Agenda and minutes
Venue: Conference Chamber, West Suffolk House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3YU
Contact: Christine Brain: Democratic Services Officer
Email: democratic.services@westsuffolk.gov.uk
Note: Please note a revised new Appendix E has been publish Report No: PAS/WS/22/023
Items
No. |
Item |
145. |
Substitutes
Any member who is substituting for another
member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant
absent member.
Minutes:
No substitutions were declared.
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146. |
Apologies for absence
Minutes:
No apologies for absence were received.
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147. |
Minutes PDF 307 KB
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on
29 September 2022 (copy attached.)
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held on 29
September 2022 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the
Chair.
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148. |
Declarations of interest
Members are reminded
of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary or local non
pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the
agenda no later than when that item is reached and, when
appropriate, to leave the meeting prior to discussion and voting on
the item.
Minutes:
Members’ declarations of interest are
recorded under the item to which the declaration relates.
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149. |
Public participation
Members of the public who live or work in the
district are welcome to speak and may ask one question or make a
statement of not more than three minutes duration relating to items
to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only. If a question is asked and answered within three
minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary
question that arises from the reply.
In accordance with government guidance, the
Council has developed general protocols on operating buildings
safely in order to reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus and
will apply to members of the public registered to
speak. We would therefore strongly
urge anyone who wishes to register to speak to notify Democratic
Services by 9am on the day of the meeting so that advice can be
given on the arrangements in place.
There is an overall limit of 15 minutes for
public speaking, which may be extended at the Chair’s
discretion.
Minutes:
There were no members of the public in
attendance on this occasion.
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150. |
Internal Audit Mid-Year Progress Report (2022 to 2023) PDF 117 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/22/020
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report number
PAS/WS/22/020, which updated members on progress made against
internal audit’s 2022 to 2023 work plan approved by this
committee in May 2022 and provided a flavour of the work undertaken
in the year to date.
Attached at Appendix A to the report was the
Mid-year Internal Audit progress report 2022 to 2023.
Based on the work completed to date, all audit
opinions issued within the period had been “good” or
“reasonable” with no “limited” or “no
assurance” opinions being issued.
Therefore, there were no areas of concern to highlight within the
report.
The Committee considered the report and asked
questions, to which responses were provided. Discussions were held on owned residential
properties; and fee earning work which was charged at a rate to
ensure the cost of the audit work was at least fully covered but
also took into account the internal audit partnership working
arrangements with the other Anglia Revenues Partnership
councils.
In particular members wished to congratulate
the audit team in relation to the positive outcomes gained from the
various grants work carried out.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the progress made against the 2022 to 2023
Internal Audit Plan.
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151. |
Delivering a Sustainable West Suffolk Council Budget (2023 to 2024) PDF 206 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/22/021
Minutes:
[Councillor Peter Thompson left the meeting at
5.25pm during the consideration of this item, and prior to the vote
taking place].
At its meeting on 29 September 2022, report
number PAS/WS/22/017 outlined the process and approach to setting
the council’s 2023 to 2024 budget and the principles and
challenges faced in achieving this.
The Committee on 17 November 2022, received
report number PAS/WS/22/021, which updated members on key budget
assumptions proposed in the development of the 2023 2024 budget and
medium-term plans.
Proposals and key budget
assumptions to date, were set out in Section 2 of the
report. The net impact of the key
assumption changes to date were included in Table 1 of the
report. In addition to the savings
requirements set out in paragraph 1.6 of the report, gave rise to a
working budget deficit for 2023 to 2024 of £2.53m (this
excluded any provision to replenish the general fund from the
utilisation for the 2022 to 2023 deficit, currently estimated at an
additional £1.1m)
Significant work would continue
to take place to achieve a 2023 to 2024 balanced budget by February
2023. It was report that a number of
areas were already in progress, including:
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Use of the latest data available to conclude the
income and expenditure line by line review and the identification
of saving initiatives and opportunities.
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Modelling and reflecting the impact of any changes
to central government funding.
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The setting of the councils Council Tax Base for
council tax setting purposes – (Council decision, December
2022)
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The monitoring of the councils in year Council Tax
Collection.
The Committee at its January
2023 meeting would receive an update on the Capital Programme which
was currently being revised and updated with known
changes.
