Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Michaela Gay  01225 394411

Items
No. Item

48.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

49.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

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

 

Minutes:

The Chairman drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure.

 

50.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

Minutes:

There were none.

51.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Minutes:

There were none.

52.

TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIRMAN

Minutes:

There was none.

53.

ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC OR COUNCILLORS - TO RECEIVE DEPUTATIONS, STATEMENTS, PETITIONS OR QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE BUSINESS OF THIS MEETING

At the time of publication no notifications had been received.

 

Minutes:

There were none.

54.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 68 KB

The draft minutes are attached.

Minutes:

The Panel noted an addition regarding Councillor Goodman’s declaration of interest and confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chairman.

55.

Budget and Council Tax 2016/17 and Financial Outlook 2016/17 to 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 166 KB

The budget papers are attached in the following order:

 

·  Budget Report

·  Appendices (listed on the front of the report)

·  Summary of comments from PDS Panels

·  Budget Forum feedback

 

The Panel are invited to consider the reports and the feedback on the budget and to highlight any issue it would like the Cabinet to be aware of. The Panel may want to formulate some recommendations for the Cabinet but needs to recognise that such recommendations should be financially neutral as the Council has a requirement for a balanced budget.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Tim Richens, Divisional Director for Business Support, introduced the report.

 

Panel members considered the budget report along with comments from the Policy Development and Scrutiny Panels made in the November meetings on the Directorate Plans and notes on public consultation (Budget Fair) meetings.

 

The Cabinet Member for Efficiency and Resources, Councillor Charles Gerrish introduced the budget.

 

Panel members asked the following questions and made the following points:

 

Responding to a question from Councillor Furse (page 26) regarding ‘ring fenced’ money for Adult Social Care (ASC), the officer explained that funding from this element of any Council Tax increase – sometimes referred to as the ‘social care precept’ - must be used on ASC and that there have been very careful calculations on this.

 

Regarding a question from Councillor Goodman (page 29), the officer explained that Bath Western Riverside & Enterprise Area needed funding to enable the Council to carry out its role in project delivery and land assembly for the next phases.

In response to a query from Councillor Barrett (page 28), the Strategic Director for Place Louise Fradd explained that the current Waste contract is due to end in 2017 and a re-procurement process will commence soon. She further explained that the recent pay settlement is between Keir and their staff.

 

Councillor Barrett asked about the budget allocation for the B&NES Mayoral referendum (page 29) and Mayor’s budget should that be the outcome. The Cabinet Member explained that if a Mayor is elected as a result of the referendum outcome, the Mayor would need to operate within the current budget in this financial year.

 

Councillor Pearce asked what provisions are in place to monitor progress on the budget. The Strategic Director for Resources, Andrew Pate explained that there are a range of checks in place including internal management processes and regular monitoring reports to Cabinet. The Cabinet Member explained that he reviews performance against budget with his senior officers, he does take into account that a budget is over a 12 month period and there will be peaks and troughs. He confirmed that there is also a quarterly report to Cabinet on this.

 

Councillor Robin Moss (in attendance at the Panel meeting) stated that he felt that this had been his first opportunity to comment on the budget proposals as the information from other Panel’s and budget fairs is now outdated. He stated that elements of this budget are relying on economic growth and ‘spending to save’, there is recognition in the papers that the devolution deal may be impacted by economic growth, or lack of, so the risk element is substantial. The Cabinet Member responded that devolution is still a fluid picture and other than the consultancy costs of modelling and developing a deal, it is not reflected in the 2016/17 budget, being not expected to commence before the following year 2017/18. 

Councillor Dando asked if the authority intends to get a four year firm settlement from Government and the Cabinet Member explained that he does not have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

56.

Cabinet Member update

The Cabinet Member will update the Panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions on the update provided.

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member informed the Panel that his recent work had been focused on the budget as detailed in the previous item. He had nothing further to add.

57.

Panel Workplan pdf icon PDF 111 KB

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel. Any suggestions for further items or amendments to the current programme will be logged and scheduled in consultation with the Panel’s Chair and supporting officers.

Minutes:

The Panel noted the future workplan.

 

Councillor Gerrish stated that he would report back to the Panel on budget matters in the event of a four year plan.