Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

(a)  To agree the minutes of the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities meeting held on 10^th February 2022

(b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 10 February, 2022 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Cabinet and Deputy Cabinet Member for City Services have been invited to attend for consideration of this item.  

The Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities considered a report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services which outlined progress being made in the development of the City Councils Urban Forestry Strategy (the Strategy). A copy of a draft Strategy was attached as an Appendix to the report.

The draft Strategy outlines the current condition and state of the urban forestry. The drafting of the Strategy included two workshops with Elected Members and the Coventry Tree Warden Network, to allow for ideas and aspirations to be included. Subsequently two phases of consultation have been undertaken, the first with internal departments and the second with key stakeholders and partners. The information received has been translated into the detailed action plan which supports the report.

The draft Strategy recognises the value and importance of the urban forest, particularly in mitigating pollution, heat, flooding and wind as well as its value towards biodiversity, wildlife, the community's health and wellbeing, overall quality of the urban environment and economic value. A number of challenges and opportunities are discussed within the draft Strategy. Reductions in Government spending has led to a decreased spend in greenspaces and, as a result, lack of funding has been identified as a main constraint in both improving and maintaining the tree stock. The draft Strategy recommends that focus should be made in maximising funding through S106 agreements, exploiting opportunities arising from Regeneration and Business Improvement Districts in establishing sustainable urban forests, along with establishing effective partnerships with developers and landowners.

The importance of strategically managing the urban forest is highlighted and the draft Strategy makes reference to a number of Coventry City Council Policies which touch the City’s urban forest including the Coventry City Council Area Action Plan, Development Strategy and the recently adopted Greenspace Strategy. The draft Strategy acknowledges the significant work done by Coventry’s Urban Forestry team to explore new ways of working and provide better value for money in tree maintenance. A number of aspects are recognised as significant, including the management of all street trees, the adoption of Tree Risk management processes and procedures to ensure the establishment of new trees.

The draft Strategy contains themes and key actions on:

·  Planning: ensuring we have robust andrelevant urban forest policies and technicalguidance to facilitate high quality design anddevelopment.

·   Protection: putting biodiversity and the healthof trees at the heart of all our work.

·  Procedures: ensuring we have appropriateoperational plans and processes that areregularly monitored and reviewed.

·  Projects: developing and creating long termprojects for the management and enhancement of the urban forest in Coventry.

·   Prosperity: making the link with the urbanforest and natural capital for sustainableeconomic regeneration.

·  promotion: having a presence and gettingthe message across to all our stakeholders andcustomers.

·  Partnerships: building on existing andfacilitating new working relationships for thebenefit of the urban forest in Coventry.

·  Profile: having a presence and influencingcolleagues, stakeholders and professionalnetworks in decision making.

·  Pioneering: using technology and new ways  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that the City Council provides a range of training and support for Members, including an induction programme for newly elected Members, specific training to support Members in roles such as?members of Planning?Committee?or Licensing and Regulatory?Committee,?and specific topical issues as they arise. Members are also able to attend training and events run by other organisations. However, the uptake of training by Members has been low.

The environment in which Members work is constantly changing. Ensuring that Members are properly supported to help them meet the high demands placed on them to carry out this challenging role effectively is increasingly important. Consultation with Members and officers suggest that the training offer has not kept pace with these demands and take up of what has been on offer has been low. With support from a Member Advisory Panel, improvements have been introduced over the last year and the report set out a strategic approach to make sure that the Member training offer meets current and future needs.

In order to enable executive oversight and strategic approach to training as well as raising the profile of training with Members, a Strategy has been developed to support the delivery and promotion of a Members’ Training Programme. The draft One Coventry Elected Members Training and Development Strategy was attached as Appendix A to the report. The draft Strategy has been developed following research to identify how to support Members training and development needs and included consultation with Members. A summary of the research findings was appended as Appendix B to the report.

The Council’s specific lead officer for Member Development was deleted following a restructure in 2014. Officer time has recently been identified within the Members and Elections Team to further develop the training and development offer for Members. The training budget has also been transferred from Organisational Development to Members and Elections with the aim to be able to identify and deliver the specific requirements of Members in respect of their training and development.

The draft Strategy covers:

·  Purpose of the Strategy

·  Assessing Need and Requesting Training

·  Training Matrix

·  Governance and Delivery

To oversee the governance and delivery of the Strategy, a cross-party Cabinet Member Advisory Panel has been established to review Members training needs, recommend a training and development programme to the Cabinet Member, monitor delivery of, and evaluate the programme to inform future planning. This Panel has been in place since September 2021. The Terms of Reference for this Panel were detailed in Appendix 1 of the draft Strategy.

In order to ensure that a wide range of training and development is offered to Members, a training matrix will be developed and endorsed by the Members Training and Development Advisory Panel. The training matrix will be regularly reviewed and evaluated to ensure it meets Members’ training need and will provide a programme of mandatory training, which all Members will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that the Council’s Constitution sets out how the Council carries out its business and makes decisions. It is a living document and needs to be updated from time to time to ensure that it reflects changes in practices within the Council.

