Agenda and minutes

The Mayor reported that apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Barber, Booth, Brennan, Byrne, Cuthbertson, Dodd, Doran, Dorgan, Dutton, Fairclough, Friel, Glover, Griffiths, Hardy, Hough, Howe, Hubbard, Ibbs, Jones, Larkin, McIvor, Papworth, Parry, Pearson, Porter, Shaw, Sumner and Sir Ron Watson.

Councillor Moncur expressed concern at the high number of apologies submitted by Members of the Council and requested that the procedures for submitting apologies should be properly observed for genuine reasons for absence from meetings and not be used as a means of boycotting attendance at meetings which had been convened in accordance with the procedures set out in the Council Constitution.

Members and Officers are requested to give notice of any personal or prejudicial interest and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the relevant Code of Conduct.

No declarations of interest were made.

Civic Service

The Mayor reported that her Civic Service would take place at The Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Kew, Southport on Sunday 4 July 2010 at 10.15 am.  The Service would be conducted by the Reverend Alex Galbraith and be followed by light refreshments in the Church Hall.

The Mayor indicated that all Members and their families were cordially invited to attend the Service.

In accordance with Rule 4.1 of the Council and Committee Procedure Rules in the Council Constitution, the Council is requested to consider the following Motion submitted by five Members of the Council:

“That in the light of the emergency Budget of 22 June 2010, the Council recognising the potential major implications on the Council’s current and future finances, initiates a major public consultation exercise with the focus on seeking the views of the public in relation to the potential realignment, cessation or maintenance of services.”

The Mayor reported that five Members (Councillors P. Dowd, K. Cluskey, L. Cluskey, Friel and Maher) had submitted the following motion for consideration by the Council in accordance with Rule 4.1 of the Council and Committee Procedure Rules:

“That in the light of the emergency Budget of 22 June 2010, the Council recognising the potential major implications on the Council’s current and future finances, initiates a major public consultation exercise with the focus on seeking the views of the public in relation to the potential realignment, cessation or maintenance of services.”

At this point, Councillor P. Dowd indicated that he wished to put forward a revised motion for consideration by the Council and with the consent of the Mayor, the meeting was adjourned for a period of twenty minutes to enable the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer to consider the content and implications of the revised motion.

Following the adjournment, the revised motion was circulated around the Council Chamber to Members of the Council.

In accordance with Rule 15.7 of the Council and Committee Procedure Rules, the Council gave consent without discussion to the consideration of the revised wording, which was not included in the Notice of Motion submitted to the Chief Executive.

It was then moved by Councillor P. Dowd, seconded by Councillor Maher and

RESOLVED:

1          That in the light of the emergency Budget of 22 June 2010, the Council recognising the potential major implications on the Council’s current and future finances, and in the light of the Con Dem coalition government exhortations to consult widely, this Council deplores the actions of the local Con Dem coalition in disrespecting the people of Sefton by boycotting the Council meeting on 24 June 2010 which was called to set in process a consultation exercise with the public of Sefton on the proposed massive cuts to the Council’s budget by the Con Dem national coalition Government aided and abetted by the local Con Dem coalition.

2          It be noted that the Government:

            (i)         plans to reduce the deficit much further and faster than the previous Labour Government with a consequent threat to recovery and greater damage to public services;

            (ii)        has imposed additional in year cuts to local council programmes costing this Council at least £7m;

            (iii)       has chosen to increase VAT, a regressive tax bearing hardest on the least well off;

            (iv)       has frozen child benefit, disability benefit and housing benefit, abolished free swimming and abandoned the free school meals programme which would have helped 500,000 children nationally and thousands of children in Sefton; and

            (v)        in so doing has penalised people on low and middle incomes while doing little to ensure that the well-off bear their fair share.

3          This Council calls on the Government to rethink its approach and resolves as part of the consultation process announced by the Government over the spending review to engage with the local community to identify priorities for the protection of local services and the local economy.  The Chief Executive is asked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.