Meeting documents

Venue: Fire Authority HQ, Stocklake, Aylesbury

Contact: Katie Nellist 

Items
No. Item

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 210 KB

To approve, and the Chairman to sign as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 19 November 2014 Item 2

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 19 November 2014, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

5.

Treasury Management Statement 2015/6 pdf icon PDF 142 KB

To consider Item 5

Minutes:

The Vice Chairman introduced the report and advised members there were some small changes, but the Authority was still keeping the risk low. 

The Head of Finance asked members to note the main changes that were listed in the Executive Summary; the Strategy proposed to invest in enhanced money market funds to get a better rate of interest. The Strategy proposed that up to 10% of the portfolio could be invested with other local authorities for more than a period of one year and proposed to invest in certificates of deposit which could be traded in earlier if required.

RESOLVED –

That the Authority be recommended to approve the Treasury Management Policy Statement, Treasury Management Strategy Statement and the Annual Investment Strategy for 2014/15.

6.

The Prudential Code, Prudential Indicators and Minimum Revenue Provision pdf icon PDF 119 KB

To consider Item 6

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Prudential Code, the Prudential Indicators and the Minimum Revenue Provision policy statement.

The Committee noted that it was not intended that the Authority would be taking on any further borrowing in the foreseeable future.

The Committee noted that the Prudential Code had been established to ensure the capital investment plans were affordable, prudent and sustainable, and equated to an acceptable level of risk to the Authority.

          RESOLVED –

          That the Authority be recommended to approve:

1.            the Prudential Indicators; and

2.           the minimum revenue provision policy statement.

7.

Medium Term Financial Plan pdf icon PDF 867 KB

To consider Item 7

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Medium Term Financial Plan 2015/16 to 2019/20, including the proposed Revenue and Capital budgets for 2015/16 and the indicative budgets for the following four years.

The Vice Chairman advised the Committee that its job was to recommend to the full Authority the budget for next year and to set the precept for the coming financial year and this report allowed it to do that with confidence. The Authority had performed extremely well and was in a very sound financial position.

The Head of Finance asked members to note the addendum which replaced Appendix 1 on page 46. The main changes being the council tax surplus and the business rates position, which had not been officially declared until the end of January (after the report had been prepared).

The business rate funding in the budget for 2015/16 had a baseline figure of £4.6m, but now that all authorities had declared, the business rate funding had increased by £488k to £5.1m, which was more than expected. This was shown as a one off increase in growth in contingency for one year.

With regard to Council Tax, now that all authorities had declared their position and some had changed their position, rather than projecting a surplus of £113k the Authority was now projecting a surplus of £329k which was an increase of 216k. It was proposed to put the surplus into the revenue contributions capital as a one- off in year amount.

Before the Authority meeting on 18 February 2015 the final settlement would be checked and the business rate increase would be added to the projected figures for future years.

The Chief Fire Officer advised the Committee that the Authority was in an excellent position and with the work undertaken on the public safety plan the Authority had a strategy for the next five years which was good news for everyone.

The Head of Finance advised the Committee there was a very robust challenge process for capital bids, these were scrutinised by two officer challenge panels and two member challenge panels, which produced good solid bids with positive outcomes for the Authority.

The reserves showed adequate reserves for budget for 2015/16.

The general fund set out some of the risks and potential impacts facing the Authority and the reasons to cover each of those risks.

The Chairman thanked the senior management team on behalf of the Committee for the Authority being in such a good financial position.

The recommendations were approved with a minor amendment to recommendation 1 to read Section 11 (not 10).

RESOLVED –

That the Authority:

1.           note and have due regard to the report and Statement of the Chief Finance Officer (Section 11).

2.           approve a Council Tax precept of £59.13 for a band D equivalent property (no increase from 2014/15) and the revenue budget as set out in Appendix 1.

3.           approve the capital programme for 2015/16 as set out in Appendix 2 and the indicative capital programme for 2016/17 to 2019/20.

4.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

To consider excluding the public and press representatives from the meeting by virtue of Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as an appendix to the report contains information relating to an individual; and Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as an appendix to the report contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of a person; and on all these grounds it is considered the need to keep information exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information:

Appendix 7: Senior Management Team Remuneration and Performance Review

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

 

That the public and press was excluded from the meeting by virtue of Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as an appendix to the report contained information relating to an individual; and Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as an appendix to the report contained information relating to the financial or business affairs of a person; and on all these grounds it was considered the need to keep information exempt outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information so that the Committee could consider the following matter:

 

Appendix 7 of the Senior Management Team Remuneration and Performance Review

 

J Thelwell (Chief Fire Officer), G Britten (Director of Legal and Governance), L Swift (Director of People and Organisational Development), D Sutherland (Resource Manager), M Hemming (Head of Finance [Deputy Director]), J Parsons (Head of Service Delivery), G Smith (Head of Service Development), D Elliott (Station Commander) and F Pearson (Communication and Consultation Manager) left the meeting.

9.

Senior Management Team Remuneration and Performance Review pdf icon PDF 769 KB

To consider Item 9

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Senior Management Team Remuneration and Performance for the 2014 annual review.

Resolved –

That members approve the minor changes to the methodology set out in Appendix 1.

11.

Senior Management Team Remuneration and Performance 2014/2015

10.

Date of the Next Meeting

To note that the next meeting of the Committee will be held on Wednesday 18 March 2015 at 10.00am

 

Minutes:

The Committee noted that the date of the next Executive Committee would be held on Wednesday 18 March 2015 at 10.00am.

 

THE CHAIRMAN CLOSED THE MEETING AT 11.50AM.