Motions concerning vaping and children, cuts to winter fuel payments and the preparation of Education Health and Care Plans have all been submitted for debate when Cornwall Council meets in Truro today.
The appointment of an interim Monitoring Officer and a review of the allocation of seats on committees will also be on the agenda for the meeting in the Council Chamber at County Hall (Lys Kernow).
There will also be an opportunity for Cabinet members to be questioned by members of the public and their fellow councillors during the meeting.
The Chairman of the council will decide which of the submitted motions can be debated, and which will be sent to a committee for discussion.
You can follow the meeting via our live blog below, or can attend in person to observe.
9.30am: Today's meeting will begin at 10.30am.
10.25am: There is no webcast today due to technical issues, so please do follow the blog below for live updates from the meeting.
10.26am: The chamber is filling up ahead of the meeting starting in five minutes.
10.32am: The chairman has entered the chamber and today's meeting will begin with the traditional prayers.
10.37am: We move onto apologies for absence and declarations of interest before the Chairman's announcements begin.
10.38am: The chairman, Cllr Pauline Giles, Tells the chamber that she was honoured to host two civic events recently, one awarding British Empire Medals, and the other hosting charity sector groups at New County Hall (Lys Kernow).
She also pays tribute to the monitoring officer, Henry Gordon-Lennox, who will be leaving the council before the next full council meeting.
10.42am: We now move onto Leader's announcements - with Cllr Linda Taylor taking the opportunity to begin by wishing Cllr Giles a happy birthday.
She moves onto a more serious subject, telling the chamber: "When Cabinet met last week the issue of the Government’s decision to stop the Winter Fuel Allowance for all pensioners not in receipt of Pensions Credit was raised.
"We were unanimous in raising our fears over the potential impact this disastrous decision may have on our population, with in excess of 100,000 people expected to be affected by the policy in Cornwall alone.
"I therefore resolved to immediately write to the Government to express our dismay at this policy, and to ask them to reconsider. One of our key priorities as a council is to create a Cornwall where people can age well, and this does the opposite of that."
Cllr Taylor adds: "As you are aware, we wrote a joint letter to the Deputy Prime Minister from myself, group leaders and our MPs, calling for greater powers without the need for Cornwall to become part of a combined authority.
"However, that does not seem to chime with the noises we hear from Westminster. Indeed, the County Council’s Network, in its papers published ahead of next week’s AGM, says:
"“The government also said it will progress the four non-mayoral 'Level 2' single County deals with Cornwall, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and Surrey. But in doing so, the Government is ‘encouraging’ these four areas to continue working to explore the next steps towards deeper and wider devolution for their area. We take this as code for mayoral governance and a devolution geography wider than a single county.”
"We will continue to make the case for a Cornwall-only deal, and we believe that our status as a recognised national minority means we deserve to be treated as a unique case - as of course the previous Government were willing to do with the level three deal they offered us last year.
"However, we will have to wait and see exactly how the new Government wants to proceed."
10.46am: The minutes from the last full council meeting are now put forward for approval, and are approved.
10.47am: We now are onto public questions, with four submitted today. The first question is regarding travellers, and a recent incident in Truro.
10.50am: The other questions regard planning issues and potential road adoptions.
10.55am: Next item on the agenda is to note the result of the election in Falmouth last week, where Cllr Alan Rowe was elected to the Penwerris division, replacing Jayne Kirkham, who was elected as MP for Truro and Falmouth in the summer.
10.57am: The next item is the reallocation of seats on committees following recent changes to the political make up of the council.
10.58am: The nomination of an interim monitoring officer, Matthew Stokes, is made, and welcomed from the chamber by Cllr Julian German. The appointment is approved unanimously.
11am: We now move onto Contract Procedure rules, introduced by Cllr Barry Jordan. The rules deal with procurement proceedures.
11.05am: Cllr Andrew Mitchell puts forward an amendment, calling for 'major' contracts be referred to Full Council for approval. Cllr David Harris, deputy leader and portfolio holder for resources, says it would be an onerous task with huge amounts of work if every contract had to be scrutinised.
11.14am: The amendment is not supported by the chamber and is lost.
11.16am: Cllr Phillip Desmonde puts forward a new amendment, calling for greater monitoring of the requirement for local suppliers to be used. The monitoring officer says it seems to be a request for monitoring of the new rules rather than needing an amendment. Cllr Desmonde is happy to accept the recommendation.
11.19am: The new rules are approved. We now move onto the next item, Pavement Licensing.
11.23am: Cllr Andrew Mitchell says he is more concerned that enforcement of those without licences should be a priority within the regulations, and says he wants to know who will be responsible for that task.
11.24am: Cllr Laurie Magowan asks how pop up licences are awarded, and says there does not appear to be a joined up approach. Cllr Pauline Giles tells him the questions should be put to the portfolio holder later in the meeting.
