Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors John Armour and Donald Kelly.  Apologies were also received from Church representatives Margaret Anderson and William Stewart Shaw.

There were none intimated.

Argyll and Bute Council held on 26 January 2017

The Minutes of the Meeting of Argyll and Bute Council held on 26 January 2017 were approved as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee held on 16 February 2017 were noted.

 

Arising from item 4 of the Minute (Financial Report Monitoring Pack – December 2016), the Council agreed that this would be dealt with under item 5 of the agenda (Budgeting Pack).

 

Arising from item 5 of the Minute (Budgeting Pack), the Policy and Resources Committee had referred the Budgeting Pack for consideration to the Council without recommendation.  It was noted that this would be considered under item 5 of the agenda(Budgeting Pack).

 

Arising from 6 of the Minute (Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy), the Policy and Resources Committee had recommended to Council approval of the proposed Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy subject to review by the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee in March 2017;  approval of the use of Option 1 (statutory method) for the repayment of loan fund advances in respect of existing capital expenditure and new advances up to 31 March 2021 at an interest rate of 4.644%, with the exception of spend to save schemes where Option 4 (funding/income profile method) will be used; and approval of the ability to use countries with a sovereign rating of AA- and above as recommended by Capita, which would include the use of Abu Dhabi and Qatar, rated as AA.  It was noted that this would be considered under item 6 of the agenda(Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy).

 

Arising from item 8 of the Minute (Appointment of Independent Members to leisure and Libraries Trust Board), the Council agreed that adverts be placed seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified and experienced individuals from across the area to take up voluntary Trust Board membership; that applications are assessed against the skills and experience criteria in the matrix submitted in the EY Business Case; and that an appointments panel comprising 4 members of the administration and two opposition nominees, plus substitute members, is agreed to appoint board members. The administration would make appointments based on geographical spread with Councillor Dick Walsh being appointed for Bute and Cowal with Councillor Alex McNaughton as a substitute; Councillor Ellen Morton for Helensburgh and Lomond with Councillor Aileen Morton as substitute; Councillor Roddy McCuish for Oban, Lorn and the Isles with Councillor Elaine Robertson as substitute; and Councillor Robin Currie for Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands with Councillor Donald MacMillan as substitute.  The Opposition appointed Councillors Gordon Blair and Richard Trail as substantive members; and Councillor Sandy Taylor as substitute member.

 

Arising from item 10 of the Minute (Draft Revised Road Speed Limit Policy Framework), the Council approved the proposed Road Speed Limit Policy Framework as a Council Policy.

 

 

The Council considered the Revenue Budget and Capital Budget papers as contained within the budgeting pack; considered such other appropriate resolutions in relation to these papers and fixed the Council Tax for the year to 31 March 2018 which had been referred without recommendation by the Policy and Resources Committee held on 16 February 2017. 

 

The Leader of the Council proposed the following which was unanimously agreed by the Council –

 

 “Provost. I move that as is the Council’s normal approach to setting the budget that all budget proposals to be put to this meeting should clearly detail how they will be funded and that any amendment to the budget proposals I am about to propose should clearly detail how such changes would be funded ”.

 

Councillor Iain Stewart MacLean left the meeting during consideration of this item and did not return.  The Provost intimated Councillor MacLean’s apologies to the Council.

 

Motion

 

The Council:

1.    Acknowledges the responses and outcomes from the council’s budget planning consultation;

2.    Approves all service plans, noting that the process for service planning is evolving and updating, including improved performance measuring, and subject to their updating following the budget decisions taken today;

3.    Notes the detail provided in the Revenue Budget Overview report;

4.    Approves the revenue budget for 2017/18, together with the indicative projections for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20 as set down in the Administration’s budget model, attached as Appendix 1;

5.    Agrees the detail in the Administration budget model for the 2017/18 to  2019/20 periods as follows:

Funding:

a)    Approving the revenue estimates for 2017/18 and that consequently the local tax requirement estimated at £45.476m is funded from council tax which includes;

                                          i.    Agreeing the estimate for council tax growth at 0.5% resulting in estimated additional income of £0.207m

                                        ii.    Ending the current council tax freeze and agree an increase in council tax of 3% to generate additional income of £1.239m to support council service delivery and expenditure;

                                       iii.    Agreeing the removal of the 10% discount on second homes, producing £380k of funding to support council service costs

b)    Approving the following rates and charges for the year 2017/18:

                                          i.    Council tax to be paid in respect of a chargeable dwelling in band D of £1,213.34, representing a 3% increase;

