Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Offices, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1BN

Contact: Anne Hunter  Democratic and Electoral Services Lead Specialist

Media

Items
No. Item

73.

Minutes Silence

Minutes:

The Council stood in silence to honour the memory of Muriel Long, who had previously been a ward member for Finchampstead for 20 years and Chairman of the Council in 2002, who had passed away recently.

74.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were submitted from Councillors Pauline Helliar Symons, Graham Howe, Dianne King, Charles Margetts, Ian Pittock and Angus Ross.

75.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 541 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the Council Meeting held on 23 January 2020

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 January 2020 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

76.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest

Minutes:

Councillor John Halsall declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports on the grounds that he was a Non Executive Director of WBC Holdings Limited.

 

Councillor John Halsall declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports and Item 67 Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan on the grounds that he was a Director of the Campaign to Protect Rural Wokingham.

 

Councillor John Kaiser declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports on the grounds that he was a Non Executive Director of WBC Holdings Limited, Berry Brook Homes and Wokingham Housing Limited.

 

Councillor Lindsay Ferris declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports on the grounds that he was a Non Executive Director of Loddon Homes Limited.

 

Councillor UllaKarin Clark declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports on the grounds that she was a Non Executive Director of Loddon Homes Limited.

 

Councillor Stuart Munro declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports on the grounds that he was a Non Executive Director of WBC Holdings Limited.

 

Councillor Wayne Smith declared a Personal Interest in Item 66 Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports on the grounds that he was a Non Executive Director of WBC Holdings Limited.

 

77.

Mayor's Announcements

To receive any announcements by the Mayor

Minutes:

The Mayor informed Members of the Mayor’s Event on 28 March 2020 and encouraged as many as possible to attend.

78.

Public Question Time

To answer any public questions

 

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

 

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of the Council

 

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Council or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

Minutes:

In accordance with the agreed procedure the Mayor invited members of the public to submit questions to the appropriate Members.

78.1

Ian Shenton asked the Executive Member for Climate Emergency the following question:

Minutes:

Question

I'm very pleased that this Council has declared a climate emergency, and delighted to see in some literature through my door that £50 million will be spent on reducing our carbon emissions, which is set to be approved at tonight's meeting as part of the Council's budget. Specifically, how will this money be used?

 

Answer

The committed investment of £50 million over the next three years (subject to approval at this Council) will allow some of the actions identified within the initial Climate Emergency Action Plan to progress.

 

To significantly reduce the Borough’s carbon dioxide emissions within 10 years, the Council will require the implementation of substantial actions.  The Council efforts will focus on the key emitting sectors; energy, domestic gas and transport.

 

The assigned funding will be allocated over the next 3 years to the following projects:

 

·         Development of infrastructure for the generation of renewable energy.  These will take shape in the form of solar farms, which will either feed into a battery or grid arrangement.

 

·         Reduction of energy consumption in council-owned assets.  These will see a wide range of energy efficiency projects at existing properties to reduce our energy demand.  These include installing LED lighting, cavity wall and loft insulation boiler controls.  These are envisaged to deliver demonstrable energy saving benefit.

 

·         Investment in energy reduction schemes to support residents and small businesses to fund energy efficiency and retrofitting projects.

 

·         Investment in public rights of way, cycle networks, greenways, new foot and cycle structures and other non-motorised routes throughout the Borough to support mode shift to active and sustainable modes of transport.

 

·         Enhancement of transport infrastructure in the Borough to expand and improve the use of public transport.

 

·         Improvement in waste schemes to increase recycling and food waste collection.

 

·         Implementation of a rolling programme of capital projects aimed at enhancing biodiversity of various sites and other assets.

 

Supplementary Question:

When I look through last year’s Capital Spending Programme a lot of that money was already in there before we had declared a climate emergency.  For example, food waste collection had £20,000 in the Budget for the coming financial year but it was under the Customer and Locality section.  This year the same amount is under Climate Emergency.  Coppid Beech Park and Ride was under last year’s Budget for £2.7m to be spent in the coming financial year in Customer and Localities.  The same amount has been transferred to the Climate Emergency section of this year’s Budget.  Likewise, greenways were down for £1m in the coming financial year and in this year’s Budget it is actually less at £874,000 under Climate Emergency.  There are many examples of this and I believe it is a bit misleading.  How is this £50million for the Climate Emergency when it looks like old money with a new name?

 

Supplementary Answer:

Actually almost half of the money that is being spent on climate emergency is new money.  The money that we are putting into solar farms, the money we are putting into our Green  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.1

78.2

Chris Wallace asked the Executive Member for Finance and Housing the following question:

Minutes:

Question

Agenda Item 66.1, Appendix A Page 45. The Housing Revenue Account Reserves – states that the reserve has to be a minimum 5% of gross spend with the current recommended minimum level of reserves at £0.8m.  Could you explain why a reserve of less than this minimum, £0.6m (2020) & £0.7m (2021) is being authorised?

 

Answer

You rightly point out the recommended minimum level of reserve is approximately £0.8m and the proposed level for 2020/21 is just below this at £0.6m, but it rises to £1m over the next 3 years.

 

The reason for the reduction in reserves in 2020/21 is because we are repaying a significant tranche of HRA debt.  What that means is the HRA debt is the second largest debt that this Council has, which is about £85m, that we took to buy our own council houses back so we could retain all of the rents and use that money to keep them at a decent standard.  Before, half of our council rent was going out of the Borough, going somewhere else.  In addition, there are other issues which will increase the debt, but it looks like at the end of year we are going to have an underspend, which is increasingly likely.  The minimum level is a guideline recommended by the Council’s CFO and if he is comfortable with the budget proposal given the options available to us.  The other thing that has not really helped is the fact that, in real terms, council home rents have probably dropped over the last 4 years by about 14%, so we have had less income as well. 

 

Supplementary Question:

The reduction in the reserves and the need to increase borrowing to £2.3million for major repairs seems to have been caused by the HRA being stripped of assets, resulting in a loss of dwelling rent income of more than £2million per annum for the years shown in the Budget.  It would appear that most of these assets have been transferred free of charge to WHL, with the profits from new builds being returned to the General Fund at the same time as the HRA, as you said, is still servicing loans taken out in 2012.  As the HRA is a ring fenced fund by law, the Housing Act 1985, can you, show how this use of HRA assets and funds can be regarded as legal?

 

Supplementary Answer:

I am not quite sure where you got your information from, but it is a ring fenced fund, and we have not been taking any money out of it, or I do not know about us taking money out of it.  I think you will find that the decrease in the fund is much around the reduction in the rent that we have been collecting over the last 4 years, which again is a nearly 15% reduction in the rent that we would have normally expected under normal circumstances.

79.

Petitions

To receive any petitions which Members or members of the public wish to present.

Minutes:

There were no petitions received.

80.

Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports

The following Budget reports will be taken as one Agenda Item and a period of 1½ hours will be allowed to debate the item.

 

Minutes:

The Council considered four reports which together comprised a single Agenda item:

 

·           The Housing Revenue Account Budget 2020/21 as set out on Agenda pages 39-50;

·           The Capital Programme and Strategy 2020-2023 as set out on Agenda pages 51-98;

·           The Treasury Management Strategy 2020-2023 as set out on Agenda pages 99-152;

·           The Medium Term Financial Plan 2020/23 – Revenue Budget Submission 2020/21 as set out on Agenda pages 153-156.

 

The Mayor reminded Members that a total of 90 minutes would be set aside for the debate.

 

Prior to proposing the budget, Councillor John Halsall made the following announcement.

 

Since the publication of the Treasury Management Strategy and Medium Term Financial Plan documents included in tonight’s agenda, I have the following amendments to highlight;

 

1.    We now have received the council tax precepts for Winnersh Parish and the Fire Authority, these have now been included in the relevant pages of the Medium Term Financial Plan.

 

2.    The elements of the capital funding in the Treasury Management Strategy and Medium Term Financial Plan have been corrected to reflect the latest figures.  This includes an increase in developer funding and use of capital reserves which means an £8m reduction in borrowing. There is no change to the total funding and no change to the planned Capital Programme which is still £517m over the next 3 years.

 

3.    Following the changes just mentioned, all affected tables in the Treasury Management Strategy and Medium Term Financial Plan have been restated; this also corrects some casting anomalies.

 

4.    Updated figures and tables have been tabled at the meeting for information.

 

Following the receipt of the council tax precepts for all the Parish Councils, the Fire Authority and the Police, the Council tax amounts for 20/21 for each Council Tax Band and Parish are set out in the “Revenue Budget & Statutory Resolution” (Appendix A) as shown as “to follow” in the agenda pack.

 

I ask Council to resolve to agree the recommendations set out in the Treasury Management Strategy as adjusted by the tabled amendments.

 

I also ask Council to resolve to agree the recommendations set out in the Medium Term Financial Plan as adjusted by the tabled amendments.

 

As set out in the recommendation, I also ask Council to resolve to agree the revenue budget and statutory resolution for the 20/21 financial year.

 

Following the Budget statements by Councillors John Halsall and Lindsay Ferris, Members discussed the various aspects of the proposed Budget, in detail. 

 

At 9.50pm, as the debate was ongoing, it was moved in accordance with Rule 4.2.13.11 (g) that the time limit for speeches on the Medium Term Financial Plan and Associated Reports be extended by 30 minutes.  This was proposed by Councillor Chris Bowring and seconded by Councillor John Halsall.

 

On being put to the vote, the Mayor declared the Motion to be carried.

80.1

Councillor John Halsall, Leader of the Council 2020/21 Budget Statement

Minutes:

Last May, I was honoured that you elected me Leader of the Council.  It has been a huge pleasure to work with our Chief Executive, the Executive, Directors, the Officer Team and Councillors.  In eight months, we have covered a lot of ground and launched some important initiatives.

 

Mr Mayor, it gives me great pleasure to propose this budget put before you this evening. The formulation of this year’s budget has involved a level of transparency and collaboration like no other.  The Opposition in Overview and Scrutiny has been able to input their comments and concerns throughout the process, which has significantly benefited from this approach. Long may it continue.  I commend both John Kaiser and Graham Ebers for taking this significant and positive step.

 

Some Members give me the feeling that they are confused between the revenue and capital account.  There are those, who have long experience of private sector IFRS, indeed lecture others, and assume that public sector conventions are the same. They are not.  Grant funding sometimes determines categorisation. i.e. if the grant says its capital it is capital and if the grant funding says it is revenue – it is revenue.

 

Nevertheless, our fiscal rules are to maintain our revenue reserves – indeed this budget sees them increased back to over £10m which we regard as prudent.

 

Our Council tax proposal is at 1.99%, below inflation at 2.7%; in addition, we have taken advantage of the 2%, which is ring-fenced for Adult Social Care. It is instructive to note that whilst most town and parish precept increases are in line with inflation or below, Liberal controlled Earley Town Council is pushing their precept up by 10.4% making it up to the second highest precept in the Borough.  Twyford Parish Council by 25% where two Liberal Councillors hold sway.  Wokingham Town is increasing its precept by 4.5%.  Woodley Town Council’s precept of £112.88, the lowest precept for Woodley since 2008/9, but is still suffering from £114.65 precept they inherited in 2014/15, after 40 years I believe of Liberal administration.  A too familiar tale I feel.

 

The Medium Term Financial Plan should be read in conjunction with the Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan, which I will be proposing shortly.

 

Our central mission is to keep our residents safe, secure and happy and to provide the very best services that we can.

 

We are all of course acutely aware of the pressures we have faced in Children's Services over the past years with an increase of 164% in children on protection plans and a 44% increase in children in care.  This budget not only provides the resource needed to meet these unavoidable costs but provides investment to enable our community to receive a Children's Services offer rated as “Good” for the first time.

 

The Revenue budget also adds an additional £4.8m into Adults Services for our increasing elderly population.

 

It also contains additional capital financing costs that will enable £9m extra borrowing for the surfacing of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.1

80.2

Point of Order

Minutes:

At this point in the meeting, Councillor Andy Croy indicated that Councillor John Halsall was a Director of Campaign to Protect Rural Wokingham and had not declared this on his Declaration of Interest Form or at meetings where discussions around the Local Plan had taken place.  Councillors Croy and Ferris sought clarification from Officers as to what should or should not be declared.

 

Councillor John Halsall declared a Personal Interest, as he was a Director for the Campaign to Protect Rural Wokingham.  He advised that it had been dormant for some time.

 

The Mayor confirmed that the matter would be considered with the Monitoring Officer outside of the meeting.

80.3

Continuation of Councillor John Halsall, Leader of the Council 2020/21 Budget Statement

Minutes:

Any Local Plan which is more than five years old is considered by National Planning Policy Framework to be out of date.  As ours is more than five years old even though we continue to deliver more homes than neighbouring authorities, developers can claim that we do not have a plan and therefore appeal to planning inspectors that the development that they are promoting should be allowed.  We have a veritable epidemic of appeals.  To fight them we have engaged the top planning Chambers, which is both very expensive and very consumptive of Officers and Executive Members’ time.

 

We have published the draft Local Plan for consultation.  It is based upon meeting a lower figure than the standard method, which we feel we can justify.  It protects the Green Belt and the countryside by concentrating development in only a few places across the Borough and proposes a new Garden town at Grazeley, which would be designed and built to cutting edge environmental standards with sustainable transport links into Reading and massive investment in facilities – schools, community centres, sporting and leisure facilities with huge swathes of green space opened up for public use.

 

To not adhere to the National Planning Policy Framework and not having a plan means that we will have planning by appeal – developers putting houses where they want and government taking our planning department into special measures, as has happened in Liberal controlled South Oxfordshire.  We will get more houses not less with no infrastructure.  I do not like the situation we are in, but unless Parliament relents, we must do the best we can, with the tools we have.

 

Consequent upon the development, but not necessarily completely due to it we have congestion which is plaguing every resident’s lives.  We need several billions and many years to build the capacity we need.  Without that, all we can do is to optimise our use of the existing network.  We are completing five major new roads which when finished will enable travel across the Borough avoiding Wokingham Town Centre.  We are acquiring the tools so that an intelligent transport system will keep traffic moving as well as helping the environment.  We will install responsive traffic light systems with smart software allowing signals to work intelligently based on traffic demand.  Residents should notice reduced delays and improved journey times thanks to a combination of cameras and sensors within the network.

 

Mr Mayor, climate change is an issue for everybody.  We have declared a Climate Emergency.  The recently approved plan starts to make significant inroads into our ambitions to achieve carbon neutrality.  As a Borough, we cannot solve it, but we can make sure that we are doing everything we can to play our part in its resolution including generating clean renewable energy.  The Council has published its first plan and this Budget sees that plan put into action.  In the future, this plan will be modified taking account of the measurement that we will be doing and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.3

80.4

Councillor Lindsay Ferris, Leader of the Opposition, Budget statement on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Group:

Minutes:

I have put an addendum at the beginning of my speech.  It is:  What a chaotic budget in Tory controlled Wokingham.  All these errors and an additional £75 million of debt has been found in the last minute.  If you check the figures, there is a £75million difference.  What is going on? 

