Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 6 February, 2019, copy attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting of Council held on 6 February, 2019, be approved as a correct record.

By the Chairman of the Council.

By the Leader/Cabinet Members.

There were no announcements by the Chairman or Cabinet Members.

There were none.

No written questions were submitted by Members in December 2018 or January 2019.

Previous Members’ Written Questions and Answers can be accessed at http://democracy.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=441

No Written Questions had been submitted in December, 2018 or January, 2019.  Previous questions could be viewed at:-

http://democracy.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=441

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

To consider the attached report.

The Council received a report on the amounts of Council Tax that would be payable by residents of the District during 2019/20, based upon the approved budgets set by the relevant local authorities and the Police and Fire Authorities which made up the total Council Tax bill.  The information contained in the report had been based upon a District precept of £11,314,900, resulting in a District Council Tax of £154.06.

At the time of issuing the Council agenda, the precepts for the Police and Crime Commission, Buckinghamshire County Council and the Bucks and Milton Keynes Fire Authority were unresolved and the figures contained in the report were provisional and might be subject to change.

The Council had determined income and expenditure plans for 2019/2020 that would result in a precept requirement for District expenditure of £11,314,900 and for Aylesbury Special Expenses of £902,300.  The Tax base for 2018/2019 was again based upon actual levels of Council Tax discount and housing growth, and had increased by 1.30%.

The following amounts for the year 2019/2020 had been determined under delegated powers in accordance with Regulations made under Section 31B(3) of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992:-

(A)          The Council tax Base for 2019/2020 for the whole Council area as 73,446.83 being the amount calculated by the Council in accordance with Regulation 3 of the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992.

(B)          The amounts calculated by the Council in accordance with Regulation 6 of the Regulations, as the amounts of its Council Tax Base for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items related, as detailed in Appendix B to these Minutes.

It was proposed by Councillor Mordue and seconded by Councillor Mills that the report recommendations be approved and adopted.

As required by Council Procedure Rules and Statutory Regulations, a recorded vote was taken on the Council Tax Setting resolutions and the voting was as follows:-

FOR:  Councillors B Adams, C Adams, N Blake, Bond, Bowles, Mrs Bloom, Mrs Brandis, Branston, B Chapple OBE, Christensen, Mrs Chapple, Chilver, A Cole, S Cole, Everitt, Fealey, Mrs Glover, Mrs Harrison, Hawkett, Hussain, Irwin, Mrs Jenkins, Khan, King, Lambert, Mrs Macpherson, Mills, Moore, Mordue, Mrs Morgan, Newcombe, Mrs Paternoster, Poll, Powell, Raja, Rand, Raven, Mrs Renshell, Mrs Russel, Stamp, Sir Beville Stanier, Town, Mrs Ward, Whyte and Winn.

AGAINST:  There were none.

ABSTENTIONS:  Councillors Bateman, Huxley and Stuchbury.

RESOLVED –

(1) That the following amounts be calculated for the year 2019/2020 in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992:-

(a) £75,119,355.20 being the aggregate of the amounts of expenditure which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A (2) of the Act.

(b) £56,815,358.20   being the aggregate of the amounts of income which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A (3) of the Act.

(c) £18,303,997.00   being the amount by which the aggregate at 3.1(a) above exceeds the aggregate at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

To consider the attached report.

Consideration was given to a report, similar to that submitted to the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 14 January, 2019, (and summarised in the Minutes of that meeting), regarding the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy Statement, including the Treasury Management Policy Statement, the Minimum Revenue Provision Policy Statement, the Annual Investment Strategy and the Council Capital Strategy, all of which had been appended to the Council report.  These too could be viewed on the Council’s web site.

The Scrutiny Committee had been supportive of the various strategies referred to in the Council report.

Proposed by Councillor Mordue, seconded by Councillor Fealey and

RESOLVED –

That the following be approved:-

·                       The Treasury Management Strategy Statement for 2019/20 as detailed in Appendix A to the Council report.

·                       The Annual Investment Strategy as detailed in Appendix A4 of the Council report.

·                       The Minimum Revenue Provision Policy Statement as detailed in Appendix A5 of the Council report.

·                       The Treasury Management Statement as detailed in Appendix A6 of the Council report.

·                       The Capital Strategy for 2019/20 as detailed in Appendix A7 of the Council report.

Councillor Mrs Macpherson

Chairman of the General Purposes Committee

To consider the attached report.

