Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor James Holmes.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2020 are agreed as an accurate record.

The Mayor provided a brief update on her activities since the last meeting of the Council and advised that an online auction of items which would have been auctioned at the Mayor’s Ball, had it been allowed to take place, would be taking place shortly.

The Leader announced that Councillor Tobin Byers had stepped down from his role on the Cabinet and paid tribute to and placed on record his thanks for his work as Cabinet Member.

There were no announcements from the Chief Executive.

The motion was formally moved by Councillor Alambritis and formally seconded by Councillor Allison

There being no dissent to the motion it was

RESOLVED:

To vary the order of business so that the agenda will only consist of the following:

1)    Public questions for noting

2)    Member questions on the Covid response for noting and any supplementary questions asked in the meeting

3)    Covid report and amendments to that report limited to one per Group

4)    South London Waste Plan report

5)    Proportionality and committee places report and amendments

The responses to the written public questions were circulated with the agenda prior to the meeting.

RESOLVED that the questions and answers contained in the agenda be noted.

The responses to the written member questions were circulated with the agenda prior to the meeting.  The Mayor then invited each of the members in turn to ask (if they wished) a further question to the Cabinet Member within the allocated 15 minutes.  A copy of the supplementary questions and responses will be published separately.

The report was moved by Councillor Alambritis and seconded by Councillor Allison

Councillors McLean and Fairclough responded to the report.

The Liberal Democrat amendment as set out in agenda item 11 was formally moved by Councillor Fairclough and formally seconded by Councillor McGrath.

The Conservative amendment as set out in agenda item 12 was formally moved by Councillor Gretton and formally seconded by Councillor Ormrod.

Councillors Macauley, Bokhari, Kohler, Gretton, Ormrod and Whelton spoke on this item.

There being no dissent, the Liberal Democrat amendment was carried.

The Conservative amendment was put to a vote and fell – votes in favour: 24, votes against: 33, abstentions: 1*.

The substantive motion (as amended) was then put to a vote and was carried - votes in favour: 59, votes against 0, abstentions: 1.

RESOLVED:

That the Council:

1.    notes the steps taken by the council in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and challenges ahead;

2.    commits in principle, to the idea that those working for Merton’s contractors in the care sector should be paid at least the London Living Wage, and recognises that this will likely only be affordable with increased investment in social care from the Government;

3.    recognises that the London Living Wage was looked at in 2017 when the homecare framework was procured, at which time the additional cost to the Council was £2.6m per annum, which excludes residential care;

4.    works with existing contractors to get the data needed to understand the impact on the Council’s finances of requiring the London Living Wage for contractors' workers in any new procurement exercise; and

5.    requests the leader of the Council to write to Merton’s MPs to request the Government provides sufficient funding to support this in addition to the funding necessary to ensure the care sector is sustainable, and continues to take other opportunities to lobby for it.

*Note – Due to technical issues during the roll call, two Members could not be heard.

The report was moved by Councillor Whelton and formally seconded by Councillor Allison.

Councillor Holden also spoke on this item.

There being no dissent to the recommendations it was

RESOLVED:

A.   That, having considered the recommendations from the Borough Plan Advisory Committee and Cabinet, Council consider the contents of this report and resolve to submit the draft South London Waste Plan to the Secretary of State, understanding that this will be preceded by a statutory six-week pre-submission publication period.

B.   That approval of any amendments arising during or subsequent to the Examination-in-Public be delegated to the Director of Environment and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Housing and Transport.

The report was moved by Councillor Quilliam and seconded by Councillor Allison

The Liberal Democrat amendment as set out in agenda item 13 was moved by Councillor Kohler and formally seconded by Councillor McGrath.

The Conservative amendment as set out in agenda item 14 was moved by Councillor Williams and formally seconded by Councillor Holden.

The Liberal Democrat amendment was put to a vote and fell – votes in favour: 6, votes against: 36, abstentions: 17*.

The Conservative amendment was put to a vote and fell – votes in favour: 22, votes against: 37, abstentions: 1**.

There being no dissent to the recommendations it was

RESOLVED:

That the Council:

1.         Approves the allocation of seats to political groups as set out at Appendix A to the Council report.

2.         Approves the appointment of nominations to those seats as set out in Appendix B and paragraph 2.2 of the Council report.

3.         Notes the changes to the membership of Committees that were approved under delegated authority since the last meeting of the Council.

*Note: Due to technical issues two Members could not be heard.  One Member therefore declared their vote via the Zoom chat function.

**Note: Due to technical issues one Member could not be heard and therefore declared their vote via the Zoom chat function.