Agenda and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda and which have not already been notified to Democratic Services or the Monitoring Officer.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests or any disclosable pecuniary interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

It was noted that the Monitoring Officer had confirmed that Government guidance stated that Members did not have a disclosable pecuniary interest in the business of setting the council tax and that the Council’s Code of Conduct also confirmed that Members did not have a prejudicial interest in that business on the agenda.

The following personal interest was declared

To consider any announcements made by the Lord Mayor in respect of Civic business.

The Lord Mayor informed Members that Marjorie Bwye, an Honorary Alderman and former Lord Mayor, had sadly passed away. Members joined the Lord Mayor to observe a minute’s silence in memory of Mrs Bwye.

She then welcomed Councillor Kallum Taylor, who had recently been elected to represent Holgate Ward, to the Council.

She advised Members that Councillor Ann Reid had been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List, in recognition for her service to Local Government and the City of York.

The Lord Mayor advised that while she had not received any civic gifts since the last meeting of Council, the Deputy Lord Mayor had accepted the gift of a small Chinese lacquered screen on behalf of the city, presented by a representative of Beijing Polytechnic during a meeting with ‘First Landing Education’ pupils at York St John University in November.

At this point in the meeting, any member of the public who has registered to address the Council, or to ask a Member of the Council a question, on a matter directly relevant to the setting of the Council’s budget for the coming financial year may do so.  The deadline for registering is 5:00pm on Wednesday 21 February 2018. To register to speak please contact the Democracy Officers for the meeting, on the details at the foot of the agenda.

WEBCASTING NOTICE

Please note: this meeting may be filmed for live or subsequent broadcast via the internet - at the start of the meeting the Lord Mayor will confirm if all or part of the meeting is being filmed.

You should be aware that the Council is a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act. Data collected during this webcast will be retained in accordance with the Council’s published policy.

Public seating areas will not be filmed by the Council.

The Council’s protocol on Webcasting, Filming & Recording of Meetings ensures that these practices are carried out in a manner both respectful to the conduct of the meeting and all those present.  It can be viewed at http://www.york.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/11406/protocol_for_webcasting_filming_and_recording_of_council_meetings_20160809.pdf

The Lord Mayor advised Members that under Public Participation procedures, at Budget Council each registered speaker had a maximum of 3 minutes to address Council  or ask a question on any matter directly relevant to the setting of the budget, as laid down in Standing Orders governing Council meetings Although there were 4 formally registered speakers tonight, some other residents had expressed an interest in speaking at the meeting on matters which were not related to the setting of the budget. 

Given that one of the interested speakers wished to speak in relation to Minute No 58 below (Appointment of a Council Leader) and by way of further clarity, the Lord Mayor added that at Annual Council, where the Council Leader was traditionally appointed, Council Standing Orders did not specifically provide for public participation on that business  as such appointments were deemed to be essentially internal business.

In light of these procedures and practices, the Lord Mayor asked Council if any Member wished to move suspension of Standing Order 14.4 to allow those members of the public who wished to speak at the meeting tonight on non-budget related issues, to do so.

Councillor Dave Taylor moved, and Councillor Kramm seconded, a motion to suspend Standing Order 14.4 to allow those speakers to participate.

Councillor Williams called for a named vote and this was supported by Councillors Danny Myers and Derbyshire.

In accordance with Standing Order 34.1, a named vote was then taken to suspend Standing Orders, with the following result.

The motion was declared CARRIED.  As a result, the interested speakers were allowed by Council to address the meeting on non-budget related matters (see below)

The Lord Mayor then invited the first speaker to address Council, that being Mr Peter Richardson, who, despite formally registering,   was not in attendance at the meeting.

The following 3 speakers then addressed Council in relation to the setting of the Council’s budget.

Anne Leonard spoke to express her concern in relation to the closure of council owned care homes and asked for assurances that the standard of care for elderly people in York would not suffer as a consequence.

Josephine Smith spoke in relation to budget proposals in relation to community care. She expressed concern that as council run care homes were sold, care for the elderly was left, for the most part in the hands of private companies, and fragmentation of the service risked leaving the elderly vulnerable.

Sheena Foxwell spoke on behalf of ‘Defend Our NHS’, in relation to the budget proposals and asked what the council would be doing to look at the health and wellbeing of residents in relation to the impact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

To consider nominations for and the appointment of a new Council Leader.

The Lord Mayor announced that at 6:30pm that evening, Cllr Carr had formally resigned from his position as Council Leader.  As Councillor Carr had requested to address the Council, she invited him to do so at this point in the meeting.

Councillor Carr spoke referring to his formal resignation and thanked those who had supported him during his time as Leader. He expressed dismay at the circumstances which had led to his resignation.  As a result of which, he announced his own formal resignation from the Conservative Group, together with that of his fellow Councillor, Suzie Mercer, both with immediate effect. He confirmed that they would both continue as Ward Councillors, serving the best interests of ward residents as independent councillors.

Following this, the Lord Mayor called for a short adjournment.  On reconvening,  the Lord Mayor proceeded with the business in hand and invited nominations for a new Leader to take over from Councillor Carr.

Councillor Waller moved to defer the appointment of Leader  to allow time to consider appropriate options. This was seconded by Councillor Reid. A vote for deferral was taken and this fell.

Councillor Galvin moved, and Councillor Doughty seconded a motion that Councillor Gillies become Council Leader. There being no further nominations this was  put to the vote, the motion fell.

(Councillor Ayre left the meeting prior to the vote on this motion)

There being no appointment made to the position of Executive Leader at the meeting, the Deputy Leader, Councillor Waller, immediately assumed the position of Acting Leader and thereby presented the Executive’s budget proposals.

