Agenda and minutes

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Death of Former members of the Council

The Chairman reported the sad death of two former Members of the Council.

Former County Councillor Mrs Cordelia Brock had died on 27^th September 2012.

She had been elected to the County Council in 1977 and served until 2005, representing the former Barrow on Soar No 8 Elected Division and the Bradgate Electoral Division.  Prior to the move to a Cabinet and Scrutiny system in 1999 she had served mainly on the Environment Committee and Social Services Committee, of which she had been Conservative Group Spokesman for three years.  Thereafter she had served on the Scrutiny Commission and Development Control and Regulatory Board.  She had been for many years a representative of the County Council on the Police Authority.

Mrs Brock had served as Chairman of the County Council in 1998/99, being only the second woman to have been elected to that position.

Former County Councillor Mr Tom Lowther had died on 30^th October 2012 aged 84 years.

He had been elected to the County Council in 1989 and served until 1997, representing the Melton Mowbray South Electoral Division.  He had served mainly on the Education Committee and Public Protection and General Purposes Committee and Police Committee of which he had been Liberal Democrat Spokesman for a time.

Those present joined the Chairman in standing in silent tribute to the memory of Mrs Cordelia Brock and Mr Tom Lowther.

Royal Town Planning Institute – Diamond Jubilee Cup

The Chairman reported with huge pleasure that the County Council had recently been awarded the Diamond Jubilee Cup by the Royal Town Planning Institute, its most prestigious award, for spearheading work to transform the Ashby Woulds.

The project, which had involved local Councils, community groups, landowners and mining companies working together, had transformed 12 acres of derelict land into a new woodland landscape with leisure facilities, housing development and land for new employment.

Members joined the Chairman in congratulating everyone concerned on this well deserved award.

Leicester and Leicestershire Excellence in Tourism Awards

The Chairman announced that Charnwood Museum had recently been awarded the Small Visitor Attraction of the year award at the Leicester and Leicestershire Excellence in Tourism awards ceremony.  This meant that the attraction would go on to compete in the National Visit England Award Finals in May.

Charnwood Museum was run as a partnership between the County Council and Charnwood Borough Council and the award recognised the hard work of staff of both authorities all of whom deserved the Council’s very warm congratulations.

Committee Officers

The Chairman reported that he had been pleased to have been joined for lunch by a number of the Authority’s Committee Officers.  He had invited them to join him as a means of saying thank you, on behalf of the Council as a whole, for the valuable contribution they made to the operation of the Council and its committees.

Visitors

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting all visitors and guests of members.

It was moved by the Chairman, seconded by Mrs Page and carried:-

“That the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 26 September, 2012, copies of which have been circulated to members, be taken as read, confirmed and signed.”

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to make declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

Mr Page declared a Personal Pecuniary interest in the Notice of Motion moved by Mr J B Rhodes (Minute 182 refers).

(A)    Mr Wright asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-

"1.       Following the transfer of Leicestershire's care homes into private ownership, does the Leader support the idea of improving the regulation of care homes by introducing corporate accountability?

2.         In what ways does this Council scrutinise the performance of those companies who manage the care homes in which we fund placements for Leicestershire residents?

3.         In view of grave concern in the media regarding the levels of debt incurred by a number of prominent companies running care homes, would the Leader support further regulation of such companies in order to achieve greater transparency with regard to both their financial stability and to their ownership?”

Mr Houseman replied as follows:-

“1.     The statutory regulator of care homes in England is the Care Quality Commission (CQC).  The Council has responsibilities for commissioning places in care homes where individuals are eligible for publicly funded care and also has general responsibilities to ensure all vulnerable adults are safeguarded via the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.  The Council works closely with the CQC to share information and to co-ordinate its monitoring activity.

          The primary responsibility for service quality lies with the provider of the service.  I would of course expect that the directors and senior managers of all care providers would accept that they are accountable for the welfare and safety of service users and staff.

2.      The Council uses a range of mechanisms to monitor the performance of care home providers.  It asks service users and their families to provide it with feedback on the quality of care.  The Council aims to review all placements annually to ensure that residents’ needs are met and ensure complaints are investigated.  In addition, compliance staff undertake both announced and unannounced monitoring visits to ensure the services meet the contractual requirements outlined in the service specification.  Care home providers who agree to accept placements are required to make an annual return detailing the outcomes of their own quality assurances processes.

