(i) ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
A motion had been received and set in the summons in the names of:
Councillors S. Arif, Bernstein, Brown, Dean, Gartside, Harris, Lancaster, Hussain, Jones, McBriar, Rydeheard, Vernon
This Council are keen to do all in its power to make the Borough a first choice for people to live in, for businesses to invest in and for children and young people to be educated in. As part of this approach the Council are determined to eradicate as far as possible any form of anti-social behaviour that could impact on this strategic vision.
While the more serious criminal behaviour such as knife crime will understandably receive more financial resources and multi- agency responses some of the perceived less serious though still challenging behaviours such as flytipping, noise and antisocial behaviour related drug activity require robust responses to send a clear message that this Borough has a zero tolerance for all such behaviour that blights our neighbourhoods.
This Council resolves to;
· Identify the level of such activity within each Neighbourhood Hub
· Call for a Bury Team Event to be held as a priority to discuss this matter with all partners with a view to creating an action plan to eradicate these issues
· To include in the Community Strategic Plan definite actions by which the Council and its Partners will be measured by in their contribution to reductions in anti-social behaviour
(ii) Promotion of Council reporting system to help identify hotspots for rat infestations and production of a report identifying ways of reducing the problem.
A motion had been received and set in the summons in the names of:
Councillors Carol Birchmore, Cllr Donald Berry, Cllr Andrea Booth, Cllr Des Duncalfe, Cllr Glyn Marsden, Cllr James Mason, Cllr Mike Smith and Cllr Mary Walsh
A recent Manchester Evening News article identified Bury MBC as being ranked sixth out of the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester in terms of rat problems. This article however misses important facts that may lead to a misrepresentation of the true picture. Further research shows that the two local authorities at the top of the list have some of the lowest pest control call out rates and probably more significantly Tameside, ranked at the bottom has the highest rates. As councillors many of us hear anecdotal reports of rat sightings from residents. In part, due to call out costs, many residents, especially in poorer areas will opt to treat the problem themselves and so these incidents will go unreported through official channels. It is thought that rat infestations are more likely to occur in areas of high-density housing and in older terraced properties it is true that travel from property to property is often easier. The Council does offer a pest reporting system for public places, but many residents are not aware of it. The best way to get a true picture of the problem in Bury is to gather information on sightings and produce a map identifying report hotspots. To do this, we need to get more residents using the reporting system.
This Council resolves to:
· Promote the reporting system by running a “report a rat” campaign using notices on lampposts and posters in public places to make residents aware of the reporting system
· Officers to review fee levels in relation to pest control call out costs to encourage more reporting of issues in private properties
· Officers to work with private landlords and housing associations to look at ways of reducing the incidents of overflowing communal bins for apartments and HMOs to reduce available food sources for the rats
· Officers to review how the Council can work with commercial food outlets to reduce discarded waste and overflowing waste bins.
(iii) No Bury Child Should Go Hungry
A motion had been received and set in the summons in the names of:
Councillors: A. Arif, N Bayley, C Boles, N Boroda, C Cummins, U Farooq, E FitzGerald, N Frith, R Gold, D Green, J Grimshaw, S Haroon, M Hayes, G McGill, C Morris, E Moss, E O’Brien, K Peel, T Pilkington, A Quinn, D Quinn, T Rafiq, I Rizvi, L Smith, T Tariq, S Thorpe, S Walmsley, and M Whitby.
This Council believes that the best way of stopping children going hungry is to lift them and their families out of poverty.
This Council notes that according to research from the Food Foundation thinktank:
1) The number of UK children in food poverty has nearly doubled in the last year to almost 4 million.
2) More than one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.
3) Polling showed increased backing for expanding free school meals in England. Eight out of 10 people (80%) polled said they favoured extending free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit, up from 72% in October.
It further notes that:
1) Bury’s current Healthy Start voucher uptake is only 64%, with only 1228 out of 1922 eligible beneficiaries currently accessing this scheme.
2) Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, food banks in the Trussell Trust’s UK wide network distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis. This is an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2019/20. 832,000 of these parcels went to children.
