Meeting documents

Venue: Brill Church of England School, The Firs, Brill, Aylesbury, Bucks HP18 9RY

Contact: Bill Ashton; Email: bashton@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk; 

Items
No. Item

1.

Public Question Time

Minutes:

This meeting was held in Brill as part of Cabinet’s programme of holding meetings within local communities.  An opportunity was afforded to those members of the public present to ask questions of individual Cabinet portfolio holders.  Questions were asked about a range of issues, including:-

 

·         The policy for the determination of housing numbers in villages as part of the Vale of Aylesbury Plan process.

 

·         The policy (both nationally and locally) for the provision of affordable housing, and in particular the definition of such provision.

 

·         The use of section 106 monies for local community projects.

 

·         The perceived risk of the loss of agricultural buildings to residential development.

 

·         The lack of funding made available by the County Council as Highway Authority, for repairs to the rural road network.

 

·         AVDC’s procurement arrangements.

 

·         Planning enforcement issues.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 179 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 13 December, 2016, attached as an appendix.

Decision:

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes of 13 December, 2016, be approved as a correct record.

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes of 13 December, 2016, be approved as a correct record.

3.

Draft Budget Proposals for 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 185 KB

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Compliance

 

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer:  Andrew Small (01296) 585507

Decision:

(a)          Decision(s)

 

(1)  That the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee  be thanked for its input to the budget planning process.

 

(2)  That Council be recommended to increase Council Tax by £5 (3.59%) in respect of a Band D property from 1 April, 2017.

 

(3)  That Council be recommended to approve the budget for 2017/2018 and the Medium Term Financial Plan as set out in summary form in Appendix A to the Cabinet report.

 

(4)  That the revised list of fees and charges (taken into the final calculations) attached to the Cabinet report be agreed.

 

(5)  That Council be recommended to approve Aylesbury Special Expenditure totalling £845,800, supported by a precept of £45, which represents a Council Tax freeze for Special Expenses (as set out in Appendix F to the Cabinet report).

 

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

 

The Council is statutorily required to set a budget for 2017/2018 and plan for expenditure in subsequent years based upon the Medium Term Financial Plan.

 

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

 

The development of the initial proposals has involved a number of key elements of choice as set out in previous reports and the latest report submitted to Cabinet, which reflects the Government Grant settlement numbers.

 

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

 

Finance and Services.  That Committee’s comments were reported to Cabinet by the Committee Chairman and were taken into account in reaching the recommendations indicated above (as set out in the Cabinet Minutes). Cabinet’s final recommendations will now be submitted to Council and as such are not subject to call-in.

 

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

 

None.

 

Minutes:

The report to Cabinet on 13 December, 2016 had presented a set of initial budget proposals for 2016/2017 and beyond.  The report had highlighted the uncertainty around a number of issues, including retained business rates , further reductions in Government Grant and New Homes Bonus.

 

It was however now reported that in practice, little had changed at a service level and consequently the significant elements of the final budget proposals revolved around the impact of the Government Grant numbers and changes to other centrally funded support.

 

On 15 December, 2016, the Government had announced the draft Grant settlement for Councils.  Despite indications that there might be significant changes to reflect ongoing pressures on the wider local government sector, the Government had largely honoured its commitments contained in the four year settlement.

 

The only significant change had been to the Business Rates Tariff (the proportion of the locally collected business rates which had to be paid to Central Government).  It had been acknowledged that this figure would need to change in order to reflect the business rates revaluation, effective on 1 April, 2017.  Each council would have either gained business rates income or seen a reduction as a result of the revaluation.  To ensure that councils neither gained or lost by virtue of this national re-basing exercise, the net effect of the revaluation was captured through the system of tariffs and top-ups.  The Government had also taken the opportunity to baseline into the system the impact of some of its recent national policy changes to business rates.

 

Notably, where the Government had extended small business rates relief, the cost of this decision (in terms of lost business rates retained by local councils) would be compensated for through a separate Grant.  This Grant was now being rolled into the top-up and tariff adjustments numbers for individual councils.  Combined together, the consequence of the revaluation, the impact of the evaluation on the amount of mandatory relief entitlement, the scope of the transitional relief scheme (for those affected), and the impact of rolling in the compensating grants, made determining the true impact of the revaluation difficult to assess accurately.

 

The Government’s methodology had been validated, and seemed reasonable, but the tangible impact on rates payable locally was difficult to accurately calculate until such time as the Council’s software supplier had reflected these changes in the computer system.  Only at this point could the new rates payable from 1 April be calculated.  The final budget therefore continued to assume that the impact of all these changes was neutral – as the Government had intended.

