Agenda item

(CSP: BEC, SLE, P&S, HQL, MEC, BEC1, BEC2, SLE1, SLE2, P&S1, HQL1 & MEC1)

Purpose: To consider and recommend to Council the 2018/19 Revenue Budget, which proposes a Council Tax requirement of £94.84m requiring a Council Tax increase of 2.99% in 2018/19 with a 3% precept ring-fenced for Adult Social Care. The Council Tax increase will raise £2.7m and the precept will raise a further £2.7m ring-fenced for Adult Social Care.

The report also proposes the Fees and Charges for 2018/19 as set out in Appendix H and the Parish Special Expenses as set out in Appendix I and recommends the level of General Reserves as set out in Appendix F and Appendix G.

Resolved to recommend that Council:

·         Approves the 2018/19 Council Tax requirement of £94.84m requiring a Council Tax increase of 2.99% with a 3% precept ring-fenced for Adult Social Care.

·         Approves the fees and charges as set out in Appendix H and places the appropriate statutory notices where required.

·         Approves the Parish Special Expenses as set out in Appendix I.

·         Acknowledges and notes the responses received to each of the public facing savings proposals in the public consultation exercise undertaken on the 2018/19 budget.

·         Grant delegated authority to the Head of Transport and Countryside, in consultation with the Section 151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and the Portfolio Holder for Waste, to enable the necessary contract changes to be made to facilitate the changes to the Garden Waste Collection Service, if the associated proposal is approved.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      the item is due to be referred to Council for final approval.

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

Councillor Chadley presented the report (Agenda Item 9) which recommended to Council the 2018/19 Revenue Budget. This included a proposed Council Tax requirement of £94.84m requiring a Council Tax increase of 2.99% in 2018/19 together with a 3% precept ring-fenced for Adult Social Care. The Council Tax increase would raise £2.7m and the precept a further £2.7m ring-fenced for Adult Social Care.

The report also proposed the fees and charges for 2018/19 (as set out in Appendix H) and the Parish Special Expenses (Appendix I), and recommended the level of General Reserves (set out in Appendices F and G).

Councillor Lee Dillon referred to the consultation response for the garden waste collection service saving proposal where 86% of respondents disagreed with the proposal. Councillor Dillon suggested that the harm from this proposal, if implemented, could be mitigated by giving residents the option of paying for this service via direct debit. Restricting the ability to pay for this service to online only could exclude some residents without internet access.

Councillor Dominic Boeck agreed this was a sensible suggestion that was being considered in order to make this process as user friendly as possible.

RESOLVED that the following be recommended to Council:

1.    That Council approves the 2018/19 Council Tax requirement of £94.84m requiring a Council Tax increase of 2.99% with a 3% precept ring-fenced for Adult Social Care.

2.    That the fees and charges be approved as set out in Appendix H and that appropriate statutory notices would be placed where required.

3.    That the Parish Special Expenses be approved as set out in Appendix I.

4.    That the responses received to each of the public facing savings proposals in the public consultation exercise undertaken on the 2018/19 budget be acknowledged and noted.

5.    That, in relation to the Garden Waste Collection Service, if the proposal is approved then it is recommended that delegated authority be granted to the Head of Transport and Countryside, in consultation with the Section 151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and Portfolio Holder for Waste, to enable the necessary contract changes to be made to facilitate the changes to the Garden Waste Collection Service.

Other options considered: It is proposed to increase Council Tax by 2.99% with a 3% precept ring-fenced for Adult Social Care. If these options were not taken, the savings requirement would be £5.4m higher. All available options had been considered in order to keep the savings requirement to the level identified.