Agenda item

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 – 7^th July 2020

 

1.     Golden Motion - City of Hope: Rebuilding a more inclusive Bristol

 

City of Hope: Rebuilding a more inclusive Bristol

 

Full Council notes:

1. Coronavirus (covid-19) has seen 306,862 confirmed cases in the UK; 43,081 people nationally have died from covid-19, including some 262 people in the Bristol area, while the Financial Times estimates more than 65,700 excess deaths in total*; our thoughts are with their loved ones.
2. The accompanying economic impact is the worst since the Great Depression, and has seen 52,400 Bristolians furloughed, alongside significant job losses and financial hardship, increased foodbank usage, over £80 million support needed for Bristol businesses through the council, and a record national economic contraction of 20.4%.
3. Recessions and protracted economic crises always disproportionately affect those who are already vulnerable, living in poverty, and/or in insecure employment; something recognised in the campaigns to extend free school meals, support victims of domestic abuse and violence, house homeless people, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds, and provide additional help for asylum seekers.
4. This pandemic has disproportionately impacted on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, both in terms of numbers affected and proportion of deaths, but also the socio-economic impact; the pandemic has also disproportionately impacted on older people and disabled people, compounded by the Government’s decision to discharge people with the virus back into care homes and initial national shortages of personal protective equipment.
5. In weeks, the Government’s public position shifted from “provid[ing] whatever funding is needed for councils to get through this and come out of the other side” to not “want[ing] anybody to labour under a false impression that what they are doing will be guaranteed funded by central government”; as a result Bristol faces an £82 million gap, while all councils and communities, according to the LGA, “face an existential crisis.”
6. The horrendous death of George Floyd, and protests following it, further highlighted systemic racism around the world; the removal of the statue of Edward Colston has presented an opportunity for institutions in the City to re-examine their history and their current anti-racist equality practices.

 

Full Council believes:

1.  We want the Government to succeed in tackling the pandemic, but it has sadly fallen short in its management to date from preparedness to responsiveness, to an inability to work cohesively enough with local government or our NHS – thus presiding over the second highest deaths per million of any country.
2. The Mayor and administration have been right to call on Government to compensate Councils for both rising costs and falling revenues resulting from their efforts to lead the city through the pandemic.
3. Black Lives Matter. We have a duty to understand the real, whole story of Bristol, and what it means to different communities, and to tackle systemic racism  in order to lead positive change and rebuild Bristol, but not in the image of the unequal city which existed before.
4. Rebuilding a City of Hope, where nobody is left behind, requires investment to ensure a relentless focus on dismantling all structural inequalities to ensure that everyone believes that our recovery will benefit them and that it does.

 

Full Council resolves:

1. To record our heartfelt thanks to all council staff and other key workers, especially those on the frontline, who have worked even harder than ever throughout the pandemic to keep us all safe and keep Bristol moving.
2. To make delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicit outcomes for our work – with a commitment to equalities, anti-racism, and tackling poverty – to underpin rebuilding a better Bristol through inclusive and sustainable growth.
3. To lobby the Government to introduce the Real Living Wage and, until that time, work with employers in our respective wards to engage with the Mayor and Trade Unions’ Living Wage City initiative.
4. To ask the Mayor to push the Combined Authority and Government to commit to the SDGs, with a real emphasis on tackling unemployment among young people, and preventing any rise in people who are not in education, employment, or training.
5. To ask the Mayor to review the Equality Impact Assessment process to ensure it further informs decision-making, and to add deprivation/class to the 2010 Equality Act protected characteristics; in addition, auditing race equality across council departments and requiring specific anti-racist actions in their Equality Plans with targets for continued positive change in employment and service delivery.
6. To work to ensure that the recommendations of the Marmot Review into health inequalities are woven into the approach of the Council, the One City Plan, and all recovery planning.

 

*Figures correct when submitted – 25 June

To be moved by Councillor Ruth Pickersgill (Labour – Easton)

 

2.     Supermarkets Compact.

 

This Council regrets the prevalence of negative issues from a range of sources within the retail and distribution sector that hamper the city’s sustainability aspirations. The supermarkets have made many adaptions to keep the city running during the lockdown from which we can learn but need to be extended to deliver greater permanent benefits.

