Agenda and minutes

The Chair was taken by Councillor Francine Haeberling, Leader of the Council.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 6

The Chair drew attention to the evacuation procedure as set out in the Agenda.

Apologies had been received from Councillor David Hawkins

To receive any declarations from Members/Officers of personal or prejudicial interests in respect of matters for consideration at this meeting.  Members who have an interest to declare are asked to:

a)  State the Item Number in which they have the interest;

b)  The nature of the interest;

c)  Whether the interest is personal, or personal and prejudicial.

Any Member who is unsure about the above should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting in order to expedite matters at the meeting itself.

There were none.

There was none.

At the time of publication, no items had been submitted

There were 3 questions from the following people: Councillors Nigel Roberts, Paul Crossley, Caroline Roberts.

[Copies of the questions and response, including supplementary questions and responses if any, have been placed on the Minute book as Appendix 1 and are available on the Council's website.]

At the time of publication, no items had been notified

All statements were made at the relevant item on the Agenda.

To be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair

Councillor Chris Watt asked for an amendment to be made to the record of a statement he had made at the meeting.  The Democratic Services Officer agreed to amend the Minutes before signature.  On a motion from Councillor Francine Haeberling, seconded by Councillor Chris Watt, it was

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 25th November 2010 (as amended) be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This is a standard agenda item, to cover any reports originally placed on the Weekly list for single Member decision making, which have subsequently been the subject of a Cabinet Member requisition to the full Cabinet, under the Council’s procedural rules

There were none.

This is a standing agenda item (Constitution rule 21, part 4D – Executive Procedure Rules) for matters referred by Overview and Scrutiny bodies.  The Chair(person) of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny body will have the right to attend and at the discretion of the Leader to speak to the item, but not vote

The Corporate Performance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel had submitted recommendations from its meeting held on Mon 31^st January for Cabinet's consideration when discussing the Budget.  [The Draft Minutes of that meeting, and the Summary of recommendations made from each Overview and Scrutiny Panel, are attached to these Minutes as Appendices 3 and 4.]

The Chair announced that both documents had been placed in the public gallery before the meeting; and that they would be considered at Item 14 on the Agenda.  She thanked Councillor David Dixon (Chair, CYP O&S Panel) for the work of his Panel in preparing the recommendations.

This report lists the Cabinet member decisions, sorted by Lead decision maker

The Cabinet agreed to note the report.

This report presents the financial monitoring information for the Authority as a whole for the financial year 2010/11 to the end of December 2010

Councillor Malcolm Hanney introduced the item and proposed the recommendations.  He commended all areas of the Council for living within the Budget despite the in-year cuts imposed by government.

Councillor Charles Gerrish seconded the recommendations

Rationale

The report is presented as part of the reporting of financial management and budgetary control required by the Council

Other Options Considered

None

On a motion from Councillor Malcolm Hanney, seconded by Councillor Charles Gerrish, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously):

(1) To ASK Strategic Directors to continue to work towards managing within budget in the current year for their respective service areas, and to manage below budget where possible by not committing unnecessary expenditure, through tight budgetary control.

(2) To NOTE this year’s revenue budget position;

(3) To NOTE the capital expenditure position for the Council in the financial year to the end of December and the year end projections;

(4) To AGREE the proposed revenue virements;

(5) To NOTE the changes in the capital programme;

(6) To APPROVE the proposed additions to the 2010/11 Capital Programme.

The CIPFA Treasury Management in Public Services Code of Practice requires the Council to approve a Treasury Management Strategy before the start of each financial year.  The Local Government Act 2003 requires the Council to set Prudential Indicators for the next three years to ensure that the Council’s capital investment plans are affordable, prudent and sustainable; to set out its Treasury Strategy for borrowing; and to prepare an Annual Investment Strategy.  This report sets out the Council’s policies for managing its investments and for giving priority to the security and liquidity of those investments.

Councillor Malcolm Hanney introduced the item and proposed the recommendations.  He referred to the table of non-specified investment limits on page 15 of Appendix 2, and explained the table should include Long-term credit rating A+ for 2 years for UK counterparties.

Councillor Charles Gerrish seconded the proposal.

Rationale

Report is a statutory requirement

Other Options Considered

None

On a motion from Councillor Malcolm Hanney, seconded by Councillor Charles Gerrish, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously):

(1) To RECOMMEND the actions proposed within the Treasury Management Strategy Statement to February Council for approval;

(2) To RECOMMEND the borrowing and debt rescheduling strategy to February Council for approval;

(3) To RECOMMEND the Investment Strategy to February Council for approval;

(4) To RECOMMEND the proposed changes to the authorised lending lists to February Council for approval;

(5) To NOTE the Prudential Indicators and delegate authority for updating the indicators prior to approval at Full Council on 16th February 2010 to the Divisional Director - Finance and Cabinet Member for Resources, in light of any changes to the recommended budget.

NOTE: The papers for this item were not available at the time of despatch but will be published in due course as a separate despatch

Councillor Eleanor Jackson made a statement [attached to these Minutes as Appendix 2 but not available on the web] in which she recognised the difficult job facing the Cabinet but expressed a number of objections to the proposals and to the way the information had been provided by what she felt was drip feeding via the local press.  She also felt it was a myth to say that frontline services could be protected.  She appealed for £25,000 bridging money to be made available from the Headroom Fund so that youth services in Radstock could have a breathing space to maintain staff hours and to find alternative premises.  She also asked for a commitment from Cabinet to repair and modernise the Victoria Hall in Radstock.

Councillor John Bull made an ad hoc statement, which he said was a repetition of the same points he had made at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting concerning the allocations from Headroom Fund.  On behalf of the Labour Group, he suggested that three allocations from the Headroom Fund should be made as part of the Budget:  Replace £27K into the budget for Children and Young People Services; Allocate £8K to complete the funding of Bath Contact Centre for Parents; Allocate £5K for the Children's Rights Service.

Councillor Paul Crossley made an ad hoc statement in which he said he felt there were still some massive commitments to huge projects of dubious value, an example of which was the Bath Rapid Transport proposals.

The Chair invited Councillors David Dixon (Chair of Corporate Performance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel) and Caroline Roberts (Chair of Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel) to address the Cabinet.

Councillor David Dixon referred to the Panel's recommendations which had been put into the public gallery before the meeting [attached to these Minutes as Appendices 3 and 4] which included the Labour Group comments.  He thanked the Cabinet for giving consideration to the Panel's recommendations.

Councillor Caroline Roberts observed that the previous year had seen a huge cut in the Environmental Services budget and she praised the staff of that service for achieving so much with such reduced funds.  She asked for this to be recognised in the current Budget and thanked the Cabinet for giving serious consideration to the comments made by the Panel.

Councillor Malcolm Hanney in introducing the item, referred to the Proposed Base Revenue Budget Cash Limits [attached to these Minutes as Appendix 5] which had not been included in the Agenda despatch but which had been made available in the public gallery before the meeting.

He echoed the thanks to officers for their hard work in such difficult circumstances.  He felt that the Cabinet had engaged well with Overview and Scrutiny Panels.  He observed that there had been a 16% cut across the board in grants from government and warned that about £3M of government grants were yet to be confirmed so the Revenue budget might still be subject to some change.  He joined with others  ...  view the full minutes text for item 149.