 

For the first time in nearly 20 years, there is a serious challenge to the current Conservative administration.  Local residents have an opportunity to choose an alternative way forward.  Tonight, I want to present a Liberal Democrat vision and rationale for the future across the Wokingham Borough.  The reasons we need change is because the current Conservative administration has acted more like cash strapped amateur speculators who have racked up £700 million of debt, than a Council administration who are there to provide services for their residents.  The Conservatives have become complacent and arrogant in their approach to residents.  Instead of providing services that residents want, they are providing services that the Council wants to provide and in the way, they want to provide them.  Whenever the Council has been found to have done things incorrectly, for example, when they lost the Court of Appeal decision to Hare Hatch Sheeplands, or when they lost a vital Employment Tribunal, their response has been ‘oh it was an exceptional, bizarre result.’  This aloof response is not acceptable.  The Council administration needs to learn from its mistakes and to act in a more appropriate manner in the future, instead the administration is in denial.  This has to change for the sake of our residents.  This Conservative Council rarely says sorry.  The Liberal Democrats would put residents first.

 

The Tories have no forward thinking or overall strategy.  Many proposals being presented are reactions to events.  For example, Wokingham Borough Council closed both The Paddocks and Rose Street car parks in Wokingham as part of the Wokingham Town regeneration.  Little or no thought was given to how suitable car parking capacity could be provided in the town centre area.  Now in 2020, Wokingham Borough Council has been forced to buy back Denmark Street car park area, sold off by the previous Conservative administration.  This is hardly joined up planning, and at what cost to the council tax paying residents?

 

There has been months of upheaval which has severely impacted local businesses and residents alike.  The Conservative administration has treated residents’ petitions presented in this Council Chamber of the last couple of years, with utter distain.  I am sure residents from Shinfield, Barkham and those supporting Hare Hatch Sheeplands remember how they were treated, and in effect, ignored, by this Conservative administration.  This will change under a Liberal Democrat administration.  The Budget being presented by the Conservatives tonight will be the Budget that the Liberal Democrats would have to use should there be a change of control at Council in May.  It is recognised that the overall Budget, a 3.99% increase in council tax, made up of 1.99 council tax and 2% adult  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.4

80.5

Housing Revenue Account Budget 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 150 KB

To consider the recommendations of the Executive in respect of the Housing Revenue Account budget for 2020/21.

 

RECOMMENDATION That Council approve:

 

1)          the Housing Revenue Account budget;

 

2)            that Council house dwelling rents be increased by 2.70% effective from April 2020 in line with the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2015;

 

3)            that Garage rents be increased by 2.38% effective from April 2020 in line with Council fees and charge;

 

4)            that Shared Equity Rents will be increased by 2.43% based on September RPI, effective from April 2020;

 

5)            that Tenant Service Charges are set in line with estimated costs;

 

6)            the Housing Major Repairs (capital) programme for 2020/21 as set out in Appendix B;

 

7)            that Sheltered room guest charges for 2020/21 remain at £9.50 per night per room.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was proposed by Councillor John Halsall and seconded by Councillor John Kaiser that the Housing Revenue Account Budget 2020/21 as set out in Agenda Pages 39 to 50, be approved.

 

Upon being put to the vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED:  That

 

1)   the Housing Revenue Account budget be approved;

 

2)   that Council house dwelling rents be increased by 2.70% effective from April 2020 in line with the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2015;

 

3)   that Garage rents be increased by 2.38% effective from April 2020 in line with Council fees and charge;

 

4)   that Shared Equity Rents be increased by 2.43% based on September RPI, effective from April 2020;

 

5)   that Tenant Service Charges are set in line with estimated costs;

 

6)   the Housing Major Repairs (capital) programme for 2020/21 as set out in Appendix B be approved;

 

7)   that Sheltered room guest charges for 2020/21 remain at £9.50 per night per room.

 

80.6

Capital Programme and Strategy 2020-2023 pdf icon PDF 280 KB

To consider the recommendations of the Executive in respect of the Capital Programme and Strategy 2020-2023.

