Agenda and minutes

Alice Hawkins Statue

The Lord Mayor congratulated those in involved in the commissioning and creation of the new Alice Hawkins statue recently located in the Leicester Market Square.  The Lord Mayor noted that Alice was an iconic figure who campaigned to win votes for women and regularly addressed crowds at Leicester City Market and the statue was a symbolic embodiment of the fight for justice and equality.

Mablethorpe Children’s Holiday Centre

With disappointment the Lord Mayor noted the announcement of the of closure of the Leicester Children’s Holiday Centre in Mablethorpe, which has provided holidays for children in our community for many years. 

The Lord Mayor noted that the Centre had played an important part in many lives and had been visited by many Lord Mayors over the years.  The Lord Mayor stated that he was sad to see the Centre close but looked forward to working with the charity in its continuing work of providing holidays to disadvantaged children in our area.

Honoured Citizen Award

The Lord Mayor reminded Members of the longstanding awards which recognise outstanding achievements, bravery and helping the community.  Nomination forms were available in the Chamber or from the Member and Civic team with the deadline for applications Friday 16 March.

Fire & Emergency Evacuation Procedure

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

At the request of the Lord Mayor Kamal Adatia, the City Barrister and Monitoring Officer addressed Council and gave the following advice regarding the declaration of interests at the meeting noting that:

·         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 excused a Member from having to re-declare interests that appeared on the Register.

·         In advance of the meeting Members had been asked to indicate if they intended to make a declaration of interest at the meeting which was not already recorded on their Register of Interests. No matters had been highlighted which were not already included on the Members’ Register.

·         The City Barrister and Monitoring Officer had not received any requests for advice on prejudicial ODIs or DPIs but the Lord Mayor would be offering an opportunity to declare such interests shortly. Where a Member did have a prejudicial ODI or DPI they would need to declare the interest and leave the room and would be barred from participating in the discussion or from voting.  The judgement remained one for the Member to make with officers only able to offer advice.

·         Under the provisions of Section 106 Local Government Finance Act 1992 any Member who is in two or more months of arrears of Council Tax shall not vote on the items for consideration tonight. Criminal liability attaches to such a Member who does so.

·         A request for the granting of a category of dispensation had been received without which it might 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.  The names of those Members who require this dispensation must be identified at the meeting and appear in the minutes.  Members were reminded that should they not indicate they would not be covered by the dispensation. 

Members who had not yet asked to be granted the benefit of the dispensation were asked to raise their hand and to declare why.

In response the following Members sought and received dispensations:

Councillor Halford - self and family members are Council tenants

Councillor Byrne –self and family members are Council tenants

Councillor Aqbany – family member who is a Council tenant and a family member in receipt of a blue badge.

Councillor Thalukdar – family members who are Council tenant

Councillor Aldred – family member who is a Council tenant.

Councillor Westley - family members who are Council tenants

The Lord Mayor invited Members to declare any further interests they might have in the business on the agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applied to them.

No further declarations were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

None.

4.1       General Fund Revenue Budget 2018/19 to 2020/21

4.2       Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget (including HRA Capital Programme) 2018/19 – 2020/21

4.3       Treasury Management Strategy 2018/19

General Fund Revenue Budget 2018/19 to 2020/21

The City Mayor submitted his proposed budget for 2018/19 to 2020/21.  The report contained details of the financial pressures facing the Council, the proposed budget strategy including assessments of risk, and impact and consultation outcomes.

Details of the City Mayor’s Recommendation of General Fund Revenue Budget 2018/19 and the General Fund Revenue Budget and Council Tax 2018/19 – Formal Resolutions were available at the meeting and are attached to these minutes.

Moved by the City Mayor and seconded by Councillor Singh:

26.       That Council:

1)    Thanks partners and scrutiny committees who have commented on our draft budget;

2)    Notes the comments made in the City Mayor’s formal Decision Notice published on 20 February 2018 and attached as Appendix A 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 2018/19 to 2020/21’ without amendment; and

4)    Approves the formal budget resolution as set out in Appendix B 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 or abstaining would be recorded by the City Barrister and Monitoring Officerand included in the minutes of the meeting.

For the motion:

Councillors Aldred, Alfonso, Aqbany, Bajaj, Barton, Bhavsar, Byrne, Cank, Cassidy, Chaplin, Chohan, Clair, Clarke, Cleaver, Cole, Connelly, Corrall, Cutkelvin, Dempster, Fonseca, Govind, Halford, Hunter, Joshi (Lord Mayor), Khote, Kitterick, Malik, Master, Moore, Myers, Osman, Pantling, Patel, Rae Bhatia, Riyait, Russell, Sandhu, Sangster, Shelton, Singh, Singh Johal, Sood, Soulsby (City Mayor), Thalukdar, Thomas, Unsworth, Waddington, Westley, Willmott.

Against the motion:

Councillors Grant, Porter.

The Lord Mayor declared the motion carried.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget (including HRA Capital Programme) 2018/19 – 2020/21

A report was considered which set out the proposed Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget for the 3 years from 2018/19 to 2020/21.  It was noted that the budget proposals were in the context of the government requirement that rents were reduced by 1% p.a. for the four year period 2016-2020.  The proposed budget included the final two years of the four-year rent reduction. 

The formal Assistant City Mayor – Housing decision notice published on 20 February 2018 was available at the meeting and is attached to these minutes.

Moved by Councillor Connelly, seconded by Councillor Cank and carried:

27.       That Council approve the recommendations set out in section 3 of the report ‘Housing Revenue Account Budget (including HRA Capital Programme) 2018/19 to 2020/2021’ without amendment and as recommended to Council in the formal Assistant City Mayor – Housing  decision notice published on 20 February 2018 and available at the meeting.

Treasury Management Strategy 2018/19

A report was considered which proposed a strategy for managing the Council’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

There being no urgent items of business identified the Lord Mayor declared the meeting closed at 6.45pm.