Agenda item

(time limit 90 minutes)

Leader and Cabinet Members to present their reports.

Non-executive members may ask questions.

a.    Leader and Reform and Regeneration Portfolio – including minutes of Cabinet held on 21 August 2023, 18 September 2023, 2 October 2023, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority held on 28 July 2023 and the minutes of the AGMA Executive Board 30 June 2023.

b.    Deputy Leader and Housing and Licensing Portfolio

c.    Deputy Leader and Children and Young People’s Portfolio

d.    Education and Skills Portfolio

e.    Business, Employment and Enterprise Portfolio

f.     Neighbourhoods Portfolio

g.    Health and Social Care Portfolio

h.    Communities and Culture Portfolio

i.      Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio

Councillor Sheldon, Leader of the Conservative Group

Question 1: Cyber Attacks on the Council

Councillor Sheldon expressed his alarm at the reported figure of 10,000 daily cyber attacks on the Council. He sought assurances from the Leader that the Council’s ICT systems were robust and able to successfully resist any such attack. He referred to an incident involving Redcar and Cleveland Council, in February 2020 where a cyber-attack disabled their ICT systems for several weeks. Councillor Sheldon also referred to recent developments with Artificial Intelligence and if the Council knew where the various attacks were coming from and what actions were being taken to safeguard the Council’s data?

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council replied that she would provide Councillor Sheldon with a written answer to his question.

Question 2: School Attendances

Councillor Sheldon referred to recent statistical evidence that suggested school attendances in Oldham were below acceptable levels. He stated that the number of unauthorised absences from the Borough’s schools in 2022 was approximately 570,000, which gave Oldham the highest levels of school absences, in percentage terms, in Greater Manchester. He asked if the Leader would join him in sending a message to parents and carers about the importance of children attending school?

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council, advised that she shared Councillor Sheldon’s concerns about this matter and was anxious that more be done to improve school attendances in the Borough and in this regard, she undertook to pursue this matter with Councillor Lai, the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills and with the Managing Director for Children and Young People’s Services.

Councillor Sykes, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group

Councillor Sykes asked the Leader if, after the next round of local elections, another local authority in Greater Manchester were to follow the lead of Stockport Borough Council and withdraw from the Places for Everyone initiative would the programme collapse?

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council, stated that whist she had some misgivings regarding some of the detail, it made no sense for the Places for Everyone programme not to proceed.

Councillor Hobin, Leader of the Failsworth Independent Party

Councillor Hobin asked if there was more that could be done to tackle the issue of selfish and illegal parking in residential areas and around schools.

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council, replied agreeing that, given the proliferation of motor vehicles in the Borough and beyond, more needed to be done to address this issue. The Council was doing what it could to promote walking, cycling and public transport as alternative modes of travelling but acknowledged that more was still required.

Councillor Hince, Leader of the Independent Group

Councillor Hince advised Council that Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) with six bedrooms or less are not subject to a local authority planning process. Therefore, any negative impacts are not subject to any consultative process. The Council could address this issue by introducing an ‘Article 4’ directive, removing permitted development rights so that an HMO with less than six bedrooms will be subject to the local authority’s planning process.

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council, replied that the Council had in the past lobbied the Borough’s Members of Parliament on this issue and was currently reviewing the matter of Article 4. Councillor Shah undertook to keep Councillor Hince updated on developments.

The Mayor invited the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Members to present their reports and invited non-executive members to ask questions thereon, as follows:

a.    Leader and Reform and Regeneration Portfolio – including minutes of Cabinet held on 21^st August 2023, 18^th September 2023, 2^nd October 2023, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority held on 28^th July 2023 and the minutes of the AGMA Executive Board 30^th June 2023.

b.    Deputy Leader and Housing and Licensing Portfolio

c.    Deputy Leader and Children and Young People’s Portfolio

d.    Education and Skills Portfolio

e.    Business, Employment and Enterprise Portfolio

f.     Neighbourhoods Portfolio

g.    Health and Social Care Portfolio

h.    Communities and Culture Portfolio

i.      Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio

Resolved:

1.    That the Minutes of the Cabinet meetings held 21^st August 2023, 18^th September 2023 and 2^nd October 2023, be noted.

2.    That the Minutes of the meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, held 28^th July 2023, be noted.

3.    That the Minutes of the meeting of the AGMA Executive Board, held 30^th June 2023, be noted.

4.    That the reports of the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Members, be noted.