Agenda item

To outline the five year Capital Strategy for 2018 to 2023, 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 2018/19 to 2022/23.

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

(Councillor James Fredrickson declared a personal and prejudicial interest in Agenda item 16 by virtue of the fact that he was employed by Gigaclear. As his interest was personal and prejudicial he left the meeting and took no part in the debate or voting on the matter).

(Councillor Fredrickson left the meeting at 7.09pm)

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 16) which outlined the five year Capital Strategy for 2018 to 2023, 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 2018/19 to 2022/23.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Anthony Chadley and seconded by Councillor Jeanette Clifford:

That the Council:

“approves the Capital Strategy and Programme 2018/19 to 2022/23”.

Councillor Anthony Chadley commented that he was pleased to report that the Programme continued to confirm the Council’s commitment to delivering its key priorities of education, infrastructure, safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and the digital economy. It also set out the Council’s commitment to invest in commercial property which would help to generate vital income to assist with the running costs of the Council.  The Programme outlined capital investment of £160m over the following five years, only £70m of which would be Council capital resources.

Councillor Chadley thanked Officers for the outstanding work they had undertaken to secure grants for capital projects.

Councillor Lynne Doherty noted that 92% of children had been informed earlier that day that they had been given their first choice of secondary school and 98% would be given one of their first three choices. This was a testimony to how successful the Programme had been over the last few years. The Council would continue to invest in new school places in the course of this Programme.  She also wished to draw attention to the funding that had been set aside for the additional free nursery hours for under fives.

Councillor Doherty also welcomed the investment in continuing to improve the accessibility of schools and the support provided for the inclusion of pupils with Special Education Needs into mainstream education where appropriate.

Councillor Lee Dillon noted that it was proposed that £55m be set aside for highways improvements. He commented that the roads in the District were in a bad state of repair. He would therefore have liked to have seen some of the £500k of funding that had been set aside for the maintenance of the corporate offices to be spent on the planned maintenance of the road network.

He commented that while he welcomed the funding for the free nursery school places he did not think that the £46k set aside would be sufficient.  He was concerned that £1.9m of funding for temporary accommodation had been removed in the Council version of the report. In his opinion the Programme did not go far enough in respect of the provision of affordable housing options.

Councillor Jeanette Clifford commented that this was a broad, ambitious, deliverable and affordable programme. She accepted that it was always possible to do more but the programme had to be affordable and this was a good programme. She disputed Councillor Dillon’s comments that the roads were in a poor condition and this had been independently verified. The amendment to the Programme suggested by Councillor Dillon would amount to an increase of about half a percent on the roads budget (£55m) which would have little impact. It was important to properly maintain the Council Offices so that staff could continue to provide good services for its clients. This expenditure was not extravagant and the funding would be spent on replacing the windows and fixing the toilets.

She noted that the Council would only be funding around a half of the Programme which would be supported by prudential borrowing. The remainder of the Programme would be funded from a range of sources including developer contributions, the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Environment Agency.

Councillor Chadley commented that he was disappointed to see Councillor Dillon’s comments in the press and commented that he clearly did not think much of staff if he begrudged making the offices fit for purpose.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.

In accordance with Procedure Rule 4.15.2 it was requisitioned that the voting on the Motion be recorded. The names of those Members voting for, against and abstaining were read to the Council as follows:

FOR the Motion:

Councillors Steve Ardagh-Walter, Howard Bairstow, Jeremy Bartlett, Jeff Beck, Dennis Benneyworth, Dominic Boeck, Graham Bridgman, Paul Bryant, Anthony Chadley, Keith Chopping, Jeanette Clifford, Hilary Cole, Jason Collis, Richard Crumly, Rob Denton-Powell, Lynne Doherty, Adrian Edwards, Dave Goff, Carol Jackson-Doerge, Graham Jones, Rick Jones, Gordon Lundie, Tim Metcalfe, Graham Pask, Anthony Pick, Garth Simpson, Richard Somner, Anthony Stansfeld, Quentin Webb and Emma Webster.

AGAINST the Motion:

Councillor Lee Dillon.

ABSTAINED:

None

(Councillor Fredrickson returned to the meeting at 7.24pm)