 

RECOMMENDATION That Council:

 

1)         approve the Capital Strategy for 2020/23 - Appendix A,

 

2)        approve the three year capital programme for 2020/23 – Appendix B;

 

2)         note the draft vision for capital investment over the next ten years - Appendix C;

 

3)         approve the developer contributions s106 and CIL as set out in Appendix D. The s106 and CIL values are estimated and approval is sought up to the scheme budget;

 

4)        note the commercial activities of the Council.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was proposed by Councillor John Halsall and seconded by Councillor John Kaiser that the Capital Programme and Strategy 2020-2023, as set out in Agenda Pages 51 to 98, be approved.

 

Upon being put to the vote, it was;

 

RESOLVED:  That

 

1)         the Capital Strategy for 2020/23 - Appendix A be approved,

 

2)         the three year capital programme for 2020/23 – Appendix B be approved;

 

3)         the draft vision for capital investment over the next ten years - Appendix C be noted;

 

4)         the developer contributions s106 and CIL as set out in Appendix D, be approved. The s106 and CIL values are estimated and approval is sought up to the scheme budget;

 

5)         the commercial activities of the Council be noted.

 

80.7

Treasury Management Strategy 2020/23 pdf icon PDF 748 KB

To consider the recommendations of the Executive in respect of the Treasury Management Strategy 2020/23.

 

RECOMMENDATION That Council approve the following:

 

1)         Capital Prudential indicators 2020/21 (Appendix A (pages 4 and 5, table 1 and 2));

 

2)         Borrowing strategy 2020/21 (Appendix A (page 8);

 

3)         Annual Investment Strategy 2020/21 (Appendix D);

 

4)         MRP policy (Appendix E); 

 

5)         Treasury Indicators: limits to borrowing activity (Appendix A (page 10 –table 5)); and

 

6)         note that the Audit Committee agreed the Treasury Management Strategy on 5th February 2020.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was proposed by Councillor John Halsall and seconded by Councillor John Kaiser that the Treasury Management Strategy 2020/2023 as set out Agenda Pages 99 to152 be approved, subject to the tabled amendments.

 

Prior to the vote being held, six Members in accordance with Rule 4.2.15.5 requested that a recorded vote be taken on the proposal.

 

The voting was as follows:

 

FOR

AGAINST

ABSTAINED

Keith Baker

Rachel Bishop-Firth

Jim Frewin

Parry Batth

Shirley Boyt

 

Laura Blumenthal

Prue Bray

 

Chris Bowring

Rachel Burgess

 

Jenny Cheng

Stephen Conway

 

UllaKarin Clark

Andy Croy

 

Gary Cowan

Carl Doran

 

Richard Dolinski

Lindsay Ferris

 

Michael Firmager

Paul Fishwick

 

Guy Grandison

Maria Gee

 

Charlotte Haitham Taylor

David Hare

 

John Halsall

Clive Jones

 

Emma Hobbs

Sarah Kerr

 

Pauline Jorgensen

Tahir Maher

 

John Kaiser

Adrian Mather

 

Abdul Loyes

Andrew Mickleburgh

 

Ken Miall

Imogen Shepherd-DuBey

 

Stuart Munro

Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey

 

Gregor Murray

Caroline Smith

 

Barrie Patman

 

 

Malcolm Richards

 

 

Wayne Smith

 

 

Bill Soane

 

 

Alison Swaddle

 

 

Simon Weeks

 

 

Oliver Whittle

 

 

 

Upon being put to the vote, it was

 

RESOLVED: That subject to the tabled amendments:

 

1)         the Capital Prudential indicators 2020/21 (Appendix A (pages 4 and 5, table 1 and 2)) be approved;

 

2)         the Borrowing strategy 2020/21 (Appendix A (page 8) be approved;

 

3)         the Annual Investment Strategy 2020/21 (Appendix D) be approved;

 

4)         the MRP policy (Appendix E) be approved; 

 

5)         Treasury Indicators: limits to borrowing activity (Appendix A (page 10 –table 5)) be approved; and

 

6)         it be noted that the Audit Committee agreed the Treasury Management Strategy on 5th February 2020.