The Committee considered the
report in detail and asked questions to which comprehensive
responses were provided. Discussions
were held on pensions and the tri-annual pension report;
recruitment freeze; pay award; outsourcing; the ground maintenance
service and whether charging commercial rates, for example for
grass cutting and the announcement made today (17 November 2022) in
the media about a possible Devolution Deal for Suffolk and whether
this would have an impact on the council’s budget.
In response to a question
raised regarding the £1.16m budget gap for 2023 to 2024,
officers advised Cabinet had tasked officers at looking at
balancing the budget for the next three years, but the main focus
was for a balanced budget for 2023 to 2024.
In response to a question
raised regarding car park revenue, officers advised that parking
data was being reviewed to see if there had been any behavioural
changes in parking at the Cattlemarket and multi-storey car parks
in Bury St Edmunds.
In response to a question
raised relating to the impact of the capital programme on the
budget, officers advised that work was currently being carried out
and reference would be included in the report at the
committee’s January 2023 meeting.
Detailed discussions were also
held on street lighting. Councillors
Andy ...
view the full minutes text for item 151.
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152. |
Treasury Management Report (September 2022) PDF 338 KB
Report number: FRS/WS/22/005 was
considered by the Financial Resilience Sub-Committee on 7 November
2022.
The Service Manager (Finance and Procurement)
will update the Committee verbally on any issues or recommendations
arising from the consideration of this report.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Councillor Andy Neal left the meeting at
6.25pm during the consideration of this item, and prior to the vote
taking place].
The Committee received Report No:
FRS/WS/22/005, which had been considered by the Financial
Resilience Sub-Committee on 7 November 2022. The Service Manager (Finance and Performance)
provided a verbal update on the Sub-Committee’s consideration
of the report, which provided a summary of investment activity for
the first half of the 2022-2023 financial year.
The 2022 to 2023 Annual Treasury Management
and Investment Strategy sets out the Council’s projections
for the current financial year. The
budget for investment income for 2022 to 2023 was £45,000,
which was based on a 0.25% target average interest rate of return
on investments.
At the end of September 2022, interest earned
during the first half of the financial year amounted to
£317,734 against a profiled budget for the period of
£22,500, a budget surplus of £295,234.
External borrowing as at 30 September 2022
remained at £13,875,000, a reduction of £125,000 from
April 2022, with the council’s level of internal borrowing
increasing slightly to £41,699,661 as at 30 September
2022. Overall borrowing, weighted
towards internal borrowing was expected to increase over the full
financial year.
The report also included a summary of the
borrowing activity during the period; borrowing strategy and
sources of borrowing; borrowing and capital costs –
affordability; borrowing and income – proportionality;
borrowing and asset yields and market information.
Attached at Appendix 1 to the report
was Arlingclose economic and interest rate forecast –
September 2022.
The Sub-Committee
has scrutinised the report on 7 November 2022, and asked questions
to which responses were provided. In particular discussions were held on the
current interest rate rises; what happened to the additional
interest received on cash balances; the solar farm yield for 2021
to 2022 and the Barclays £4m loan.
The Performance and Audit
Scrutiny Committee scrutinised the report in detail and asked
questions to which responses were provided. In particular discussions were held on guilt
yields and capital projects and investment levels.
In response to a question raised on what the
council’s policy was on lend to local authorities and whether
this would continue, officers explained that the decision to lend
to local authorities was embedded in the council’s Treasury
Management Strategy which was approved each year by Cabinet and
Council. Lending to local authorities
was considered low risk, but in future the council would carry out
extra research in addition to the advice received from its external
advisors, Arlingclose.
In response to a question raised on the
£4m Barclays loan and whether the council has considered
paying off early, officers advised that the council was looking at
options and was in discussions with its advisors regarding this
matter.
It was then proposed by Councillor Victor
Lukaniuk, seconded by Councillor Robert Nobbs, and with the vote
being unanimous, it was:
RECOMMENDED:
That
subject to the approval of Council, the Treasury Management Report
(September 2022), as contained in Report number: FRS/WS/22/005, be
approved.
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153. |
Work programme update PDF 118 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/22/022
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received report number:
PAS/WS/22/022, which updated members on the current status of its
rolling work programme of items for scrutiny during 2020-2021
(Appendix 1).