The item is carried.
11.26am: We now move onto the constitution of the Chief Officer's Employment Committee. It is introduced by Cllr Barry Jordan and seconded by Cllr Christopher Wells.
11.27am: Cllr Colin Martin asks for clarification on whether group leaders can nominate permanent or temporary replacements. He is advised it should be a permanent replacement.
11.31am: Cllr David Harris asks for clarity on whether group leaders must be a member of the committee, or if they can nominate a replacement permanently. The monitoring officer says a group leader should have a seat on the committee. Cllr Julian German says the announcement is a nonsense, and asks colleagues to vote against the recommendation.
11.33am: Cllr Leigh Frost says he agrees with Cllr German. The monitoring officer says it is a requirement for the group leader to sit on the committee, but that a substitute could be used when the group leader is not available.
Cllr Colin Martin says he does not want to change the way things work and says he will vote against the change. Cllr John Conway agrees.
11.36am: Cllr Jordan says that he feels the item should be withdrawn and referred back to committee. The monitoring officer says he feels the item should be voted on, and it is put to the chamber.
The item is not carried and will go back to the committee.
11.39am: Cllr Barry Jordan introduces the next item, which deals with Leave of Absence requests. He is seconded by Cllr Wells. The change will see requests go to the Standards Committee rather than the full council.
11.42am: Cllr Tim Dwelly asks why there is nothing substantive on today's agenda, and says it is embarrassing to be talking about processes instead of issues such as the airport, or the winter fuel allowance.
He says it is important to have the full council debate leave of absences rather than just a small committee.
11.44am: Cllr Mike Thomas says he agrees with Cllr Dwelly, and says if he needed to ask for a leave of absence, he would rather it be put to his peers, rather than a small committee, and that he has only dealt with a handful of cases in the past seven years.
11.48am: Cllr Colin Martin says the decision on leave of absences should be made in the best interest of residents, not the member themselves, and feels a smaller committee may be better placed to do so. Cllr Julian German disagrees, and says he would like to see it remain with Full Council.
11.51am: Cllr Loveday Jenkin says she cannot see how the function can be delegated to a committee whose purpose is to look at standards rather than councillor support in a HR function.
11.56am: Cllr Barry Jordan says the Standards Committee can ask for support from HR specialists and handle such discussions in a sensitive manner.
11.57am: Cllr Andrew Long says he is concerned that a committee could make a decision that could lose a councillor their job, and that is a choice that is so important that it should not be for a small ten-member committee to make. He understands that a recommendation from a committee could be made, but that it should be a choice for full council. He adds such a decision could deny an administration a majority.
11.59am: Cllr Leigh Frost asks if there is a right to appeal against a committee decision, and is told no.
12.01pm: Cllr Paul Wills says that as chairman of the standards committee he has not been consulted on the issue, and that the Standards Committee is not the place for these decisions to be made.
12.04pm: Cllr Steve Arthur says he feels it should be left alone.
12.05pm: The monitoring officer says the Standards Committee does deal with councillor conduct, and therefore does seem an appropriate place if the council wishes to move the decision making process there.
12.07pm: Cllr Jordan sums up and says that had this debate taken place during the committee's discussion, the outcome may well have been different. He says there was no one in attendance, and only one objection raised.
12.09pm: After a tied vote, the change is approved on the chairman's casting vote.
12.10pm: Cllr Sheila Lennox-Boyd introduces the next item, the review of statement of principles under the Gambling Act of 2005.
12.12pm: Cllr Mike McLening and Cllr Andrew Mitchell both raise an issue with the siting of bookmakers in towns, with concerns over a proliferation in certain areas.
12.14pm: The vote is carried.
12.15am: We now move onto today's first motion, E-cigarettes and Vapes - Safeguarding the Health of Children and Young Adults. Cllr Peter Perry introduces the item, and highlights that smoking is the highest preventable cause of death in the UK, and that vapes are an important part in helping people to stop.
However, he says that 8% of vapers are people who have never smoked, and that the colourful packaging makes them too much of a temptation to attract people to start using them.
12.19pm: Cllr Barry Jordan seconds the motion, saying that he does not wish to take away civil liberties from adults, but that he sees children vaping on their way home from school. He says that the flavours available attract children and suggests flavoured vapes should be banned.
12.22pm: Cllr Dave Crabtree says he fully supports the motion, and adds that he too sees children walking home from school with vapes. Cllr Louis Gardner says he has never smoked or vaped, but that he has concerns over the long term impact of vapes, and says he has seen promotional companies in Newquay handing out vapes to under age children.
12.24pm: Cllr Martin worth also supports the motion, calling it a disease which has been encouraged to our children. He says teachers are spending a large amount of time policing this challenge in our schools.