 

These issues include, but not exclusively:

•  extensive usage of a wide range of packaging materials

•  continuing use of materials, particularly plastics, with poor recycling outcomes

•  excessive levels of wastage, particularly of food

•  increasing heavy vehicular distribution-miles, both cross-countries and within the city

 

Council further regrets that precious resources and taxpayers’ money have to be used to resolve and mitigate some of these issues, where this is an option.

 

Council regrets that it lacks the regulatory powers to control the negative outcomes from some large commercial organisations.

 

This Council notes the announcements and actions by more conscientious firms to address some of these issues to reduce their costs and be more responsible.

 

This Council notes the unacceptable level of food poverty in our city

 

This Council notes the increasing challenges around goods delivery vehicles in our city which is attempting to reduce the volume of traffic and improve air quality

 

This Council notes that a successful plan to deliver carbon neutrality by 2030 will require committed leadership to inspire common purpose in everyone and across all groups in our city

 

This Council notes that much customer packaging places volume and disposal demands on the city’s waste services, while their bulk packaging is also unsustainable though disposed through commercial operators.

 

This Council notes that a proposal to address these issues supported by research and a dossier of detailed responses by all of the eight major supermarkets has been prepared by a BCC scrutiny committee and was commended by a committee of the Core Cities team.

 

It indicated how focused and co-operative use of BCC resources might deliver multiple benefits, including:

•  waste/plastics reduction

•  food-saving

•  reduction in delivery-miles

•  rewarding sustainable practice

•  getting out our sustainability message though big players to the shopping public

•  tackling at source some resulting issues that our taxpayers presently have to fund so re-allocating reduced costs,  and greater savings, to the originators

 

Council therefore resolves to launch the first core-city co-operative initiative of its kind:

 

A Supermarkets Compact agreed with the major chains in Bristol where the City council sets a small number of key criteria that will benefit the city and promotes a ‘Kitemark’- type scheme awarding recognition as each is achieved. This would applaud good practice, in a competitive market increasingly sensitive to improving sustainability, and open up opportunities for reaching out to customers, with rising credentials displayed on their premises and promotional literature.

 

Such a scheme would be a simple and highly visible way of advancing our sustainability ambitions.  It would be co-operative, competitive and catalytic while fair and sustainable.  It would be a cost-effective way for this city to offer mutual solutions to long-standing common problems.  It would be a bold advance in the crucial community engagement measures to deliver real-life sustainability, closer to source.

 

This council resolves to request the incumbent administration to instruct officers to take forward this proposal.

 

Motion to be presented by:  Cllr. Anthony Negus (Cotham, LibDem councillor)

Date of submission: 25th June 2020

 

3.     Restoring Political Partnership Working

 

“Council was disappointed to learn of concerns over a lack of collaborative working within the West of England Combined Authority (WECA).

 

Whilst there appears to be some dispute over the accuracy of this assessment or assertion, Council calls on the Mayor to use this moment as a chance to restate his early promise and commitment to ‘renew our democracy’ in Bristol by pursuing a more inclusive form of executive decision-making.

 

At present, many members feel marginalised through withheld information, and find the ‘opportunity to contribute’, shape or influence policies which impact our city extremely limited.

 

Council agrees with the Mayor that often a ‘collective effort ensures maximum impact’. 

 

Whilst it is still too early to determine the true scale of the effect on the local authority’s finances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Council urges the Mayor to embrace a genuine all-Party approach to tackling this public health crisis.  Moves to secure extra support from Central Government to cover these costs need to be cooperative and coordinated.

 

To this end, Council asks that the Mayor convene a Party Group Leaders meeting at the earliest possible juncture with the aim of achieving cross-party consensus and joint strategy in the lobbying of Central Government and West of England Combined Authority. 

 

The challenges confronting our city in this regard dictate that traditional rivalries should be put aside for the greater good of maintaining essential frontline services upon which Bristolians depend.”

 

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Mark Weston

Date of submission: 25^th June 2020

 

4.     Expanding Adult Training Programmes

 

“This Council welcomes the recent adult training initiatives introduced by Government such as the National Retraining Scheme and, regionally, the WECA Employment & Skills Plan, designed to help adults access better jobs or pursue new careers due to changes in the economy.

 

“Whilst the social and economic impact of the Corona virus has yet to unfold over the months and possibly years ahead, it is vital that all those who are unfortunately made unemployed as a result of this crisis have access to full-time, vocational, technical or traditional craft apprenticeships.

 

“Council believes that this challenge could best be met by a revival in city-based learning hubs like the often wrongly maligned former polytechnics and Government industrial training centres.  Sadly, provision such as the Skillscentre network closed in 1993 but they served as a highly effective means or bridge into employment.  Restoration of these institutions can equip people with the skills needed to adapt to the new world of work and help fill any identified skills gaps in the regional workforce.

 

“Accordingly, Council calls in the Mayor to work through WECA to make the urgent case to Government for a greatly expanded and accelerated investment programme, to create additional sites in the city to cater for the anticipated surge in demand for these services, at least in the short to medium term.”

 

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Matt Melias

Date of submission: 25^th June 2020

 

 

5.     Mitigating the effects of the Clean Air Plan on the most affected and most deprived residents.

 

Council notes that there is now no longer one Bristol plan that will reportedly deliver the governments clean air criteria in the period required. Despite many reservations from scrutiny, cabinet has given its approval to a plan which may have to be modified in the light of changing conditions as a result of the pandemic. Nevertheless the following considerations still apply to the present situation of determining the final version.

 

Council regrets that no public consultation was carried out on the specific plan adopted by the Cabinet which was different to the two options put forward to the public.

 

Council has concerns about how this will impact on the way that goods and people move within and around the clean air zones, and anticipating and mitigating potential poor outcomes.

 

Council is concerned that the capability of the present system of ‘public’ transport to sustainably accommodate is inadequate, certainly in the short and medium-term.

 

Council is concerned about the effects of greater vehicle movements outside the zones to avoid charges on small roads not designed for this and the impact on safety, congestion, necessary infrastructure work and migrated poorer quality air.

 

Council is concerned that deprivation being given the highest rating alongside public health in the approach to the clean air problem – rather than confronting the central issue and mitigating any poor outcomes- there are no meaningful exemptions or concessions for people in the central zone except a possible £2000 grant to enable replacement for a diesel car.

 

This council resolves to ask the Mayor to examine meaningful ways to ease the transition into this new plan for those people most affected and least capable of coping with the outcomes including, but not exclusively, the following:

 

•       A longer transition period for phasing out ownership by residents in the inner zone of all private diesel cars, focusing on pre-Euro6 models.

•       Preparation and consultation on an impact analysis, and resulting mitigation, for the closure of the eastbound Cumberland Basin to all vehicles except buses.

•       Alternative provisions for access to the many hospitals (including sufficient information and warnings) within the zone including the extension of the present hospital bus network to collect from car parks outside the zone.

•       Examining how to provide additional funds where needed to top up the likely £2000 so-called scrappage scheme in order that this may deliver more sustainable and cleaner private cars held in the zone.

•       Developing transitional arrangements for alternative travel by bus

•       Exempting disabled people from zone restrictions

•       Exempting Diesel vehicles that meet Euro6 standards from the diesel ban, to allay risk that these may be replaced by poorer quality older petrol vehicles, delivering worse outcomes.

 

Council instructs the Chief Executive to write a letter to Government with the resolution of Council.

 

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Anthony Negus (Lib Dem)

Date of submission: 25^th June 2020

 

6.     Atonement and Reparation for Bristol’s role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans (TTEA)

 

This council notes that:

 

1. Bristol played a major role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans (TTEA) which saw at least 15 million Africans forcibly trafficked to the Caribbean and America with many thousands losing their lives during the crossing from Africa to the Americas on ships registered in Bristol. A significant amount of the institutional and corporate wealth of our city was founded through this hugely regrettable inhumane episode in our collective history. ‘By the latter half of the century, Bristol’s position had been overtaken by Liverpool. But even as late as 1789, the trade to Africa and the West Indies was estimated to have comprised over 80 per cent of the total value of Bristol’s trade abroad.’ (1)

 

2. Around 2 million people of African descent live in the United Kingdom itself, including an estimated 30,000 plus in Bristol which includes a high percentage of African Caribbean descendants. (2)

 

3. In 1833 the British Government used £20 million to compensate enslavers, the debt for which was not paid off until 2015. Formerly enslaved persons received no compensation.

 

4. ‘The United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the ‘Right to A Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law’ provides a framework for the reparatory justice system including, among other measures: an investigation of the facts, an official acknowledgment, and apology, a receipt of answers; an opportunity for victims to speak in a public forum about his/her experiences and to be actively involved the reparatory justice process. 

 

5. The various  efforts made by community activists and movements including the Countering Colston Campaign,  the Council’s legacy steering committee, the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR), the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market) Reparations Committee, the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign, the Global Afrikan People's Parliament (GAPP), The Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee; and many others who have been working for many years to raise awareness of the lasting impact of enslavement.

 

6. The progress made in educating young people in Bristol on African Caribbean and ‘Black’ history, culture and achievements through the city-wide One Bristol Curriculum.

 

Full Council believes: 

 

1. It must be a priority for Bristol to actively acknowledge this history and actively seek to bring about reconciliation and reparations by lending and leading its voice as an institution towards remedial holistic reparations and action towards the legacies that continue to plague contemporary life for descendants of the African Caribbean enslaved. The continuation of harm and discrimination manifests itself in but is not limited to: over representation in the mental health system, discrimination within the criminal justice system, poverty and disadvantage. 

 

2. The International Decade for People of African Descent, proclaimed by UN General Assembly resolution 68/237 and to be observed from 2015 to 2024, provides a solid framework for the United Nations, Member States, civil society and all other relevant actors to join together with people of African descent and take effective measures for the implementation of the programme of activities in the spirit of recognition, justice and development. Such a process is long overdue in Bristol.

 

Full Council resolves:

 

To call on the Mayor or other appropriate council agency to:

 

1.  Ensure the scope of the commission recently announced includes an audit to trace the flow of wealth from the (TTEA) into the city of Bristol and its citizens and down the generations to the present day. The commission should also call on those Bristol institutions, families and corporations with historic ties to (TTEA) to share their understanding of their role, and clarify what measures they will put in place to work with African Caribbean heritage communities, to agreed measures and implement steps towards holistic reparations for African Caribbean heritage communities.

 

2. Write to the Prime Minister to request that the UK government immediately establishes an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice to acknowledge, apologise and instigate reparations for the (TTEA) the experience and extent of which is further understood by campaigners as the Maangamizi. (3)

 

3. Write to the Chancellor to raise concerns about how tax payers were until 2015 paying back compensation paid to enslavers. A petition gaining 10,000 signatures expresses the disgust at this fact, which many people, not just those of African Caribbean descent, find completely abhorrent. (4)

 

4. To ensure all schools in Bristol are implementing the ‘One Bristol Curriculum’, and request that independent private schools and academies do so as well.

 

5. Carry out an audit to establish the living conditions for people of African descent living in council housing and other dwellings and see that it is fit for purpose.

 

6. In collaboration with CORE (Commission of Racial Equality) and other partners, seek to scrutinise and lobby the health and criminal justice systems including but not limited to providing and resourcing culturally competent mental health provision for African descent people inside and outside of the prison service and better representation in terms of ethnicity on parole boards.

 

7. To protect and support long-standing black-led cultural institutions of the city that continue to be severely underfunded and under resourced, either through direct council intervention or by brokering relationships with institutions in the city. Such institutions must include the Malcolm X Centre, the Kuumba Centre, the Docklands Settlement and the Rastafari Cultural Centre.

 

 

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Cleo Lake, Green Group

Date of submission: 25 July 2020 

 

Footnotes

 

1)     https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/stories/bristol-transatlantic-slave-trade/

  

2)     Estimates based on most recent census (2011)

 

3)     The terms of reference for this commission of inquiry should focus on the need to inform the public of the nature of colonialism and enslavement, as well as its long-term consequences including present-day impacts upon both individuals and communities. The Commission’s work should be of a participatory nature, calling for submissions from all those with knowledge of the nature and impacts of colonialism and slavery.

 

This will aim to include, but not be limited to, testimony from: individuals, organisations, academics, communities, and nations. Affected communities and individuals must have their own voice, agency, and self-determined solutions in effecting reparatory justice and steps must be taken to facilitate their participation in any reparatory process in which the United Kingdom is engaged.

 

Ultimately the goal is to secure holistic reparations - including but not limited to financial compensation - as defined by the UN’s ‘Basic Principles and Guidelines’. These include mechanisms for restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees for non-repetition. See notes below.

