Glasgow City Council Agenda - 01 April 2021, 11:00 Help

A meeting to be held at by video conference at 11:00 on 01 April 2021.

Number Item
1Minutes of Council meeting of 11th March 2021 (Print 5, pages 249 to 267). View Papers
2Print 5 - Committees' minutes - Submitted for information and approval as a correct record only (page 268 onwards). View Papers
3Local Government By-Elections - Election of councillors for Ward 20 (Baillieston) and Ward 23 (Partick East/Kelvindale) - Report by Returning Officer. View Papers
4Election of Depute Lord Provost. View Papers
5Changes to committees etc - Finance and Audit Scrutiny Committee - Remove Bill Butler and appoint Jill Brown. View Papers
6Representation on outside bodies:- View Papers
(a)Jobs & Business Glasgow - Remove Malcolm Cunning and appoint Jill Brown;
(b)Lord Provost's Funds for Children, Older People and Vulnerable Citizens - Remove Ms Carole Forrest and appoint Ms Elaine Galletly, Director of Legal and Administration;
(c)Safe Glasgow Group - Appoint Jill Brown; and
(d)Scottish Event Campus Ltd - Remove Ms Carole Forrest and appoint Ms Elaine Galletly, Director of Legal and Administration.
7Correspondence.
8Questions. View Papers
9Notice of motions.
(a)By Councillor Jennifer Layden:-

"Council believes that every woman and girl has the right to walk our streets without fear of violence.

Council notes the recent Reclaim these Streets vigils which have taken place across the country, including Glasgow, following the suspected kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard. Council offers condolences to her family and friends.

When COVID-19 restrictions allow, Council agrees to work with local organisers to support a vigil to commemorate all victims of gender-based violence.

Council believes the responsibility is not on women, girls and gender non-conforming people to change their behaviour, but on men to stop attacking women. Further, that it is incumbent on all boys and men to recognise the ways in which they benefit from unequal power structures and therefore to reflect on their own behaviour in public and private spaces; and to educate, challenge and hold to account other boys and men in order to create safer streets and spaces for everyone.

Council calls on all Councillors to consider their leadership role in tackling gender-based violence.

Council commits to Close the Gap 'Equally Safe at Work' world-leading accreditation programme which enables employers to better support women who have experienced gender-based violence by creating an inclusive workplace culture." View Papers
(b)By Councillor Eva Murray:-

"Council notes its previous decisions relating to COP26, specifically on 12th September 2019 and 23rd January 2020.

Council believes: that COP26 is an opportunity for Glasgow to create a positive legacy for the City, its people and people around the world; that our City's Lord Provost and Bailies have a crucial role to play in promoting the City and facilitating much-needed international climate dialogue; and that COP26 represents an opportunity for our City to acknowledge its legacy of slavery and colonialism, and the role of the industrial revolution in developing our City.

Council believes that to ensure that our City's recovery is on track to net-zero emissions and limits the rise in the global temperature to 1.5 degrees, it is imperative that as many citizens as possible are engaged in building a legacy from this 'make-or-break' conference, specifically citizens from under-represented groups.

Council therefore resolves:-

that monthly updates be provided to all Councillors on COP26 planning from May 2021;

that a progress report be provided to each City Policy Committee reflecting on their role in developing a legacy for COP26 before summer recess;

that a report be brought to the relevant committee before summer recess outlining the steps the Council will take to ensure that venues and community spaces either owned or operated by the Council are not used for the benefit of those commercial organisations who deny, ignore or wilfully contribute to catastrophic climate change, for the duration of COP26;

to make stronger efforts to ensure the representation and amplification of the voices from the Global South and First Nation peoples, utilising resources at our disposal to provide and create such opportunities; and

to provide an update to the relevant committee outlining the Council's engagement with the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland People's Summit." View Papers
(c)By Councillor Kim Long:-

"Council:

recalls its previous support for a transformative Green New Deal to respond to the climate and ecological emergencies;

believes that a Green New Deal for the city region will require massive investment, and that the Council's own pension investments could play an important part in that;

recognises that the Strathclyde Pension Fund supports low carbon initiatives through its direct investment portfolio, but is concerned that the Fund retains large holdings, worth in excess of £500 million last year, in fossil fuel industries that are driving the climate and ecological emergencies and perpetuating global inequalities;

notes the Council's fiduciary duty as administering authority for the Strathclyde Pension Fund must be paramount in all decision making around the pension fund. Further notes the calls made over many years from campaigners on the issue of fossil fuel divestment and notes that many other major public and private institutions have already made and acted on commitments to fossil fuel divestment, demonstrating leadership on the climate emergency at the same time as protecting the long-term interests of their individual investors;

believes that in the year of the COP26 climate summit, when the eyes of the world will be on Glasgow, the city and its institutions must show climate leadership; and therefore:

resolves to write to the Strathclyde Pension Fund Committee, asking that it make a formal commitment to fossil fuel divestment prior to COP26, with the intention of divesting completely as quickly as possible, and no later than 2029; and that it further considers how it can reinvest the Pension Fund Members' hard-earned money to drive a green recovery for the Glasgow region." View Papers
(d)By Bailie Kyle Thornton:-

"This Council notes and affirms its strong concerns at the cleansing, roads and streetscene crisis that Glasgow is currently experiencing and believes that urgent action must be taken to clean up our city.