To consider the recommendations made by Executive, at their meeting on 8 February 2018, regarding a capital allocation for City Transport Access Measures and the third monitor report on the Capital Programme.  These are set out in the attached Part B minutes and will be moved by the Executive Leader.

Councillor Waller moved and Councillor Reid seconded the following recommendation made by the Executive at their meeting held on 8 February 2018, following consideration of a report of City Transport Access Measures (minute 128 refers) as follows:

“That Council agree that the Built Environment Fund allocation (£1.187m) set aside in the Capital Programme to develop a business case for Public Realm improvements be used to fund the delivery of initial proposed access restrictions.”

On being put to the vote the recommendation was declared CARRIED and it was:

To consider the recommendations made by Executive, at their meeting held on 8 February 2018, in relation to:

(a)     the Financial Strategy 2018/19 to 2022/23 (including the Council’s revenue budget proposals for 2018/19)

(b)     the Capital Strategy 2018/19 to 2022/23

(b)     the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Prudential Indicators 2018/19 to 2022/23.

These recommendations are set out in the attached report and will be moved by the Council Leader.

Note:

The original budget reports to Executive, on which their recommendations are based, were circulated to all Members and can be found on the Council’s website, here:

http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=10196&Ver=4

Councillor Waller moved, and Councillor Gillies seconded, the motions relating to the following proposals

(a)     the Financial Strategy 2018/19 to 2022/23 (including the Council’s revenue budget proposals for 2018/19)

(b)     the Capital Strategy 2018/19 to 2022/23

(c)     the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Prudential Indicators 2018/19 to 2022/23.

Capital Strategy

Executive recommends that Council:

(i)           Agree to the revised capital programme of £314.611m that reflects a net overall increase of £54.767m (as set out in paragraph 81 table 10 and in Annex B). Key elements of this include;

a.    Extension of prudential borrowing funded Rolling Programme schemes totalling £8.270m as set out in table 3 and summarised in table 10;

b.   New schemes totalling £8.506m including an increase in prudential borrowing of £2.356m as set out in table 4 and summarised in table 10;

c.   Extension of externally funded Rolling Programme schemes totalling £5.380m as set out in table 5 and summarised in table 10;

d.   An increase in HRA funded schemes totalling £32.611m funded from a combination HRA balances/Right to Buy receipts as set out in table 6 and summarised in table 10

(ii)      Approve the full restated programme as summarised in Annex A totalling £314.611m covering financial years 2018/19 to 2022/23 as set out in table 11 and Annex A

Reason:     To set a balanced capital programme as required by the Local Government Act 2003.

Revenue Budget

Executive recommends;

(i)      That the £46k cut to the OAP Garden Scheme (HRA4) in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) savings proposals at Annex 6 to the report be deleted, to be replaced by a balancing increase to the Housing Repairs savings (HRA1) through improved IT systems to avoid wasted appointments.

(ii)          That subject to the amendment above, Council approve the budget proposals outlined in the Financial Strategy report and in particular;

a)   The net revenue expenditure requirement of £121.877m

b)   A council tax requirement of £85.898m

c)   The revenue growth proposals as outlined in the body of the report

d)   The 2018/19 revenue savings proposals as outlined in annex 2

e)   The fees and charges proposals as outlined in annex 4

f)    The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget set out in annex 5 and the HRA savings proposals set out in annex 6

g)   The dedicated schools grant proposals outlined from paragraph 162

h)   The use of £373k New Homes Bonus funding to fund one off investment, as outlined in paragraph 54

i)     An £800k increase in the contingency budget to fund adult social care, in particular winter pressures and delayed transfers of care, subject to a further report to Executive

j)     The receipt of an additional £457k adult social care grant announced in the final settlement on 6 February, to be considered alongside i) above and subject to a further report to Executive

k)   The release of one off funding in the transport reserve of £450k to fund ongoing expenditure

l)     The use of £38k from the £156k funding from the Leeds City Region Business Rates Pool  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

To consider the Council Tax Resolution for 2018/19, as set out in the attached report.

The required named vote, in accordance with legal regulations, was then taken on the Council Tax recommendation with the following results.

The motion was declared CARRIED and it was

Resolved:

(i)      That it be noted that on 25 November 2017 the Deputy Chief Executive/Corporate Director of Customer and Corporate Services, under his delegated authority, calculated the council tax base for the year 2018/19:

(a)     for the whole Council area as 66,671.1 [Item T in the formula in Section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended (the “Act”)]; and

(b)     for those dwellings in those parts of its area to which a Parish precept relates as in column 1 in the attached Schedule A.

(ii)      Calculate that the Council Tax requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2018/19 (excluding Parish precepts) is £85,897,710.

(iii)     That the following amounts be calculated for the year 2018/19 in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Act:

         (a)     £385,302,821 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A(2) of the Act taking into account all precepts issued to it by Parish Councils.

         (b)     £298,679,624 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A(3) of the Act.

         (c)     £86,623,197 being the amount by which the aggregate at 14(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 14(b) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31A(4) of the Act as its Council Tax requirement for the year. [Item R in the formula in Section 31B of the Act].

         (d)     £1,299.26  being the amount at 14(c) above [Item R], all divided by Item T (12(a) above), calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 31B of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year (including Parish precepts).

         (e)     £725,487   being the aggregate amount of all special items (Parish precepts) referred to in Section 34(1) of the Act (as per the attached Schedule A).

         (f)      £1,288.38  being the amount at 14(d) above less the result given by dividing the amount at 14(e) above by Item T (12(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 Parish precept relates.

(iv)    To note that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

The Lord Mayor advised that the meeting may need to be  adjourned in order that the remaining business, the appointment of a Council Leader  could be brought back to the reserved date for continuation of Budget Council on 1^st March 2018.  However, on a Member querying this position, she advised that details of arrangements for resolving this business would be confirmed to Members in due course.