Minutes:
(Councillors Hallway and Parker Leonard left the meeting at this point.)
It was moved by Councillor Carl Johnson, and seconded by Councillor Thirlaway that:
Only 20% or Towns funding and a similarly low percentage of ‘Levelling Up fund’ funding has been spent, despite being awarded many years ago in some cases. Government dithering over signing off business cases have caused costs to skyrocket because of the Conservatives mismanagement of the economy, this will mean many of the projects will never complete.
Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUCH) recently handed over £2billion in levelling up funds back to the treasury, while giving nothing to our borough. The Conservative Government have rejected every single application for levelling up funds North Tyneside Council has submitted and place us as a priority two area.
We have shovel ready schemes in Wallsend, North Shields, and the North West ready to go.
Council calls upon the Mayor to write to the Secretary of State for levelling up Housing and Communities and call upon him to release underspend funding at DLUCH to North Tyneside council for our shovel ready projects.
An amendment was moved by Councillor McAlpine and seconded by Councillor Johnston as follows:
To remove the second sentence completely, and from the third sentence remove the words ‘Micheal Gove’ and replace it with ‘The’.
From the fourth sentence, remove the word ‘Conservative’, and remove the phrase ‘rejected every single’ and replace it with ‘yet to approve an’ and replace ‘has’ with have’ later in that sentence.
A named vote on the amendment was requested by two members present.
Votes for the amendment:
Councillors L Bartoli, L Bones, J Johnsson, C Johnston, I McAlpine, P McIntyre, O Scargill, J Wallace.
Votes against the amendment:
Councillors B Burdis, K Clark, D Cox, S Cox, N Craven, J Cruddas, E Darke, S Day, D Drummond, P Earley, M Fox, S Graham. I Grayson, M Hall, J Harrison, Janet Hunter, C Johnson, H Johnson, J Kirwan, F Lott, W Lott, L Marshall, A McMullen, J Montague, J Mudzingwa, T Mulvenna, M Murphy, T Neira, A Newman, P Oliver, R O’Keefe, J O'Shea, S Phillips, B Pickard, N Redfearn, W Samuel, J Shaw, A Spowart, M Thirlaway, J Walker, M Wilson.
The amendment was rejected by 41 votes to 8 votes, with 2 abstentions.
A named vote on the substantive motion was requested by two members present.
Votes for the amendment:
Councillors B Burdis, K Clark, D Cox, S Cox, N Craven, J Cruddas, E Darke, C Davis, S Day, D Drummond, P Earley, M Fox, S Graham. I Grayson, M Hall, J Harrison, Janet Hunter, V Jamieson, C Johnson, H Johnson, J Kirwan, F Lott, W Lott, L Marshall, A McMullen, J Montague, J Mudzingwa, T Mulvenna, M Murphy, T Neira, A Newman, P Oliver, R O’Keefe, J O'Shea, S Phillips, B Pickard, N Redfearn, W Samuel, J Shaw, A Spowart, M Thirlaway, J Walker, M Wilson.
The amendment was approved by 43 votes, with 8 abstentions.