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the update and the additional
meeting which had been rescheduled from 14 December 2022 to 8 March
2023.
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154. |
2022 to 2023 Performance Report (Quarter 2) PDF 351 KB
Report number: PAS/WS/22/023
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Councillor Andy Neal left the meeting at
6.28pm during the consideration of this item.
Councillors John Augustine and Cliff Waterman
left the meeting at 7.05pm during the consideration of this
item].
The Committee received Report number
PAS/WS/22/023, which set out income recovery, Quarter 2 performance
and the forecast 2022 to 2023 revenue and capital positions.
The Covid-19 outbreak had had a significant
impact on the council’s financial position. Whilst the council was now in the process of
recovering from the pandemic, the effects were likely to be felt
for years to come. In addition, the
cost-of-living crisis, which the Ukraine War had exacerbated, was
not only impacting on communities and businesses, but also
adversely putting pressure on the council’s budgets.
All of these elements, as well as national
public behavioural changes in travel, shopping and working created
by these issues, had had an adverse impact on businesses, retail
and public services nationally.
Income generation for public services across
the UK had been severely impacted by a combination of all these
challenges as well as recent issues, such as national and local
lockdowns. West Suffolk Council was not
alone in continuing to face these issues although there were good
signs of recovery by services and areas – some stronger than
others. This included income from
leisure and cultural events; trade waste and the garden waste
service. In addition, other services
were recovering, such as car parks and markets. However, the challenges outlined effected services
and localities in different ways.
For 2022 to 2023 the central government
funding which had helped to partly mitigate the effects of the
pandemic, such as the Sales, Fees and Charges Compensation and the
Covid-19 Support Grant were no longer available, meaning the
council had to make provision to fully cover any reduced income and
increased costs from within its own budgets.
As part of the 2022 to 2023 budget setting
process the made had made provision for the sum of around
£0.5m in its budgets for the ongoing impacts of
Covid-19. This provision was to be
funded by a contribution from the council’s general fund (a
reserve fund that the council traditionally kept at around
£5m to meet emergency issues such as this) and had been
factored into the year-end forecasts in the report.
Attached to the Quarter 2 performance and
forecast year-end financial position for 2022 to 2023 were a number
of appendices as follows:
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Appendix A: Key Performance Indicator Dashboards
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Appendix B: Income and expenditure report
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Appendix C: Capital programme
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Appendix D: Earmarked reserves
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Appendix E: Strategic risk register (A revised risk register was
circulated at the meeting and available on the council’s
website)
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Exempt Appendix F: Aged debt over 90 days
The Committee was advised that the above
appendices for this report were completed before news of the agreed
pay award was announced. On 1 November
2022, a pay rise of £1,925 per annum was agreed for all pay
scales and was effective from 1 April 2022. ...
view the full minutes text for item 154.
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155. |
Exclusion of press and public
To consider whether the press and public
should be excluded during the consideration of the following item
because it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be
transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the
public were present during this item, there would be disclosure to
them of exempt categories or information as prescribed in Part 1 of
Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, and indicated
against each item and, in all circumstance of the case, the public
interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest
in disclosing the information.
Minutes:
With the
vote being unanimous, it was
Resolved:
That, under Section 100(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the
press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following
items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely
disclosure of exempt information as prescribed in Part 1 of
Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, and indicated
against each item and, in all circumstances of the case, the public
interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest
in disclosing the information.
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156. |
2022 to 2023 Performance Report (Quarter 2): Exempt Appendix F: Aged Debt Over 90 Days Monitoring (paragraphs 1 and 2)
Exempt Appendix F to Report number:
PAS/WS/22/023
(This exempt appendix is to be considered in
private under paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 12A of the Local
Government Act 1972, as it contains information relating to an
individual and information which is likely to reveal the identity
of an individual).
Minutes:
The meeting moved into private session to
allow for the Committee to pose specific questions
on the information which related to the aged debt over 90 days, as
set out in this exempt Appendix.
Once the discussion was
concluded, the Committee then moved back into the open session of
the meeting.
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157. |
Re-admittance of press and public
Minutes:
The press and public were re-admitted to the
meeting.
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In this section
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