3) The Trussell Trust have stated that “hunger in the UK isn’t about food, it’s about a lack of income.” They identified the main drivers of food bank use in their network as:
a) Problems with the benefits system (delays, inadequacy and reductions)
b) Challenging life experiences or ill-health
c) Lack of informal or formal support
This Council resolves to:
1) Work with families and partners to alleviate children going hungry.
2) Support the continued free school meals offer in school holidays for those who need it and lobby the Government to extend free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit.
3) Endorse the Feeding Britain campaign to introduce automatic registration for the Healthy Start voucher scheme for all eligible families and do more to promote the scheme locally.
4) Support the Labour Party’s pledge to introduce fully funded breakfast clubs for every primary school in England.
5) Write to both Bury MPs requesting they support the changes in 2), 3) and 4) and lobby Ministers on our behalf in favour of them.
6) Continue to support maximising income for families through Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs), widen awareness for those “just about managing” families of local initiatives and make all Bury residents aware of all support that they would be eligible for and benefit from.
7) Engage with food businesses across the borough to improve access to healthy affordable food.
8) Make sure children and young people’s voices are heard more in the decision-making processes of the Council.
9) Encourage “grow your own” initiatives where community groups, schools and volunteers can help promote sustainable food production.
10)For all Elected Members to take on the responsibility of enabling all children to thrive in Bury and ensure no child goes hungry.
Minutes:
(i) ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
A motion had been received and set in the summons in the names of:
Councillors S. Arif, Bernstein, Brown, Dean, Gartside, Harris, Lancaster, Hussain, Jones, McBriar, Rydeheard, Vernon
An altered motion was moved, seconded and agreed by the meeting:
This Council are keen to do all in its power to make the Borough a first choice for people to live in, for businesses to invest in and for children and young people to be educated in. As part of this approach the Council are determined to eradicate as far as possible any form of anti-social behaviour that could impact on this strategic vision.
While the more serious criminal behaviour such as knife crime will understandably receive more financial resources and multi- agency responses some of the perceived less serious though still challenging behaviours such as flytipping, noise and drug activity require robust responses to send a clear message that this Borough has a zero tolerance for all such behaviour that blights our neighbourhoods.
This Council resolves to;
Delete:
Identify the level of such activity within each Neighbourhood Hub
Add:
1. Ensure an ongoing review of the level and nature of ASB activity within each neighbourhood.
Delete:
Call for a Bury Team Event to be held as a priority to discuss this matter with all partners with a view to creating an action plan to eradicate these issues
2. Hold a Team Bury event as a priority on ASB in order to:
A. Discuss how Team Bury partners can contribute to combating ASB and
B. Feed back Team Bury partners' comments on tackling ASB to the Community Safety Partnership
Delete:
To include in the Community Strategic Plan definite actions by which the Council and its Partners will be measured by in their contribution to reductions in anti-social behaviour
Add:
3. Ensure that measurable activities and outcomes are included in the CSP delivery plan on tackling ASB.
(ii) Promotion of Council reporting system to help identify hotspots for rat infestations and production of a report identifying ways of reducing the problem.
A motion had been received and set in the summons in the names of:
Councillors Carol Birchmore, Cllr Donald Berry, Cllr Andrea Booth, Cllr Des Duncalfe, Cllr Glyn Marsden, Cllr James Mason, Cllr Mike Smith and Cllr Mary Walsh
A recent Manchester Evening News article identified Bury MBC as being ranked sixth out of the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester in terms of rat problems. This article however misses important facts that may lead to a misrepresentation of the true picture. Further research shows that the two local authorities at the top of the list have some of the lowest pest control call out rates and probably more significantly Tameside, ranked at the bottom has the highest rates. As councillors many of us hear anecdotal reports of rat sightings from residents. In part, due to call out costs, many residents, especially in poorer areas will opt to treat the problem themselves and so these incidents will go unreported through official channels. It is thought that rat infestations are more likely to occur in areas of high-density housing and in older terraced properties it is true that travel from property to property is often easier. The Council does offer a pest reporting system for public places, but many residents are not aware of it. The best way to get a true picture of the problem in Bury is to gather information on sightings and produce a map identifying report hotspots. To do this, we need to get more residents using the reporting system.