The Council was required to review and publish its Pay Policy annually.  Council received a report similar to that submitted to the General Purposes Committee on21 January, 2019 and summarised in the Minutes of that meeting, reviewing the current policy.  The updated policy had been attached to the Council report and could be viewed on-line at the Council’s web site.

Proposed by Councillor Mrs Macpherson, seconded by Councillor Mrs Jenkins and

RESOLVED –

That the updated AVDC Pay Policy 2019 be approved.

Councillor Mrs Macpherson

Leader of the Council

To consider the attached report.

Council received a report, also submitted to the General Purposes Committee on 21 January, 2019 detailing the outcome of consultations in relation to a limited scope review of polling districts and polling places following the experiences of the County Council elections held in 2017.  The report could be viewed on the Council’s web site.

Proposed by Councillor Mrs Macpherson, seconded by Councillor Mrs Glover and

RESOLVED –

That the following changes to polling districts/polling places be approved:-

Councillor Newcombe

Chairman of the Audit Committee

To consider the attached report.

In 2016, the Council had agreed to the inclusion in the Constitution of a document designed to give guidance on the creation and administration of companies in which it had a financial interest  Following the Council’s decision to carry out an independent audit of the activities of Aylesbury Vale Broadband, a cross party group had been appointed to examine how the auditor’s recommendations should be implemented.

At its meeting on 28 January, 2019, the Audit Committee received report (attached as an Appendix to the Council report), setting out the final recommendations of the cross party group.  A number of the cross party group’s recommendations were related to the guide referred to above.  The Audit Committee had received a schedule of the recommendations flowing from the independent auditor’s report and in a number of cases the cross party group had agreed, and the Audit Committee had concurred, with a number of changes being made to the guide.  A copy of the revised guide, incorporating these changes was submitted.

Proposed by Councillor Newcombe, seconded by Councillor Christensen, and

RESOLVED –

That the revised “Guide to the Creation and Working with Companies in which AVDC has Financial Interest” detailed in the Appendix to the Council report, be approved for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution.

There will be an opportunity for Members to ask questions of individual Cabinet Members and Committee Chairmen.

Members had the opportunity to ask questions of individual Cabinet Members and Committee Chairmen about issues affecting their portfolios/Committee activities:-

(a)          Five Year Housing Land Supply (Councillor Stuchbury) – the Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure informed Members that she would ask the Officers to provide all Councillors with updated information on the latest housing numbers for the Council’s five year housing land supply.

(b)          Elmhurst Community Centre (Councillor Mrs Morgan) – the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources gave an undertaking to provide the Member with information on the Section 106 agreement relating to the sale of the Elmhurst Community Centre.

(c)          Household Waste Collections (Councillor Huxley) – the Cabinet Member for Waste and Licensing informed Members refuse collection crews were regularly reminded of the need to ensure that food caddies and bins were returned safely to the front of residences so that they would not get damaged.

(d)          HS2 (Councillor C Adams) – the Leader of the Council informed Members that, on behalf of the Council, she would be writing to local MPs as well as the Chairman of HS2 to remonstrate about the impact of the maintenance depot to be built on the proposed HS2 line between Calvert and Steeple Claydon, including a temporary railhead to be constructed to the north of the depot.  Plans for much of the work had not been made available publicly or been subject to community engagement.  It was believed that the works would likely result in the destruction of over 250 acres of hedgerows and impact on local wildlife and biodiversity.

The Deputy Leader of the Council supported the comments made by the Leader and informed Members that work done by the Rt Hon David Lidington MP had helped to secure some additional HS2 mitigation measures.

(e)          Connected Knowledge (Councillor Christensen) – the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources informed Members that regular meetings had been held with the County Council in relation to Connected Knowledge and how this work might fit in with the establishment of the new Buckinghamshire Council.  The Cabinet Member would respond directly to the Member with details of the meeting dates.

(f)           IT for Members (Councillor Lambert) – the Leader of the Council informed the Member that she was happy to work with him and look into why he was experiencing difficulties working with the Council’s email and IT system since the updated security measures (OKTA and mobile device management) had been introduced.

(g)          Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019-2022 (Councillor Everitt) – the Cabinet Member for Communities provided Members with a detailed response on the work and progress made by the Council to tackle and reduce homelessness in the area since the Strategy was adopted in December 2018.