Agenda and minutes

Before the meeting formally commenced the Lord Mayor invited his chaplain to say a short prayer.

Council

The Lord Mayor reminded Members that this meeting was the last one scheduled of the current Council term and informed Members that several colleagues had indicated that they would not be standing at the forthcoming election.  A formal ‘thank you’ event was being organised to be held at the Town Hall on May 18^th for Members not continuing as Councillors.  The Lord Mayor led Council in a round of applause to thank those Members for their work for the City.

The Lord Mayor indicated that he intended to call a short adjournment between the two meetings scheduled for the evening in order for the customary whole Councillor photo to be taken.

Illuminated Address

The Lord Mayor was delighted to note that the next announcement was the presentation of an Illuminated Address to Councillor Mustafa Kamal in recognition of his very successful year as Lord Mayor in 2013 / 14. He however noted that Councillor Kamal unfortunately could not attend the meeting this evening so arrangements would be made to deliver it to him.

New Food Hall

The Lord Mayor was pleased to announce that the new Leicester Market Food Hall had recently won an award from the National Association of British Markets as the best new food hall and a Civic award for its design.

Charity Quiz Night

The Lord Mayor noted that a charity Quiz Night was being held Thursday 26^th February with all proceeds going to his charity appeal benefiting; Sea Cadets, Prostate Cancer UK and Silver Star Diabetes.  It was noted that there were still some spaces with details available from  the Member & Civic Support Team.

At the request of the Lord Mayor the Monitoring Officer addressed Council and gave the following advice regarding the declaration of interests at the meeting.

Members did not need to declare interests that already appeared on their Register of Interests, which is a publically accessible and available document. The Localism Act 2011 expressly excuses a Member from having to re-declare interests that appear on the Register.

Over and above interests declared on the Register, Members had, following the Monitoring Officer’s written invitation issued in January, given details of items they wished to declare at the meeting and these were appended to the Council script and would appear in the minutes when published.  Therefore there was no need to verbally re-declare these at the meeting unless these were prejudicial ODIs or DPIs that would require the Member to leave the room and desist from voting. As always, the judgement remains one for the Member to make, with the Monitoring Officer only able to offer advice.

The Monitoring Officer advised that under the provisions of section 106 Local Government Finance Act 1992 any Member who was in two or more months of arrears of Council Tax should not vote on the items for consideration at the meeting. Criminal liability attaches to such a Member who does so.

The Monitoring Officer stated that he had been asked to grant one category of dispensation, without which in his opinion it might be necessary for those members to leave the Chamber. After consultation with the Standards Committee I thereby grant a dispensation to elected members who are council tenants (or have family members or close associates who are council tenants) to enable them to remain and participate and vote on both the Budget proposals and, crucially, the Housing Revenue Account proposals that come before the meeting tonight.  It was noted that the names of those members covered by this dispensation would appear in the minutes of the meeting. Members were asked to raise their hand if they wish to be granted the benefit of this dispensation and to declare why.

Councillor Clayton with the approval of the Lord Mayor sought to clarify that if a Member was a Council tenant or had a family member in that position a dispensation should be sought.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed this was the case.

In response to the above statement the following Members sought and received

dispensations:

Councillor Potter – Council tenant and family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Westely - family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Byrne - Council tenant and family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Shelton – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Osman – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Aqbany - family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Joshi – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Newcombe - family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Mayat – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Bhavsar - family  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

3.1       General Fund Revenue Budget 2015/16 to 2016/17.

3.2       Housing Revenue Account Budget 2015/16

GENERAL FUND REVENUE BUDGET 2015/16 TO 2016/17

The City Mayor submitted his proposed budget for 2014/15 to 2015/16.  The report contained details of the budget strategy and ceilings, comments received from scrutiny, trades unions and partners and a range of proposals including the scheme of virement.

Details of the recommendation of the City Mayor and General Fund Revenue Budget and Council Tax 2015/16 – Formal Resolutions were available at the meeting and are attached to these minutes.

Moved by the City Mayor, seconded by the Deputy City Mayor:

That Council:

1)    Thank partners, scrutiny committees, trade unions and others who have commented on our draft budget;

2)    Note the comments made in my formal Decision Notice published on 24 February and attached as Appendix B to the Script and available at the meeting.

3)    Note the EIA in respect of the proposed council tax increase.

4)    Approve the recommendations set out in section 3.1 of the report ‘General Fund Revenue Budget 2015/16 – 2016/17’ without amendment.

5)    Approve the formal budget resolution as set out in Appendix C to the Script and available at the meeting.

An Amendment

Moved by Councillor Naylor, seconded by Councillor Potter.

That all the words in the substantive motion after “That Council:” be deleted and replaced with the words:

“is recommended:

2.1       To approve the budget as recommended by the City Mayor, subject to       the amendments set out in Annex A of Appendix D to this resolution.

2.2          To add £6.9m to corporate budgets, and grant authority to   the City Mayor to determine how this is spent in line with the    policies described in Annex A of Appendix D.

2.3          To note that on 8^th January 2015 the City Mayor calculated the Council Tax Base for 2015/16 as 65,903. [Item T in the formula in Section 31B of the Act].

2.4          To agree that the Council Tax requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2015/16 is £85,802,400.

2.5          To agree the following amounts be calculated for the year 2015/16 in accordance with Section 31A and Section 31B  of the Act:

(a) £947,214,700                     being the aggregate of the amounts                                                   which the Council estimates for the

                                                items set out in Section 31A(2) of the

                                                Act.

(b) £861,412,300                     being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A(3) of the Act.

(c) £85,802,400                      being the amount by which 2.4(a) above exceeds 2.4(b) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31A(4) of the Act as its Council Tax requirement for the year. [Item R in the formula in Section 31B of the Act].

(d) £1,301.9498                      being the amount at 2.4(c) above (Item R) divided by the amount at 2.2 above (Item T), calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31B of the Act as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year.

2.6       To note that the Police and Crime Commissioner and Fire Authority have issued precepts to the Council in accordance with Section  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

None.

The Lord Mayor declared the meeting closed at 7pm.