 

The Council maintained a Business Rates Equalisation Reserve to protect and cushion the budget against volatility and fluctuation in its business rates income.  Should the impact of the revaluation, and other factors, ultimately prove not to be neutral, then the reserve would be used to smooth the impact on the budget.

 

With regard to New Homes Bonus (NHB), this had been a major concern.  The Government had consulted on a sharpening  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Technology Strategy 2017-2022 pdf icon PDF 25 KB

Councillor Mrs J Blake

Cabinet Member for Business Transformation

 

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer:  Maryvonne Hassall (01296) 585663

Additional documents:

Decision:

(a)          Decision(s)

 

That Council be recommended to approve the Connected Knowledge – Technology Strategy 2017 – 2022.

 

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

 

The rationale for this is contained within the Strategy document, which has been posted on the Council’s web site as part of the Cabinet agenda.

 

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

 

None.

 

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

 

Finance and Services.  That Committee considered the Strategy at its meeting on 1 December, 2016.  The Committee made a number of observations which were summarised separately as part of the Cabinet report.  The Committee Chairman attended the meeting to elaborate upon the Committee’s deliberations.

 

Cabinet noted that the majority of the Committee’s comments related to the implementation of the Strategy and not the direction or approach set out in the Strategy document.  The Scrutiny Committee had been assured that before implementing any of the changes the issues raised be addressed or were already in hand to ensure that they were satisfactorily resolved.

 

In thanking the Committee for its input, Cabinet was satisfied that the Strategy could be recommended for approval by the Council.

 

As the matter will be considered by Council, the above recommendations are not subject to call-in.

 

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

 

None.

Minutes:

Cabinet received a report, also submitted to the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 1 December, 2016, concerning the vision and strategic aims for the future use of technology and data within AVDC.  (Details of the Committee’s consideration are contained in the Minutes of that meeting, posted on the Council’s web site).  For ease of reference however, an extract from the Minutes was submitted setting out the principal points raised by the Committee.  The Chairman of the Committee attended the Cabinet meeting to elaborate upon the Committee’s deliberations.  The Computer Services Manager gave a similar presentation to that given at the Scrutiny Committee meeting.

 

Cabinet noted that the majority of the Committee’s comments related to the implementation of the strategy and not the direction of the approach set out in the strategy document.  Members of the Committee had been assured that before implementing any of the changes the issues raised would be addressed or were in fact in hand, to ensure that they were satisfactorily resolved.  For example, it was indicated that work had commenced on developing an Information Management Strategy which would address the issues around data security and regarding how data and knowledge would be shared within teams.  The final strategy that would be presented to Council would be re-worded to make the content clearer.  The impacts of the strategy were well understood by the unions and staff as it had formed the main driver behind the recently agreed restructure proposals within the IT teams.

 

Having had an opportunity to seek clarification from officers around various aspects of the Strategy, Cabinet

 

RESOLVED –

 

That Council be recommended to approve the Connected Knowledge- Technology Strategy 2017 – 20122.

 

 

5.

Public Sector Equality Duty pdf icon PDF 14 KB

Councillor Mrs Macpherson

Cabinet Member for Leisure, Communities and Civic Amenities

 

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer:  Andy Barton (01296) 585430

Additional documents:

Decision:

(a)          Decision(s)

 

That AVDC’s Equality Report for 2016 be approved for publication in order to meet the Council’s statutory duty.

 

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

 

This is a statutory requirement.  

 

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

 

None.

 

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

 

Finance and Services.  That Committee considered the Strategy at its meeting on 9 January, 2017.  The Committee Chairman attended the meeting to elaborate upon the Committee’s deliberations.  Cabinet took the Scrutiny Committee’s views into account in reaching the decision in (a) above.

 

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

 

None.

 

 

 

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a report, also submitted to the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 9 January, 2017, and summarised in the Minutes of that meeting, giving an assessment of the Council’s performance against the Public Sector Equality Duty, and the requirements of Regulation 2 of the Equality Act, 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations, 2011.  The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee attended Cabinet to elaborate upon the Committee’s deliberations.  It was reported that the Scrutiny Committee did not have any issues that it wished to highlight to Cabinet but had noted that a full review was currently being completed against the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty to re-evaluate all of the work that AVDC did as an organisation.  The Committee had asked for a further report when the full review had been completed.

 

After careful consideration, it was,

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Equality Report 2016 be approved for publication in order to meet the Council’s statutory duty.