 

80.8

Medium Term Financial Plan 2020/23 Revenue Budget Submission 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 193 KB

To consider the recommendations of the Executive in relation to the Medium Term Financial Plan 2020/23 and the Budget submission and Council Tax for 2020/21.

 

RECOMMENDATION That Council approve the following:

 

1)         the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2020/23, including the budget submission for 2020/21;

 

2)         the statutory resolution that sets out the 2020/21 council tax levels (as set out in Appendix A to the report) (to follow);

 

3)         that in the event that there are any changes to the provisional precept of the Fire Authority or parishes, arising from their precept setting meetings being held before the end of February, the Deputy Chief Executive (S151 Officer) is delegated authority to enact all relevant changes to the MTFP, Statutory Resolution and council tax levels.

 

Minutes:

It was proposed by Councillor John Halsall and seconded by Councillor John Kaiser that the Medium Term Financial Plan 2020/23 Revenue Budget Submission 2020/21 be approved subject to the tabled amendments.

 

In line with the requirements of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, a recorded vote was taken.

 

FOR

AGAINST

ABSTAIN

Keith Baker

Shirley Boyt

Parry Batth

Rachel Burgess

Rachel Bishop-Firth

Andy Croy

 

Laura Blumenthal

Carl Doran

 

Chris Bowring

 

 

Prue Bray

 

 

Jenny Cheng

 

 

UllaKarin Clark

 

 

Stephen Conway

 

 

Gary Cowan

 

 

Richard Dolinski

 

 

Lindsay Ferris

 

 

Michael Firmager

 

 

Paul Fishwick

 

 

Jim Frewin

 

 

Maria Gee

 

 

Guy Grandison

 

 

Charlotte Haitham-Taylor

 

 

John Halsall

 

 

David Hare

 

 

Emma Hobbs

 

 

Clive Jones

 

 

Pauline Jorgensen

 

 

John Kaiser

 

 

Sarah Kerr

 

 

Abdul Loyes

 

 

Tahir Maher

 

 

Adrian Mather

 

 

Ken Miall

 

 

Andrew Mickleburgh

 

 

Stuart Munro

 

 

Gregor Murray

 

 

Barrie Patman

 

 

Malcolm Richards

 

 

Imogen Shepherd-DuBey

 

 

Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey

 

 

Caroline Smith

 

 

Wayne Smith

 

 

Bill Soane

 

 

Alison Swaddle

 

 

Simon Weeks

 

 

Oliver Whittle

 

 

 

Upon being put to the vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED:  That subject to the tabled amendments:

 

1)         the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2020/23, including the budget submission for 2020/21 be approved;

 

2)         the statutory resolution that sets out the 2020/21 council tax levels as set out in Appendix A to the report (tabled at the meeting) be approved and that it be noted that at its meeting on 23rd January 2020 Council calculated the following amounts for the year 2020/21 in accordance with regulations made under Section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended by the Localism Act 2011 and the Local Government Finance Act  2012. 

 

The statutory resolution is attached as an appendix to the Minutes.

 

3)         that in the event that there are any changes to the provisional precept of the Fire Authority or parishes, arising from their precept setting meetings being held before the end of February, the Deputy Chief Executive (S151 Officer) is delegated authority to enact all relevant changes to the MTFP, Statutory Resolution and council tax levels.

Statutory resolution pdf icon PDF 48 KB

81.

Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan pdf icon PDF 140 KB

To consider the recommendations of the Executive in respect of the Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan.

 

RECOMMENDATION:  That Council be recommended to approve the Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan subject to amendments delegated to the Deputy Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Council considered the Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan as set out on Agenda pages 157 to 184.

 

It was proposed by Councillor John Halsall and seconded by Councillor John Kaiser that the recommendation within the report be agreed. 

