Agenda and decisions

Carried forward from July and August meetings. Please note the report has been updated since those meetings.

(i)             to note the actions contained in the report being taken to increase diversity in leadership;

(ii)           to note the self-assessment and areas for further consideration contained within Appendix A;

(iii)          to note that in the first appropriate committee cycle in 2025/26 the equality, diversity and inclusion action plan, first agreed in 2021, would be updated and reported to the Staff Governance Committee for approval, as a result of the ongoing work, self-assessment exercise and new equality outcomes due to be presented for approval in April 2025;

(iv)          to note that the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services would check on training that had been offered to elected members, with a view to offering training to all elected members regarding unconscious bias, which was currently part of training offered to recruiting managers; and

(v)           to note that the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services would provide information regarding (1) the number of complaints that had been received by ethnic minority employees alleging racial discrimination; and (2) uptake of the various training referred to in paragraph 3.5.7 of the report.

to refer the report to the Finance and Resources Committee.

(i)             to approve the HRA Business Plan at Appendix A to the report;

(ii)           to agree the HRA Business Plan would be updated on an annual basis and reported to Council;

(iii)          to note the requirement for the Council to maintain HRA reserves for financial resilience and sustainability purposes and that the Plan builds in an annual surplus to support the value of HRA Reserves as time passes;

(iv)          to approve the terms of proposed consultation with tenants as detailed in paragraph 3.4 and instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to consult with the tenants, and note that the Chief Officer - Finance would include the results as part of the HRA Budget 2025/26 presented to the Council on 11 December 2024:

(v)           to note that the Council would receive reports on the Local Housing Strategy and the Housing Asset Management Plan in 2025 and these would inform future updates to the HRA Business Plan; and

(vi)          to note that the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord would circulate information with regard to the breakdown of void properties re-let to different categories of people.

(i)             to note that the Aberdeen City Council (City Centre, Aberdeen) (Traffic Management) (Experimental) Order 2023 was implemented to achieve the safe and efficient movement of active travel and public transport users through the city centre, and that the measures originated from the City Centre Masterplan 2015 Movement Strategy;

(ii)           to note that at the Council’s City Growth and Resources Committee in February 2021, Committee instructed officers to submit a bid to the Scottish Government’s Bus Partnership Fund, and included specific instructions to:-

(a)           instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning, that in the context of the corridor options within the bid terminating in the City Centre, and in light of the recommendations from the Economic Policy Panel and ongoing transport projects, to seek to accelerate the City Centre elements of the bid. This should include any necessary enabling works for approved schemes, for example South College Street and Berryden, to help drive recovery, improve the transport system and ensure integration of current transport projects; and

(b)           instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning, to explore options to improve access and integration of the Aberdeen bus station as part of the bid, to help improve the customer experience;

(iii)          to note that at the Council meeting in June 2022, all Members of Council present either explicitly voted for the inclusion of bus priority measures contained within the Aberdeen City Council (City Centre, Aberdeen) (Traffic Management) (Experimental) Order 2023, or proposed an amendment that would have also resulted in the measures being included;

(iv)          to note that, as instructed by Council in July 2024, additional work has been undertaken by officers to investigate the feasibility and impact of reopening Bridge Street to all vehicles in one or both directions; and, the feasibility and impact of removing the ban on right turns from Union Terrace onto Rosemount Viaduct (Appendix 1);

(v)           to note that the output of the additional work referenced in recommendation 2.4 (above) does not provide officers with sufficient certainty that amending bus priority measures on Bridge Street and Union Terrace would not prejudice the further delivery of key projects within the City Centre & Beach Masterplan 2022;

(vi)          to note that the output of the additional work referenced in recommendation 2.4 (above) does not provide officers with sufficient certainty that amending bus priority measures on Bridge Street and Union Terrace would guarantee there would not be a need in the near future for the measures to be reintroduced as traffic levels begin to rise once more;

(vii)        to note that, according to Scotland’s 2022 Census Data, 30.7% of households in Aberdeen do not have a car or van in their household;

(viii)       to note that, in February 2023, Aberdeen City Council added its voice to the growing number of local authorities around the world to have responded to the global climate change and nature loss crises by declaring a climate and nature emergency;

(ix)          to agree that, in accepting grant funding from Transport Scotland for the South  ...  view the full decision text for item

acting in its capacity as trustee of the Lands of Torry (charity number SC021299) -

(i)             approve the granting of a 20-year lease of The Torry Battery to Greyhope Bay Ltd at a proposed peppercorn rent of £1.00 per annum, subject to planning and Listed Building consent for the proposed works being granted; and

(ii)           instruct the Chief Officer - Governance following consultation with the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to conclude the appropriate legal agreements incorporating various qualifications as necessary to protect the Council’s and Trust’s interests.

to defer consideration of the report to the Council meeting in December.

to defer consideration of the report to the Council meeting in December.

to refer the report to the Finance and Resources Committee.

Notes that Council passed a notice of motion on 13 December 2023 recognising the importance of holding out a hand to those outwith our direct area.  It called for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine/Israel, and for urgent humanitarian relief for the citizens of Gaza.

Since then, nine months have passed and tens of thousands more civilians have died.  In March 2024 the United Nations Special Rapporteur found that “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.” In July 2024, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet stated that “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000  [7.9% of the total population in the Gaza strip] or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza”.  Later in July, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest court, ruled that “Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful” and that Israel “is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible” and “is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

This Council reaffirms its place as part of the common family of humanity, and:

1.      Reiterates our call for a permanent ceasefire;

2.      Calls on the Lord Provost to fly the Palestinian Flag on 29 November 2024, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People;

3.      Follows Barcelona and other cities and instructs the Chief Officer - Governance to report to Council by the end of 2024 on any direct or indirect links that Aberdeen City Council have with the State of Israel, with a view to stopping these;

4.      Asks the North East Scotland Pension Fund to commission a study to identify any investments in companies that supply arms to Israel, as these investments may be at high risk due to the political instability;

5.      Recognises the UK Labour Government’s suspension of 30 licences for arms sales to Israel;

6.      Endorses the Scottish Government’s 2024 call for an arms embargo on Israel, and calls for the Scottish Government to act in all its available capacities to help prevent the production and transfer of weapons components for Israel from arms companies in Scotland; and

7.      Instructs the Chief Executive to write to other Scottish Local Authorities informing them of this motion, and encouraging them to take similar actions.

to refer the notice of motion to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee.