Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There were none.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive Announcements, if any, from the Mayor, the Leader, Head of Paid Service and Returning Officer.

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The Leader

The Mayor invited the Leader, Councillor Hamida Ali, to make her announcements.

The Leader confirmed a Cabinet decision regarding investment in the voluntary sector and that by using Community Infrastructure Levy funds it had been possible to retain the Community Fund in full for this year and the budget will be £2.2 million.

In addition, the Leader confirmed support for the businesses supporting the evening and night-time economy. The Leader and Councillor Shahul-Hameed have been working with officers on how to use the £850,000 Additional Restrictions Grant to provide new grants to these businesses together with the cultural and leisure sectors. The Leader also announced details of the Hardship Fund which would be available to those businesses that were severely affected by the restrictions but did not qualify for other forms of support.

For Members to debate a Borough Petition and a Local Petition.

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A Borough-wide Petition had been  received by the Monitoring Officer as follows:

 “Croydon Council please re-open Purley Leisure Centre”.

Mr Richard Willmer introduced the petition by stating that support for retaining Purley Leisure Centre was overwhelming in the community with over 3000 signatures on the petition. This had been further shown by the demonstration before the start of the meeting. He also stated that the assumption that people could use Waddon instead was not the case for many and that as it would be catering for 40% of the borough’s residents if it took on Purley’s, Waddon’s position would become untenable.

Mr Willmer continued by stating that the statement in the Cabinet report that Purley was the oldest leisure centre was not the case as South Norwood had been built about ten years earlier but this site had undergone a refurbishment in 2002. The cost of £3 million to refurbish Purley Leisure Centre was a huge increase from the £200,000 quoted in 2019 and the report made much of loses at Purley Leisure Centre when there had been loses at the other leisure centres. There had also been no mention in the report of the increase in users such as the swimming school and the gym or of any of the opportunities to increase income. For example, the over 60s now pay for swimming or that the contract with GLL had a cost subsidy model built in so that those facilities that make a profit subsidise those that do not.

In his response, Councillor Lewis thanked Mr Willmer and the other campaigners and accepted that there was great sentiment and affection for Purley Pool but that the decision to close the pool had already been taken and it would not be possible to reopen it. It was an aging facility which required a significant investment and it was lose making. It had also been put forward for closure around a decade ago. It would also require ongoing investment over a number of years and there had been degradation of the building which could put public safety at risk. Even if all the work required was carried out to allow it to reopen it would still be a loss making facility.

Possible solutions had been looked at to make the facility more sustainable in the future but this had not been possible due to the layout. It was not possible to keep pumping money into it which is why the decision was made to close it. A consultation had been carried out on ways to mitigate the loss of Purley Leisure Centre and a report will be published in due course. Work will continue with the community to provide them with a new leisure centre in that location in the future. The Local Plan which would be voted on later in the meeting, made provision for a new pool to be provided on this site.

In conclusion Councillor Lewis stated that it had not been an easy decision to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37/21

a)    Public Questions (30 minutes)

To receive questions from the public gallery and questions submitted by residents in advance of the meeting.

b)    Leader and Cabinet Member Questions (105 minutes)

To receive questions from Councillors.

To debate any motions submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rules.

To receive the annual report for the Health & Wellbeing Board for 2020-2021.

The recommendation was put to the vote and was unanimously carried.

RESOLVED: Council AGREED the recommendation in the report as below:

The Council received and considered the Health & Wellbeing Board’s 2020-21 Annual Report.

To receive the independent annual report from the Director of Public Health.

The recommendations were put to the vote and were unanimously carried.

RESOLVED: Council AGREED the recommendations in the report as below:

1.1   Note the content of the Director of Public Health’s independent Annual Report and

1.2 Approve the publication of the Annual Report.

Report to follow.

The recommendations were put to the vote and were unanimously carried.

RESOLVED:Council  AGREEDthe recommendations in the report below:

1)    Approve the amendments to the existing schedule of polling districts set out in Appendix A.

2)    Approve the revised schedule of polling places set out in Appendix B.

3)    Delegate to the Returning Officer authority to approve an alternative polling place in the event that any polling place becomes unavailable or found to be unsuitable in the run up to an election and to make this change on a permanent basis following the election.

To consider the recommendations made by Cabinet or Committees since the last ordinary Council meeting relating to the following matters:

(i)          Report in the Public Interest – Quarter 2 Update

(ii)         Community Safety Strategy

(iii)       2022/23 Budget and Three-Year Medium Term Financial Strategy

(iv)       Croydon Local Plan Review – publication of the Proposed Submission draft

(v)        The Gambling Act 2005 – Review of London Borough of Croydon Statement of Principles

1. Report in the Public Interest – Quarter 2 Update

The recommendations were put to the vote and were unanimously carried.

RESOLVED:Council  AGREEDthe recommendations in the report below:

1.1   Note and agree on the progress the Council has made in regard to achieving the recommendations set out by external auditor in the Report in the Public Interest in Appendix 2 [Appendix 1 of the Cabinet report] with 62 out of 99 actions complete;

1.2   Note the outcome of the first tranche of work to properly evidence what has been achieved so far following the initial internal audit of actions delivered to provide full assurance to members and residents on the changes achieved;

1.3   Agree the Refreshed Action Plan including actions marked complete, progress updates against open actions and identification of actions to be embedded going forward as business as usual.

2. Community Safety Strategy

The recommendation was put to the vote and was unanimously carried.

RESOLVED:Council  AGREEDthe recommendation in the report below:

1.4   To adopt the Community Safety Strategy, Appendix 5 [Appendix 1 of the Cabinet report].

3. 2022/23 Budget and Three-Year Medium Term Financial Strategy

The recommendation was put to the vote and was carried.

RESOLVED:Council  AGREEDthe recommendation in the report below:

1.5   To approve the growth and savings schedules included at Appendix 7 [Appendix 1 of the Cabinet Report] as part of the budget approval process. To note that officers will commence planning for the implementation from April 2022 where appropriate, but that any such proposals are subject to approval at February Council.

4. Croydon Local Plan Review – Publication of the Proposed Submission draft

The recommendations were put to the vote and were carried.

RESOLVED:Council  AGREEDthe recommendations in the report below:

1.6   Approve the submission of the Proposed Submission draft of the Croydon Local Plan review (Appendix 1) to the Secretary of State following the conclusion of the statutory 6-week publication period in accordance with Section 20(1) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004;

1.7   Delegate the agreement of any Main Modifications required by the appointed Planning Inspector to make the Croydon Local Plan Review sound to the Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration, in consultation with the Director of Planning and Sustainable Regeneration;

1.8   Delegate the publication of any Main Modifications required by the appointed Planning Inspector for formal consultation to the Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration, in consultation with the Director of Planning and Sustainable Regeneration; and

1.9   Delegate minor modifications and factual corrections (that are not required to make the draft Croydon Local Plan Review sound) to the Director of Planning and Sustainable Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration.

5. The Gambling Act 2005 – Review of London Borough of Croydon Statement of Principles

The recommendation was put to the vote and was unanimously carried.

RESOLVED:Council  AGREEDthe recommendation in the report below:

To adopt the Statement of Principles in Appendix 11 [Appendix 5 to the Licensing Committee report].

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This was not required,