Meeting documents

Council
Wednesday, 23rd February, 2005 7.00 pm

Date:
Wednesday, 23rd February, 2005
Time:
7.00pm
Place:
Council Chamber Town Hall Bury
 

Attendance Details

Present:
The Worshipful the Mayor (Councillor E B Briggs) in the Chair;
Councillors K Audin, R A Bibby, D B Bigg, D Boden, K S Briggs, R C A Brown, J Byrne, G Campbell, L E Campbell, W A Campbell, D M Cassidy, T P Chamberlain, S Cohen, M Connolly, J P Costello, S Costello, Y Creswell, A J Cummings, V D D’Albert, W J Davison, W Flood, A J Garner, A S Garner, I B Gartside, M A Gibb, E K Grime, J Grimshaw, D L Gunther, D M Higgin, T Holt, K Hussain, A Isherwood, S P Magnall, A K Matthews, R H J Nuttall, S R Perkins, T D Pickstone, P H Redstone, K Rothwell, G Sharkey, J Smith, S J Southworth, J W H Taylor, B Theckston, S J Treadgold, B Vincent, R E Walker, J F Walton, M J Wiseman and Y S Wright
Co-opted:
42 members of the public attended the meeting.
Apologies for absence:
-
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Item Description Decision
Open
C.1076 Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday, 26th January, 2005 7.00pm
 RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 26 January 2005 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.
C.1077 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Preamble for item C.1077
 
C.1078 MAYORAL COMMUNICATIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Preamble for item C.1078
 
C.1079 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
Preamble for item C.1079
 
C.1080 RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE EXECUTIVE AND COUNCIL COMMITTEES
 (A) Minute EX.1011 of the Executive on 18 February 2005 - Housing Revenue Account 2005/2006

(i) Councillor Perkins made a Statement on the Housing Revenue Account.

(ii) It was moved by Councillor Byrne, seconded by Councillor W A Campbell and -

RESOLVED:

That the recommendations contained in Minute EX.1011 of the meeting of the Executive held on 18 February 2005 concerning the Housing Revenue Account 2005/2006 be approved and adopted.

(B) Minute EX.1012 of the Executive on 18 February 2005 - Capital Programme and Revenue Budget 2005/2006

(i) Councillor W A Campbell made a Statement in the form of a presentation on the Capital Programme and Revenue Budget for 2005/2006

(ii) It was moved by Councillor Byrne and seconded by Councillor W A Campbell that the recommendations contained in Minute EX.1012 of the meeting of the Executive on 16 February 2005 concerning the Budget for 2005/2006 be approved and adopted subject to the following amendments:

(a) The deletion of the following:-

‘1. That the report be noted and the Council be requested to consider and determine all matters relating to the Budget, the Capital Programme, the draft Treasury Management Strategy and the level of Council Tax for 2005/2006 at its special meeting on 23 February 2005.’

(b) The renumbering of Recommendation 2 as Recommendation 1 to read as follows:-

‘1. That all-party discussions take place during 2005/2006 on revised procedures for political consultations on budget proposals for 2006/2007 and future years.’

(c) The addition of the following:-

‘Capital Programme

2. That the Capital Programme for 2005/06 and future years, shown in Appendix B be approved;

3. That the discretionary scheme for Parks and Countryside Cleaner, Safer, Greener Phase 2 be included in the approved Capital Programme at a net cost of £245,000 funded as set out in 4. and 5. below;

4. That the allowance for slippage in the Programme be increased by £155,000;

5. That an additional capital receipt of £90,000 from the sale of property be used to support the Capital Programme;

6. That the proposed financing of the Capital Programme set out in paragraph 3.9 of the report be approved subject to the amendments in 4. and 5. above;

7. That the use of £4.010m of capital receipts to support the Programme be noted;

Revenue Budget

8. That the details of the final Revenue Support Grant Settlement for 2005/06 be noted;

9. That the forecast Collection Fund position as at 31st March 2005 be noted;

10. That the minimum level of balances to be retained is confirmed at £2,849,000;

11. That the level of repayment of principal on General Fund debt at the minimum of 4% be approved;

12. That it be noted that under delegated powers the Director of Finance and E-Government calculated the amount of 58,389.35 as the Council Tax base for the year 2005/06 in accordance with the Local Government Act 2003 and with regulations made under section 33(5) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992;

