Decision details

This report provided details of the recent announcements made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer concerning the emergency reductions of £6.2 billion in public spending and the further announcements in the emergency budget presented to Parliament on 22 June 2010 and provided details of the Council’s proposals in relation to the implications for Medway’s budgets.

The Cabinet considered this as an urgent item as the immediate reductions applied to the current budget and any delay in implementing recommendations increased the pro rata impact for the remainder of the year, and made achievement more difficult.

The Mayor, in the absence of the Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee, agreed that the taking of these decisions could not be reasonably deferred, in accordance with Rule 16 (Special Urgency) of the Access to Information Rules (Part 2 of Chapter 4 in the Constitution).

The Vice-Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee, in the absence of the Chairman, agreed to waive call in on recommendation 7.2 in the report on the basis that this matter is reasonable in all the circumstances and to it being treated as a matter of urgency in accordance with Rule 16.11 of the Overview and Scrutiny Rules (Part 5 of Chapter 4 in the Constitution).

Reasons:

The budget reductions announced by the Government require changes to the budgets agreed by Council so as to avert an overspend occurring and bring the planned expenditure for the Council back in line with the funding available.