Quick overview of what you need to know from the latest Sunderland full council meeting

City leaders took questions on the Chester Road facility’s planned £7.5 million overhaul at the meeting of Sunderland City Council on Wednesday, November 20, as well as on a host of other issues.

Concerns had been raised that the proposals could see an ‘appalling act of desecration’ at the site’s garden of remembrance, which it was feared could be flattened to extend car parking space.

Coun Debra Waller, deputy cabinet member for environment and transport, told the council chamber there were ‘no plans to build a car park on the garden of remembrance’.

Other highlights from the meeting at Sunderland Civic centre included:

Cuts to councillor allowances agreed which are expected to save about £140,000 a year Calls from opposition leaders for Coun Louise Farthing, cabinet member for children’s services, to resign if there is no improvement at the city’s children’s services department in the next six months. Assurances the council will not be hit in the pocket by interest rate hikes at the Public Works Loan Board Bosses revealed 118 homes in the city reported flooding in July and August The council’s planning website, where any applications to build can be submitted or viewed, suffered five ‘unplanned outages’ between March 2018 and October (2019), as well as a further four ‘planned outages’ Councillors of all parties backed a motion calling on the government to abolish ‘no fault’ evictions. The measure has already been banned in Scotland and a consultation on plans to end the practice in England was started earlier this year Calls to reverse a decision to remove independent members from the council-appointed Port Board, which is responsible for Port of Sunderland, were dismissed after it was pointed out councillors had already agreed to scrap allowances for the position. A Conservative motion calling for a debate on senior council staff being made to declare any ‘political interests’ was stopped as the proposal was thought to be unlawful.

Log onto sunderlandecho.com for more to come on the key issues.