Agenda and minutes

96.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J H Evetts and B C J Hesketh.  

97.1           The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

97.2           There were no declarations of interest made on this occasion.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2017 and of the Extraordinary meeting held on 31 January 2017.

98.1           The Minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2017, and of the Extraordinary meeting held on 31 January 2017, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as correct records and signed by the Mayor, subject to an amendment to the first sentence at Minute No. CL.95.13, to read ‘At the workshop which had been held with Mr Thomas earlier in January, a Member Mr Thomas had pointed out that part of the Innsworth side of the Strategic Allocation, which was designated for housing, flooded through pluvial flooding and he the Member questioned whether that area of development had now been removed’.  

1.   When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

      In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.  

2.   To receive any announcements from the Chair of the Meeting and/or the Chief Executive.

99.1           The evacuation procedure, as set out on the Agenda, was advised to those present.

a)   To receive any questions, deputations or petitions submitted under Council Rule of Procedure.12.

(The deadline for public participation submissions for this meeting is 15 February 2017).

b)   To receive any petitions submitted under the Council’s Petitions Scheme.

100.1         There were no items from members of the public on this occasion.  

To receive any questions submitted under Rule of Procedure 13. Any items received will be circulated on 21 February 2017.

(Any questions must be submitted in writing to Democratic Services by, not later than, 10.00am on the working day immediately preceding the date of the meeting).

101.1         There were no Member questions on this occasion.  

At its meeting on 1 February 2017 the Executive Committee considered the 2017/18 budget and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that:  

1.    a net budget of £9,913,693 be APPROVED;

2.    a Band D Council Tax of £109.36, an increase of £5.00 per annum, be APPROVED;

3.    the use of New Homes Bonus, as proposed in Paragraph 3.8 of the report, be APPROVED;

4.    the Capital Programme, as proposed in Appendix A to the report, be APPROVED;

5.    the Capital Prudential Indicators, as proposed in Appendix B to the report, be APPROVED;

6.    the annual Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) statement, as contained in Appendix B to the report, be APPROVED; and

7.    the 2017/18 Treasury Management Strategy, as proposed in Appendix C to the report, be APPROVED. 

(If a Councillor intends to move a Motion or Amendment in relation to the Council’s annual budget, the text of the proposed Motion or Amendment must be submitted in writing to the Borough Solicitor by 9.00am on the working day preceding the day of the Council meeting).

(NB: Please remember that, in line with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, decisions on the budget MUST be a recorded vote).

102.1         At its meeting on 1 February 2017, the Executive Committee had considered a report which set out the proposed budget for 2017/18. The Executive Committee had recommended to Council that a net budget of £9,913,693 be approved; that a Band D Council Tax of £109.36, an increase of £5.00 per annum, be approved; that the use of New Homes Bonus, as proposed in Paragraph 3.8 of the report, be approved; that the Capital Programme, as proposed in Appendix A to the report, be approved;  that the Capital Prudential Indicators, as proposed in Appendix B to the report, be approved; that the annual Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) statement, as contained in Appendix B to the report, be approved; and that the 2017/18 Treasury Management Strategy, as proposed in Appendix C to the report, be approved.

102.2         The report which was considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 28-60.

102.3         The recommendation was proposed and seconded by the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee. In seconding the recommendation, the Vice-Chair of the Committee explained that this had, once again, been a tough budget setting process under difficult circumstances and he offered his thanks to the Council’s Finance Team for its help in ensuring a balanced budget was produced. He further indicated that, even by raising Council Tax, which was an unfortunate position to be in, the Council had still needed to use a relatively large amount of its reserves to balance the budget and these would need to be replaced in future years.

102.4         During the discussion which ensued, a Member questioned whether there was an overall statement of where all the reserves were held and the amounts that they contained. She felt it was important to be aware of how many reserves were being used and how much was left. In addition, she expressed the view that the cost for the waste, recycling and street cleansing services seemed very high and she was unsure why; she questioned whether this was connected to the Council joining Ubico and, if so, why being a member of Ubico should be costing the Council so much. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management advised that the overall reserves position was not included within the budget report as it was considered by the Executive Committee as a separate ‘Reserves report’. Overall, the Council had £3.72million in reserves with £837,000 being used in the 2017/18 budget in order to ensure a balanced budget was achieved. In response, the Member asked that she be provided with a list of all of the reserves so that she could keep track of them and the Head of Finance and Asset Management indicated that the Executive Committee reports were available to all Members. In terms of waste and recycling, he explained that the amount referred to covered the manning of the new vehicle fleet, fuel and insurance etc. and this had all been advised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102a

The Council is asked to formally set the Council Tax for 2017/18.

(A report will be circulated at the meeting)  

(NB: Please remember that, in line with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, decisions on the budget MUST be a recorded vote).

103.1         Having agreed the Council’s 2017/18 budget earlier in the meeting, attention was drawn to a report, circulated around the table, which asked Members to approve and set a Council Tax requirement for 2017/18.

103.2         In proposing the recommended Council Tax level, a Member indicated that, as could be seen from the budget, the Council had needed to find £800,000 and, even by raising a Band D Council Tax by £5.00 per year, only £162,000 additional funding would be found through Council Tax increases. This had not been an easy decision to make but he felt it was the only thing the Council could do in the current circumstances and was something that nearly every authority in the country was having to do.

103.3         In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, voting was recorded as follows:

103.4            Accordingly, it was

RESOLVED          1. Thatit be NOTED that, on 21 February 2017, the Council                                        calculated:

a.    the Council Tax base 2017/18 for the whole Council area as £32,512.32 (Item T in the formula section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended (the “Act”)); and

b.    the dwellings in those parts of its area to which a Parish precept relates as attached to the report at Appendix C.

