NOTICE OF COUNCIL MEETING – 4 DECEMBER
2003
Dear Councillor,
A meeting of the Cambridge City Council
will be held in the Council Chamber of the Guildhall on Thursday 4 December
2003 at 6.15pm and I hereby summon you to attend.
Dated 26 November 2003
Yours
faithfully
Chief
Executive
1 TO APPROVE AS A
CORRECT RECORD THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING
HELD ON 17
JULY 2003 AND OF THE EXTRA-ORDINARY MEETING HELD ON 19
NOVEMBER 2003
2 MAYOR’S
ANNOUNCEMENTS
3 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME - see below for detail of the scheme
4 TO CONSIDER THE
RECOMMENDATION OF THE EXTRA-ORDINARY MEETING OF THE COUNCIL WHICH IS FOR
ADOPTION:
That
the Council formally considers resolving to make the
byelaw as set out in Appendix A of the report to Strategy Scrutiny
Committee of 17 November .
5 TO CONSIDER THE
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE EXECUTIVE WHICH
ARE FOR ADOPTION:
(i) The
Housing Strategy (The Executive Councillor for Housing & Health)
Appendix 1: Reserves
Projection 2003/04 to 2007/08
6 TO CONSIDER THE
RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMMITTEES WHICH ARE FOR ADOPTION:
Civic Affairs – Members Allowances Scheme and Terms of
Reference for Deputy Leader (26 November)
The report of the Independent Remuneration Panel is included in this Agenda.
The recommendations to Council from Civic Affairs Committee will follow as this Committee meets the day of Council Agenda despatch.
7 TO DEAL WITH ORAL QUESTIONS
If members wish
to ask questions they should inform the Chief Executive in writing by noon
on the day before the meeting of the full text of the question to be
asked. A list of questions will be
circulated at the meeting, with the order having been determined by the Mayor
drawing names at random.
8 TO CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING NOTICES OF
MOTION, NOTICE OF WHICH HAS BEEN GIVEN BY:
The Council calls on the Home Office to grant Mr
Boris Lidovski discretionary leave to stay in the UK. Mr Lidovski has been
living in this country since April 1997 and has been employed by Royal Mail
since October 1998. He is now settled in this country and we believe that he
should be allowed to remain on compassionate grounds. The Council instructs
officers to write to Home Office ministers conveying this resolution.
(b) Councillors
Nimmo-Smith and C Rosenstiel
Cambridge City Council
1. notes that as a
direct result of the ‘gearing’ between government grant and council tax, the
national average Band D council tax bill has risen by £455, or 70%, since the
Labour government came into office in 1997.
2. notes with
great concern the major and unfair impact that these successive council tax
increases have on many citizens, and recognises that this is substantially due
to the way the Government has managed its grants to local authorities;
3. regrets that
the present system of local taxation takes no account of ability to pay;
4. recognises that
council tax therefore places a disproportionately high burden on residents with
low incomes, such as many public service workers and pensioners;
Moreover, the Council
5. notes that the
national cost of administering council tax in 2002/03 was £569 million and that
it costs almost 4 times as much to collect £1 in council tax as it costs to collect £1 in income tax;
6. recognises that
the huge increase in the role of direct and ring-fenced grants, combined with
rising costs and additional duties imposed by Government on local councils, has
left many authorities with stark choices of huge cuts in services and massive
increases in council tax, or a combination of the two;
7. regrets that
the present system of local government finance is so confusing and lacking in
transparency that accountability for the tax levied is obscured, with very few
citizens able to penetrate the Government’s portrayal of every settlement as
‘generous’, regardless of the facts.
The Council therefore calls on the Deputy Prime Minister:
a) To establish
future funding settlements which provide sufficient mainstream grant for local
authorities to ensure the provision of high quality, locally accountable public
services;
b) to replace the council
tax system with a fairer one including a local tax based on income, consistent
with the principle of progressive taxation, that the more one earns, the more
one pays.
(c) Councillors
Durrant and Bagnall
In light of
the outcome of the Cambridge sub-region key worker housing research, this
Council resolves to consider promoting a special programme of development to
meet the affordable housing needs of the Addenbrookes Hospital workforce.
9 TO RECEIVE RECORDS OF DECISIONS MADE BY MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE
(green pages)
·
Executive Decisions taken outside the Budget Framework –Folk
Museum Capital Grant; Lion
Yard Car Park Lift urgent expenditure
·
Commercial
& Human Resources
·
Strategy
(Other Records of Decision
to follow.)
10 TO RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF THE FOLLOWING
COMMITTEES WHICH ARE FOR INFORMATION:
NB
- These will be tabled at the meeting in a separate bound document.
THE NEXT
MEETING OF THE COUNCIL IS SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2004 AT 6.00PM.
Information for the public
You can ask questions on an issue
included on the agenda above, or on an issue which is within the Council’s
powers. If you wish to ask a question related to an agenda item contact the
committee officer (listed below under ‘contact’) before the meeting starts.
If you wish to ask a question on a matter not included on this agenda,
please contact the committee officer by 10.00am the working day before the
meeting. Further details concerning the
right to speak at committee can be obtained from the committee section.
Contact: Gary Clift, Head of
Committee Services on 01223 - 457011