The Constitutional Advisory Panel at its meeting on 28 February 2022 considered a number of proposed changes to the Constitution. These were:

1.  Revisions to the Coventry Shareholder Committee Terms of Reference: Part 2N of the Constitution

The Advisory Panel recommended that the Cabinet Member recommend to Council that in respect of Part 2N - Coventry Shareholder Committee Terms of Reference there be:

 (a)   An increase from the current maximum of 5 elected Members to a maximum of 10 elected Members at paragraph 2.1: Composition (NB minimum of 3 is to remain the same);

The Recommendation was made on the basis that increasing the number of elected Members to a maximum of ten will allow for more flexibility in the event of absence, greater knowledge sharing and more diversity amongst the Committee.

Following the meeting of the Advisory Panel the following additional proposal has been identified:

(b)  Additional wording to be inserted to permit Key Decisions in relation to charitable holdings held by the Council on trust for a charity to be made by the Shareholder Committee as trustee, with decisions below the Key Decision threshold delegated to Directors, Heads of Service and Officers in the areas concerned.

This Recommendation was made on the basis that the Council is trustee for a number of charitable holdings.  For example the Council is a trustee of various land owned by charities.  At present there is no delegation in the Constitution for Key Decisions or other decisions that do not meet the threshold for Key Decisions in respect of these holdings.  Annex A to the report details proposed wording in respect of the Constitutional Updates to delegate Key Decisions in relation to charitable holdings to the Shareholder Committee as trustee, with decisions below the Key Decision threshold delegated to Directors, Heads of Service and Officers in the areas concerned.

2.  Revisions to the Functions of Scrutiny, paragraph 6: Education Representatives: Part 2D

The Advisory Panel recommended that the Cabinet Member recommend to Council that in respect of Part 2D - Functions of Scrutiny, paragraph 6: Education Representatives the introduction of:

(a)  a maximum four year term of office and minimum of two year term of 

  office (which will be applicable to all Education Representatives);

(b)  removal of the requirement for a parent governor representative from both a maintained primary and secondary school in the City (instead introducing a requirement for a generic parent governor who could technically be from any maintained school) in keeping with the legislation in this area and to reflect the fact that Coventry now has no maintained secondary schools.

The Parent Governor Representatives (England) Regulations  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that the Members’ Planning Code of Good Practice (“Model Code”) was originally prepared in 2013-4 in response to a series of successful court challenges around local planning authorities and their Members’ conduct or conflicts of interests.  The Model Code was subject to consultation and comment from a number of local authorities through the machinery of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (now LLG), the Local Government Association, the Local Government Ombudsman, Audit Commission and from firms of solicitors or counsel acting on their behalf. It replaced what was a number of individual and sometimes haphazard approaches in individual councils at the time.  A copy of the Model Code was attached as Appendix A to the report.

The report sought approval to adopt a revised Code of Good Planning Practice for Members and Employees Dealing with Planning Matters (“Revised Planning Code”), amendments to which have been made in line with the Model Code and to remove the Revised Planning Code (as adopted) from the body of the Constitution and instead append the final document to the Constitution.  A copy of the proposed Revised Planning Code was attached as Appendix B to the report.

The Model Code takes into account the following:

a)  Updates to the Seven Principles of Public Life (the ‘Nolan principles’);

b)  Commentary from the Committee on standards in public life;

c)  The changes in the approach to codes of conduct;

d)  The changes to predetermination introduced by the Localism Act 2011;

e)  The guide on ‘Openness and transparency on personal interests’ published by the Department for Communities and Local Government 2013.

Whilst broadly similar to the Model Code, the proposed revised Model Code contains some differences to the LLG version, in keeping with established practice at Coventry City Council. The main changes are as follows:

  a)  References to “you should”, “your responsibility is” etc have been removed and replaced with “Members should”, “Members’ responsibility is etc”;

  b)  At paragraph 3.2 the word “must” is used in relation to mandatory training for Members before sitting on the Planning Committee, ensuring that all Member must be trained before they attend Planning Committee meetings;

  c)  Reference is made to the Employee Code of Conduct in regards to “Respect” at paragraph 4.2 to reiterate that this value is embedded in both the Employee and Member Codes of Conduct;

  d)  Consideration of “material interests” has been clarified at paragraph 7.3.3;

  e)  Paragraph 7.4 has been removed in its entirety as bias may not just exist in relation to Council owned land.

The current Code of Good Planning Practice for Members and Employees Dealing with Planning Matters (“Current Planning Code”) sits in the Constitution and has been absorbed into the Constitution over time despite the fact that it is a document that was intended to be “appended” to the Constitution. 

The views of the Planning Committee had been sought  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

To consider any other items of business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of urgent public business.