Agenda item

The Council considered a report from Cabinet which detailed budget recommendations for 2013/14 and the Medium Term Financial Plan 2013/14 to 2016/17.

 

In moving adoption of the Cabinet report, Councillor Henig made a statement on the Budget and Precept for 2012/13, summarised as follows:

 

The Medium Term Financial Plan had been built on the last two years of unprecedented levels of cuts in Government funding.  Anticipated cuts in funding for the period 2011/12 to 2014/15 had originally been announced at a level of 28% in 2010, but this had now increased to 35% to 36%, with the possibility that this would increase to 40% by 2017/18.  Government spending cuts had been administered unfairly, with affluent areas of the Country, including West Oxfordshire and Windsor and Maidenhead, experiencing smaller levels of cuts than more deprived areas.  Cuts would amount to £200m by 2017/18, and at this level, the Council would not be able to deliver the same level of services as it had on 2009/10.

 

Proposed savings for 2013/14 were shown in Appendix 2 of the report.

 

Despite the level of cuts, the Council would achieve the following in 2013/14:

 

• For the fourth consecutive year, the County Council’s element of council tax bills would stay the same.
• The Adult Social Care budget would increase by £1m.
• All households in receipt of council tax benefit would be protected under the local council tax support scheme, despite a 10% cut in government funding.
• The highways winter maintenance programme would be protected in order to keep the main highways infrastructure open for the public.

 

A key priority for the Council was its capital programme, to stimulate regeneration and job creation across the county.  In line with the Council’s key priority to stimulate regeneration and job creation, an additional £3.25m of revenue had been allocated to fund prudential borrowing to invest in new and current capital projects amounting to £159m in 2013/14 with a total programme for the period 2013/14 to 2016/17 of £315m.

 

A full list of new projects was shown at Appendix 7 of the report, and included £1m on the Town Centres Programme, £1.5m on two new household waste recycling centres at Crook and Stainton Grove, near Barnard Castle, £1.4m on a new customer access point in Stanley and £2m on Villa Real bridge..

 

Referring to public consultation, the Leader informed Council that in December 2012 an extensive consultation exercise had led to over 1,500 people giving their views on how the council had managed spending reductions, their impact to date and providing ideas for further future reductions.  This consultation showed that there was a high level of satisfaction with how the council had managed spending reductions, and comments from the consultation were considered during the budget process.

 

Councillor Henig thanked all staff involved in the process of preparing the budget.

 

In seconding the adoption of the Cabinet report, Councillor Napier added his thanks to all involved in the budget process.  Government cuts had fallen disproportionately in those areas which least could afford them yet the Council had managed to achieve savings of £21m, as shown at Appendix 2 of the report, to achieve a balanced budget for 2013/14.  The Council had unanimously endorsed the protection of 65,000 Council Tax Benefit households to ensure they were no worse off in this respect when Welfare Reform measures were introduced, had achieved no Council Tax increase for the fourth year running and had increased the Adult Social Care budget by £1m.  The Council’s Capital Programme, which amounted to £315m over the period of the MTFP was designed to generate jobs and stimulate the economy of the County.

 

An Amendment was Moved by Councillor Martin and Seconded by Councillor Southwell as follows:

 

Highways Maintenance (Capital) Budget 2013/14

In order to make inroads into the capital highways maintenance backlog, the Council should invest an extra £1.3 million in 2013/14.

 

Improving Customer Service in the Contact Centre

In order to provide a ‘fit for purpose’ telephone service to our customers by increasing opening times and reducing waiting times, an additional 8 customer service operatives be recruited to the Customer Services Team.

 

Additional cost = £150,000 - Funded by stopping publishing the County Durham News - Annual saving = £150,000.

 

Increase the funding to Citizen Advice Bureau by £50,000

Funded by withdrawing the clothing allowance for the Chairman and Vice Chairman and reducing the amount of remuneration for ‘special responsibility allowances’ to elected members.

 

Invest a further £300,000 a year into the public transport subsidy budget to improve bus routes and the frequency of buses for the public

Funded by reducing casual car mileage rates for employees and councillors to 45 pence a mile.

 

Introduce a 3 year pilot programme at a cost of £250,000 a year to improve career opportunities for young people.  The service would be provided by the Regeneration and Economic Development Service in schools and would support the new role of secondary schools as being the sole support for providing careers advice to young people.

The £750,000 cost over the 3 years to be funded from general reserves.

 

Introduce a 3 year pilot programme at a cost of £1 million a year in order to support employment and business development.  The service would be provided by the Regeneration and Economic Development Service and would provide support and advice to new business start-ups on the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) model.

The £3 million cost over the 3 years to be funded from general reserves.

 

Add £1,500,000 of expenditure to the 2013/14 capital programme to fund up to 20 new minor schemes using the criteria along the lines of the former ‘Urban and Rural Renaissance Initiative’ programme.

