Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to complete the green interest forms circulated to groups in their pre-meetings (which will be announced at the Council Meeting) to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

The Monitoring Officer issued a general dispensation to all Councillors who had received financial remuneration from the government (eg; furloughing or business grants etc).

There were no individual declarations of interest.

The Chairman took this opportunity to recognise the physical, economic and mental health impacts on the community from the coronavirus pandemic and offered his thoughts and sympathies on behalf of the Council.

The Chairman congratulated Councillor Manda Rigby on her recent appointment as Mayor of Bath.

If there is any urgent business arising since the formal agenda was published, the Chair will announce this and give reasons why it has been agreed for consideration at this meeting. In making this decision, the Chair will, where practicable, have consulted with the Leaders of the Political Groups. Any documentation on urgent business will be circulated at the meeting, if not made available previously.

There were no items of urgent business.

All Council members are being given the opportunity to comment on this paper which was previously presented to the Corporate Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel and the Cabinet. 

The Council considered this report which had previously been considered by the Corporate Policy Development & Scrutiny Panel and the Cabinet.

During debate, comments were made by Councillors Dine Romero, Richard Samuel, Paul Myers, Winston Duguid, Duncan Hounsell, Andy Wait, Tom Davies, Dr Kumar, Joel Hirst, Alison Born, Colin Blackburn, Chris Watt, Liz Hardman, Tim Ball, Shelley Bromley, Rob Appleyard, Joanna Wright, Sarah Warren, Michael Evans, Paul May, Robin Moss, Matt McCabe, Vic Pritchard, Kevin Guy, Shaun Stephenson Mc-Gall and Grant Johnson.

Many Members praised incredible community efforts and creative initiatives that had been developed in responding to the effects of the virus and offered thanks to a wide number of local groups, as well as staff, 3SG and key workers such as health and teaching staff.

Members noted that the financial support from the Government did not meet the budget deficit and comments were made both in support of and against the Government’s handling of the pandemic and the approach to be taken to address the deficit.

Some Members offered their view that the paper lacked financial detail making proper scrutiny difficult.

Members raised various points for consideration by the Cabinet when bringing forward their financial recovery framework.  Several Cabinet Members acknowledged that they were returning to a ‘new normal’ and flexibility would be needed as the Council moved into the recovery phase of its response.

Before bringing the debate to a close, the Chairman thanked Members for all their comments (which can be viewed in full on the Council’s YouTube channel) and called upon the Cabinet to give these comments due cognisance prior to their consideration of the Covid-19 2020/21 Financial Recovery plan report at their next meeting on 2^nd July 2020.

On a motion from Councillor Dine Romero, seconded by Councillor Richard Samuel, it was

RESOLVED

1.  To note the report on the Council response to COVID – 19 pandemic; and

2.  To agree a formal vote of thanks, on behalf of the Council and all residents of Bath and North East Somerset, to all Council staff, NHS staff, Health and Care workers, key workers, volunteers and all other members of the community who have been involved in the response to Covid-19 either professionally or in a personal capacity.

[Notes;

1.  The above resolution was carried with 48 Councillors voting in favour and 11 Councillors voting against.

2.  During debate, Councillor Blackburn asked for his comments to be noted – see the YouTube channel for full details.]