                                                2.  That the Council Tax requirement calculated for the                                                             Council’s own purposes for 2017/18 (excluding Parish                                                         precepts) is £3,555,547.

                                                3. That the following amounts be calculated for the year                                                           2017/18 in accordance with Sections 30 to 36 of the Act:

a.    £37,853,992 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A(2) of the Act taking into account all precepts issued to it by the Parish Councils;

b.    £32,490,743 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31(A)(3) of the Act;

c.    £5,363,249 being the amount by which the aggregate at 3(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 3(b) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31A(4)of the Act and its Council Tax requirement for the year (Item R in formula in Section 31B of the Act);

d.    £164.96 being the amount at 3(c) above (Item R), all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.

Councillor R A Bird will propose and Councillor Mrs K J Berry will second that:

Customer Focused Service is one of the highest priorities for Tewkesbury Borough Council, and the Council Plan sets out our objectives to achieve this commitment. ‘Puts Customers First’ is one of our Council Values.

Tewkesbury Borough Council’s current waste collection service is the best in Gloucestershire in meeting the demands of residents, and achieves our Customer Service ethos.

Tewkesbury Borough Council is committed to maintaining the existing minimum service standard of:

1)    bi-weekly residual waste (Green Bin) collections, to ensure that our customers receive an effective, hygienic rate of waste removal;

2)    current large capacity residual waste bins (our existing standard), to ensure that customers are not in danger of having insufficient storage capacity, particularly where they might miss a collection; and

3)    co-mingled recycling (Blue Bin) collections, the simplest recycling service currently available, and an effective encouragement to recycling.

We welcome the attempts of the Joint Waste Committee to seek efficiencies in waste management across Gloucestershire through standardisation, providing these do not reduce in any way the minimum customer service standards listed above, which would be contrary to our Customer Service ethos and our Council Plan.

104.1         The Worshipful the Mayor referred to the Notice of Motion set out on the Agenda and indicated that, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, it was necessary for the Council firstly to decide whether it wished to debate and determine the Motion at the evening’s meeting, or whether it wished to refer the Motion, without debate, to a Committee for consideration with authority either to make a decision on the matter or to bring a recommendation back to Council. Upon being put to the vote it was agreed that the Motion would be determined at the current meeting.

104.2         Councillor R A Bird proposed and Councillor Mrs K J Berry seconded that:

                  ‘Customer focused service is one of the highest priorities for Tewkesbury Borough Council, and the Council Plan sets out our objectives to achieve this commitment. ‘Puts Customers First’ is one of our Council values.

                  Tewkesbury Borough Council’s current waste collection service is the best in Gloucestershire in meeting the demands of residents, and achieves our customer service ethos.

                  Tewkesbury Borough Council is committed to maintaining the existing minimum service standard of:

1)    bi-weekly residual waste (green bin) collections, to ensure that our customers receive an effective, hygienic rate of waste removal;

2)    current large capacity residual waste bins (our existing standard), to ensure that customers are not in danger of having insufficient storage capacity, particularly where they might miss a collection; and

3)    co-mingled recycling (blue bin) collections, the simplest recycling service currently available, and an effective encouragement to recycling.

We welcome the attempts of the Joint Waste Committee to seek efficiencies in waste management across Gloucestershire through standardisation, providing these do not reduce in any way the minimum customer service standards listed above, which would be contrary to our customer service ethos and our Council Plan’.

104.3         In speaking to the Motion, Councillor Bird indicated that the Motion was meant to be a statement of intent as to where the Council stood in terms of waste management. He had some concerns about the future direction of waste collection i.e. some authorities seemed to be considering three weekly residual collections and reducing bin sizes etc. In addition, many people saw the comingled collection, which was Tewkesbury Borough’s current recyclate collection, as contaminated. However, the Council Plan was focussed on customer service and Tewkesbury Borough Council considered its own service to be the best in Gloucestershire. The Joint Waste Committee had indicated that waste was a demand-led service but he felt it was important to remember that demands came from customers. Bearing all of this in mind, the proposer of the Motion felt it was important to set out the Council’s minimum service standards and he referred to points 1-3 within the Motion set out on the Agenda. In seconding the Motion, Councillor Berry advised that she fully supported the proposer of the Motion. She had undertaken some research which had found that the highest performing authority was South Oxfordshire and that all five top performing authorities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

105.1         The Chair proposed, and it was  

                  RESOLVED          That, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act                               1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following                              items on the grounds that they involve the likely discussion of                                     exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the                               Act.

The Council is asked to consider and determine separate recommendations of a policy nature arising from the Executive Committee as follows:-   

(Exempt –Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 – Information relating to any individual) 

At its meeting on 1 February 2017 the Executive Committee considered a report detailing a restructure of the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Service and made a recommendation to Council thereon.

(Exempt –Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 – Information relating to any individual) 

106.1         At its meeting on 1 February 2017 the Executive Committee had considered a report detailing a restructure of the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Service and had made a recommendation to Council thereon.  Having considered the report before it, the Council approved the proposals as contained within Section 3 of the report and as detailed within the appendices.

(Exempt –Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 –Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information))

At its meeting on 1 February 2017 the Executive Committee considered a report detailing a proposal to refurbish the Public Services Centre and made a recommendation to Council thereon.

                  (Exempt –Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 –Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information))

106.2         At its meeting on 1 February 2017 the Executive Committee had considered a report which detailed a proposal to refurbish the Public Services Centre and had made a recommendation to Council thereon. Having considered the report, the Council approved the proposals for the refurbishment of the Council Offices as outlined therein.