 

 

4)     https://www.change.org/p/refund-our-taxes-paid-to-compensate-enslavers 

 

Notes:

 

Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law

 

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005

 

1. Restitution should, whenever possible, restore the victim to the original situation before the gross violations of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law occurred. Restitution includes, as appropriate: restoration of liberty, enjoyment of human rights, identity, family life and citizenship, return to one’s place of residence, restoration of employment and return of property.

 

2. Compensation should be provided for any economically assessable damage, as appropriate and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, resulting from gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, such as:

(a) Physical or mental harm;

(b) Lost opportunities, including employment, education and social benefits;

(c) Material damages and loss of earnings, including loss of earning potential;

(d) Moral damage;

(e) Costs required for legal or expert assistance, medicine and medical services, and psychological and social services.

 

3. Rehabilitation should include medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services.

 

4. Satisfaction should include, where applicable, any or all of the following:

(a) Effective measures aimed at the cessation of continuing violations;

(b) Verification of the facts and full and public disclosure of the truth to the extent that such disclosure does not cause further harm or threaten the safety and interests of the victim, the victim’s relatives, witnesses, or persons who have intervened to assist the victim or prevent the occurrence of further violations;

(c) The search for the whereabouts of the disappeared, for the identities of the children abducted, and for the bodies of those killed, and assistance in the recovery, identification and reburial of the bodies in accordance with the expressed or presumed wish of the victims, or the cultural practices of the families and communities;

(d) An official declaration or a judicial decision restoring the dignity, the reputation and the rights of the victim and of persons closely connected with the victim;

(e) Public apology, including acknowledgement of the facts and acceptance of responsibility;

(f) Judicial and administrative sanctions against persons liable for the violations;

(g) Commemorations and tributes to the victims;

(h) Inclusion of an accurate account of the violations that occurred in international human rights law and international humanitarian law training and in educational material at all levels.

 

5. Guarantees of non-repetition should include, where applicable, any or all of the following measures, which will also contribute to prevention:

(a) Ensuring effective civilian control of military and security forces;

(b) Ensuring that all civilian and military proceedings abide by international standards of due process, fairness and impartiality;

(c) Strengthening the independence of the judiciary;

(d) Protecting persons in the legal, medical and health-care professions, the media and other related professions, and human rights defenders;

(e) Providing, on a priority and continued basis, human rights and international humanitarian law education to all sectors of society and training for law enforcement officials as well as military and security forces;

(f) Promoting the observance of codes of conduct and ethical norms, in particular international standards, by public servants, including law enforcement, correctional, media, medical, psychological, social service and military personnel, as well as by economic enterprises;

(g) Promoting mechanisms for preventing and monitoring social conflicts and their resolution;

(h) Reviewing and reforming laws contributing to or allowing gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law.

 

Other notes:

-        Legacies of British Slave-ownership - UCL: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/

-        Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation – UN Office of the High Commissioner: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/remedyandreparation.aspx

-       Stop the Maangamizi Campaign: https://stopthemaangamizi.com/

 

 

7.     Big spending - basics neglected

 

This council views, with concern, the imbalance in spending by the Mayor.

We have had over £250,000 a year spent on an ex-Manager in the Growth and Regeneration Department, who was then involved in recruiting his successor, who then chose to contract the ex-Manager, at significant cost to the council budget on ongoing projects.

 

A major part of the work was killing off the Arena Project at Temple Meads.

We now know that another Consultant was paid similar sums to give advice on closing the Arena Project, who had previously worked on developments at Filton.

 

We have yet to get the full story of the Mayors £50M plus failed gamble on his Energy Company.

Meanwhile vulnerable people, nervously considering venturing out after lockdown, are further hampered by lack of public toilets in our city.

 

Council therefore request that in the emergency budget due to come to council shortly, there is a fundamental change towards allocating funds for the basic and desirable services that residents and valued visitors need.

 

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Gary Hopkins, Lib Dem Group

Date of submission: 25 July 2020 

 

 

 

 

Motion 1 – City of Hope: Rebuilding a more inclusive Bristol

 

Councillor Pickersgill moved the following motion:

 

Full Council notes:

1.       Coronavirus (covid-19) has seen 306,862 confirmed cases in the UK; 43,081 people nationally have died from covid-19, including some 262 people in the Bristol area, while the Financial Times estimates more than 65,700 excess deaths in total*; our thoughts are with their loved ones.

