Agenda

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.

To agree the minutes of the previous meetings of 12 November 2024 and 19 November 2024 as a correct record.

To note any announcements from the Lord Mayor

Members of the press and public who plan to attend a public meeting at City Hall are advised that you will be required to sign in when you arrive, and you will be issued with a visitor pass which you will need to display at all times.

Public forum items can be about any matter the Council is responsible for or which directly affects the city. Submissions will be treated in order of receipt and as many people shall be called upon as is possible within the time allowed within the meeting (normally 30 minutes).

Further rules can be found within our Council Procedure Rules within the Constitution.

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 Friday 6 December 2024 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 4 December 2024 at latest. A maximum of 3 questions per member of the public is permitted. Questions should be addressed to the Leader or relevant Policy Committee Chair.

Public Questions and Statements should be submitted via our webform:

www.bristol.gov.uk/publicforum  

Petitions should be e-mailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk 

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 9 December 2024.

Recommendation: That Full Council debates the petition and refers it to the Leader / relevant Policy Committee Chair for a formal response.

Recommendation: That members adopt the draft Statement of Gambling Policy 2025.

Recommendation: That Full Council note the Mid-Year Treasury Management report for 2024/25.

Recommendation:

That Full Council approves the appointment of Councillor Carole Johnson to the Licensing Committee.

That Councillor Rob Logan be appointed Chair of the Audit Committee.

Note:

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

GOLDEN MOTION (CONSERVATIVE): COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS RETENTION POLICY

“This Council is concerned over shortcomings many have identified in the Authority’s data storage and retention policies.

Following a recent response to a FOI request made in relation to the former City Mayor Marvin Rees, and his email communications, it was revealed that such digital records are deleted after 30 days as these are not a “recognised storage system”.  Consequently, any future enquiries pertaining to other Executive Members in his Cabinet will likely be met and thwarted by the same unreasonable restriction.

Given that emails now represent a primary mode of contact between Officers, Members, residents, and external organisations, such an artificial time-limit is clearly unsatisfactory and antithetical to the needs of efficiency and transparency.  Therefore, the current negative categorization or status around email storage needs to be changed.

Confidence in our public institutions depends upon timely and accurate responses to legitimate enquires – subject to lawful exemptions and safeguards pertaining to confidentiality and commercial sensitivity.

Accordingly, in order to rebuild trust in our management of records and data storage systems, and comply with our own stated retention policy objectives, Council calls on the Chief Executive to consider the following remedial actions:-

(i)                  Invite the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to provide support and oversight of retrieval attempts made to locate electronic records which are part of any outstanding FOI investigation covering senior figures in the last Labour Administration.

(ii)                Review the Authority’s current retention provisions with the aim of introducing greater standardisation for managing and retaining records.

(iii)               Consider revising these to include emails as a format which should now be kept for a much longer period – up to 4 years – particularly where these involve important decision-makers.

(iv)               Produce a comprehensive and clear list of the types of documents or forms of information exchange that are archived and where these are kept.   In order to be thorough and logically consistent, any reformed archive system should include improved Subject Access Requests (SARs).

(v)                 Cultivate a culture of openness, cooperation, and data disclosure where this is possible and practicable, to enable the Authority to become regarded as an exemplar for other public bodies and organisations.

(vi)               Provide Members with an update on the progress being made in this overhaul of our policy and procedural processes.”

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Graham Morris

Date of submission:  28^th November 2024

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SILVER MOTION (LIBERAL DEMOCRATS) Supporting the Climate and Nature Bill

Full  ...  view the full agenda text for item 12.