Issue - meetings

That the County Council approve the recommendation of the Cabinet from its meeting held on 18 February 2014 as set out in section 9 of the Cabinet report attached to the Council report. 

The Chief Executive and the Head of Finance jointly introduced a report which provided Members with the recommendations of the Cabinet for the Council Fund Revenue Budget 2014/15. 

The Council was informed that at its meeting on 18 February 2014, Cabinet had considered a report of the Head of Finance on the Council Fund Revenue Budget 2014/15 which was attached at Appendix A to the report.  The initial budget proposals considered by Cabinet on 21 January 2014 had been referred to Overview and Scrutiny for consideration.  A summary of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s observations and questions, together with responses, was included in the Appendix of the 18 February 2014 Cabinet report.

The Chief Executive and Head of Finance gave a joint presentation and commented upon the following areas:-

·        National Context and Local Impact

·        Budget Strategy

·        Organisational Redesign & Change

·        Financial Strategy

·        Closing the budget gap – progress, final stages and overview

·        Efficiencies in the Budget

·        Investment Strategy

·        Reserves and Balances

·        Risk Assessment & Assurance

·        2015/16 and the Medium Term

·        Consultation in 2014 for 2015+

Councillor Aaron Shotton, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance expressed his thanks on behalf of the Cabinet Members for the work undertaken on the budget.  He referred to the significant and unprecedented challenge faced by the Council due to reductions in funding and increased demand for services and the clear signal of intent set out by the Authority to protect front line services.  He spoke of the proposed reductions in senior management and workforce and he praised the workforce for their assistance and ideas of how to achieve savings within the Council as the pressure facing the Authority could have been significantly higher without their help.  He welcomed the proposal to retain Council Tax at an increase of 3% and he urged Members to support the budget and the proposals contained within it. 

Councillor Mike Peers thanked officers for the report and their work on the budget.  He suggested that the numbering of the appendices be replicated throughout the budget process to allow for easy comparison between the documents.  He also suggested that the budget consultation meetings with Overview & Scrutiny Committees be reviewed to ensure that sufficient time was allocated to consider the issues.  He spoke of the need to recognise the drastic measures that were required to protect frontline services due to the cuts in funding from Welsh Government (WG) of 6% in real terms but also indicated that it was important for WG to prioritise its funding and distribute it fairly across all Welsh local authorities.  The budget proposals in the report were based on an increase of 3% in Council Tax and Councillor Peers welcomed this as raising the rate was one of the possible measures to assist in closing the budget gap.  He requested further information on the efficiencies that had been found following the completion of the Overview & Scrutiny budget consultation meetings and proposed that a headcount freeze be put in place once the re-organisation of the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95