2.       The accompanying economic impact is the worst since the Great Depression, and has seen 52,400 Bristolians furloughed, alongside significant job losses and financial hardship, increased foodbank usage, over £80 million support needed for Bristol businesses through the council, and a record national economic contraction of 20.4%.

3.       Recessions and protracted economic crises always disproportionately affect those who are already vulnerable, living in poverty, and/or in insecure employment; something recognised in the campaigns to extend free school meals, support victims of domestic abuse and violence, house homeless people, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds, and provide additional help for asylum seekers.

4.       This pandemic has disproportionately impacted on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, both in terms of numbers affected and proportion of deaths, but also the socio-economic impact; the pandemic has also disproportionately impacted on older people and disabled people, compounded by the Government’s decision to discharge people with the virus back into care homes and initial national shortages of personal protective equipment.

5.       In weeks, the Government’s public position shifted from “provid[ing] whatever funding is needed for councils to get through this and come out of the other side” to not “want[ing] anybody to labour under a false impression that what they are doing will be guaranteed funded by central government”; as a result Bristol faces an £82 million gap, while all councils and communities, according to the LGA, “face an existential crisis.”

6.       The horrendous death of George Floyd, and protests following it, further highlighted systemic racism around the world; the removal of the statue of Edward Colston has presented an opportunity for institutions in the City to re-examine their history and their current anti-racist equality practices.

 

Full Council believes:

1.        We want the Government to succeed in tackling the pandemic, but it has sadly fallen short in its management to date from preparedness to responsiveness, to an inability to work cohesively enough with local government or our NHS – thus presiding over the second highest deaths per million of any country.

2.       The Mayor and administration have been right to call on Government to compensate Councils for both rising costs and falling revenues resulting from their efforts to lead the city through the pandemic.

3.       Black Lives Matter. We have a duty to understand the real, whole story of Bristol, and what it means to different communities, and to tackle systemic racism  in order to lead positive change and rebuild Bristol, but not in the image of the unequal city which existed before.

4.       Rebuilding a City of Hope, where nobody is left behind, requires investment to ensure a relentless focus on dismantling all structural inequalities to ensure that everyone believes that our recovery will benefit them and that it does.

 

Full Council resolves:

1.     To record our heartfelt thanks to all council staff and other key workers, especially those on the frontline, who have worked even harder than ever throughout the pandemic to keep us all safe and keep Bristol moving.

2.     To make delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicit outcomes for our work – with a commitment to equalities, anti-racism, and tackling poverty – to underpin rebuilding a better Bristol through inclusive and sustainable growth.

3.     To lobby the Government to introduce the Real Living Wage and, until that time, work with employers in our respective wards to engage with the Mayor and Trade Unions’ Living Wage City initiative.

4.     To ask the Mayor to push the Combined Authority and Government to commit to the SDGs, with a real emphasis on tackling unemployment among young people, and preventing any rise in people who are not in education, employment, or training.

5.     To ask the Mayor to review the Equality Impact Assessment process to ensure it further informs decision-making, and to add deprivation/class to the 2010 Equality Act protected characteristics; in addition, auditing race equality across council departments and requiring specific anti-racist actions in their Equality Plans with targets for continued positive change in employment and service delivery.

6.     To work to ensure that the recommendations of the Marmot Review into health inequalities are woven into the approach of the Council, the One City Plan, and all recovery planning.

 

The motion was seconded by Councillor Cheney

 

Councillor Hopkins then moved the following amendment:

 

‘That the motion be amended to read as follows:

 

Full Council notes:

1.    Coronavirus (covid-19) has seen 306,862 confirmed cases in the UK; 43,081 people nationally have died from covid-19, including some 262 people in the Bristol area, while the Financial Times estimates more than 65,700 excess deaths in total*; our thoughts are with their loved ones.

2.    The accompanying economic impact is the worst since the Great Depression, and has seen 52,400 Bristolians furloughed, alongside significant job losses and financial hardship, increased foodbank usage, over £80 million support needed for Bristol businesses through the council, and a record national economic contraction of 20.4%.

3.    Recessions and protracted economic crises always disproportionately affect those who are already vulnerable, living in poverty, and/or in insecure employment; something recognised in the campaigns to extend free school meals, support victims of domestic abuse and violence, house homeless people, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds, and provide additional help for asylum seekers.

