Decision details

To agree and set the Council's medium term planning approach and recommend the 2013/14 Council Tax and Budget to Council

To RECOMMEND to Council:

(1)  That the Council approve:

a) The General Fund net revenue budget for 2013/14 of £123.359m with no increase in Council Tax.

b) That no Special Expenses be charged other than Town and Parish Council precepts for 2013/14.

c) The adequacy of reserves at Appendix 2 Table 9 with a risk-assessed level of £10.5m.

d) The individual service cash limits for 2013/14 summarised at Appendix 2 Table 5 and detailed in Annex 1.

e) That the specific arrangements for the governance and release of reserves, including invest to save proposals, be delegated to the Council’s Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Community Resources and the Chief Executive.

(2)  That the Council include in its Council Tax setting,  the precepts set and approved by other bodies including  the local precepts of Town Councils, Parish Councils and the Charter Trustees of the City of Bath, and those of the Fire and Police Authorities.

(3)  That the Council notes the Section 151 officer's report on the robustness of the proposed budget and the adequacy of the Council's reserves (Appendix 2, Annex 2) and approves the conditions upon which the recommendations are made as set out throughout Appendix 2.

(4)  That in relation to the capital budget the Council:

a) approves a capital programme of £59.036m for 2013/14 and notes items for provisional approval in 2013/14 and the programme for 2014/15 to 2017/18 as shown at Appendix 2, Annex 3 including the planned sources of funding .

b) approves the Minimum Revenue Provision Policy as shown at Appendix 2, Annex 4

c) approves the Capital Prudential Indicators as set out in Appendix  2 Table 7.

(5)  That the Council notes the approach to Community Assets as set out in Appendix 2, Annex 6 and supports the progression of the Quick Wins identified in this Annex.

(6)  That the Council notes the Policy Development & Scrutiny review of Medium Term Service and Resource Plans and instructs the relevant officers to finalise these in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member and in light of feedback from the PD&S reviews, and in line with the approved cash limits.

(7) That the Council agrees the proposed pay policy statement as set out at Appendix 5.

and

To AGREE:

(8)  That the Divisional Director – Finance, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Community Resources, is authorised to make any necessary presentational improvements to the draft budget proposal for submission to Council; and

(9) That the following changes be made to the wording and content of the published report:

a)  Page 21, final paragraph – to replace the word “significant” with the word “some”.

b)  Page 23, first bullet – to replace “£33 million” with “£34 million”.

c)  Page 51, final paragraph – to replace “provisional” with “Fully Approved”.

d)  Page 53, insert following sentences before the title “Flood Risk Management”  - “The following projects have received approval for the use of £11.2m of Revolving Investment Funding from the West of England LEP to support the delivery of this infrastructure to enable development of sites within the Bath City Riverside Enterprise Area.  This funding will be repaid from developer and related contributions once the relevant developments are completed.”

e)  Page 110, to delete the existing proposal for a saving of £50k in 2013/2014 relating to Waste Recycling Centres and replace with “Waste Grant Funding will be used to protect existing recycling centre opening hours for the 3 year period of this MTSRP.  There is therefore no impact to service delivery”.

f)  Page 127, to add the following text as para 5.3 – “The savings identified in para 5.1 above are anticipated to be a net revenue saving position across all Council owned assets, after taking account of any costs which may arise as a result of the Community Asset “Quick Wins” identified in this paper.

g)  Page 132, to add the following sentence after the existing paragraph under “Climate Change” – “The Council will also seek to recognise the potential impacts of weather related events like flooding for Council service areas including Environmental Services, Sustainability and Emergency Planning.”

h)  To include an item in the proposed use of “One-off Headroom Allocations” funded by the Financial Planning Reserve as set out on page 39 as follows:

·  £15,000 to protect the funding for the Wheels for All event for 2013/2014. 

and to authorise the Section 151 officer to make such appropriate amendments to the figures presented in the Budget Report for Council, as necessary to recognise this change.

The Council is required to set a budget each year.

The supporting paper and appendices contain details of other options considered before proposing the budget.