Agenda and minutes

Before the meeting formally commenced the Lord Mayor asked his Chaplain to say an appropriate prayer.

The Lord Mayor noted that as the live webcast facility was not working he had invited members of the public into the Chamber but reminded those attending that in the event of any interference or loud noise he would ask for the Chamber to be cleared.

FORMER COUNCILLOR ROY STUTTARD

The Lord Mayor noted the sad loss of former Councillor and Alderman Roy Stuttard who passed away in January and former Councillor and Lord Mayor Michael Johnson who passed away in December.  The Lord Mayor referred to the significant contributions to the City made by both former Members and led Members in a one minute silence.

CHARITY QUIZ NIGHT

The Lord Mayor reminded Members of the charity quiz night he was hosting at the Railwaymen’s Club, Leicester Street on Thursday 23^rd February 2017.  The costs were £5 per person or £24 for the maximum team size of 6. Tickets could be purchased through the Lord Mayor’s office or an the night.

FIRE & EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

The Lord Mayor asked all present to note the evacuation procedures detailed on the Agenda for the meeting and asked anyone with any queries to speak to one of the Town Hall staff who would be able to assist.

The Lord Mayor noted that in advance of the meeting Members had been asked to indicate if they intended to make a declaration of interest at the meeting and had received advice regarding any requests for dispensations.

It was noted that Members had identified interests as below:

At the request of the Lord Mayor the Head of Law and Deputy 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 was a publically accessible and available document.  The Localism Act 2011 expressly excused a Member from having to re-declare interests that appeared 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 Other Disclosable Interests or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests that would require the Member to leave the room and desist from voting. As always, the judgement remained one for the Member to make, with the Head of Law and Deputy Monitoring Officer only able to offer advice.

Head of Law and Deputy 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 attached to such a Member who did so.

The Head of Law and Deputy Monitoring Officer stated that a request had been received to grant one category of dispensation, without which it could be necessary for those Members to leave the Chamber.  After consultation with the Standards Committee a dispensation had been granted to elected Members who were council tenants (or had family members or close associates who were council tenants) to enable them to remain and participate and vote on both the Budget proposals and, crucially, the Housing Revenue Account proposals that came before the meeting. 

It was noted that the names of those Members who sought this dispensation would appear in the minutes of the meeting.  Members who had not yet asked to be granted the benefit of the dispensation were asked to raise their hand and to declare why.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

 3.1   General Fund Revenue Budget 2017/18 to 2019/20

 3.2   Housing Revenue Account 2017/18

General Fund Revenue Budget 2017/18 to 2019/20

The City Mayor submitted his proposed budget for 2017/18 to 2019/20.  The report contained details of the proposed budget strategy and also identified the impact of the budget and the Council’s financial position.

Details of the City mayor’s Recommendation of General Fund Revenue Budget 2017/18 and the General Fund Revenue Budget and Council Tax 2017/18 – Formal Resolutions were available at the meeting and are attached to these minutes.

Moved by City Mayor, seconded by Deputy City Mayor, to move:

29.       That Council:

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

2)        Notes the comments made in the City Mayor’s formal Decision Notice published on 21 February 2017 and attached as Appendix B to the Script and available at the meeting;

3)        Approves the recommendations set out in section 3.1 of the report ‘General Fund Revenue Budget 2017/18 to 2019/20’ without amendment; and

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

The Lord Mayor put the motion to the vote.

It was noted that under the requirements of The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 the names of the Councillors voting for or against the proposition would be recorded by the Head of Law and Deputy Monitoring Officer and included in the minutes of the meeting.

For the motion:

Councillors Aldred, Alfonso, Aqbany, Bajaj, Bhavsar, Byrne, Cank, Cassidy, Chaplin, Chohan, Chowdhury, Clarke, Cleaver, Cole, Connelly, Corrall (Lord Mayor), Cutkelvin, Fonseca, Govind, Grant, Hunter, Joshi, Kitterick, Malik, Master, Moore, Newcombe, Osman, Palmer, Patel, Riyait, Russell, Sandhu, Senior, Shelton, Singh, Singh Johal, Sood, Soulsby (City Mayor), Thalukdar, Thomas, Unsworth, Waddington, Westley, Willmott.

Against the motion

Councillors Porter

Note of action following the meeting

The local government finance settlement was approved by the House of Commons after Council had made the above Resolution.  As such in line with 2.8 of the formal budget resolution as referred to in Resolution 4 above and set out in the documents available at the meeting and appended to these minutes.  On receipt of the local government finance settlement the Director of Finance made the determination under Section 52ZB of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 that the relevant basic amount of Council Tax for 2017/18 (being an increase of less than 5%) was not excessive in accordance with principles issued under section 52ZC of the Act. 

Housing Revenue Account Budget 2017/18:-

The Housing Revenue Budget (including HRA capital programme) for 2017/18 was submitted. It was noted that the report was in the context of the government requirement that rents were reduced by 1% per annum for the four year period from 2016 to 2020.

Details of the recommendation of the City Mayor Recommendation of Housing Revenue

Budget 2017/18 were available at the meeting and are attached to these minutes.

Moved by Councillor Connelly, seconded by Councillor Newcombe and carried:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

There being no urgent business identified the Lord Mayor declared the meeting closed at 6.03pm.