13. That the forecast outturn position for 2004/05 be noted;

14. That the recommendations of the Schools’ Forum around education funding issues be noted;

15. That the statements by the Director of Finance and E-Government on the robustness of budget assumptions and on the minimum level of balances be noted;

16. That the Revenue Budget for 2005/06 as set out in paragraph 4.4.1 of the report be approved subject to the following amendments:

ADD
Contribution to balances to replenish call from 2004/05 outturn £1,200,000

Contribution to balances from surplus saving options £60,000

LESS
Savings identified in paragraph 4.7.3 £4,470,000

17. That the following recommendations in relation to the Revenue Budget and Council Tax for 2005/2006 be approved:

1. That £1,060,000 be contributed to General Fund balances to compensate for the projected overspending on the 2004/2005 Revenue Budget.

2. That the following amounts be now calculated by the Council for the year 2005/2006 in accordance with Sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992: -

(a) £356,313,400 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) £151,183,000 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) £205,130,400 being the amount by which the aggregate at 2(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 2(b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act, as its budget requirement for the year;

(d) £145,448,900 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, increased by the amount of the sums which the Council estimates will be transferred in the year from its Collection Fund to its General Fund;

(e) £1022.13 being the amount at 2(c) above less the amount at 2(d) above, all divided by the Council Tax Base of 58,389.35, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 33(1) of the Act as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year; and

(f) Valuation Bands

A B C
£681.42 £794.99 £908.56

D E F
£1022.13 £1249.27 £1476.41

G H
£1703.55 £2044.26

being the amounts given by multiplying the amount at 2(e) above by the number which, in the proportion set out in Section 5(1) of the Act, is applicable to dwellings listed in a particular valuation band divided by the number which in that proportion is applicable to dwellings listed in valuation band D, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 36(1) of the Act, as the amounts to be taken into account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings listed in different valuation bands.

3. That it be noted that for the year 2005/2006 the Greater Manchester Police Authority and the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority have stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Council, in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, for each of the categories of the dwellings shown below:

Police
A B C
£70.27 £81.99 £93.70

D E F
£105.41 £128.83 £152.26

G H
£175.68 £210.82

Fire

A B C
£29.82 £34.79 £39.76

D E F
£44.73 £54.67 £64.61

G H
£74.55 £89.46

4. That, having calculated the aggregate in each case of the amounts at 2(f) and 3 above, the Council, in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, hereby sets the following amounts as the amounts of Council Tax for the year 2005/2006 for each of the categories of dwellings shown below:

A B C
£781.51 £911.77 £1042.02

D E F
£1172.27 £1432.77 £1693.28

G H
£1953.78 £2344.54

18. That, in making the necessary decisions, the Council has taken into account the results of the budget consultation process and the budget position for 2006/07 and future years, as outlined in sections 9 and 10 of the report submitted.

Treasury Management Strategy

19. That the Prudential Indicators for 2005/06 to 2007/08 be approved;

20. That the Treasury Management Strategy for 2005/06 be approved;

21. That annex A of Appendix D, the Revised Treasury Management Policy Statement, be adopted in accordance with the Code of Practice; and

22. That annex C of Appendix D, the scheme of Delegation and Responsibility, be approved.’

(iii) An amendment was moved by Councillor Walker and seconded by Councillor Bigg by way of the addition of the following:-

‘and that this Council, noting the difficult budgetary position, which partly results from the continuing Capping regime maintained by Central Government, and regretting the cuts in service provision considered necessary, resolves to maintain the funding of the Re:d Centre for children with disabilities (£235,000) and to allocate additional funds to the budget head for Care Packages for People with Substantial Care Needs (£304,000) by transferring monies from:

Council’s free newspaper £36,000
Local Government Information Unit Subscriptions £10,190
Pedestrian Skills £16,515
Cycling Strategy £25,407
Publicity Budget (eg Municipal Journal Supplement)at least £20,000
Nuclear Free Zones Organisation Over £1,000
MIDAS subscription £130,000
Job Advertising Expenditure (over £800,000) £300,000’

On being put and before the counting of votes, 8 Members requested that the voting on the amendment be recorded so as to show how each Member cast their vote.

