Agenda item

NOTICES OF MOTION

The following Notices of Motion have been received:-

 

(i)         Our Tax, Our Roads: Vehicle Excise Duty Raised In Bury Should Be Spent In Bury

This Council welcomes the commitment by Bury Labour last year to invest £10m on Bury’s highway network, including £1.5m for pothole repairs. Work is now underway in fulfilling that commitment; the first element of the project being in Ramsbottom.

 

Despite this much needed investment in Bury’s roads, the Council also recognises that due to an ageing road asset and chronic underfunding by successive Conservative governments, further significant investment would be needed to maintain and improve our highways network.

 

This Council Notes:

 

·         That the Bury Local Plan Transport Topic Paper published in August 2017, shows that Bury has 660km of road consisting of approximately:

 

21km Motorway;

55km of A road;

33km of B road;

38km of other classified road;

540km of unclassified road.

 

·         That due to underfunding by successive Conservative governments, the Highway Maintenance Strategy shows the current depreciation of Bury’s carriageways and footways stands at around £75m and that over £6m per year would be needed in order to maintain Bury’s roads at their current level.

 

·         That Bury has over 110,000 registered vehicles which is steadily increasing (10,000 more cars licensed in the last 5yrs) and that a report published by New Economy estimates that the Government receives over £18,000,000 per year in Vehicle Excise Duty (formally known as Road Tax) from vehicles registered in Bury (Bury Residents).

 

·         That Bury Council only receives around a total of £2m annually from the Department of Transport to maintain transport assets; this includes Carriageways, Footways, Highways Structures, Lighting Columns and Public Rights of Way.

 

·         That Bury will need to fund the replacement of older, concrete street lights at a cost of £5m.

 

·         That the difference from what the Government receives in Vehicle Excise Duty and what Bury Council receives in funding from the Department for Transport is significantly different and unfair to the residents of this town.

 

This Council Resolves to:

 

Ask the Interim Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council to write to the Department of Transport to ask the Government to allow Bury Council to spend the Vehicle Excise Duty raises from vehicles registered in Bury on our highway network. This would allow the Council to:

·         Spend heavily in bringing the road assets in Bury up to a good standard that residents deserve;

·         Invest in new schemes to tackle congestion;

·         Invest further in green transport schemes in order to reduce our environmental footprint and in line with the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s plan to make Greater Manchester the Greenest City Region in the UK.

 

In the names of Councillors  P Adams, N Bayley, J Black, S Briggs, R Cathcart, A Cummings,  E FitzGerald, J Grimshaw, S Haroon, T Holt, M James, D Jones, J Kelly, S Kerrison, K Leach, J Lewis, A Mckay, J Mallon, E O’Brien,  C Preston, A Quinn, R Shori, A Simpson, R Skillen, S Smith,  Sarah Southworth, Susan Southworth, T Tariq, J Walker, S Walmsley and M Whitby.

 

(ii)                         Deaths and Burials in the Borough

 

This Council notes that Bury is comprised of diverse communities including faith based communities. Moreover, the Council notes that Jewish, Christian,  Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and all faith Communities play an important role in the life of the Borough.

Furthermore, the Council notes that faith based communities deal with burials in ways that are sensitive to requirements of their specific faith and religion.

The Council notes its role and responsibility in discharging the pre-burial and post-burial processes for faith based communities.

Whilst is acknowledged that policy documents dealing with religiously sensitive burials exist – tremendous problems still continue to persist: -

 

1.  There is a lack of knowledge and sensitivity about Jewish and Muslim deaths and burials.

 

2.  There is no holistic (multi-agency) approach in dealing with pre and post burial processes for Jewish and Muslim burials.

 

3.  The responsibility of dealing with the entire burial process is placed with members of the deceased’s family – at a time when those family members are in the early stages of the grieving process.

 

4.  Time restrictions on providing notification to Bury Council’s Registrar Department and Cemetery Services often cause delays in the burial process thus causing immense frustration and animosity about the ‘rigid system’ which is then perceived as being ‘insensitive’.

 

5.  The 99 Year Right of Burial Rule implemented by Bury Council is insensitive to the Religious Beliefs of the Jewish and Muslim Communities in Bury and needs to be reviewed urgently.

In order to resolve these problems, Bury Council will take the following actions with immediate effect: -

 

1.     Create a Multi-agency Advisory Panel consisting of representatives from members of the public, HM Coroner, Bury Police, Bury Council, Bury CCG, Religious Scholars, GP Surgeries, Mortuary Services, Elected Members, and a representative from Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other faith Funeral Service Providers. 

 

2.     Review the existing Bury Council policies on Jewish and Muslim Burials by benchmarking its policies and activities with other local authorities that have significant Jewish and Muslim Communities.

 

3.     Training and Development be provided to relevant Bury Council Staff on the ‘Religious Sensitivities surrounding Deaths & Burials’ including visits to places of worship.

 

4.     Provide a 24/7 One Point of Contact for Dealing with Deaths & Burials in the Borough.

 

5.     An urgent independent review is undertaken of Bury Council’s burial costs as compared to other AGMA Authorities, and the issue of water seepage into existing graves.

In the names of Councillors I Bevan, R Caserta, J Daly, I Gartside, D Gunther, M Hankey, J Harris, R Hodkinson, K Hussain, G Keeley, O Kersh, S Nuttall,  I Schofield, D Silbiger,  R Walker, and Y Wright

 

(iii)                           Tax Avoidance

 

Council notes that:

 

1  Corporate tax evasion and avoidance are having a damaging impact on the world’s poorest countries, to such a level that it is costing them far more than they receive in aid.

 

2 This is costing the UK as much as £30bn a year.



3 This practice also has a negative effect on small and medium-sized companies who pay more tax proportionately.

 

Council further notes:

 

1      That the UK Government has taken steps to tackle the issue of tax avoidance and evasion by issuing Procurement Policy Note 03/14, applying to all central government contracts worth more than £5m.

 

2  The availability of independent means of verifying tax compliance, such as the Fair Tax Mark. 

 

Council therefore resolves to play its part in reducing tax avoidance. 


Council resolves that the Cabinet will receive a report within the next twelve months: 

 

1  Looking how we can reform our procurement procedures and how these can be amended to require all companies bidding for council contracts to self-certify that they are fully tax-compliant in line with central government practice, this to apply to all contracts within practical limits.

 

2  How we can work with local government partners both in Greater Manchester and in our procurement partnerships to use procurement to reduce tax avoidance.