We commend and applaud the hard work of Council staff over the pandemic and note reports that trade union representatives of our cleansing workforce have labelled Glasgow's streets as a "warzone" - filled with litter and rats. Council notes that the claims of staff that they are unable to cope with the masses of litter being dumped across our city's streets came only months after it was revealed that Glasgow has the fourth highest population of rats in the United Kingdom.

Council wishes to thank all those volunteers in neighbourhoods across Glasgow who work hard to keep their areas clean and tidy and assist Council staff by carrying out litter picks, reporting environmental problems and supporting their neighbours.

This Council notes the comments of the Leader of the Council in which she is quoted asking for Glaswegians to "step up to the mark" to alleviate the unacceptable state of waste and debris in our streets. Council considers that, although personal responsibility and education are vitally important, it is not the responsibility of members of the public to conduct basic cleansing functions because Glasgow City Council has failed to adequately do so.

This Council believes that the recent changes to cleansing, including charging for bulk uplifts and the 3-weekly bin collection will only make the present situation worse and that urgent action must be taken to tackle the present state of Glasgow's streets.

This Council believes that Glasgow's unenviable position as the fly-tipping capital of the UK is shameful and that as we recover from COVID-19, we must tackle this problem head on.

Council notes that the number of illegal waste disposals has steadily increased over the period that the current SNP minority administration has been in power and last year reached all-time highs. Council further notes recent reports that Glasgow failed to refer a single fly-tipping report to the Procurator Fiscal over a 2-year period at a time when it received over a third of all fly-tipping reports recorded in the whole of Scotland.

This Council agrees that the strategy of the SNP minority administration has failed in this area and that Glasgow urgently needs new leadership and a new strategy on this vital area.

Council believes that Glaswegians have a right to expect their streets to be litter-free, fly-tipping free and regularly maintained.

Therefore, this Council resolves to demand a report in no more than 3 months to the City Administration Committee which details an action plan with clear targets, timelines and resources to clean up Glasgow's streets including how we will ensure streets are regularly swept and maintained, roads are repaired in a timely manner, how we will ensure domestic, commercial and street litter bins are regularly emptied and how we will tackle Glasgow's fly-tipping problem." View Papers
(e)By Councillor Feargal Dalton:-

"Glasgow City Council is a member of the UK & Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities and the Hiroshima-led Mayors for Peace; both of which have been working for 4 decades to promote multilateral nuclear disarmament.

NFLA and Mayors for Peace work with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its work in encouraging over two thirds of United Nations members to agree to the International Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Council regrets that the Governments of the existing nuclear weapon states, including the UK, refuse to support the Treaty. Council fully supports the TPNW as one of the most effective ways to bring about long-term and verifiable multilateral nuclear disarmament and is pleased it has entered into force on 22nd January 2021.

The Council also calls on the United Kingdom Government to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear conflict by:

renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first;

cancelling the plan to replace its entire Trident nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons; and

actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals by supporting the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons and the 'Good Faith' Protocols within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Council instructs the Chief Executive to write to the UK Government to inform them of this resolution and urge them to take account of it; and to ICAN to endorse their Cities Appeal supporting the TPNW."  View Papers
(f)By Councillor Graham Campbell:-

"Council recognises the pivotal importance of the events of 22nd April 1993 which witnessed the murder of Stephen Lawrence in Eltham, South London.

Council further notes the heroic anti-racism campaign and the landmark changes to equalities laws - including the legal definition of Institutionalised racism arising from the late Judge McPherson's Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report.

Council further acknowledges how the failure at the time to ensure justice to the Lawrence family and the tireless campaigning work of Baroness Lawrence ultimately led to the Race Equality Amendment Acts 2002 - now the Equalities Act 2010.

Council resolves that GCC officially marks 22nd April as Annual Stephen Lawrence Memorial Day in line with the wishes of the Stephen Lawrence Foundation and further resolves to publicise the day across all departments on its social media especially Education; Council further resolves for the leader to invite Hon Stuart Lawrence and Baroness Doreen Lawrence to join us for a memorial event in order to recognise their campaigning work and to mark the impact on race equality laws and further our commitment to tackling racism nationally and internationally." View Papers