12.26pm: Cllr James Mustoe says he is supportive and says that the recent Youth Council 'Big Conversation' event saw vapes raised as an issue for young people across Cornwall.
12.27pm: Cllr Tim Dwelly says he supports the sentiment, but feels the item is just filler as it does not address anything for the council to do, and asks where the substance is for the meeting and that the chamber is wasting time on items that the council cannot affect. Cllr Julian German agrees with Cllr Dwelly and suggests the council agrees to ban all advertising on council land, and calls for more resource to be made available to the Public Health team for work in this area rather than just 'another letter to Government'.
12.31pm: Cllr Armand Toms says he would like to see Cornwall's Public Health team given the same funding as the England-wide average, and reiterates the call for fair funding from the last full council meeting.
12.33pm: Cllr Andrew Virr, portfolio holder for adults and social care, says he supports the use of vapes for weaning people off tobacco, but also wants to tackle the issue of children becoming addicted to them.
12.34am: Cllr Colin Martin says he is concerned that banning flavoured vapes could create a black market for the products. He says that he understands Cllr Dwelly's point, but believes it is important to send a message.
12.37am: Cllr John Candy is supportive and says stopping people from getting addicted is a hugely important task.
12.38pm: Cllr German's amendments are put forward. The leader, Cllr Linda Taylor, says there is already a policy of not allowing vaping advertising on council property. She says that it is a dangerous path to get people addicted to these devices.
12.42pm: Cllr German says he is pleased the council already bans vaping advertising, and is happy to drop that piece of his amendment. Cllr Perry agrees to include his call for greater funding for public health.
12.46pm: Cllr John Conway tells the chamber that his father was born in 1917 and grew up when smoking was seen as perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged. He says it was the same when he was young, before the health risks of smoking became clear. He says it is not yet known what the damage vapes do yet, and that it needs to knocked on the head.
12.49pm: Cllr Andrew Long says he was in hospital two weeks ago and when he was in there he met a 22-year-old addicted to alcohol, and on his ward, from six people, three were vapers. He calls on everyone to support the motion.
12.54pm: We now move to the vote, and the motion is approved.
12.56pm: We will now break for lunch and will resume at 1.45pm
1.49pm: We are back from lunch, and move onto the next motion, concerning the Winter Fuel Payment Cuts. The motion reads:
(i) Full Council urgently commences a significant awareness campaign to maximise uptake of pension credits. This will include use of council noticeboards, social media, promotion in local press and also targeted letters to those who may be eligible.
(ii) Full Council endorses the letter sent by the Leader to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
(iii) Full Council requests the Leader to contact all MPs representing Cornwall, requesting their formal support to halt the changes to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility
1.50pm: Cllr Leigh Frost introduces the motion. He says the policy will have a profound impact on the council's constituents, affecting just under 120,000 people. He says the motion will help ensure Cornwall Council does everything it can to support those who will currently be impacted. He says if the council doesn't do it, it will be allowing people to fall into fuel poverty.
1.52pm: Cllr Rob Nolan seconds the motion, and says he is pleased to have the chance to discuss the issue and to tell the pensioners of Cornwall that the council supports them, and to tell MPs what they believe they should do.
1.54pm: Cllr Nolan says many pensioners are just getting by, and that the loss of £200 will hit them hard.
1.56pm: Cllr Pat Rogerson says she fully supports the motion, and says it is not only about the people who need the fund, but also about the properties they are heating, with poor social and private housing. She says the heating allowance currently provided struggles when faced with insufficient insulation and poor quality heating systems.
1.58pm: Cllr Jim Candy says the council should do all it can to support everyone affected by the cuts. He says he can remember a 'benefits bus' touring parts of Cornwall in 2008 encouraging people to claim all they could to support them in difficult times, and suggests it could be an idea to try again.
2.01pm: Cllr Phillip Desmonde says the issue is causing massive distress to elderly residents in Cornwall. He says older residents do not like claiming benefits and are therefore left vulnerable to these changes.
2.04pm: Cllr Mike Thomas says he does support the motion, but believes the changes could be introduced in a different way to make it fairer, and he has serious questions about how it should be enacted.
2.07pm: Cllr Colin Martin says he is concerned by those just above the threshold who will miss out and be left vulnerable. He says the decision is just political posturing and not a sensible policy.
2.09pm: Cllr Andrew Mitchell says that with the price hike in fuel payments, which have been allowed with oil companies making huge profits, this policy does not reflect a good start for the Labour Government.
2.12pm: Cllr Peter Perry says he thinks the council should open a phone line where pensioners can contact the people who can provide them with the help they may need.
2.14pm: Cllr John Conway says he will not vote on the motion as he would be in receipt of the payment if it was still being handed out. He says he supports the motion, and to take the money away from pensioners with low incomes is wrong.