This Council resolves to:
· Promote the reporting system by running a “report a rat” campaign using notices on lampposts and posters in public places to make residents aware of the reporting system
· Officers to review fee levels in relation to pest control call out costs to encourage more reporting of issues in private properties
· Officers to work with private landlords and housing associations to look at ways of reducing the incidents of overflowing communal bins for apartments and HMOs to reduce available food sources for the rats
· Officers to review how the Council can work with commercial food outlets to reduce discarded waste and overflowing waste bins.
On being put with 7 Members voting in favour, 38 Members voting against and Councillor Tegolo and the Mayor abstaining, the Mayor declared the motion lost.
(iii) No Bury Child Should Go Hungry
A motion had been received and set in the summons in the names of:
Councillors: A. Arif, N Bayley, C Boles, N Boroda, C Cummins, U Farooq, E FitzGerald, N Frith, R Gold, D Green, J Grimshaw, S Haroon, M Hayes, G McGill, C Morris, E Moss, E O’Brien, K Peel, T Pilkington, A Quinn, D Quinn, T Rafiq, I Rizvi, L Smith, T Tariq, S Thorpe, S Walmsley, and M Whitby.
This Council believes that the best way of stopping children going hungry is to lift them and their families out of poverty.
This Council notes that according to research from the Food Foundation thinktank:
1) The number of UK children in food poverty has nearly doubled in the last year to almost 4 million.
2) More than one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.
3) Polling showed increased backing for expanding free school meals in England. Eight out of 10 people (80%) polled said they favoured extending free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit, up from 72% in October.
It further notes that:
1) Bury’s current Healthy Start voucher uptake is only 64%, with only 1228 out of 1922 eligible beneficiaries currently accessing this scheme.
2) Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, food banks in the Trussell Trust’s UK wide network distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis. This is an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2019/20. 832,000 of these parcels went to children.
3) The Trussell Trust have stated that “hunger in the UK isn’t about food, it’s about a lack of income.” They identified the main drivers of food bank use in their network as:
a) Problems with the benefits system (delays, inadequacy and reductions)
b) Challenging life experiences or ill-health
c) Lack of informal or formal support
This Council resolves to:
1) Work with families and partners to alleviate children going hungry.
2) Support the continued free school meals offer in school holidays for those who need it and lobby the Government to extend free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit.
3) Endorse the Feeding Britain campaign to introduce automatic registration for the Healthy Start voucher scheme for all eligible families and do more to promote the scheme locally.
4) Support the Labour Party’s pledge to introduce fully funded breakfast clubs for every primary school in England.
5) Write to both Bury MPs requesting they support the changes in 2), 3) and 4) and lobby Ministers on our behalf in favour of them.
6) Continue to support maximising income for families through Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs), widen awareness for those “just about managing” families of local initiatives and make all Bury residents aware of all support that they would be eligible for and benefit from.
7) Engage with food businesses across the borough to improve access to healthy affordable food.
8) Make sure children and young people’s voices are heard more in the decision-making processes of the Council.
9) Encourage “grow your own” initiatives where community groups, schools and volunteers can help promote sustainable food production.
For all Elected Members to take on the responsibility of enabling all children to thrive in Bury and ensure no child goes hungry.
An amendment was moved by Councillor Bernstein and seconded by Councillor Vernon to:
This Council believes that the best way of stopping children going hungry is to lift them and their families out of poverty.
ADD:
An important contribution to achieve this is to encourage those families who are able and who have parental responsibility and currently are not employed to do all they can to find suitable employment which can help maximise their personal aspirations to give their children the best opportunities in life.
This Council notes that according to research from the Food Foundation thinktank:
The number of UK children in food poverty has nearly doubled in the last year to almost 4 million.
More than one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.
Polling showed increased backing for expanding free school meals in England. Eight out of 10 people (80%) polled said they favoured extending free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit, up from 72% in October.
It further notes that:
Bury’s current Healthy Start voucher uptake is only 64%, with only 1228 out of 1922 eligible beneficiaries currently accessing this scheme.
Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, food banks in the Trussell Trust’s UK wide network distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis. This is an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2019/20. 832,000 of these parcels went to children.
