To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Council held on 25 January 2017 for signature by the Mayor as Chairman.

That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Council held on 25 January 2017, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any announcements from the Mayor, Leader of the Council, Members of the Executive, Chairmen of Scrutiny Committees and the Head of Paid Service.

The Mayor announced that she had recently held two receptions for local Faith Leaders and for the recent recipients of Her Majesty the Queen’s Honours, as recognition for their community work and achievements.  

This is an opportunity for Members of Council to ask the Mayor, Members of the Executive or the Chairman of any Committee or Sub-Committee a question on notice under Procedure Rule 10.2.

The Mayor reported that no questions had been received under Procedure Rule 10.2.

To consider a report of the Chief Finance Officer, recommended to Council by Accounts and Audit Committee on 7 February 2017.

The Chief Finance Officer submitted a report recommending a process for the appointment of the external auditor, to commence for an agreed period from the audit year 2018/19. The report detailed the options available and provided the recommendation from the Accounts and Audit Committee held on 7 February 2017, in terms of the proposed way forward.

RESOLVED: That, further to the recommendation made by the Accounts and Audit Committee, the Council approves the option of opting in to the national arrangement for appointing the External Auditor, managed by Public Sector Appointments Limited.

To consider a report of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services.

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services submitted a report requesting the appointment of an officer of the Council to be the Local Returning Officer for the election of a Combined Authority Mayor, as required by the Combined Authority (Mayoral Elections) Order 2017.

RESOLVED: That the Chief Executive be appointed as the Returning Officer for the Trafford Council area at Combined Authority Mayoral elections.

To receive and consider the following joint reports of the Executive Member for Finance and the Chief Finance Officer, presented to the Executive on 22 February 2017, and to adopt the resolutions therein:

(Note: PROCEDURAL ARRANGEMENTS - In respect of the main item of business on the agenda, the Mayor announced that the Leader of the Council (or his nominee) would have a maximum of 15 minutes to make the initial speech and a further maximum of 15 minutes to summarise the debate. The Leaders of the Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups (or their respective nominees) would each have a maximum of 15 minutes to make their initial speeches and a further maximum of 5 minutes to summarise on behalf of their respective Groups. The Mayor also outlined the approach for dealing with amendments. Members were instructed that, should an amendment be made to the main motion, the mover of that amendment would have a maximum of 5 minutes to make their speech. The Mayor further confirmed that, the time for all other speeches would be restricted to a maximum of 3 minutes.)

The Executive Member for Finance presented a number of reports setting out the proposed budget for the forthcoming year, together with the recommendations from the Executive meeting held earlier that evening.

It was moved and seconded that the Executive’s recommendations for the budget, circulated to Members at the meeting, be approved.

Councillors Ross and Bowker responded to the Motion on behalf of the Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups respectively, after which the budget proposals were then debated by the Council.

In accordance with procedures agreed at the outset of the debate, the Political Group Leaders summarised the essential views of their respective group and responded to some of the issues that had arisen from the debate.

The Motion was then put to a recorded vote, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014. The result was as follows:

Those in favour of the Motion: Councillors S.A. Anstee, S.K. Anstee, Dr. Barclay, Miss Blackburn, Boyes, Mrs. Bruer-Morris, Bunting, Butt, Cawdrey, Chilton, Cornes, Coupe, Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Evans,  N. Evans, Holden, Hopps, Hyman, Lally, Lamb, Mitchell, Myers, J.R. Reilly, Rigby, Sharp, Shaw, Smith, Whetton, Williams, M. Young and Mrs. Young.

Those against the Motion: Councillors Acton, Adshead, Baugh, Bowker, Mrs. Brophy, Brotherton, Cordingley, Duffield, Fishwick, Freeman, Harding, Hynes, Jarman, Malik, O’Sullivan, Procter, Ross, Stennett, Taylor, Walsh, A. Western, D. Western and Wright.

With the result of the vote being 31 in favour and 23 against, with the Mayor not voting, the Motion was declared carried.

        RESOLVED –

(A)   That the Council approves:

(1)        The net Revenue Budget for 2017/18 at £160.83 million.

(2)        The 2018/19 to 2019/20 Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) including the income and savings proposals.

(3)        The calculation of the Council Tax Requirement as detailed in Section 9.1 of the budget report and summarised in the Appendix A of the Executive’s recommendations circulated at the meeting.

(4)        The formal Council Tax Resolution, as required under statute and set out in (D) below.

(5)        A Council Tax increased by 4.99%:

·       1.99% general increase in the ‘relevant basic amount’ in each of the three years 2017/18 to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

Note:          At the conclusion of the meeting it is intended to hold an informal meeting of the Council to consider issuing invitations to Members of Council to be the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Borough for 2017/2018.

(Note: At the conclusion of the formal meeting of the Council, an informal meeting was held to extend an invitation to:

Councillor Jonathan Coupe to be the Mayor of the Borough of Trafford for 2017/18;

and

Councillor Tom Ross to be the Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Trafford for 2017/18.

The informal meeting concluded at 9.09 p.m.)