To receive Report No. 46/2022 from the Cabinet on recommendations referred to the Council for determination.

To approve Cabinet Recommendations to Council on the following reports:

·       Report No. 03/2022 – Fees and Charges 2022/23

·       Report No. 02/2022 – Treasury Management Strategy and Capital Investment Strategy 2022/23.

·       Report No. 09/2022 – Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/23

Report No. 46/2022 was received from the Cabinet. Councillor K Payne introduced the report which requested that Council approved Cabinet recommendations from the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation following Cabinet meetings on 18^th January 2022 and 15^th February 2022:

Report No. 03/2022 – Fees and Charges 2022/23

Councillor K Payne presented the recommendations of Report No. 03/2022 and highlighted that the Council received approximately £4m from fees and charges each year and they had been reviewed on an annual basis as part of the budget council tax setting process. The report summarised the proposed changes for 2022/23 with the new fees and charges for this year.

It was noted that changes excluded taxi and private hire vehicles which would be subject to consultation through public notice procedure and be bought back for approval following consultation.

A concern was raised around the new proposed parking charges and how the one hour car park rate was cheaper if a customer paid via mobile phone. Councillor L Stephenson undertook to find out the answer to the query raised and write to Members outside of the meeting.

Several concerns were raised by Members around the additional costs of ordering a green bin over the telephone and whether in particular the charge should be levied for a second green bin. Councillor L Stephenson observed that this had been in place since July 2021 and the overall aim of Rutland was to try to reduce the amount of waste within the County.

It was moved by Councillor K Payne that Council approved the recommendations of Report No. 03/2022. This was seconded and upon being put to the vote, with 19 votes in favour, 1 against and 3 abstentions, the motion was carried.

RESOLVED:

That Council:

1)    APPROVED the level of fees and charges for 2022/23 as set out in Appendices 1-4 except for taxi and private hire vehicle licenses.

2)    APPROVED new fees for:

§  Learning Disability Day Centre Places (para 3.5)

§  Highways Vehicle Access Permits (para 4.5), and s278 agreement minimum fee (para 4.3),

§  Parking of solo motorcycles, Blue Badge over 3 hours, permits for residents in zone A and U3A permits for visitors of residents in zones C, E & V, and permits for carers (paras 4.17 and 4.20),

§  Coach Parking at Kilburn Road (para 4.18),

§  New parking services delivery, collection and photocopying of permits/season tickets, (para 4.21)

§  Installation of Advisory Blue Badge bays on street (para 4.22),

§  S106 monitoring fees (para 4.23) and exceptional review of Community Infrastructure Levy (para 4.24),

§  Museum and Castle full day hire and exclusive hire of the Castle for ceremonies (paras 4.10 and 4.11)

§  Registrars diary amendments and bookings (para 4.13).

3)    NOTED that taxi and private hire vehicle licenses fees will be subject to change based on the outcome of forthcoming consultation through a public notice procedure and be brought back for approval following that consultation.

Report No. 02/2022 – Treasury Management Strategy and Capital Investment Strategy

Councillor K Payne presented the recommendations of Report No. 02/2022 and highlighted that the Treasury Management Policy was about setting the Councils approach to investment and borrowing in the context of the capital expenditure plan. In light of some irresponsible capital expenditure plans by a number of other local authorities, the whole area was under significant scrutiny at the moment and CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) had been consulting on a number of changes, many of which wouldn’t affect the Council directly. These changes would not come in until 2023/24 but the Council were adopting these.

The report also set out that the Council acknowledged the desire to make green investments and that over the next 12 months the Council would work with other local authorities to see how practice might involve to invest in green technologies in the future but security of investment would always override the rate of return.

The recommendations of Report No. 02/2022 were seconded and upon being put to the vote, the motion was unanimously carried.

RESOLVED:

That Council:

1)    APPROVED the Treasury Management Strategy in Appendix 1 of the report including the Investment Strategy, Borrowing strategy, Minimum Revenue Provision statement and Capital Expenditure Prudential indicators.

2)    APPROVED the Capital Investment Strategy in Appendix 2 of the report.

Report No. 09/2022 – Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/23

Councillor K Payne presented the recommendations of Report No. 09/2022 and highlighted that the Council was setting a budget of £42.345m with a proposed council tax increase of 4.99% including 3% for the Adult Social Care precept. There was a forecast deficit in the following financial year 2023/24 of over £2m in the medium term financial plan, and the report set out the intended steps to address this.

From the consultation the following points were taken from the public events:

·       Councillors needed to involve residents more in decision making and to hear more from them on key issues whilst keeping them informed and engaged on all Council matters.

·       It was important to work with the local MP to lobby for better funding for Rutland County Council as it receives much less Government funding compared to other Unitary Councils leading to residents paying higher council tax.

With regards to council tax, the Councill would also pay £150 to all households in Bands A-D in April as announced by Central Government in a recent scheme.

A suggestion was made that an FAQ section could be added onto the Councils website to help the public with answers around the Council’s financial affairs. Councillor Hemsley agreed with the suggestion and gave assurance this would be looked into.

The recommendations of Report No. 09/2022 were proposed by Councillor K Payne and seconded. A recorded vote was required and the voting was as follows:

There voted in favour:

Councillors P Ainsley, E Baines, N Begy, K Bool, A Brown, G Brown, P Browne, J Burrows, J Dale, J Fox, S Harvey, O Hemsley, M Jones, A MacCartney, M Oxley, K Payne, R Powell, L Stephenson, G Waller and D Wilby.

There voted against:

Councillors D Blanksby, L Toseland and A Walters

The vote being 20 in favour and 3 against, the motion was therefore carried.

That Council:

RESOLVED:

1)    APPROVED the General Fund Budget for 2022/23 of £42.345m (Section 11)

2)    APPROVED an increase in Council Tax of 4.99% including 3% for the Adult Social Care precept resulting in a Band D charge of £1,917.36 (Section 10)

3)    APPROVED use of the remaining Government hardship fund to provide further council tax discounts to the most vulnerable residents (10.2.2)

4)    DELEGATED authority to the Strategic Director for Resources in consultation with the Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Finance to administer the Council Tax energy rebate scheme using new burdens funding as appropriate.

5)    DELEGATED authority to the Strategic Director for Resources and Strategic Director for Adult Services and Health to use any new burdens funding for adult social care charging reforms as required to enable the Council to meet the October 2023 target dates.

6)    DELEGATED authority for the Chief Executive or Strategic Director for Resources in consultation with the Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Finance to continue discussions with cost reduction consultants and spend up to £100k on a viable project (8.3.7)

7)    APPROVED additions/deletions to the capital programme as per 12.1.2

8)    APPROVED changes to earmarked reserves as per 9.2.3

9)    NOTED that additional revenue or capital expenditure may be incurred in 2022/23 funded through 2021/22 budget under spends to be carried forward via earmarked reserves. The use of reserves for budget carry forwards is not currently shown in the budget but will have no impact on the General Fund

10) APPROVED the estimated surplus of £186k on the Collection Fund as at 31 March 2022 (Section 10.3) of which £159k is the Rutland share

11) NOTED the responses to consultation (Section 15)

12) NOTED the position on the Dedicated Schools Grant budget (Section 14)

DELEGATED authority to the s151 Officer to make any necessary changes to the budget arising from the Council tax decision and/or any additional funding received.