To receive any questions, statements of petitions from the public in accordance with Council Procedure Rules 14, 15 and 16. The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.
For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.
Minutes:
Mr Hincks (Extinction Rebellion) made the following statement in relation to a petition submitted to Full Council:-
Mr Hincks introduced himself to the Councillors and had been a member of Extinction Rebellion for approximately a year. Extinction Rebellion was a fairly new group but had been influential over the past couple of years, rapidly increasing both public and government awareness of the climate and environmental emergency that was confronting the planet.
Extinction Rebellion remained concerned, however, that there were still many people who did not fully understand the gravity of the emergency being faced. If they did recognise it, they were failing to act in a manner that reflected that recognition. All those in such power, including those in the room, held a greater degree of responsibility than normal for our future in these precarious times. Unless suitable policies were implemented and fundamental changes were made swiftly, we would simply run out of time. Time was of the essence and action was needed now. Whilst Extinction Rebellion had been running a vigil outside the Deane House, they hoped that some of their concerns had permeated even if only subliminally into the consciousness of the Council, its officers, staff and of course the Councillors themselves. And into the consciousness of the public that passed by. We’ve not made a nuisance of ourselves, as the vigil had been a more subtle form of protest than they were used to, but they had hoped it had some sort of effect. He also hoped that you had been able to recognise that many members of Extinction Rebellion in Taunton were normal people like yourselves. During the vigil they had collected signatures to a petition from people who had just been passing by, they had not gone out of their way to obtain the signatures and they were real signatures on paper, not just something you could do with a quick click on the internet. The petition demanded that: 1. The creation of a citizen’s assembly to hold our local council authorities to account and oversee changes to combat the climate change emergency. 2. Immediate implementation of local policies to reduce net carbon emissions to zero in the Somerset area by 2025 and the reduction overall of consumption levels. 3. Reversal or revision of any existing policies which increased net carbon emissions. There were 23 pages of signatures on the petition and it had been his privilege to present the petition to the Council and thanked the Councillors for allowing him to speak at the meeting. Extinction Rebellion.
The Chair of the Council advised Mr Hincks that the petition would be checked and that he would be advised when the item would be debated at the next available Full Council meeting.
Val Hammond (Brewhouse – Taunton Theatre Association (TTA)) made the following statement in relation to a petition submitted to Full Council:-
She advised the Councillors that she had a petition signed by over 3000 people on behalf of My Theatre Matters, to ask the Council to make a funding decision to enable TTA to continue to provide high quality, accessible and diverse arts events in Somerset’s county town. TTA was the largest provider of arts and culture in Somerset West and Taunton and provided a rich and diverse programme at their base and increasingly worked with others across the region on national projects. They were successful and offered 1000 events each year, 6 or 7 days a week, day or night and had welcomed over 75,000 people in the last year alone. The situation that brought them to the point of the petition had arisen solely because the Council had postponed its decision to redevelop the site. Ambitious yet realistic, well researched plans would see a large multi-purpose flexible and sustainable venue with a 7500 seat theatre, cinema, studio theatre, art gallery, community studio and other space. Flexible and sustainable, it would invigorate Taunton and develop the whole region for the people who lived here. The project anticipated that the Brewhouse site could be repurposed to provide a spectacular centrepiece for Firepool, but with the delays to the planned development, it would mean that increased investment would be required in the interim. On the 1 April 2019, the Council itself asked the TTA to request additional funding that would be required over a 5 year period, now 6 months from then, considerable work had been carried out at the Council’s request on the financial modelling and business planning, both with the cost implications of the delay and for the future redeveloped Brewhouse, over a 40-55 year period. They had a timetable to present the information for a funding decision to Full Council, however, one week prior to the meeting, they learned from officers that the report would not be presented and that they would not have the opportunity to discuss the papers or to represent the constituent’s views. That placed the TTA in a very difficult position. For the last 3 years they had continuously provided the Council with free consultancy at approximately 2 days per week, which was time that would have been spent differently if they had thought that the Council was not fully committed to the Brewhouse development. Instead they had every reason to believe they were in partnership with the Council on how best to develop an effective multi-purpose arts centre for the community. My Theatre Matters petition requested that the Council secured future funding to enable TTA to continue to deliver its current programme of activities and to also invest in and work with the TTA, who resurrected the Brewhouse and had a track record of running a successful multi-purpose arts venue to deliver the much improved sustainable arts venue that the region deserved. TTA also encouraged Councillors to ask why the Leader of the Council promised that this would be a Full Council decision, however, officers had not presented the papers as planned so that the Councillors would have the full appropriate facts and supporting documentation and she hoped that this matter would be brought forward quickly for action. She thanked Councillors for listening and for receiving the petition.
The Chair of the Council advised Val Hammond that the petition would be checked and that he would be advised when the item would be debated at the next available Full Council meeting.
Nigel Behan (Somerset County Council) made the following statement in relation to the Employers Side of SW Provincial Council:-
Notes that had been presented included the following:
- Government had endured central government funding cuts of nearly 50% since 2010.
- Between 2010 and 2020, councils would have lost 60p out of every £1 they had received from central government.
- The 2019 Local Government Association (LGA) survey of council finances found that 1 in 3 councils feared they would run out of funding to provide even their statutory, legal duties by 2022/23. The number rose to almost two thirds of councils by 2024/2025 or later.
- The LGA estimated councils would face a funding gap of £8 billion by 2025.
- Faced with those cuts from central government, the local government workforce had endured years of pay restraint with the majority of pay points losing 22 per cent of their value since 2009/10.
- At the same time as seeing their pay go down in real terms, workers experienced ever increasing had been lost in local government since June 2010 – a reduction of 30 per cent. Local government had arguably been hit by more severe job losses than any other part of the public sector.
- There had been a disproportionate impact on women, with women making up more than three quarters of the local government workforce.
- Our workers were (public service) dedicated staff. They kept our communities clean, looked after those in need and kept our towns and cities running.
- Without the professionalism and dedication of our staff, the council services our residents relied upon would not be deliverable.
- Government funding had been cut to the extent that a proper pay rise could result in a reduction in local government services.
- The government needed to take responsibility and fully fund increases in pay; it should not put the burden on local authorities whose funding had been cut to the bone.
They wanted to approach the Government through the LGA to obtain real funding for council services which were often placed down lower than the national health services because of the way the media presented it. This was about producing work for the local economy and providing social structures to help other parts of the public sector.
The Leader of the Council thanked Mr Behan for his comments and welcomed his views that local government needed to receive more funding from central government and currently we did not, the council’s budget had been cut by 64% in recent years and yet we continued to provide the services that the public wanted and would try to continue to do so. The Leader advised she would provide a full written response to his comments.