Agenda item - Halt the current consultation into school admission boundaries

1)               That the petition be noted.

53.1    The Mayor stated that the Council’s Petition Scheme provide that where a petition secures 1,250 or more signatures it can be debated at a meeting of the Full Council. There were three petitions which had reached that threshold. The Mayor invited Greg Fittock to join the meeting and present the first petition.

53.2    Greg Fittock presented a petition for debate titled ‘Halt the Current Consultation into School Admission Boundaries’ which had received 1969 signatures at the time the agenda was published.

53.3    The Mayor invited Councillor McGregor, Chair of Licensing Committee and Portfolio Lead for Communications to reply:

53.4    Councillor McGregor replied:

Firstly, Greg, I want to thank you for putting the petition in and for coming to speak today. One thing that we wanted to mention was that this is an opportunity for us to have these conversations and I think that to stop this consultation would devolve people away from actually having the chance to put their opinions across. And I do understand that the situation may not be perfect but this whole consultation, and the pre-consultation process, allows us to at least have that discussion. The engagement sessions with Councillor Taylor and the Education Department are allowing us to at least have that open and robust discussion.

I think that the situation that we're currently in with the catchment areas is one that we've not addressed for a long time and right now we really need to have that conversation to get the best for all of our children and actually get to a point where we are addressing the issues of inequality in our city. So while I do understand, and the administration understands your concerns, I think now would be the wrong time to stop the consultation to have a conversation, because I think this is the point for us to have everybody's opinion be met and actually listen to people throughout the consultation process and I’ve said say consultation many, many times. But thank you very much.

53.5    Councillor Pickett moved an amendment on behalf of the Green Group which was formally seconded by Councillor McLeay.

53.6    Councillors Theobald and Fishleigh spoke on the matter.

53.7    The Mayor moved to put the amendment to the vote.

53.9    The Mayor confirmed that the amendment had been lost and put the recommendation to note the petition as listed in the original report to the vote.

53.10  Resolved -

1)          That the petition is noted.