Agenda and minutes

The Lord Mayor welcomed all attendees to the meeting, and made a safety announcement in relation to the fire/emergency evacuation procedure.

Apologies were received from Councillors Lake, Threlfall and Wellington.

To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

None received.

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

On the motion of the Lord Mayor, seconded by Councillor Kent, it was

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Full Council held on the 17 December 2019 be confirmed as correct record and signed by the Lord Mayor.

To note any announcements from the Lord Mayor

Honorary Alderman David Henry Poole

The Lord Mayor informed Full Council of the recent death of former Bristol City Councillor and Honorary Alderman David Henry Poole.  Condolences were sent to his family and a minutes silence was observed.

Please note: Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item. Public forum items should be e-mailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk

Public forum items can be about any matter the Council is responsible for or which directly affects the city.

Please note that the following deadlines apply to this meeting:

a. Public petitions and statements: Petitions and written statements must be  received by 12 noon on Monday 13 January 2020 at latest.  One written statement per member of the public is permitted.

b. Public questions: Written public questions must be received by 5pm on Wednesday 8 January 2019 at latest.   A maximum of 2 questions per member of the public is permitted.

Public petitions:

There were no public petitions received.

Public statements:

The Full Council received and noted the following statements (which were also referred to the Mayor for his consideration/information):

Within the time available, statements were presented by individuals present at the meeting.

Public Questions:

The Full Council noted that the following questions had been submitted:

Please note: Up to 10 minutes is allowed for this item.

Petitions notified by Councillors can be about any matter the Council is responsible for or which directly affects the city.  The deadline for the notification of petitions to this meeting is 12 noon on Monday 13 January 2020.

There were none.

The Full Council considered a report which set out, in line with Regulations, the amount calculated by Bristol City Council as its Council Tax base for the financial year 2020-21.

Deputy Mayor Councillor Cheney moved the report and the recommendations contained therein.  Councillor Jackson seconded the report.

Following debate it was:

RESOLVED:

That in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (England) Regulations 2012, the amount calculated by Bristol City Council as its Council Tax base for the financial year 2020/21 shall be 128,566

The Full Council considered a report which presented the Collection Fund Surplus at 31 March 2020 on the Council Tax and the Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) elements of the Collection Fund.

Deputy Mayor Councillor Cheney moved the report and the recommendations contained therein.  Councillor Jackson seconded the report.

Following debate, it was:

RESOLVED:

1. That an estimated surplus at 31 March 2020 on the Council Tax element of the Collection Fund of £43k be declared for 2019/20 and shared between this Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset and the Avon Fire and Rescue Service in proportion to their 2019/20 precepts on the Collection Fund.

2. That an estimated deficit at 31 March 2020 on the Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) element of the Collection Fund of £1.780m be declared for 2019/20 and shared between this Council, Avon Fire and Rescue Service and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) in proportion to the appropriate year demands (For 2019/20: Bristol 94%, WECA 4%, Avon Fire and Rescue Service 1%).

The Full Council received a report of the Audit Committee which included the key areas the Committee would monitor to support improvements required.

There was a debate and it was:

RESOLVED:

That the half year report of the Audit Committee be noted.

Under the Council’s constitution, 30 minutes are available for the consideration of motions. In practice, this realistically means that there is usually only time for one, or possibly two motions to be considered. With the agreement of the Lord Mayor, motion 1 below will be considered at this meeting, and motion 2 is likely to be considered, subject to time. Details of other motions submitted, (which, due to time constraints, are very unlikely to be considered at this meeting) are also set out for information.

MOTIONS RECEIVED FOR FULL COUNCIL – 14^th January 2020

1.       Reboot Democracy - improve decision-making and increase public engagement by developing forms of Deliberative Democracy

This Council notes:

§  That the Administration has a genuine desire to engage with citizens, as demonstrated by continued support of the Citizens’ Panel and efforts made to promote engagement in consultations on important decisions for the City;

§  That present actions do not go far enough to truly engage all Bristolians. We are not reaching, or actively engaging, the majority of citizens in deprived parts of the City and we respond to the loud voices of the few who fill in consultations or who use Full Council to express their views.

