Summary

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Agenda

1. Apologies for Absence

 

2. Mayor's Announcements

 

3. Declarations of Interest

All Members are reminded that they must disclose any interests they know they have in items of business on the meeting’s agenda and that they must do so at this point on the agenda or as soon as they become aware of the interest. If the interest is a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest they are also obliged to notify the Monitoring Officer within 28 days of the meeting.

4. Minutes of Last Meeting

Minutes of meeting on 22 January 2020

5. Public Question Time

To receive questions from members of the public in accordance with Council Rules 10.1 to 10.6 on any matter for which the Council is responsible.

6. Cabinet Question Time

The Leader and Members of the Cabinet to answer questions submitted by Members of the Council in accordance with Council Rules 10.18 to 10.22.

7. Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner

As part of the wish of the PFCC to engage with as many Essex districts as possible during the year, Jane Gardner, the Deputy PFCC, will attend the meeting to report on the activities and plans of her Office and to listen to any views councillors have on policing, community safety and fire and rescue services in Chelmsford.

8. Reports from the Cabinet Member for Fairer Chelmsford

  • 8.1 Treasury Management Strategy for 2020/21
  • 8.2 Capital and Investment Strategy for 2020/21
  • 8.3 Revenue and Capital Estimates for 2020/21
  • 8.4 Council Tax Premium on Long Term Empty Properties

9. Reports from the Leader of the Council

  • 9.1 Pay Policy Statement for 2020/21
  • 9.2 Cabinet Deputies

The Leader of the Council will report that he has appointed
(a) Councillor Dan Clark as Cabinet Deputy for Strategy to support the Leader in promoting the new "Our Chelmsford, Our Plan" and on related communications issues, and to support the Deputy Leader where necessary; and
(b) Councillor Smita Rajesh to the role of Acting Cabinet Deputy for Affordable Housing as maternity leave cover for Chloe Tron.

10. Notice of Motion: Charter Against Modern Day Slavery

Pursuant to notice duly given, Councillor R J Hyland will move:

“This Council notes:

Modern Slavery is happening nationwide and locally. Traffickers and slave masters use whatever means they have at their disposal to coerce, deceive and force individuals into a life of abuse, servitude and inhumane treatment. This can include sexual and criminal exploitation.

This Council believes:

  • that action needs to be taken to raise awareness of modern slavery and the fact that it is happening all over the UK
  • that councils have an important role to play in ensuring their contracts and supplies arrangements are set up to combat modern day slavery and exploitation.

This Council resolves:

To sign and adopt the principles of the Charter against Modern Slavery to ensure our procurement practices do not support slavery.

The 10 pledges Chelmsford City Council is committing to by signing and adopting the principles of the Charter Against Modern Day Slavery are as follows:

1. Train its corporate procurement team to understand modern slavery through the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply’s (CIPS) online course on Ethical Procurement and Supply.

2. Require its contractors to comply fully with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, wherever it applies, with contract termination as a potential sanction for non-compliance.

3. Challenge any abnormally low-cost tenders to ensure they do not rely upon the potential contractor practising modern slavery.

4. Highlight to its suppliers that contracted workers are free to join a trade union and are not to be treated unfairly for belonging to one.

5. Publicise its whistle-blowing system for staff to blow the whistle on any suspected examples of modern slavery.

6. Require its tendered contractors to adopt a whistle-blowing policy which enables their staff to blow the whistle on any suspected examples of modern slavery.

7. Review its contractual spending regularly to identify any potential issues with modern slavery.

8. Highlight for its suppliers any risks identified concerning modern slavery and refer them to the relevant agencies to be addressed.

9. Refer for investigation via the National Crime Agency’s national referral mechanism any of its contractors identified as a cause for concern regarding modern slavery.

10. Report publicly on the implementation of this policy annually.

Councils are uniquely placed to be at the forefront of the fight against modern day slavery and are demonstrating awareness and ethical leadership by voluntarily signing the charter against modern day slavery. This will give us a baseline to build on previous statements; to implement year-on-year improvements and evidence the progress on how we are tackling the risks and incidence of modern day slavery in our operations and supply chains.”

11. Prayers at Council Meetings

The Mayoral Working Group has considered the comments of councillors on the consultation on the arrangements for prayers at Council meetings. It suggests that the Council consider the following:

To agree that each Mayor be given discretion to decide for the duration of their office whether the Council should observe some form of reflection before the start of each Council meeting, whether it be, for example, prayers, another act of worship or a period of contemplation.

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