The council convene for the first proper meeting of the year later this week on 2 February. There was a full meeting in January, but the short agenda only required councillors to discuss and decide upon the Alternative Business Model, or privatisation plans, for areas of council business. This idea has now been completely thrown out, and it is back to normal business for the elected members. For now that is.
It is less than 100 days until the council elections on 3 May 2012, and one has to think that some campaigning and electioneering will get under way soon, although not, it is hoped, to the detriment of any council plans and decisions. But all of last year the administration has been under considerable pressure, notably over the trams and privatisation, when their coalition partners, the SNP group, were not always at one with them, and forcing a vote of no confidence in the administration at one point.
There are some important matters to be discussed:-
A new way of dealing with staff absences has been brought forward from the recent Policy and Strategy Committee meeting. The Managing Attendance Procedure was discussed for an hour at the recent meeting, after which it was remitted to the full council for decision. The current procedure has been extended to the end of February to allow time for the delay in councillors deciding whether to adopt this new scheme or not. UNISON presented a deputation to the Policy committee last week putting forward various objections which you can read on our Liveblog.
The council will be asked to approve the closure of Westfield Court Nursery School in Balgreen due to Health and Safety issues. One of the points made in the report is that:-
- “The nursery is situated on the top floor of a seven storey block of flats and this presents a significant health and safety risk should staff need to evacuate the building with the children.”
The proposal is to move all of the children attending the nursery to Tynecastle or Calderglen Nursery Schools.
The agenda for this meeting also includes several questions lodged by various councillors.
We look forward to hearing all the answers to questions and the general discussion. We will be at the City Chambers and will be bringing you live updates on the proceedings.
The Agenda for the meeting is reproduced in full here:-
