Agenda item

To consider motions referred from council assembly on the following:

 

·  Motion on the theme – Older people

·  Universal Credit

·  Post Offices for Southwark

·  South London Line Replacement

·  Gay marriage

RESOLVED:

 

Motion on Themed Debate - Older People

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That council assembly acknowledges that:

 

·  10 million people in the UK are over the age of 65 and this will rise to 15.5 million by 2035

·  3 million are over the age of 80 and this is set to double in 20 years time.

 

2.  That council assembly welcomes and celebrates the fact that we are all living longer and pays tribute to the amazing contribution older people make to Southwark’s diverse communities, economy and society as a whole.

 

3.  That council assembly calls on members to recognise this contribution and discuss how more can be made of the opportunities that longer lives bring with particular focus on:

 

·  How the council can recognise the role that people in later life often play in their communities, through volunteering, caring and by playing an active role in neighbourhood life

·  How people in Southwark can take advantage of the wide variety of sporting, educational and social activities available as they get older

·  How the council can promote the greater role that more active grandparents play in their families’ lives

·  How the council can work with the NHS and other partners to give older people more choice in the services they receive, enabling them to live healthy lives and stay in their own homes and communities for longer.

 

4.  That council assembly also recognises the council’s important role in caring for older people who require care and support.

 

5.  That council assembly notes that £1.3 billion has already been cut from local council budgets for older people's social care and believes the council should strive to create an adult care system that helps older people to find the support they need, enabling them to live healthy, independent lives in their own communities and homes, rather than retaining a long-term dependency on council services, whilst also protecting our most vulnerable older residents.

 

6.  That council assembly also recognises that many of the groups in Southwark that provide services to older people have lost their funding through government cuts and so welcomes the council’s “innovation fund” which is enabling local organisations to become more self-sustaining going forward.

 

Universal Credit

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That council assembly notes that, starting in October 2013, universal credit will begin to replace income support, job seekers allowance, employment and support allowance, housing benefit, working tax credit, child tax credit and support for mortgage interest.

 

2.  That council assembly recognises that universal credit is a household benefit and that the income from universal credit will therefore be critical to the household incomes of thousands of its residents who are both in and out of work.

 

3.  That council assembly therefore believes that the quality of the universal credit ‘service’ will be important to the lives of its citizens and that the planned reliance on a web based delivery model backed up by remote call centres without the inclusion of a local, easily accessible, face to face service element puts the successful introduction of universal credit at significant risk.

 

4.  That council assembly therefore calls on the cabinet:

 

1)  To approach Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and raise its concerns.

 

2)  To develop jointly with DWP local arrangements for the delivery of universal credit and to report back on progress to the cabinet member for finance, resources and community safety, specifically addressing the resources required and responses to the following basic questions:

 

·  How will someone apply locally?

·  Where will they apply locally?

·  Where will they take required documents locally?

·  Where will the local ‘universal credit’ office be and what office accommodation will be required?

·  How will the skills and experience of existing benefits staff be utilised and how many staff will be needed?

·  How does an individual citizen get face to face advice and help if they have a problem?

 

3)  To support the Local Government Association in pressing for universal credit to be administered by local authorities.

 

Post Offices for Southwark

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That council assembly notes the importance of local post office branches in Southwark for local people, small businesses and the community as a whole.

 

2.  That council assembly regrets the closure of post offices in Southwark in 2002 and 2008.  It notes that Essex Council acted to save the post offices in Essex that were under threat in 2008.  It further notes that Labour in Southwark campaigned for the Liberal Democrat/Tory council in Southwark to take similar action at the time, but that it chose not to.

 

3.  That council assembly notes that 48% of the £1.34 billion of 'new money' announced by the government for investment in the post office to aid the privatisation of Royal Mail is existing subsidy and that the four year package of funding is £360m less than the last Labour government’s funding package of £1.7bn in 2006.