The Trussell Trust have stated that “hunger in the UK isn’t about food, it’s about a lack of income.” They identified the main drivers of food bank use in their network as:
Problems with the benefits system (delays, inadequacy and reductions)
Challenging life experiences or ill-health
Lack of informal or formal support
There are a significant number of job vacancies for people to fill and notes the significant assistance offered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his spring budget to assist more help for people to get into work and the boost to increase free childcare.
This Council resolves to:
Work with families and partners to alleviate children going hungry.
Endorse the Feeding Britain campaign to introduce automatic registration for the Healthy Start voucher scheme for all eligible families and do more to promote the scheme locally.
Continue to support maximising income for families through Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs), widen awareness for those “just about managing” families of local initiatives and make all Bury residents aware of all support that they would be eligible for and benefit from.
Make sure children and young people’s voices are heard more in the decision-making processes of the Council.
Encourage “grow your own” initiatives where community groups, schools and volunteers can help promote sustainable food production.
For all Elected Members to take on the responsibility of enabling all children to thrive in Bury and ensure no child goes hungry.
ADD
Write to the government to thank them for providing over £3 million for this year, as a continuation of the household support fund, that can be utilised for free school meals.
That the Council within its anti-poverty strategy encourage those who are eligible and not claiming benefits to do so.
On being put with 12 Members voting for, 34 voting against and the Mayor abstaining, the amendment was lost.
An amendment was moved by Councillor Mike Smith and seconded by Councillor Mike Smith;
This Council believes that the best way of stopping children going hungry is to lift them and their families out of poverty.
This Council notes that according to research from the Food Foundation thinktank:
1) The number of UK children in food poverty has nearly doubled in the last year to almost 4 million.
2) More than one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.
3) Polling showed increased backing for expanding free school meals in England. Eight out of 10 people (80%) polled said they favoured extending free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit, up from 72% in October.
It further notes that:
1) Bury’s current Healthy Start voucher uptake is only 64%, with only 1228 out of 1922 eligible beneficiaries currently accessing this scheme.
2) Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, food banks in the Trussell Trust’s UK wide network distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis. This is an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2019/20. 832,000 of these parcels went to children.
3) The Trussell Trust have stated that “hunger in the UK isn’t about food, it’s about a lack of income.” They identified the main drivers of food bank use in their network as:
a) Problems with the benefits system (delays, inadequacy and reductions)
b) Challenging life experiences or ill-health
c) Lack of informal or formal support
This Council resolves to:
1) Work with families and partners to alleviate children going hungry.
2) ADD
Use local sources of information to identify areas of high need within Bury and listen to feedback from volunteers who are involved in offering the services to help residents and lift families out of poverty.
3) Support the continued free school meals offer in school holidays for those who need it and lobby the Government to extend free school meal eligibility to all children in households receiving universal credit.
4)
Endorse the Feeding Britain campaign to introduce
automatic registration for the Healthy Start voucher scheme for all
eligible families and do more to promote the scheme
locally.
ADD:
Look at ways of supporting local food banks and food pantries/clubs to help them carry on the fantastic work they are doing in our communities.
5)
Support the Labour
Party’sPledge to support the
introduce introduction of fully
funded breakfast clubs for every primary school children in England.
6) Write to both Bury MPs requesting they support the changes in 2), 3) and 5) and lobby Ministers on our behalf in favour of them.
7) Continue to support maximising income for families through Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs), widen awareness for those “just about managing” families of local initiatives and make all Bury residents aware of all support that they would be eligible for and benefit from.
8) Engage with food businesses across the borough to improve access to healthy affordable food.
9)
Make sure children and young people’s
voices are heard more in the decision-making processes of the
Council.
ADD
Ensure voices of residents of all ages including children and young people are listened to when discussing ways of helping families out of poverty.
10) Encourage Look at ways of promoting
and funding “grow your own” initiatives where community
groups, schools and volunteers can help promote sustainable food
production.
11) For all
Elected Members to take on the responsibility of enabling all children to
thrive in Bury and ensure no child goes hungry.
Fully engage all elected members from all parties in
looking at ways of enabling all children to thrive in
Bury.
Members voted on the second amendment – with 7 members voting for, 39 members voting against and the Mayor abstaining the amendment was lost.
Members were then invited to vote on the substantive motion, on being put with 34 Members voting for, 12 members voting against and the Mayor abstaining, the Mayor declared the motion was carried.