Where there are serious concerns the Council will take immediate actions to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of service users, which may include suspending new placements, and require providers to agree to take remedial actions. As a last resort the Council can terminate its contract and find alternative placements for residents.

3.      The Council’s primary focus is the quality of care provided within care homes, as this is the key factor that it can influence.  It is also important that residents should receive continuity of care from providers that are well managed and financially stable but this is something over which the Council has much less control.  The ownership of private companies is a matter for directors and shareholders.  Any consideration of further financial regulation of companies owning care homes would be complex and is a matter for national Government.  Monitor (a non-departmental public body) has been given a range of duties and responsibilities for financial regulation of the publicly funded healthcare market.  The Health and Social Care Act 2012 allows for the option of these powers being extended at a later stage to the social care market. Should the Government consider doing this, the Council would want to offer support if it would improve transparency and offer reassurance about continuity of care to residents and their families.”

(B)    Mr Miah asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-

“1.     Can the Leader explain what is being done about the problems with drainage and the subsequent flooding of properties in Loughborough East, including houses on Bottleacre Lane and the industrial estate around Jubilee Drive/Pavilion  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178.

The Leader presented a position statement on the following matters:-

Group Leader Meetings

Meetings with Local Authority Leaders

Meetings with Leicestershire MPs

City Deal

Lend a Hand in Leicestershire

Supporting Leicestershire Families

Stand Easy

Movember

Christmas

The Lead Member for Environment and Transport presented a position statement on the following matter:-

Flooding in Leicestershire

The Lead Member for Health presented a position statement on the following matter:-

Independent Reconfiguration Panel review of the decision to move Children’s Congenital Heart Surgery from Glenfield to Birmingham

A copy of each position statement is attached.

It was moved by Mr Rhodes, seconded by Mr Pain and carried:-

“That the Leicestershire County Council and Leicestershire Together Annual Performance Report 2012, as referred to in Section A of the report of the Cabinet, be approved.”

It was moved by Mr White, seconded by Mr Houseman and carried:-

“That the Director of Public Health Annual Report 2012, as referred to in Section B of the report of the Cabinet, be noted.”

It was moved by Mr Snartt, seconded by Mr Hart and carried:-

“That the proposed amendments to the Contract Procedure Rules, set out in Appendix A to the report of the Corporate Governance Committee, be approved.”

Mr Page having declared a personal pecuniary interest in this matter left the meeting during consideration of this matter.

It was moved by Mr Rhodes and seconded by Mr Ould:-

““That this Council:

a)    supports the Government’s targets for the increase in the amount of energy generated from renewable sources;

b)    requests the Government to provide any evidence to challenge the popular belief that wind turbines are an inefficient and inadequate replacement for other methods of energy generation because they do not produce energy in conditions of high or very low wind speeds;

c)    notes with concern the potential damage to the rural landscape of Leicestershire which could arise from a proliferation of wind turbines;

d)    is particularly concerned at the number of planning applications received by planning authorities in recent months and the unrest in rural communities who perceive themselves threatened by turbines especially the very large and medium sized machines;

e)    believes that smaller turbines – under 15 metres from ground to blade tip are more likely to be accepted provided they are related directly to domestic, commercial or agricultural premises;

f)     believes that turbines should not normally be closer than 2km to the nearest home except for those related directly to generation for that home;

g)    requests the Chief Executive to make Government Ministers and planning authorities in Leicestershire aware of the Council’s views.”

On the motion being put and before the vote was taken, five members rose asking that the vote be recorded.  The vote was recorded as follows:-

For the motion:

Mr Blunt, Mrs Camamile, Mr Coxon, Mrs Dickinson, Dr Feltham, Mr Fraser, Mr Garner, Mr Gillard, Mr Hampson, Mr Harley, Mr Hart, Mr Houseman, Mr Jennings, Mr Jones, Mr Kershaw, Mr Lewis, Mr Orson, Mr Osborne, Mr Ould, Mrs Page, Mr Pain, Mr Partner, Mrs Pendleton, Mrs Posnett, Mr Rhodes, Mrs Richards, Mr Roffey, Mr Rushton, Mr Shepherd, Mr Slater, Mr Snartt and Mr White.

Against the motion:

None.

Abstentions:

Mr Bailey, Mr Bill, Mr Boulter, Mr Bray, Mr Charlesworth, Mr Galton, Dr Hill, Mrs Loydall, Mr Lynch, Mr Wilson, Mr Wright and Mr Wyatt.

The motion was carried, 32 members voting for the motion and none against, with 12 abstentions.