Issue - meetings

This report presents changes and additions to the Council’s Capital Programme and Revenue Budget for 2011/2012 following approval by Council in February 2011.

Discussion:

This report presented changes and additions to the Council’s Capital Programme and Revenue Budget for 2011/2012 following approval by Council in February 2011.

Councillor Jarrett, supported by Councillor Mason, proposed the recommendations set out in the report.

Decision: 

(a)               The Council approved the additions to the capital programme as set out in section 3 of the report;

(b)               The Council approved the increase in revenue budget as set out in section 4 of the report.

Discussion:

Members received a report which asked the Council to approve the capital and revenue budgets, rent increases and Council tax for 2011/2012. 

The Mayor advised Members, prior to consideration of this report, that an independent opinion had been obtained confirming that the advice given by the Monitoring Officer at the last Council meeting on the lawfulness of an amendment relating to the 2011/12 budget was correct.

During debate, Councillor Jarrett noted that the reference in table 4 to Private Sector Housing should have referred to paragraph 4.5 rather than paragraph 3.11.

Councillor Jarrett, Portfolio Holder for Finance, supported by the Leader, Councillor Rodney Chambers, proposed that the Council:

1. Approve the capital budget proposals as set out in Appendix 1, including the schemes and funding arrangements referred to in paragraphs 3.5 and 7.20 of the report and the following schemes:

(i)     That a scheme be added to the Capital Programme to create a Specialist Autism Unit on the Ridge Meadow site and that a sum of £1,500,000 be allocated from the proceeds of the Temple site for that purpose. To facilitate this and the proposed move of the Post-16 Bradfields Unit to the Ridge Meadow site, Cabinet is asked to reconsider its decision to declare the Ridge Meadow site surplus.

(ii)   That the following new schemes be added to the Capital Programme, funded from the General Reserve:

·        £250,000 for pothole repairs

·        £500,000 for highway improvements

·        £75,000 for adult play schemes and;

·        £50,000 for allotment improvements.

2. Approve the general fund gross, income and net revenue estimates as summarised in Table 8 and detailed in Appendix 2 to incorporate the savings measures set out in Appendix 3, and the additional revenue items as set out below, resulting in a budget requirement of £411.842 million.

(i)     That the Independent Remuneration Panel be recommended to reduce Members’ Allowances by 5%, saving £39,000.

(ii)   That the budget for non-schools union facilities be reduced by £46,000.

(iii)That the budget for library books be increased by £92,000 and that a budget be created for the North Kent Partnership at £50,000 and that this be funded by the unallocated balance of £57,000 and the savings from the Members’ Allowances and union facilities.

(iv)  That the following budgets be created from the General Reserve:

·  Armed Forces Day on 25 June - £12,000

·  Facilitate Royal Wedding street parties - £25,000

·  Reintroduce free swimming - £200,000

·  Freedom Pass - £250,000

·  Apprenticeship schemes - £100,000

3. Note the Kent Police Authority precept requirement.

4. Note the Kent Fire and Rescue Service precept requirement.

5. Note the parish council precept requirements of £340,933 as detailed at Appendix 4 of this report.

6. Agree the schedule of precept instalment dates as set out in section 12 of the report.

7. Approve the basic rate of council tax at band D for 2011/2012, before adding the police, fire and parish precepts, at £1,119.15.

8. Agree that £3 million of the General Reserve be earmarked as a contingency for severance and associated costs as part of the 2010/2011 accounts closure.

9. Agree  ...  view the full minutes text for item 815

Please note that that the weblink set out in paragraph 15.3 of this report should read:

http://www.medway.gov.uk/jobsandcareers/careersadvice/equalopportunities/diversityimpactassessments.aspx

Background:

This report presented proposals for the capital and revenue budgets for 2011/2012. The report included the proposed Housing Revenue Account budget and associated capital programme for 2011/2012, including increases in rent and service charges from April 2011.

The Cabinet had considered initial budget proposals on 30 November 2010, which had been developed in accordance with the principles set out in the Medium Term Financial Plan 2011/2014. The implications of both the Comprehensive Spending Review 2010 and Local Government Finance Settlement were set out in the report, together with proposed measures to address the £23.5 million shortfall arising as a consequence of the 11.9% cut in government funding.

The report gave details of the changes made since the Financial Settlement was reported to Cabinet in December 2010, summarised the budget build and gave details of the directorate savings proposals. A revised Appendix 3A setting out the Children’s and Adults budget build had been circulated to Members in advance of the meeting.

It was noted that the proposed capital programme for 2011/2012 and future years, incorporating existing schemes and new funding announcements to date, was approaching £66.1 million. The net revenue budget for 2011/2012 amounted to £411.2 million, which it was reported would not require an increase in Council Tax but was predicated upon receipt of Government grant that equated to an equivalent 2.5% increase.

The report set out details of the Council Plan, which had been developed alongside the budget setting process to ensure the link between resource and business planning was maintained. This was considered as a separate item on the agenda.

Budget proposals had been referred to all the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for consideration. The Overview and Scrutiny Committees’ views were detailed in the report, with the recommendations of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee set out for Cabinet consideration.

Appendix 5 to the report summarised the Housing Revenue Account. It was noted that the budget proposals included an average rent increase of £3.63 per week (based on 50 collection weeks) in line with Government guidelines, an increase in garage rents of 4.6% and an increase in service charges to ensure that costs can be fully recovered by 2014/2015.

The schedule of fees and charges was attached at Appendix 6 to the report and a revised page 58 of the booklet relating to Housing Solutions fees was tabled at the meeting.

The report set out the requirements under equality legislation and a diversity impact assessment, that aggregated the impact of reductions in funding to services, was attached at Appendix 7 to the report. The report included an overview of where proposals had been identified as having a possible impact and it was reported that to mitigate against any further unintentional and unidentified impact, monitoring would continue and if necessary be reported through quarterly monitoring. A revised weblink to individual diversity impact assessments (as set out at paragraph 15.3 of the report) had been circulated to Members prior to the meeting.

The Cabinet agreed to consider this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4

This report presents the Council’s draft capital and revenue budget for 2011/2012 for areas that fall in the remit of this committee.

Discussion:

The Chief Finance Officer introduced the report advising that the budget deficit had increased from £19.5 million to £23.5 million. Paragraph 8 of the report (page 70 of the agenda) highlighted budget pressures with the following paragraph detailing what the council proposed to do to meet the funding gap. The committee was reminded that it had requested further information on the ward improvement fund and this was detailed in paragraph 9.10 of the report.

The committee agreed not to discuss this report as it did not contain specific information on how the £23.5 million funding gap was to be met. Members discussed the ward improvement fund and stated that they did not want to recommend the deletion of the fund from the budget.

Decision:

The committee agreed to forward to Cabinet that it recognised the value of the Ward Improvement Fund within the council’s budget.