Meeting documents

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 2 August 2010, previously circulated.

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 August 2010, copies of which had been circulated previously, were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

There were no declarations of interest.

The meeting of the Joint Committee on 2 August 2010 had concluded with the Staff Side indicating a wish to consult with staff on the proposals as put forward by the Personnel Committee and the Joint Committee received a report setting out the results of this consultation which had taken place during the summer.

The consultation had resulted in over 90% of the staff rejecting the proposals to reduce the budget for the PRP Scheme by 50% and to remove the satisfactory banding (0-2%).

The report went on to explain that since the consultation the Council had published its Medium Term Financial Strategy modelling cuts in grant of 25% and 40% over the 4 years. The report also contained a proposal to reform the PRP Scheme by not making any award in so far as the “satisfactory” category was concerned and by deleting the 8% award. No other changes to the Scheme were being proposed and the report concluded by referring to the financial impact of the proposed changes.

Councillor Rose opened up the discussion by reminding everyone that the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review were due to be announced on 20 October 2010 setting out the coalition government’s proposals for dealing with the nation’s deficit. It was almost inevitable that the proposals would have serious implications for local government generally with cuts of anything between 20 -40% in central government funding being predicted. Cuts of this level would create significant challenges for local government and although Chiltern was attempting to anticipate and respond to these challenges, as evidenced by the Medium Term Financial Strategy, there were many uncertainties. The picture for Chiltern would not become clear until early December when details of the revenue support settlement were due to be announced. Although no guarantee could be given it was unlikely that the issue would be re-visited until 2011.

In these circumstances Councillor Rose, proposed that discussions on the future of the PRP scheme be deferred, pending consideration of the implications of the spending review and the rate support grant settlement.  In the meantime the current PRP Scheme would remain in operation. Other Councillors on the Joint Committee supported this proposal which Councillor Rose explained would need to be reported back to the Personnel Committee when it met on 24 November.

In response to a question of what would trigger further discussion, Councillor Rose explained that this would depend on how severe the impact of the cuts in central government grant was on the Council’s financial position. Thanks to the efforts of staff in identifying savings, and as set out in the MTFS, the Council was in a better financial position than that projected in February 2010 when discussions on the PRP had first taken place at the Personnel Committee. However, this could all change once details of the spending review were known and if the Council found itself in a serious financial position then this would provide a trigger to reopen the discussion on the PRP Scheme.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

In providing an update on the Waste Project the Chief Executive confirmed that both South Bucks District Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council had made decisions to withdraw, leaving CDC and Wycombe District Council to progress the Partnership.

In accordance with the Programme the OEJU Notice was due to be issued in early November and the decisions that would need to be taken over the coming months by the Project Board included the arrangements for the client side which would be the subject of consultation with staff.

The meeting noted the intention of Tina Pearce to resign from the Joint Committee as one of the Staff Side’s representatives with immediate effect.

To resolve that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Note: The relevant paragraph number from Part 1 of Schedule 12A is indicated at the end of the Minute heading.

The Joint Committee noted the comments that had made by staff during the consultation referred to in minute 21.