Agenda and minutes

To receive details of any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for the meeting were received from Cllr Chuck Berry, who was substituted by Cllr Suzanne Wickham.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were declarations.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

There were no announcements.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

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Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda no later than 5pm on 5 February 2021.

Questions

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on 2 February 2021 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on 4 February 2021. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no questions or statements submitted.

Amendments will be taken in the order they are submitted and one at a time unless agreed otherwise. Although some of the amendments may be interdependent in that they relate to combined savings and/or growth, Overview and Scrutiny will want the opportunity to comment of each although with the ability to acknowledge their dependency if appropriate.

The running order of speakers on each will be:

·       Respective group leader/spokesman/individual to present the circulated amendment explaining the purpose, implications, intended outcome and link to the Business Plan;

·       The Leader of the Council and/or responsible Cabinet Member(s) to respond;

·       Corporate Leadership Team to comment (if appropriate);

·       Management Committee Members to ask questions of the proposer(s) and respondent(s) in order to gain sufficient evidence to take a view;

·       Clarification from statutory officers and other relevant directors (if necessary);

·       Contribution from any other Members (if invited);

·       Chairman to sum up and seek consensus view of the Committee

The consensus views of the Committee (and not of individual members) will form part of the minutes of the meeting for report to Council on 23 February 2021.

The procedure for the meeting was noted.

To consider amendments from any political groups or individual Members on the initial draft of the executive proposed budget.

Any amendments that may be received will be circulated as soon as they are available.

A budget proposal was agreed by Cabinet on 2 February 2021 for discussion at Full Council on 23 February 2021, following its consideration by the Committee at its meeting on 26 January 2021.

On 4 February 2021 a proposed amendment to that budget was received from Cllrs Gavin Grant and Ian Thorn.

The amendment was presented as detailed in the agenda supplement. The proposals sought to reduce the adult social care levy from 3% in 2021/22 to 2% in 2021/22 and to apply a 1% levy in 2022/23. This would result in a loss of funding of £2.841m in 2021/22, with the shortfall to be met by drawing the same level of funding from the Latent Demand Reserve.  It was also proposed to increase the Hardship Fund by £0.700m to a total of £1.000m, with the additional funds funded by drawing upon the Collection Fund Volatility Reserve by the same amount. Lastly, it was proposed to ringfence a budget commitment for £1.000m in business support, in the event that there was a favourable variance against the reduction of section 31 grants as set out in the supplement and budget papers.

Comments from statutory officers including the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer were set out in the agenda supplement.

The Committee discussed the proposed amendment as detailed fully in the report appended to these minutes, seeking details of the status and extent of the council’s reserves, any service impacts arising from the proposals, and the level of financial or other risks to the council should the amendment be approved by Full Council.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,  

Resolved:

1)    To note that the amendments to the Financial Plan Update 2021-22 proposed by Cllr Gavin Grant and Cllr Ian Thorn have been scrutinised; and

2)    To ask Full Council to take note of the comments of the Committee, which will be presented in a report.

To confirm the date of the next meeting as 9 March 2021.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 9 March 2021.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.