The result of the voting was as follows:-

For the amendment:
Councillors Bibby, Bigg, Brown, Cohen, Creswell, Gartside, Gunther, Higgin, Hussain, Magnall, Nuttall, Redstone, Taylor, Theckston, Vincent, Walker, Walton, Wiseman and Wright (19)

Against the amendment:
Councillors Audin, Boden, K S Briggs, Byrne, G Campbell, W A Campbell, Cassidy, Chamberlain, Connolly, J P Costello, S Costello, Cummings, D’Albert, Davison, Flood, A J Garner, A S Garner, Gibb, Grime, Grimshaw, Holt, Isherwood, Matthews, Perkins, Pickstone, Rothwell, Sharkey, Smith, Southworth and Treadgold (30)

Abstained from voting:
The Worshipful the Mayor (1)

The amendment was declared lost.

(iv) A further amendment was moved by Councillor Pickstone and seconded by Councillor Davison by way of the addition of the following:-

‘(a) Additional items of Expenditure/Reduced Income

1. A new ‘Area Initiatives Budget’ as a successor to ‘Kick Start’, with £10,000 allocated to each Area Board to be spent at their discretion towards the achievement of the Local Community Plan £60,000
2. The first year of a three year programme to remove all charges for non-residential social services care £120,000
3. Bringing the ‘headline’ rise in Council Tax to 4.9%£142,000
4. Restoration of the bulk of the funding currently due to be lost by the NCH Re:d Centre Project £200,000
Total = £522,000

(b) Funded by

1. Part fund Play Area Strategy from borrowing and utilise Airport Dividend £200,000
2. Less cost borrowing further £200,000 to fund capital budget as a result of the above - £8,000
3. Use of Airport Dividend Reserve £30,000
4. Use of remainder of identified savings in the Report of the Executive to Council £202,000
5. Use of part of the Policy Development Reserve £98,000
Total = £522,000’

On being put, 10 voted for, 22 against and with 13 abstentions, the amendment was declared lost.

(v) The substantive motion, as amended, on being put, 25 voted for, 24 against, and with one abstention, was declared carried and it was -


RESOLVED:

That the recommendations contained in Minute EX.1012 of the meeting of the Executive held on 18 February 2005 as amended at (ii) above, concerning the Capital Programme and Revenue Budget 2005/2006 be approved and adopted.
C.1081 DELEGATED DECISIONS OF THE EXECUTIVE AND COUNCIL COMMITTEES
Preamble for item C.1081
 
The meeting started at 7.00 pm and ended at 10.20 pm.

Preamble

Preamble
ItemPreamble
C.1077(a) Councillors Bigg, J P Costello, S Costello and Grimshaw declared personal interests in Minute EX.1012 relating to the Capital Programme as members of Bury Metro Arts Association.

(b) Councillors Rothwell and Sharkey declared personal and prejudicial interests in Minute.EX.1011 relating to the Housing Revenue Account and left the meeting during the consideration of this item.

(c) Councillor Walker indicated that his personal interests were recorded in the Register of Members’ Interests held by the Monitoring Officer.

(d) Councillors Bigg, J P Costello, S Costello, Rothwell and Wiseman declared personal and prejudicial interests in relation to that part of the amendment moved by Councillor Pickstone set out in Minute C.1080(B)(iv) below concerning a proposal to remove all charges for non-residential social care and left the meeting during the discussion on that amendment.
C.1078The Worshipful the Mayor made no announcements at this meeting.
C.1079(a) The representative of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services reported on the Judicial Review relating to the funding of the Re:d Centre and advised Members not to enter into a debate on this issue at this meeting which may prejudice proceedings in the future.

(b) Questions were asked on the following issues during Public Question Time:-

• Nicola Forshaw (Re:d Centre Manager) concerning the consideration of the financial situation and the potential savings in respect of the Re:d Centre
• Julie Cowgill (Hurdles) concerning the use of the Re:d Centre by social workers as an operational base
• Trevor Arness (Parent - Re:d Centre) concerning the recommendations of the Healthier and Safer Communities Scrutiny Commission on the funding of the Re:d Centre
• Geraldine Greene (Hurdles), Ian Watts and Rebecca Lunness concerning and objecting to the cut in funding of the Re:d Centre
• Mr R Launders concerning the replacement of a fence on the public footpath at Osborne Walk, Radcliffe

(Notes:

1. In view of (a) above the Leader of the Council / appropriate Executive Member did not respond to the questions asked on the Re:d Centre.

2. Following continuing interruptions by Mr Launders he was removed from the meeting on the order of the Mayor.)
C.1081There were no questions asked on the delegated decisions of the Executive and Council Committees contained in the Digest of Decisions 11 (2004/2005) published since the last ordinary meeting of the Council.