                                        ii.    Council tax to be paid in respect of a chargeable dwelling in each of the other valuation bands in accordance with section 74(1) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended;

                                       iii.    Business rates as determined by Scottish Ministers

 

 

 

Expenditure:

c)    Agreeing funding for Argyll and the Isles Tourism Co-operative (AITC) for a further three years, on the basis of a total three-year allocation of £120k through £50k in 2017/18, £40k in 2018/19 and £30k in 2019/20, instructing officers to make the necessary arrangements for a new Service Level Agreement;

d)    Agreeing the continuation of the three-year Service Level Agreements with Islay and Mid Argyll community swimming pools on the basis of the current funding provision, with no additional budget consequences;

e)    Approving the baseline allocation to the Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) of £54.223m for 2017/18, with indicative allocations of £52.773m for 2018/19 and £51.323m for 2019/20;

f)     Agreeing to earmark an allocation of £200k in the financial year 2017/18 to support any reliability issues with the three-weekly bin collection programme, assisting with the transition and changes to grounds maintenance ( grass cutting services ) with initiatives to tackle the problems with dog fouling, litter and marine litter, with an emphasis on sustainable community initiatives.

g)    Approving the proposals for fees and charges inflationary increase at 3% and resulting increase in income, and to approve the two new charges as outlined within the fees and charges report;

h)    Approving the provisions for income, employee cost increases, cost and demand pressures, Service Choices savings, efficiency savings, management/operational savings, innovation savings, and adjustments to the HSCP funding arrangements, incorporating removal of £1.450m from the HSCP baseline as per Scottish Government guidance and in line with the appropriate proportion of the £80m national allocation;

Remaining Surplus:

i)     Noting the challenges faced by the HSCP in meeting its cost and demand pressures in the short term and therefore agree to provide one-off transitionary funding of £2.137m from the £2.361m arising from alterations in February to the local government settlement, which one-off support will not affect the base allocation to the partnership but will assist in supporting transformational change and smoothing the projected budget gap;

j)     Agreeing to use the remaining surplus of £193k to reduce the budget gap for 2018/19 (recurring) from £3.559m (adjusted for the AITC allocation for 2018/19) to £3.366m;

 

6.    Accepts the detail and advice within the Reserves and Balances report, and to agree that £4m of the advised unallocated General Fund Balance be used towards budget smoothing for the year 2019/20, with the target saving of £3.366m achievable in 2018/19 and to assist in securing the advised 2019/20 target of £9.330m;

7.    Agrees that officers undertake work to develop a medium  to longer term financial strategy that will address the advised indicative funding gaps and savings targets for the years 2018/19, 2019/20 and beyond, incorporating the principles as noted in the revenue budget overview report at paragraph 3.12;

8.    Notes the revenue budget monitoring position as at 31^st December 2016 and note that this is an estimated position to be kept under review, and approve in principle that £0.172m of the estimated Customer Services underspend is earmarked and carried forward to be used to develop detailed business cases in respect of 11 digital transformation options and to support the work of the Transformation Board; further noting the forecast underspend for 2016/17 is currently estimated at £1.460m after adjusting for the above earmarked funds; 

9.    Notes the detail in the financial risks analysis, and in addition the risks analysis carried out by Strategic Finance on the Administration budget;

10.  Approves continuing the contingency level for the General Fund balance at a level of 2%  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Report by Head of Strategic Finance

The Council gave consideration to a report, and to the recommendation from the Policy and Resources Committee held on 16 February 2017,  which sought approval of the proposed Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy which set out the Council’s Strategy for borrowing and investment for the forthcoming year along with the Council’s Prudential Indicators, which require to be set for a three year period.  The report also set out the policy for the repayment of loans fund advances for 2017-18.

 

Decision

 

The Council agreed, subject to review by the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee in March –

 

1.    To approve the proposed Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy subject to review by the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee in March 2017.

 

2.    To approve the use of Option 1 (statutory method) for the repayment of loan fund advances in respect of existing capital expenditure and new advances up to 31 March 2021 at an interest rate of 4.644%, with the exception of spend to save schemes where Option 4 (funding/income profile method) will be used.

 

3.    To approve the ability to use countries with a sovereign rating of AA- and above as recommended by Capita, which would include the use of Abu Dhabi and Qatar, rated as AA.

 

(Reference: Report by Head of Strategic Finance dated 6 February 2017, submitted; and Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy 2017/18, submitted)