 

Councillor Halsall stated that the Community Vision set out what the Council would focus on over the next four years to improve the outcomes for residents.  He wanted to keep residents safe, secure and happy and for the best service that, the Council could provide, to be provided.  He went on to refer to some of the areas covered in the Community Vision and the Corporate Delivery Plan, including tackling the climate emergency and challenging traffic congestion and the impact of development on communities.  The Plan would cover how the Council would work with its partners, what action would be taken and what success would look like.

 

Some Members felt that the Vision and Plan were too vague and did not detail how measures would be achieved or how actions would be monitored.  Councillor Bishop-Firth questioned how anti-social behaviour in particular would be tackled.

 

Councillor Cowan commented that he supported the document but felt that more about how the Council would work with its residents and protecting green spaces, could be included.

 

A number of Members expressed concern at the inclusion of ‘An approved and deliverable masterplan for a self-sustaining garden town at Grazeley’ as stated in the ‘What success will look like’ under the ‘Right homes, right places’ section, in the Corporate Delivery Plan. 

 

Councillor John Halsall proposed that ‘An approved and deliverable masterplan for a self-sustaining garden town at Grazeley’ be removed from the Corporate Delivery Plan.  This was seconded by Councillor Gary Cowan.

 

Upon being put to the vote, the Mayor declared the amendment to be carried.

 

Councillor Jim Frewin commented that he felt that the Plan needed to be carefully positioned.

 

Councillor Prue Bray was of the opinion that the Plan was more a set of strategic aims and objectives.  She questioned the tone of the documents.

 

Councillor John Kaiser referred to the progress that had been made over a number of years.

 

Prior to the vote on the Community Vision and Corporate Delivery Plan being held, six Members in accordance with Rule 4.2.15.5 requested that a recorded vote be taken on the proposal.

 

The voting was as follows:

 

FOR

AGAINST

ABSTAINED

Keith Baker

Rachel Bishop-Firth

 

Parry Batth

Shirley Boyt

 

Laura Blumenthal

Prue Bray

 

Chris Bowring

Rachel Burgess

 

Jenny Cheng

Stephen Conway

 

UllaKarin Clark

Andy Croy

 

Gary Cowan

Carl Doran

 

Richard Dolinski

Lindsay Ferris

 

Michael Firmager

Paul Fishwick

 

Guy Grandison

Jim Frewin

 

Charlotte Haitham Taylor

Maria Gee

 

John Halsall

David Hare

 

Emma Hobbs

Clive Jones

 

Pauline Jorgensen

Sarah Kerr

 

John Kaiser

Tahir Maher

 

Abdul Loyes

Adrian Mather

 

Ken Miall

Andrew Mickleburgh

 

Stuart Munro

Imogen Shepherd-DuBey

 

Gregor Murray

Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey

 

Barrie Patman

Caroline Smith

 

Malcolm Richards

 

 

Wayne Smith

 

 

Bill Soane

 

 

Alison Swaddle

 

 

Simon Weeks

 

 

Oliver Whittle

 

 

 

Upon being put to the vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED:  That  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81.

82.

Treasury Management -Mid Year Report pdf icon PDF 131 KB

To consider the mid-year Treasury Management report for 2019/20.

 

RECOMMENDATION That Council note the following:

 

1)         the mid-year position on the treasury management portfolio;

 

2)         that the Council has worked within approved parameters;

 

3)         the forecast outturn saving of £500k (an over achievement on investments £390k, and saving on debt charges of £110k).

Minutes:

The Council considered the Treasury Management Mid-Year Report as set out on Agenda pages 185 to 187.  The report gave details of treasury management operations during the first six months of 2019/20.

 

It was proposed by Councillor John Kaiser and seconded by Councillor John Halsall that the recommendations set out on Agenda page 185 be approved.

 

Upon being put to the vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED That:

 

1)         the mid-year position on the treasury management portfolio be noted;

 

2)         it be noted that the Council had worked within approved parameters;

 

3)         the forecast outturn saving of £500k (an over achievement on investments £390k, and saving on debt charges of £110k), be noted.