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 within the Medium Term Financial Strategy which Members had approved in December 2016. The other element was the increasing cost of dealing with recyclate which, in the current year, had cost an extra £200,000. He confirmed that, at the end of 2016/17, a new contract was required and this had also been factored into the Medium Term Financial Strategy as an extra cost. In addition, the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management advised that the waste fleet had been procured through a tendering process so the Council had gained the best value possible.

102.5         In terms of community grants, a Member questioned how much had been allocated. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management advised that, in the current year, £150,000 had been provided for community grants, along with a sum of approximately £32,000 which funded the Community Grants Officer post. Members had suggested that the £150,000 be eliminated from 2017/18 with the Community Grants Officer being utilised to find alternative funding for those projects that needed it. The Member indicated that the lack of allocation of any New Homes Bonus funding for community grants was a major issue as far as he was concerned. He was of the view that New Homes Bonus money should be used for the new communities being created that may have issues they wished to address and he felt that some money should be available for that purpose. He proposed that £100,000 be put into community grants from the Medium Term Financial Strategy reserve. In response, the Borough Solicitor referred the Member to the Council Procedure Rule which advised that, if a Councillor intended 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.

102.6         A Member drew attention to Paragraph 6.1 which noted that the base estimate for the Chief Executive for 2017/18 was £250,187 and he questioned whether this was correct. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management advised that this covered the Chief Executive’s Unit rather than just the Chief Executive which meant it included the costs for a number of staff members. Referring to the fact that the report included a statement about non-specified investment limits, a Member asked for reassurance that the Council would not end up in the same position as it had during the collapse of the Icelandic Bank. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management confirmed that all such investments would be avoided. The Council’s ability to invest was not the same as it had been in previous years so that in itself offered a safeguard against foreign investments.

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

                  (Councillor M G Sztymiak asked that his vote against the budget be recorded for the reason that he felt it did not put enough money into the community).

102.8         Accordingly, it was

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

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

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

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

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

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

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