Agenda item

To consider the recommendations of Cabinet dated 11 February 2010, details attached.

 

A report on the formal Council Tax resolution will be circulated as soon as possible.

 

A meeting of the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Select Committee will meet on 16 February to discuss the budget proposals and a report will be circulated detailing any comments or recommendations arising from this meeting.

 

The Leader of Council will move Cabinet’s recommendations for the 2010/11 Budget.

 

Councillors are respectfully reminded to bring with them to the meeting the Cabinet agenda dated 11 February which contains the various reports on the Budget. These documents can also be accessed on the following link of the Council’s website:   http://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=141&MId=249&Ver=4

 

Declaration of Interest

 

Cllr Dalton declared a personal and prejudicial interest in this item in so far as it related to the setting of garage rents as referred to in the proposals concerning the Housing Revenue Account by virtue of the fact that he held a garage tenancy. Cllr Dalton left the meeting during consideration of that element of the budget.

 

 

The Chairman explained how he intended to manage the debate on the budget. The Chairman reminded Councillors of the various budget papers which had been previously circulated. In particular, he referred to the various budget reports circulated with the Cabinet agenda dated 11 February 2010 and the recommendations from that meeting, the proposed Council tax resolution for 2010/11, the report from the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 16 February 2010 and further information as requested by that Committee. The Chairman explained the order in which he would invite Councillors to speak on the budget.

 

The Chairman invited Cllr Scott, Leader of the Council to present her budget speech.  The Leader emphasised that in her opinion, the budget proposed would protect front line services, give a below inflation tax rise, would put more resources to local communities’ stated priorities, make more efficiencies and would save to invest in further service improvements in the future despite the economic situation. The Leader moved the recommendations on the budget from Cabinet’s meeting dated 11 February 2010 to include the following additional proposals:

 

• That the under spends in the Area Board grants budget be rolled forward from 2009/10 to 2010/11 and
• £100,000 from the headroom be allocated to the highways maintenance budget and £100,000 be allocated to youth projects to be delivered through Area Boards.

 

The motion was seconded by Cllr Thomson.

 

The Chairman then invited Cllr Jeff Osborn, Chairman of the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee to present the report of his Committee.

 

Each Group Leader was invited to contribute to the debate on the Budget before opening the debate to other Councillors.

 

Cllr Rogers noted the high percentage of those who had paid their Council Tax and requested his appreciation to those people be recorded.

 

Cllr Carbin proposed an amendment, details of which were tabled which was duly seconded by Cllr Jeff Osborn and responded to by the Leader. A discussion ensued on the amendment.

 

At this point, the meeting was adjourned for lunch and to allow the Chief Finance Officer in his capacity as S.151 Officer to examine the amendment put forward.

 

MEETING ADJOURNED

 

On reconvening the meeting, the Chairman invited the Chief Finance Officer to give his professional opinion on the amendment. The Chief Finance Officer explained his concerns over the robustness of the proposals put forward for the reasons he outlined to the meeting.

 

Cllr Jeff Osborn explained that he took the Chief Finance Officer’s advice on board and in the circumstances although he stood by the aspirations of the amendment, withdrew it.

 

A detailed discussion ensued on the various elements of the budget proposals with the Leader and her Cabinet responding to the points raised.

 

Councillors requested that a letter be circulated to all staff from Chairman of Council on behalf of Council thanking them for their continued hard work.

 

Following detailed discussion, it was

 

Resolved:

 

To approve the recommendations of Cabinet dated 11 February 2010 as follows with the addition of (1) (c) -  (e) below:

 

(1)       Revenue Budget Proposals for 2010/11

 

a.                  That the proposed budget detailed in Appendix 2 (pages 34 – 35 of Cabinet agenda), including the growth items Appendix 4 (page 38) and unavoidable commitments in Appendix 5 (pages 39 – 41), efficiency measures in Appendix 6 (pages 42 – 45) and Fees and Charges Income in Appendix 7 (pages 46 – 47) be approved;

 

b.                 A Council Tax increase of 2.3% (average) with a Band D equivalent of £1,222.43 be approved;

 

c.                  That the under spends in the Area Board grants budget be rolled forward from 2009/10 to 2010/11;

 

d.                 That £100,000 from the identified headroom be allocated to the highways maintenance budget and £100,000 to youth projects delivered through Area Boards and

 

e.                  That the Leader of Council write to HM Treasury, copied to Ministers to press for an explanation of why this authority continued to be poorly funded in comparison to other authorities.

 

(2)             Capital Programme Proposals 2010/11 to 2012/13

 

a          That the Wiltshire Council Capital Programme  for 2010-11 to 2012-13 as shown in Appendix B (page 62) be approved.

 

b.         The use of additional borrowing of £20.617 million in 2010-11 and £53.164 million over the three years be approved.

 

(3)       Fees and Charges

 

The fees and charges as included in the revenue budget for 2010/11 (pages 72 – 73) be approved.