4.    This pandemic has disproportionately impacted on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, both in terms of numbers affected and proportion of deaths, but also the socio-economic impact; the pandemic has also disproportionately impacted on older people and disabled people, compounded by the Government’s decision to discharge people with the virus back into care homes and initial national shortages of personal protective equipment.

5.    In weeks, the Government’s public position shifted from “providing] whatever funding is needed for councils to get through this and come out of the other side” to not “want[ing] anybody to labour under a false impression that what they are doing will be guaranteed funded by central government”; as a result Bristol faces an £82 million gap, while all councils and communities, according to the LGA, “face an existential crisis.”

6.    The horrendous death of George Floyd, and protests following it, further highlighted systemic racism around the world as well as the appalling brutality of American policing; the overdue removal of the statue of Edward Colston has presented an opportunity for institutions and communities in the City to re-examine their history and their current anti-racist equality practices.

7.    It is of concern that illegal air quality is once again a blight on the people of Bristol. Poor air quality shortens lives and affects the health of many of the most deprived communities of the city, as documented in the Marmot review.**

 

Full Council believes:

1.    We want the Government to succeed in tackling the pandemic, but it has sadly fallen short in its management to date from preparedness to responsiveness, to an inability to work cohesively enough with local government or our NHS – thus presiding over the second highest deaths per million of any country.

2.    The Mayor, administration and other councillors have been right to call on Government to compensate Councils for both rising costs and falling revenues resulting from their efforts to lead the city through the pandemic. No final settlement has been agreed and the council should continue to work with the LGA to push for a better deal from government.

3.    Black Lives Matter. We have a duty to understand the real, whole story of Bristol, and what it means to different communities, and to tackle systemic racism in order to lead positive change and rebuild Bristol, but not in the image of the unequal city which existed before.

4.    Rebuilding a City of Hope, where nobody is left behind, requires investment to ensure a relentless focus on dismantling all structural inequalities to ensure that everyone believes that our recovery will benefit them and that it does.

5.    There needs to be a concrete plan to tackle illegal air quality supported by government which can be implemented as a matter of urgency.

 

Full Council resolves:

1.    To record our heartfelt thanks to all council staff and other key workers, especially those on the frontline, who have worked even harder than ever throughout the pandemic to keep us all safe and keep Bristol moving.

2.    To make delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicit outcomes for our work – with a commitment to equalities, anti-racism, and tackling poverty – to underpin rebuilding a better Bristol through inclusive and sustainable growth.

Looking at the following two SDG’s - Goal 10 (reduce inequalities), Goal 11 (supporting the marginalised and disadvantaged) - tangible actions that we can commit to now in relation to these goals and following on from Black Lives Matter would be to :

•     Ensure that the one Bristol curriculum is known and implemented across all schools in Bristol including academies and fee paying independent schools

•     Ensure investment goes into Black led institutions of the city either directly through the council or by brokering relationships with institutions in the city through the one city office or if agreed by the centres the Merchant Venturers.  Such black led institutions must include the Malcolm X Centre, the Kuumba Centre, the Docklands Settlement and the Rastafari Cultural Centre.

3.    To lobby the Government to introduce the Real Living Wage and, until that time, work with employers in our respective wards to engage with the Mayor and Trade Unions’ Living Wage City initiative.

4.    To ask the Mayor to push the Combined Authority and Government to commit to the SDGs, with a real emphasis on tackling unemployment among young people, and preventing any rise in people who are not in education, employment, or training.

5.    To ask the Mayor to review the Equality Impact Assessment process to ensure it further informs decision-making, and to add deprivation/class to the 2010 Equality Act protected characteristics; in addition, auditing race equality across council departments and requiring specific anti-racist actions in their Equality Plans with targets for continued positive change in employment and service delivery.

6.    To work to ensure that the recommendations of the Marmot Review into health inequalities are woven into the approach of the Council, the One City Plan, and all recovery planning.

7.    Noting that in particular the recovery and response to the threat of climate change, air pollution and unemployment require urgent action, to take concerted action in partnership with other authorities and industry on energy efficiency and renewable production and investment, in development of and increasing use of new non-polluting technologies.