§  That barriers to participation are complex and potential participants may need training, incentives and different kinds of support to participate;

§  That processes for setting the agenda and designing the mechanisms for participation should also be participatory;

§  That the forms of engagement used presently take citizens’ views but do not allow for input into decision-making, which does not encourage engagement. Often, people are not given enough information to be fully informed, which undermines the consultation process;

§  That the value of consultations has been undermined by past failures like the Library Consultation in 2017, where citizens were presented with three very limited options and they could not support any one of them, or by the Western Harbour engagement when lack of information increased community fears and made constructive discussion very difficult;

§  That the majority of the citizenry are not engaged in decision making and feel disenfranchised;

§  That Bristol has a vibrant culture of community organisations with local knowledge, existing community networks and experience of using participatory approaches. These organisations have the potential to contribute to processes of engagement and participation for under-represented groups;

§  That Deliberative Democracy is an umbrella term, of which Citizens’ Assembly is the best known. Citizens’ Assemblies have been used effectively in many countries to solve complex political or social issues and are truly representative, as selection is stratified (like jury service) and people who attend are paid a stipend which validates the action. Citizens’ Jury is a scaled down version of an assembly. Another form of deliberative democracy, used quite extensively in the UK between 2002-2010, is Participatory Budgeting which was shown to improve accountability and allow for the redistribution of funds. Deliberative Polling is an effective way to develop an informed citizenry, as this process takes a  ...  view the full agenda text for item 418.

Following a short adjournment, it was moved by the Lord Mayor that standing order CPR2.1(xi) be suspended to allow the meeting to go past the 30 minutes time limit for motions.  Following a vote it was agreed to proceed up until a 40 minute limit.

Motion 1 – Reboot Democracy - improve decision-making and increase public engagement by developing forms of Deliberative Democracy

Councillor O’Rourke moved the following motion:

Full Council notes that:

·       That the Administration has a genuine desire to engage with citizens, as demonstrated by continued support of the Citizens’ Panel and efforts made to promote engagement in consultations on important decisions for the City;

·       That present actions do not go far enough to truly engage all Bristolians.  We are not reaching, or actively engaging, the majority of citizens in deprived parts of the City and we respond to the loud voices of the few who fill in consultations or who use Full Council to express their views.

·       That barriers to participation are complex and potential participants may need training, incentives and different kinds of support to participate;

·       That processes for setting the agenda and designing the mechanisms for participation should also be participatory;

·       That the forms of engagement used presently take citizens’ views but do not allow for input into decision-making, which does not encourage engagement. Often, people are not given enough information to be fully informed, which undermines the consultation process;

·       That the value of consultations has been undermined by past failures like the Library Consultation in 2017, where citizens were presented with three very limited options and they could not support any one of them, or by the Western Harbour engagement when lack of information increased community fears and made constructive discussion very difficult;

·       That the majority of the citizenry are not engaged in decision making and feel disenfranchised;

·       That Bristol has a vibrant culture of community organisations with local knowledge, existing community networks and experience of using participatory approaches. These organisations have the potential to contribute to processes of engagement and participation for under-represented groups;

·       That Deliberative Democracy is an umbrella term, of which Citizens’ Assembly is the best known. Citizens’ Assemblies have been used effectively in many countries to solve complex political or social issues and are truly representative, as selection is stratified (like jury service) and people who attend are paid a stipend which validates the action. Citizens’ Jury is a scaled down version of an assembly. Another form of deliberative democracy, used quite extensively in the UK between 2002-2010, is Participatory Budgeting which was shown to improve accountability and allow for the redistribution of funds. Deliberative Polling is an effective way to develop an informed citizenry, as this process takes a stratified group, captures their understanding of a topic, then fully informs them of the issues and once again surveys their opinions. The benefit is that the administration gets the views of citizens who have an holistic understanding of complex problems;

·       That although there is a cost in running deliberative  ...  view the full minutes text for item 418.