2.16pm: Cllr Louis Gardner says that armed forces veterans are disproportionately affected by this decision, and with 35,000 of them in Cornwall. He says politics is about choices, and to link this saving to a benefit you have to apply for is wrong.
2.18pm: Cllr Julian German says he is pleased to see an action included in the motion, but asks what resource is the council going to put into it. He says the unallocated hardship fund should be targeted to fuel poverty.
2.22pm: Cllr Linda Taylor, leader of the council, says there is no money left in the council's hardship fund, but that they are identifying all ways of offering support.
2.27pm: Cllr Armand Toms says the UK has one of the lowest pension levels in Europe, and to target pensioners is unfair. He says to do so is damaging to society.
2.29pm: Cllr Laurie Magowan says that he supports parts one and three of the motion, but cannot endorse the letter from the leader to the Government.
2.33pm: Cllr Connor Donnithorne says the policy will be devastating for many people.
2.35pm: Cllr Donnithorne puts forward an amendment, calling for criticism of Cornwall's Labour MPs, and calling for the protection of bus passes and other benefits for pensioners. Cllr Leigh Frost says he is saddened the motion is being used for political posturing, but accepts the extra lines.
2.38pm: Cllr Stephen Barnes says the winter fuel allowance should be included in the pension as a default, rather than an additional bonus.
2.40pm: Cllr Brian Clemmens says he belives the chamber should be about supporting the people of Cornwall and not about political posturing, and that he is ashamed to be here today.
2.41pm: Cllr Linda Taylor tells the chamber she has already committed to getting comms out to encourage people to claim all they are entitled to in order to minimise the impact of the policy, and to support some of the most vulnerable people in Cornwall.
2.43pm: Cllr Jim Candy says he hangs his head in shame regarding the party politics being played out in the chamber during the debate.
2.44pm: There is a request for the motion to have all points taken individually for voting.
2.45pm: The suggestion is rejected. The council approves a recorded vote for the motion.
2.46pm: Cllr Leigh Frost sums up before the vote, and says it is the 'slash and burn' nature of the policy that concerns him. He welcomes the suggestion of a hotline to give advise to vulnerable people who may not want to use the internet. He says while people talk about this, there ae people sat at home worrying, and that people should forget about arguing with each other and get on with supporting people.
2.53pm: The motion is approved by 53 votes in favour to three against.
2.57pm: We now move onto the third motion of the day, on the Preparation of Education Health and Care Plans. Cllr Hilary Frank introduces the motion, saying it is not an issue with those doing the work, but the increased demand and a lack of funding that is causing problems. She says it is a nationwide issue, but that the problem is worse in Cornwall with a larger deficit exacerbated by the lack of fair funding.
3pm: The motion is seconded by Cllr James Mustoe. It's text reads:
Noting the increased demand for Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), Full Council resolves to:
*Request the Leader to write to the Secretary of State for Education calling for her to:
- address the issue of fairer funding for SEND Services, and work to ease financial pressures on the production of EHCPs, focusing on the work of the f40 Group and formula 2 funding for schools
- address the funding deficit of pupils in Cornwall, who receive many thousands of pounds less per pupil compared to other parts of the country
*Request the Leader to contact all MPs representing Cornwall, asking them to apply pressure on government to address the issues raised in this motion.
3.07pm: Cllr Andrew George says that the council often talks about creating a Cornwall where children can start well, but that sadly often they don't.
3.08pm: Cllr Loveday Jenkin says that this is a timely motion. She tells the chamber that the staff at the council are doing a great job and are beginning to clear the backlog in applications, but that funding for extra staff taken on to do that ends in March. She says the issue comes down once more to a lack of fair funding for Cornwall.
3.11pm: Cllr Colin Martin says that he worked in the area and that in his experience, children who do not receive early intervention can often spiral into more issues.
3.15pm: Cllr Pat Rogerson says it is hard to quantify what early intervention can do, but that emerging evidence shows it is significant both for the individual and their families. She says it is another issue of a lack of funding.
3.20pm: Cllr Connor Donnithorne says consecutive governments have been unable to deal with the issue of fairer funding and that he hopes it can be tackled soon.
3.32pm: Cllr John Conway highlights one of the issues facing Cornwall, saying that, if in London your local SEND specialist school is full, the next option is a couple of miles away, in Cornwall it may be 20 or 30 miles away. It makes it far more expensive to fund here.
3.35pm: We now return to Cllr Frank to sum up. She says part of the motion was to highlight the brilliant work of the staff working in the area, and that she also wanted to remind people of the need for fairer funding once more
The motion is approved unanimously.
3.38pm: We now move onto Councillors' questions to Cabinet members.
4.17pm: Today's meeting has now concluded.
ENDS