENT:The Mayor, R Mallon, Councillors Biswas, Bloundele, Brunton, Budd, Carr, Carter, Clark, Cole, Coppinger, Cox, Davison, Dunne, Ferrier, C Hobson, J Hobson, Hubbard, Ismail, Jones, Kerr, Khan, Lancaster, Lowes, Majid, McIntyre, McPartland, McTigue, Morby, Mrs Hazel Pearson OBE, Porley, Purvis, Rehman, G Rogers, P Rogers, Rooney, Rostron, Sanderson, Taylor, B Thompson, P Thompson, K Walker, N J Walker, Whatley and Williams.

OFFICERS:M Braithwaite, C Davies, S Harker, R G Long and G Rollings.

** APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were submitted on behalf of Councillors Dryden, Elder,

Mawston and J Walker.

SUSPENSION OF COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULE NO. 10 – ORDER OF BUSINESS

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 10, the Committee agreed to vary the order of business to deal with the items in the following order: Agenda Item 3, Agenda Item 5, Agenda Item 2, Agenda Item 4. Agenda Items 6 to 12 proceeded in accordance with the Agenda previously circulated.

** DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

There were no declarations of interest for this meeting.

POLICY CONFERENCE – CHILD POVERTY

By way of introduction to the first Policy Conference, the Executive Member for Children and Learning gave a power-point presentation on Child Poverty in Middlesbrough. The presentation included national context and government policy, information relating to children living in poverty in Middlesbrough, indicators of poverty, current strategies and future developments.

Subsequent to the presentation, the following issues were highlighted by Members:

Poverty existed mainly as a result of people being out of work or in low paid employment. There were many families in the Middlesbrough area where three generations had never been in employment. For some families this was their way of life and they did not have any aspiration or motivation to improve their situation. Some families were significantly disadvantaged and did not access, or did not have access to, the same lifestyle that other people took for granted.

The current economic downturn was likely to lead to more families falling into poverty and losing their homes. This in turn could lead to children having to change schools, an increased take-up of free school meals and benefits, and escalating mental health issues.

It was acknowledged that the key to changing this embedded culture was education. Schools and Surestart Centres had major roles to play in raising self-esteem and aspirations. An enormous amount of money had been invested in Surestart and a lot of families had benefited. Middlesbrough Council had also invested heavily in Pupil Referral Unitswhere targeted intervention had helped young people who were at risk of becoming unemployed or offending, to continue their education.

The introduction of Working Families Tax Credits had also made a difference to many families. Tax credits enabled people to work, look after their children and participate in the community, whilst maintaining a reasonable standard of living. It was agreed that a review of the Minimum Wage would be welcomed. Increased take-up of tax credits was to be encouraged.

Voluntary sector organisations made a significant contribution to pre-school education and several organisations were represented on the Children and Young People’s Trust. It was acknowledged that it was ultimately the Government’s responsibility to ensure equal access for all. The work of the Middlesbrough Holiday Fund for Children was highlighted. This voluntary group had been in existence for twenty-seven years and had arranged holidays for over three thousand disadvantaged children as well as visits to events including concerts and pantomimes. The group was currently experiencing problems in recruiting volunteers and there was a real possibility that it would be unable to continue. Members were encouraged to support the Holiday Fund.

The Schools Forum was responsible for allocating Government funding to Middlesbrough schools and had the authority to weight allocations in accordance with identified needs. It was suggested that the Schools Forum could be asked explore whether future funding could be targeted to those areas of the Borough that had the highest child poverty.

There was a relatively high level of teenage pregnancies in Middlesbrough and a vast amount of work was taking place to reduce the numbers. Recent figures showed that Middlesbrough had the second highest decline in teenage pregnancies in the north-east. The national average for young people between the ages of 13 and 19 carrying the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia was one in eight, whereas in Middlesbrough this figure was one in four. Again it was acknowledged that education was key to resolving these types of health issues and raising people’s self esteem.

Child poverty was a regional priority and a new role of Child Poverty Co-ordinators had been created to raise the profile of this issue. Members were informed that Alan Milburn, MP for Darlington, had been asked by the Government to look at disadvantaged children and communities. It was suggested that the regional Child Poverty Co-ordinator could be invited to speak to Council at a future meeting and that it would be useful to let Mr Milburn, MP, have an insight into the issues in Middlesbrough.

The Executive Member for Children and Learning thanked Members for their contributions.

** MINUTES

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 November 2008 were taken as read and approved as a correct record.

**ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Chair, on behalf of Members, welcomed Councillor Ferrier to the meeting following his recent absence from the Town Hall due to illness.

Councillor N J Walker announced the Councillor J Walker had been taken ill and was currently in the high dependency unit at James Cook Hospital. Members sent good wishes to Councillor J Walker for a quick and full recovery.

The Mayor referred to the recent announcements that both the Chief Executive and the Executive Director of Regeneration were to leave the Authority. The Mayor paid tribute to the contributions both Officers had made to Middlesbrough.

MAYOR’S STATEMENT AND REPORT

Council received and considered a report of the Mayor which focussed on two main issues: the population decline in Middlesbrough and the local housing market and a debate on public health.

Speaking to the report the Mayor explained that the decline in Middlesbrough’s population continued to impact on the town in many ways. Attention was drawn to the local housing market particularly in relation to the imbalance that existed in Middlesbrough. This was highlighted by the fact that 50% of Middlesbrough’s housing stock fell within Council Tax Band A. Fifteen out of the twenty-three wards were socially deprived.

Since 1971 Middlesbrough’s population had reduced by 23,000. Approximately 8,000 residents re-located between 2001 and 2006 and a large proportion moved to Ingleby Barwick in Stockton, with others moving to Redcar and Hambleton. The population drift had had a huge impact financially on the town with a loss of around £8 million per annum in income from the Revenue Support Grant, as well as loss of income from Council Tax.

One third of the economically active population in Middlesbrough was not working. Almost 11,000 people were on incapacity benefit with approximately 4,500 unemployed. There were 600 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) and around 400 young people in this age group whose present situation was not known.

According to profiling statistics, around 41% of Middlesbrough’s population had never worked or were unemployed. A proportion of these people had valid reasons why they did not work, however, there was also a proportion who did not want to work. Of the people wanting to move into the Tees Valley, 24% looked to buy a detached house. Since only 10% of Middlesbrough’s houses were detached it was difficult to attract new residents. Providing more expensive homes would help address the decline and provide a better housing mix in the town. It was highlighted that more houses in the council tax Bands B and C were needed in the town to enable residents to move up the housing ladder.

Whilst it was acknowledged that there was a need for a higher class of housing within the Borough, attention was drawn to the fact that this should not be used as a reason for demolition of existing housing stock. It was suggested that population drift was also partly due to uncertainty with regards to demolition of existing housing in Middlesbrough, in particular in the Gresham area. A Member suggested that the fact there was no Independent School within the Borough could be a factor in dissuading some families from moving to Middlesbrough.

It was clear that there was an imbalance of housing stock in the Borough that needed to be addressed in order to attract wealth into the town. On a positive note, new four and five bedroom houses were scheduled to be built on the site previously occupied by Middlesbrough College on Marton Road.

NOTED

DEPUTY MAYOR AND EXECUTIVE MEMBER REPORTS

The Chair invited Members to raise items for general discussion arising from the Information Booklet of Executive Member reports (previously circulated) and which detailed activities carried out within the respective Executive Member portfolios (Section 1), Executive decisions taken (Section 2) or to be taken where known, prior to and following the meeting (Section 3 and 4).

Executive Members responded to Members' comments and questions in relation to the following matters:-

(a)Audit Commission’s Corporate Assessment of Middlesbrough

In the Audit Commission’s recent Corporate Assessment of Middlesbrough the Authority was awarded an overall score of 4, which was the highest score available. It was acknowledged that the result was a reflection of the hard work of Members, Officers and Partners in delivering outcomes for the people of Middlesbrough.

(b) Families First

Reference was made to the Families First Team which had recently won the ‘Drug Team of the Year’ award at the ‘National (Home Office) Tackling Drugs, Changing Lives Award’ ceremony in London.

The Executive Member for Children, Families and Learning congratulated all those involved in the work of Families First for achieving this national recognition.

(c) University Residents’ Parking Scheme

The Executive Member for Transport was asked to confirm which areas of the University Ward would be included in the Residents’ Parking Scheme and also to confirm whether there were any contingency plans for dealing with displacement issues and the possible impact on ward residents.

The Executive Member of Transport expressed his appreciation for the residents and their patience regarding the time-scale for the introduction of the scheme. The areas included in the scheme were Parkfield, Park Lane, Southfield Road and Linthorpe Road. With regard to displacement parking it was impossible to predict where people would park in order to avoid paying.

