Meeting documents

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2015, copy attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2015 be confirmed as a correct record.

To consider the report attached as an appendix.

Contact Officer: Tamsin Ireland (01296) 585004

Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), came into force on 5 April 2011. The objective behind the duty was to ensure that consideration of equality issues formed part of the routine, day-to-day decision making and operational delivery of public authorities. In summary, it required that the District Council, in the exercise of its functions, had due regard to the need to:

·                    eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by or under the Equality Act.

·         advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not by:

o        Removing or minimising disadvantage that people in the protected groups suffer because its connected to that protected characteristic

o        Take steps to meet the needs of people from the protected groups where these differ to those of other people

o        Encourage participation from protected groups in public life or other activity where their participation is disproportionately low

·         foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not by:

o        Tackling prejudice

o        Promoting understanding

The protected characteristics were age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.

Following the introduction of the Equalities Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011, the Council had published a statement in 2012 on how the Council was meeting the Public Sector Equality Duty.  The regulations were designed to ensure that public bodies were transparent about their compliance with the Equality Duty. And, by publishing information about their equality performance and objectives, public bodies would be accountable to the people and communities they served.

The Committee received a report which provided an assessment of the Council’s performance against the Public Sector Equality Duty and which had been updated in light of the Council’s performance assessment for 2014-2015.  The information would be considered by Cabinet in January 2016, with a view to publishing an updated Public Sector Equality Duty statement on how AVDC was continuing to meet its statutory duty.

Appendix 1 to the Committee report detailed a performance assessment that had been undertaken of AVDC for 2014-2015 to demonstrate compliance with the general Equality Duty.    The Council’s equality objectives had also refreshed, in consultation with the Equalities Steering Group, and these were provided at Appendix 2.  Members referred to the report and both appendices whilst considering this matter.

Members commented that while the Committee report included information on equality performance and objectives relating to Council staff and residents/customers, there was no mention of the duty or objectives that the Council had relating to equality duties towards Councillors.

Members sought further information and were advised:-

(i)            that they could be provided with information on any instances of bullying that had been reported within the Council.

(ii)           that the Equalities Steering Group had spoken with AVDC’s Communities team as part of refreshing the equality objectives.

RESOLVED –

(1)          That the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Communities and Civic Amenities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Compliance

To consider the report attached as an Appendix.

Contact Officer: Andrew Small (01296) 585507.

At the November meeting, the Scrutiny Committee received a copy of the budget report submitted to Cabinet on 10 November 2015, and that set out the high level issues facing the Council when developing the budget proposals for 2016/17.  This explained the significant difficulty created by a variety of high value factors including retained business rates, further reductions in Government grant and the New Homes Bonus.

The comments made by scrutiny were reported back to Cabinet and the Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Compliance, for consideration in putting together the initial set of budget proposals for 2016/17.

The Scrutiny Committee received a report that had been submitted to Cabinet on 15 December 2015 and that detailed Cabinet’s initial budget proposals for 2016/17 together with the updated Medium Term Financial Plan.  The key proposals were:-

·                    to take into budget planning the £1.953m of realised savings – of this sum, £1.4m was attributed to service redesign, restructuring, new income generation or service cessation delivered as part of work undertaken under the umbrella of the new business model.

·                    to increase Council Tax by an annual amount equal to £2.71 for a Band D property, equivalent a 1.99% increase from 1 April 2016.

·                    to agree to use or contribute to balances any difference created within the budget arising from the Government’s grant settlement figures being different than that assumed within the Cabinet report.

·                    to agree the revised list of Fees and Charges attached as Appendix E to the Cabinet report.

·                    to keep the Band D Special Expenses charge at the same level for 2016/17.

·                    to recommend to Council that a sum of £600,000 be ringfenced from General Working Balances to fund the AVDC change programme, along with a delegation to the Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Compliance to approve a budgetary framework and allocations out of this sum.

The Cabinet report divided the main elements of budget planning between pressures, savings, Government Grant, Business Rates and proposals for Council tax.  The expected pressures were identified in the MTFP.  A number of new spending pressures had arisen, primarily associated with waste disposal, with total service based pressures amounting to £2.227m of which £559,000 represented a general provision for inflation and pay.

The Government Grant that the Council would receive for 2016/17 had been announced on 17 December and was £23,000 less than the expected reduction of £1.087m for 2016/17 that had been assumed in the MTFP.  Unexpectedly, the Government had also offered 4 year settlements to those councils that wanted them, covering the whole of this Parliamentary term.  However, this came with conditions so Officers would be looking at this over the coming week to assess the impact that this might have on the Council.

The most difficult areas of the budget proposals to accurately predict was on retained business rates, which meant that informed assumptions had to be made regarding business rate growth and potential reductions through appeals.  It was believed that an adequate appeals reserve had been established and, in light  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To consider the attached work programme.

Contact Officer: Craig Saunders (01296) 585043

The next meetings of the scrutiny committee would be held on 8 February 2016 and 5 April 2016.

As there were no agenda items scheduled for these meetings, Members were asked to contact the Chairman and/or Democratic Services with suitable suggestions for the future work programme.