To be funded from the as yet uncommitted £10,500,000 capital budget in 2014/15 which could be brought forward into 2013/14 with the subsequent revenue cost of £150,000 to fund the borrowing to be met from the 2013/14 revenue contingency budget.

 

Upon a vote being taken, the Amendment was lost.

 

An Amendment was Moved by Councillor R Bell and Seconded by Councillor A Bainbridge as follows:

 

In respect of the Cabinet’s 2013/14 Revenue Budget:-

That free car parking be provided for the first 2 hours across the whole of the county apart from in the City of Durham. This would cost an estimated £610,000 a year and would be funded by:

·         Stopping the publication of County Durham News but retain the Events Guide and Guide to Services. This would result in an annual saving of £150,000.

·         Reducing the Corporate Contingency budget for one year only in 2013/2014, saving £460,000.

 

The contingency budget would be replenished in 2014/2015 by commencing a programme of Unitising all back office, and support service functions during 2013 including:

·         Policy, planning and performance            (estimated full year effect saving £500,000)

• Business Support and administration (estimated full year effect saving £500,000)
• Communications and marketing (estimated full year effect saving £500,000)

 

At this point a recorded vote was requested in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 16.4.  The result of the vote was as follows:

 

For the Amendment

 

Councillors A Bainbridge, B Bainbridge, B Barnett, R Bell, B Brunskill, B Harrison, N Harrison, K Holroyd, S Hugill, J Hunter, P Jopling, E Mavin, P May, G Richardson, J Rowlandson, A Shield, D Stoker and K Thompson.

 

 

 

Against the Amendment

 

Councillors B Alderson, J Alvey, J Armstrong, B Arthur, B Avery, E Bell, J Bell, J Blakey, G Bleasdale, D Bowman, D Boyes, P Brookes, C Carr, J Chaplow, P Charlton, J Cordon, R Crooks, R Crute, K Davidson, M Dixon, N Foster, D Freeman, P Gittins, B Graham, S Henig, M Hodgson, L Hovvels, E Huntington, S Iveson, O Johnson, A Laing, J Lee, J Lethbridge, L Marshall, D Marshall, C Marshall, J Moran, D Morgan, D Myers, A Napier, A Naylor, M Nicholls, J Nicholson, B Ord, R Ord, M Plews, C Potts, J Robinson, C Robson, J Shiell, J Shuttleworth, B Stephens, P Stradling, P Taylor, R Todd, E Tomlinson, J Turnbull, Allen Turner, Andy Turner, C Vasey, C Walker, A M Williams, A Willis, R Yorke, B Young and R Young.

 

Abstentions

 

CouncilorsD Burn, G Holland, A Hopgood, N Martin, M Simmons, D Southwell, T Taylor, L Thomson, M Wilkes, J Wilkinson, M Wood and C Woods

 

 

The Amendment was lost.

 

 

An Amendment was Moved by Councillor R Bell and Seconded by Councillor A Bainbridge as follows:

 

In respect of the Medium Term Financial Plan 2014/15 to 2016/17, in order to reduce the forecasted £51m funding shortfall across this 3 year period:-

That the Council continues to protect front line services and commission corporate management team to deliver savings by:

 

1.    Carrying out a senior pay review of first, second, third and fourth tier officers. Saving 10% of the wages bill would yield £500,000 per year recurring saving.

2. Carrying out a strategic value for money review of all Service Direct services including the option to outsource.  Saving 1% of the current Gross Expenditure of £146 million would yield £1,500,000 per year recurring saving.
3. Reduce the levels of sickness absence from an average of 10 days a year to 8 days a year, by implementing a Performance Management Culture making managers and staff more accountable for sickness absence. This reduction would yield efficiency savings of £1.8 million per year and £200,000 per year recurring cashable savings.

 

Upon a vote being taken, the Amendment was lost.

 

An Amendment was Moved by Councillor Shuttleworth and Seconded by Councillor Arthur as follows:

 

Highways Maintenance (Revenue)

In order to improve the roads and pathways across the county, an extra £1,040,000 of revenue patching work should be carried out every year to repair and make good the increasing numbers of pot holes across the county.

Additional cost = £1,040,000

 

Funded by:

(i)         reducing the corporate risk contingency budget = £440,000

(ii)        downsizing the corporate policy and communications team to 3 employees = £600,000

 

Gully Cleaning (Revenue)

In order to reduce the risks of flooding, invest £150,000 a year in cleaning out gullies more regularly.

 

Additional cost = £150,000

 

Funded by stopping publishing the County Durham News – Annual saving = £150,000

 

Highways Maintenance (Capital)

In order to make inroads into the capital highways maintenance backlog, the Council should invest an extra £4 million a year, every year across the medium term financial plan from 2014/15.

 

Additional cost to the capital programme = £4 million a year

 

Funded by £400,000 a year of the £2 million prudential borrowing already earmarked in the medium term financial plan to fund new capital schemes

 

Upon a vote being taken, the Amendment was lost.

 

Upon a further vote being taken it was

 

Resolved

That the report of the Cabinet and its recommendations be adopted in full.