Full Council (December 2020)
Summary
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Agenda
1. Attendance and 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
5. Public Questions
Any member of the public may ask a question or make a statement on matters for which the Council is responsible at this point in the meeting, provided that they have been invited to participate in this meeting and have submitted their question or statement in writing and in advance. Each person has two minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes is allotted to public questions/statements. The Mayor may disallow a question if it is offensive, substantially the same as another question or requires disclosure of exempt or confidential information. If the question cannot be answered at the meeting a written response will be provided after the meeting.
Any member of the public who wishes to submit a question or statement to this meeting should email it to committees@chelmsford.gov.uk 24 hours before the start time of the meeting. All valid questions and statements will be published with the agenda on the website at least six hours before the start time and will be responded to at the meeting.
Those who have submitted a valid question or statement will be entitled to put it in person at the meeting, provided they have indicated that they wish to do so and have submitted an email address to which an invitation to join the meeting and participate in it can be sent.
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. Reports from the Cabinet Member for Fairer Chelmsford
8. Amendments to the Constitution
9. Statement of Licensing Policy
10. Community Governance Review
11. Continuation of Temporary Changes to Constitution and Approval of Members' Absences
12. Membership of Committees
13. Notice of Motion: Local Electricity Bill
In accordance with notice duly given, Councillor R Moore will move, and Councillor S Robinson second:
1. This Council believes that:
- local authorities can play a central role in creating sustainable communities, particularly through the provision of locally generated renewable electricity
- very large financial setup and running costs involved in selling locally generated renewable electricity to local customers can result in it being unachievable
- making such costs proportionate to the scale of a renewable electricity supplier’s operation would create significant opportunities for councils to be providers of locally generated renewable electricity directly to local people, businesses and organisations
- revenues received by councils that become local renewable electricity providers could be used to help fund measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions and improve local services and facilities
2. This Council notes:
- that when the UK emerges from the Coronavirus pandemic, there will be a need to rebuild local communities and economies for the benefit of local people and businesses, and that energy being used close to the point of generation is more efficient
- the efforts that Chelmsford City Council has already made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote renewable energy, following the declaration of a Climate and Ecological Emergency in summer 2019, and that ambitious new policy and regulation is needed if we are to meet the target of net-zero emissions by 2030 and encourage others to do the same.
3. This Council therefore agrees to:
- support the Local Electricity Bill which, if made law, would make the setup and running costs of selling renewable electricity to local customers proportionate by establishing a Right to Local Supply
- inform the media of this decision
- write to local MPs requesting their support for the Bill
- write to the organisers of the campaign for the Bill, Power For People, to express its support
Part 2: Exempt Item
To consider whether to exclude the public from the meeting during the consideration of the following matter, which contains exempt information within the category of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act indicated:
14. Chelmer Waterside Delivery Options
Category: Paragraphs 3 and 6
Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding the information)
Information which reveals that the authority proposes:
(a) to give under any enactment a notice under or by virtue of which requirements are imposed on a person; or
(b) to make an order or direction under any enactment
Public interest statement: It is not in the public interest to release details of this report at present, on the grounds that the report contains information that is commercially sensitive and to place the information in the public realm will be detrimental to the negotiations to be undertaken by the Council.