 

4.  That council assembly notes that under the government’s network transformation plans thousands of post offices will be closed and replaced with counters in shops, off licences and petrol stations – known as ‘Post Office Locals’.  Locals will not provide:

 

·  international parcels and parcels weighing over 5kg and 6kg respectively

·  Parcel Force Express Services parcels

·  manual cash deposits and withdrawals

·  change giving service to small businesses

·  post office financial services and insurance products

·  manual bill payment services

·  passport, car tax and DVLA services

·  on-demand foreign currency

·  payment by cheque.

 

5.  That council assembly notes the widespread concern about the effects of network transformation has led to 75 MPs, including five Liberal Democrats, to call for a moratorium on the plans, and the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee will be holding an inquiry in May.

 

6.  That council assembly notes the comments of the cabinet member for finance, resources and community safety in 5 January's Southwark News, welcoming the Southwark Liberal Democrats' "Damascene conversion" and committing the council to working "with the post office to look into whether it is possible to combine post office services with other facilities".

 

7.  That council assembly calls on the cabinet to follow through with this commitment and report back on progress in not more than six months.

 

8.  That council assembly notes the previous Liberal Democrat and Tory administration’s decision to relocate Bermondsey One Stop Shop and welcomes the decision to locate alternative facilities at 11 Market Place in The Blue.

 

9.  That council assembly condemns Southwark Liberal Democrats’ proposal to delay the introduction of these facilities at The Blue which could potentially result in a period where those services would be unavailable in the north-east of the borough

 

South London Line Replacement

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That council assembly notes that the South London Line is a well-used regular train service linking Victoria and London Bridge. Thousands of Southwark residents use it on a daily basis, as it serves Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Road, Peckham Station, South Bermondsey and London Bridge from early morning until late evening seven days a week.

 

2.  That council assembly regrets that this service is due to be cancelled later this year when the East London Line spur from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction is opened. There will be a reduced service from Peckham Rye, Queens Road and South Bermondsey to London Bridge. As a consequence of the cancellation of the South London Line, Southwark residents will no longer have a train connection to Victoria in the evenings and early mornings and half the current service at other times.

 

3.  That council assembly notes that the service that will remain if no replacement is offered is the Victoria to Dartford service that starts at rush hour and finishes in the early evening. The Victoria to Dartford service is already unfit for purpose. Southwark residents are walking to New Cross to get southbound trains in the morning as the service starts too late. Also, residents cannot access by train, a key connection with the Docklands Light Railway/train hub at Lewisham outside Monday to Saturday peak hours. For two years, the First Capital Connect service has been diverted to Victoria in the evenings. The level of use of this service and the soon to be axed South London Line has shown there is great demand for an evening service to Victoria from the Southwark stations.

 

4.  That council assembly believes the new East London Line is a welcome addition to transport links for Southwark residents. It is however, very much a supplement rather that a substitute to existing routes, as Clapham Junction is geographically a very different destination to Victoria. It is understood that due to routing challenges, with the increased line use that changes to the current service may be necessary. However, suitable substitutes need to be in place.

 

5.  That council assembly supports the proposal for the Victoria to Dartford service to become a full, early morning until midnight seven-day a week service (two trains per hour in each direction), complementing a full First Capital Connect Sevenoaks to Bedford service via Blackfriars. Additional service would be provided during peak hours (similar to the current Victoria to Dartford service) with two trains per hour between Victoria and Bellingham. This would result in maintenance of the current train frequency at Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye to and from Victoria and an increase of two trains per hour at Nunhead. Two trains per hour would still be lost from Queen’s Road Station; however, Nunhead Station is 10 minutes walk from Queen’s Road.

 

Gay Marriage

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and agreed.

 

1.  That this council acknowledges the role of individual parliamentarians, of all parties and no parties, and successive governments since the early 1990's to introduce legislation to provide equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the UK.

 

2.  That this council notes and welcomed the introduction of civil partnerships for same-sex couples by the last government.

 

3.  That this council supports the current government's proposals to consult on how to enable same-sex couples to have a civil marriage and the subsequent introduction of legislation in this parliament to make this a reality.