 

 

(4)             Treasury Management Strategy

 

a.         The revised CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management in the Public Services be adopted;

 

            b.         The Prudential and Treasury Indicators (Appendix A –

pages 82 – 87) be adopted,

 

            c.         The Annual Investment Strategy (Appendix B – pages 88 –

93) be adopted;

 

d.         Authority be delegated to the Chief Finance Officer to vary the amount of borrowing and other long term liabilities within both the Treasury      Indicators for the Authorised Limit and the Operational Boundary;

 

e.         The Chief Finance Officer be authorised to agree the restructuring of existing long-term loans where savings are achievable or to enhance the long term portfolio;

 

f.          Agreement be given that short term cash surpluses and deficits continue to be managed through temporary loans and deposits; and

 

g.         Agreement be given that any long term surplus cash balances not required to cover borrowing are placed in authorised money-market funds, particularly where this is more cost effective than short term deposits and delegate to the Chief Finance Officer the authority to select such funds.

 

(5)             Housing Revenue Account Budget and Rent Setting 2010/11

 

a.                  The HRA Budget for revised 2009/2010 (revised) and 2010/2011 (original) be approved.

b.         The increase for dwelling rents in accordance with rent restructuring be approved.

c.         The level of increase for garage rents at zero percent be approved.

d.         The level of increase for service charges at a maximum of RPI and utility recharges as a maximum £1 per week be approved.

 

Council Tax Resolution

 

(1)       That the following amounts for the year 2010-11 in accordance with The Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 made under Section 33(5) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (“the Act”) be approved:

 

a)         178,139.4 being the amount calculated by the Council, in accordance with The Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (Amendment) Regulations 2003, as its council tax base for the year;

 

b)        Part of the Council's Area (Council Tax Base for each parish)

 

(2)       That it be noted the revenue and capital budget proposals for 2010-11 are as approved elsewhere on these minutes (1) & (2) above refer.

 

(3)       That the following amounts be now calculated by the Council for the year 2010-11 in accordance with sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government and Finance Act 1992:

 

a)         £885,825,288 (Gross Revenue Expenditure including parish precepts) being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(2) (a) to (e) of the Act;

 

            b)        £552,457,964 (Revenue Income) being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(3) (a) to (c) of the Act;

 

            c)         £333,367,324 (Net Revenue Expenditure including parish precepts) Being the amount by which the aggregate at 10(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 10(b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act, as its budget requirement for the year;

 

            d)        £103,244,270 (Total of Revenue Support Grant, share of National Non Domestic Rating Pool and Estimated Balance on the Collection Fund to be refunded to council tax payers) being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its general fund in respect of redistributed non-domestic rates and revenue support grant and increased by the amount of any sum which the Council estimates will be transferred from its collection fund to its general fund pursuant to the Collection Fund (Community Charges) (England) Directions 1994 under section 98(4) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988;

 

            e)         £1,291.81 (Wiltshire Council Band D tax plus average parish councils Band D Tax) being the amount at 10(c) above less the amount at 10(d) above, all divided by the amount at 8(a) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with section 33(1) of the Act, as the basic amount of its council tax for the year as shown below:

 

Band A £	Band B £	Band C £	Band D £	Band E £	Band F £	Band G £	Band H £
861.20	1004.74	1148.27	1291.81	1578.88	1865.95	2153.01	2583.62

 

            f)          £12,360,288 (Aggregate of parish and town council precepts) being the aggregate amount of all special items referred to in section 34(1) of the Act;

 

g)        £1,222.43 (Band D tax for Wiltshire Council purposes only)

being the amount at 10(e) above less the result given by dividing the amount at 10(f) above by the amount at 8(a) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 34(2) of the Act, as the basic amount of its council tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which no special item relates as shown below:

 

Band A £	Band B £	Band C £	Band D £	Band E £	Band F £	Band G £	Band H £
814.95	950.78	1086.6	1222.43	1494.08	1765.73	2037.38	2444.86

 

            h)        Part of the Council's Area (List of each Parish’s Council Band D tax)

 

That the table at Appendix 1 shows the amounts relating to dwellings in those parts of the Council's area mentioned above divided in each case by the amount at 8(b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 34(3) of the Act, as the basic amounts of its council tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items relate;

 

(4).   That it be noted that for the year 2010-11 the Wiltshire Police Authority has stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Authority, in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, for each of the categories of dwellings shown below:

 

Band A £	Band B £	Band C £	Band D £	Band E £	Band F £	Band G £	Band H £
105.18	122.71	140.24	157.77	192.83	227.89	262.95	315.54

 

(5).   That it be noted that for the year 2010-11 the Wiltshire & Swindon Fire Authority has stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Authority, in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and Section 83 of the Local Government Act 2003, for each of the categories of dwellings shown below:

 

Band A £	Band B £	Band C £	Band D £	Band E £	Band F £	Band G £	Band H £
41.59	48.52	55.45	62.38	76.24	90.10	103.97	124.76

 

(6).   That, having calculated the aggregate in each case of the amounts at 10(h) 11 and 12 above, the Council, in accordance with section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, hereby sets the amounts shown in the table at Appendix 1 as the amounts of council tax for the year 2010-11 for each of the categories of dwellings shown in the table:-

 

Part of the Council's Area  (List of total tax figures for all bands of property for all parishes within Wiltshire – including Parish, Wiltshire Council, Wiltshire Police Authority and Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority elements).