(d)Budget Strategy

Reference was made to the recent change to the rate of VAT that had resulted in savings of £23,000 to the Council. In terms of the amount involved, the Executive Member for Resources was asked whether it was essential or necessary to go out to public consultation to determine how this saving would be utilised.

The Executive Member for Resources explained that although the saving, which was now approximately £25,000, was a relatively small amount, the Government’s intention was that the rate cut would benefit the public directly. Therefore the public would be consulted on whether the savings should be offset against next year’s council tax or invested back in the services to which they related.

(e)The Executive Member for Community Protection was asked how Middlesbrough was setting an example to other authorities of Beacon Status and tackling climate change by removing six hundred trees at Longridge Wood.

The Executive Member for Community Protection explained that Middlesbrough had been granted Beacon Status due to a whole range of initiatives. More than six hundred trees would be planted elsewhere in the Borough to compensate for the loss of trees at Longridge Wood. The Executive Member added that he would be pleased to provide Members of the Council with details of all the work that had taken place to improve the environment over the last 20 years in Middlesbrough.

(f)Following a recent successful prosecution for fly-tipping, the Executive Member for Community Protection was asked to confirm that this work would continue. It was suggested that details of successful prosecutions could be highlighted in the ‘Middlesbrough News’ magazine.

The Executive Member for Community Protection confirmed that the successful prosecution had been due to teamwork and the sanctions imposed on the offender. A new initiative would be launched by Streetscene in the near future with a focus on keeping back alleyways clear from tipping.

(g)A Member commented on the reduction in incidents during Bonfire and Mischief Nights in 2008 and asked whether the preventative actions taken would be repeated in 2009.

The Executive Member for Community Protection acknowledged that a great deal of work had taken place over the last two years. There had been a multi-agency approach including educational work in schools, diversionary activities for young people across town and joint working with the Fire Brigade and garages. As a result there had been 27.6% fewer incidents than in 2007.

(h)Reference was made to the Middlesbrough Mile that would take place in the town centre in March 2009. The Executive Member for Public Health and Sport was congratulated for her active participation in many of the healthy living events organised by Middlesbrough Council.

The Executive Member for Public Health and Sport stated that the aim of the Middlesbrough Mile was to attract 2000 participants and her personal target was to encourage more than a hundred people to take part. The aim of the event was to build on the success of the Sport Relief Mile and raise awareness of the fun and health benefits of running.

(i)Centre Square East

Referring to the consultation taking place on proposals for the Centre Square East site, the Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development was asked how much empty office space was currently available in Middlesbrough.

The Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development responded that it was sometimes difficult to recognise the difference between office accommodation built in the 1960s and 1970s and that built in the last few years. The Executive Member highlighted the Garlands Centre which had cost an enormous amount to convert from a 1970s structure to the standards required today. The Executive Member confirmed that the Developer was unlikely to build office accommodation unless there was a market for it.

(j)Centre Square East

A Member asked whether the Developer’s outline proposal for a hotel and three office blocks with a private multi-storey car park had already been accepted by the Executive and whether the consultation that ended on 22 December 2008 had only been intended to take account of minor changes to the proposals.

The Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development stated that the Executive had approved an outline plan for the development in July 2005. A preferred developer had been approved and the plans had been re-worked in August 2008. However planning approval had not yet been sought and this would be the next stage following the consultation.

Reference was made to the public consultation meetings where concerns had been voiced as to the loss of green space within the town centre.

The Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development again highlighted the fact that this development had been planned for a number of years. The Executive Member stated that the concerns raised would be addressed at the planning stage.

(k)Referring to the launch of the Affordable Warmth Strategy 2008/2016, which had taken place earlier in the day, Members were reminded of the importance of making all Middlesbrough residents aware of it.

The Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development referred to the discussion earlier in the meeting with regard to poverty in all its different forms. There was an unnecessarily high number of winter deaths in this country due to fuel poverty, which the Strategy aimed to address.

(l)Concern was voiced regarding the current economic downturn and what measures the Council could take to help individuals, businesses and organisations to regenerate the economy and create jobs.

The Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development referred to future use of the Working Neighbourhood Fund of approximately £1.5 million to try to protect people from the recession, together with a range of advice services that were on offer. At a regional level Business Link was trying to make their advice and funding more accessible.

NOTED

OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY BOARD - CHAIR'S REPORT

Council received and considered a report submitted by Councillor Brunton, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board, outlining the work of the Board and Scrutiny Panels undertaken since the last meeting.