Agenda item

To outline the five year Capital Strategy for 2017 to 2022, including the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Statement and the Asset Management Plans for Property and Highways, and to set out the funding framework for Council’s five year Capital Programme for 2017/18 to 2021/22.

(All Members had been granted a dispensation by the Monitoring Officer to speak and vote on this item).

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 15) which outlined the five year Capital Strategy for 2017 to 2022, including the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Statement and the Asset Management Plans for Property and Highways. The report also set out the funding framework for the Council’s five year Capital Programme for 2017/18 to 2021/22.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Hilary Cole and seconded by Councillor Anthony Chadley:

That the Council:

“approves the Capital Strategy and Programme 2017/18 to 2021/22.”

Councillor Hilary Cole commented that she was very pleased to be asked to propose the Capital Programme. She stated that the Programme confirmed the Council’s commitment to continued investment in the future of West Berkshire. The Programme would help to deliver the Council’s key priorities of:

·         Improving educational attainment and closing the educational attainment gap (£66.7m);

·         Making key infrastructure improvements in relation to roads (£50m);

·         Regeneration and the digital economy (£1.5m) ;

·         Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults £11.8m); and

·         Supporting communities to do more to help themselves (£3.8m).

Councillor Hilary Cole noted that the Council would be investing £150m over the following five years but at a cost of only £40m to the Council. The other £110m would be funded from Government grants, s106 and CIL contributions as well as other funding sources. She congratulated Officers on the outstanding work that they had done in order to secure grant funding. During the 2017/18 financial year the Council would also start investing £50m in commercial property in order to start generating additional income.

Councillor Hilary Cole noted that in paragraph 1.4 on page 72 the first bullet point should state £120m and not £120,000 million over the next four years. She asked Members to support the recommendation subject to this correction to the report.

Councillor Lee Dillon commented that he had looked through the Programme on a line by line basis and wished to make comment on two items. He noted the inclusion of the item for Sandleford and was concerned about the risk around the scheduling of this item given the delays to the planning application. He was also disappointed that only £15k per annum had been set aside for regeneration in Thatcham.

Councillor Pamela Bale commented that the level of proposed investment was significant for an authority the size of West Berkshire. She was, however, pleased to see that the Council would continue to live within its means. She welcomed, in particular, the funding that had been set aside for road safety measures in Pangbourne.

Councillor Marcus Franks welcomed the £120m that would be invested over the following four years He was pleased to see the inclusion of £93k for the energy efficiency programme. This project had already generated savings which had been paid back into the pot. He also noted that £30k had been set aside for community based capital projects. These schemes had already supported a number of communities across the District. He would also be making an announcement at the March District Parish Conference about a new fund related to the devolution agenda.

Councillor Jeanette Clifford welcomed the £50m investment in the highways infrastructure which was good news for the people and businesses of West Berkshire. The majority of this funding would be derived from S106 funding or from external grants. She noted that Officers were particularly good at putting together business cases in order to attract external funding and she thanked them for their endeavours.

Councillor Emma Webster welcomed the inclusion of funding for Members’ Bids. She commented that while this was not a large sum of money it could make a huge difference to a community.

Councillor Alan Law reminded Members that West Berkshire Council was the second largest investor in the District. He did however caution that Members needed to be mindful of the level of capital expenditure and the associated revenue costs.

Councillor Lynne Doherty highlighted that £66.7m would be spent on education to ensure that there were sufficient school places and to maintain the existing schools. This did not only pertain to mainstream schools but would also support alternative provision of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) units.

Councillor Anthony Chadley stated that this was a comprehensive investment programme which would see £150 million invested over the following five years. The Council would however only be contributing £40m of the £150m. He thanked Officers for the work they had put into producing the Programme and also for the work that they had done to secure external grants.

He stated that the investment would not only be about investing in roads and schools but also about being innovative and changing the Council’s view on how property was utilised.  He highlighted the fact that the Council would be purchasing property to provide additional accommodation to prevent homelessness. The Council could look forward to similar projects where property would be purchased to fulfil service needs, thereby reducing external costs.

He noted that the Council would also be purchasing commercial property to generate income, and the Council would look at other ways to use capital expenditure in order to save the Council money.

Councillor Hilary Cole stated, in response to the query from Councillor Dillon, that she did not see any reason why the new school in the strategy would not be delivered. In response to his other query she noted that Councillor Franks had already alluded to the fact that he would be making an announcement about funding for parishes at the March District Parish Conference. She asked Members to support the recommendations.

Prior to the vote being taken the Deputy Monitoring Officer announced that the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/165) (2014 Regulations) came into effect on the 25 February 2014 and as a consequence the Council was required to record the names of Members voting for and against the budget proposals.

For the Motion:

Councillors Steve Ardagh-Walter, Peter Argyle, Howard Bairstow, Pamela Bale, Jeremy Bartlett, Dominic Boeck, Graham Bridgman, Paul Bryant, Anthony Chadley, Keith Chopping, Jeanette Clifford, Hilary Cole, Richard Crumly, Rob Denton-Powell, Lee Dillon, Lynne Doherty, Billy Drummond, Adrian Edwards, Marcus Franks, James Fredrickson, Dave Goff, Nick Goodes, Clive Hooker, Carol Jackson-Doerge, Marigold Jaques, Mike Johnston, Graham Jones, Rick Jones, Alan Law, Tony Linden, Mollie Lock, Gordon Lundie, Tim Metcalfe, Ian Morrin, Graham Pask Anthony Pick, James Podger, Garth Simpson, Richard Somner, Virginia von Celsing,  Quentin Webb, Emma Webster and Laszlo Zverko.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.