8.    To make sure that a clean air zone that achieves legal air quality as a minimum by 2022 is prioritised to ensure the most deprived communities in the city are protected from illegal air pollution.

 

The amendment was seconded by Councillor Lake.

 

Following debate, upon being put to the vote, the amendment was LOST (17 voting for, 35 against, with 14 absentions)

 

The Lord Mayor then invited Councillor Pickersgill, as mover of the original motion to speak.

 

During the debate it was moved by the Lord Mayor that standing order CPR2.1(2) be suspended to allow the meeting to go past the 2 hours 30 minutes time limit.  Following a vote it was agreed to proceed for an extra 15 minutes.

 

Following final remarks, upon being put to the vote, the original motion was CARRIED and it was

 

RESOLVED:

 

Full Council notes:

1. Coronavirus (covid-19) has seen 306,862 confirmed cases in the UK; 43,081 people nationally have died from covid-19, including some 262 people in the Bristol area, while the Financial Times estimates more than 65,700 excess deaths in total*; our thoughts are with their loved ones.
2. The accompanying economic impact is the worst since the Great Depression, and has seen 52,400 Bristolians furloughed, alongside significant job losses and financial hardship, increased foodbank usage, over £80 million support needed for Bristol businesses through the council, and a record national economic contraction of 20.4%.
3. Recessions and protracted economic crises always disproportionately affect those who are already vulnerable, living in poverty, and/or in insecure employment; something recognised in the campaigns to extend free school meals, support victims of domestic abuse and violence, house homeless people, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds, and provide additional help for asylum seekers.
4. This pandemic has disproportionately impacted on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, both in terms of numbers affected and proportion of deaths, but also the socio-economic impact; the pandemic has also disproportionately impacted on older people and disabled people, compounded by the Government’s decision to discharge people with the virus back into care homes and initial national shortages of personal protective equipment.
5. In weeks, the Government’s public position shifted from “provid[ing] whatever funding is needed for councils to get through this and come out of the other side” to not “want[ing] anybody to labour under a false impression that what they are doing will be guaranteed funded by central government”; as a result Bristol faces an £82 million gap, while all councils and communities, according to the LGA, “face an existential crisis.”
6. The horrendous death of George Floyd, and protests following it, further highlighted systemic racism around the world; the removal of the statue of Edward Colston has presented an opportunity for institutions in the City to re-examine their history and their current anti-racist equality practices.

 

Full Council believes:

1.  We want the Government to succeed in tackling the pandemic, but it has sadly fallen short in its management to date from preparedness to responsiveness, to an inability to work cohesively enough with local government or our NHS – thus presiding over the second highest deaths per million of any country.
2. The Mayor and administration have been right to call on Government to compensate Councils for both rising costs and falling revenues resulting from their efforts to lead the city through the pandemic.
3. Black Lives Matter. We have a duty to understand the real, whole story of Bristol, and what it means to different communities, and to tackle systemic racism  in order to lead positive change and rebuild Bristol, but not in the image of the unequal city which existed before.
4. Rebuilding a City of Hope, where nobody is left behind, requires investment to ensure a relentless focus on dismantling all structural inequalities to ensure that everyone believes that our recovery will benefit them and that it does.

 

Full Council resolves:

1. To record our heartfelt thanks to all council staff and other key workers, especially those on the frontline, who have worked even harder than ever throughout the pandemic to keep us all safe and keep Bristol moving.
2. To make delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicit outcomes for our work – with a commitment to equalities, anti-racism, and tackling poverty – to underpin rebuilding a better Bristol through inclusive and sustainable growth.
3. To lobby the Government to introduce the Real Living Wage and, until that time, work with employers in our respective wards to engage with the Mayor and Trade Unions’ Living Wage City initiative.
4. To ask the Mayor to push the Combined Authority and Government to commit to the SDGs, with a real emphasis on tackling unemployment among young people, and preventing any rise in people who are not in education, employment, or training.
5. To ask the Mayor to review the Equality Impact Assessment process to ensure it further informs decision-making, and to add deprivation/class to the 2010 Equality Act protected characteristics; in addition, auditing race equality across council departments and requiring specific anti-racist actions in their Equality Plans with targets for continued positive change in employment and service delivery.
6. To work to ensure that the recommendations of the Marmot Review into health inequalities are woven into the approach of the Council, the One City Plan, and all recovery planning.