·           To consider and adopt the resolutions contained the joint reports of the Executive Member for Finance and Governance and the Corporate Director of Finance and Systems, presented to the Executive on 17 February 2021 and set out (a) - (d) below.

 

•          To set and approve the Council Tax Requirement for the District for the year beginning 1 April 2021, in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended.

 

•          To set and approve, in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended, the amounts as the amounts of the Council Tax for the year 2021/2022 for each of the categories of dwellings included in the respective valuation bands A to H.

(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 Leader of the Main Opposition Group (or his nominee) would have a maximum of 15 minutes, whereas, the Leaders of the Minority Opposition Groups (or their respective nominees) would each have a maximum of 10 minutes to make their initial speeches. Each Opposition Group Leader (or their respective nominees) would each have a further maximum of 5 minutes to summarise on behalf of their respective Groups.

 

The Mayor also outlined the approach for dealing with amendments, indicating that notice should be given during the initial speeches. Should any amendments be made to the main motion, they were to be dealt with in the order in which notice was given and when called upon were to be moved without further comment. Time for seconders of amendments and for all other speeches would be restricted to a maximum of 3 minutes.)

 

The Executive Member for Finance and Governance presented a number of reports setting out the proposed budget for the forthcoming year which had been recommended by the Executive at its meeting held earlier that evening.

 

It was moved and seconded that the Executive’s recommendations set out in each of the following reports:

 

(a)       Executive’s Revenue Budget Proposals 2021/22 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022/23 – 2023/24;

(b)       Capital Strategy, Asset Investment Strategy, Capital Programme and Prudential and Local Indicators 2021-2024;

(c)       Treasury Management Strategy 2021/22 – 2023/24; and

(d)       Fees, Charges and Allowances 2021/22,

 

be approved subject to the removal of the saving of £80,000 in respect of the City of Trees Programme to be met from the Council-wide Contingency Budget;

 

and that the Council sets and approves the amounts as the amounts of the Council Tax for the year 2020/2021, in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended, for each of the categories of dwellings included in the respective valuation bands A to H.

 

The Council signified acceptance of the alteration to the Motion by general consent.

 

Councillor Myers responded to the Motion on behalf of the Conservative Group and gave notice of an amendment. Councillor Newgrosh, on behalf of the Liberal Democrats Group and then Councillor Coggins, on behalf of the Green Party Group also responded to the Motion.

 

Dealing with the amendment signified, it was moved and seconded as an amendment that:

 

“The Council agrees these recommendations subject to removing the following proposals. The cost in 2021-2022 of removing the proposals is given in brackets.

 

1.         The introduction of charges for home to school transport. (£48,000)

2.         The increase in parking charges in our villages. (£64,000)

3.         The introduction of higher parking charges in town centres. (£136,000)

4.         To disallow free parking after 3.00 p.m. at Christmas time. (£50,000)

5.         The introduction of further dimming of street-lights, delaying when lights come on at night and switching off lights before dawn. (£75,000)

6.         Stopping routine checks that street-lights are working. (£9,000)

7.         Reducing the response time for engineers to address problems such as faulty street-lights. (£82,000)

8.         Decreasing the grass cutting in interval to 21 days. (£67,000)

9.         To reduce the maintenance of green spaces. (£36,000)

10.      To reduce the spraying of weeds to once a year.  (£20,000)

11.      To cut Trafford Council’s contribution to the City of Trees programme. (£80,000)*

 

TheCorporate Directorfor Finance and Systemshas advisedthat theseproposals,if adopted, wouldenable theCouncil toset a legal budget.The total cost of this amendment (£717,000)* would be fundedthrough theapplication moniesheld inthe BudgetSupport Reserve.”

 

(*Note: Since the proposal for the City of Trees Programme (No.11) had been proposed as part of the Motion, the revised cost of the amendment was effectively £637,000.)

 

(Note: During the debate on the amendment, the time being 8:16 p.m., the Mayor indicated that speeches would be limited to a maximum of two minutes per speaker.)

 

Following a debate on the matter, the amendment was put to the vote and declared lost.

 

The Council proceeded to debate the substantive Motion.

 

(Note: During the debate on the substantive Motion, the time being 8:44 p.m., the Mayor indicated that speeches would now be limited to a maximum of one minute per speaker.)

 

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 Substantive 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 substantive Motion: Councillors Acton, Adshead, Akinola, Bennett, Brophy, Brotherton, Dr. Carr, Carter, Coggins, Cordingley, Dillon, Freeman, Harding, Hartley, Hynes, Jarman, Jerrome, Lloyd, Minnis, New, Newgrosh, Patel, K. Procter, S. Procter, Ross, Slater, Taylor, Thomas, Thompson, Welton, A. Western, D. Western, Whitham, Whyte, Williams, Winstanley and Wright.

 

Those against the substantive Motion: Councillors Anstee, Dr. Barclay, Miss Blackburn, Boyes, Butt, Carey, Chilton, Mrs. Churchill, Evans, Mrs. Haddad, Holden, Lamb, Mitchell, Morgan, Myers, Rigby and Mrs. Young.

 

Those choosing to abstain: The Worshipful the Mayor Councillor Walsh.

 

With the result of the vote being 37 in favour and 17 against, with 1 abstention, the Substantive Motion was declared carried.

 

          RESOLVED:

 

(1)       That the Council:

 

a)      Approves the 2021/22 net Revenue Budget of £179.30 million, subject to the removal of the saving of £80,000 in respect of the City of Trees Programme to be met from the Council-wide Contingency Budget;

 

b)      Approves the 2022/23 to 2023/24 Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) including the income and savings proposals.

 

c)      Approves the calculation of the Council Tax Requirement as summarised in Section 8.1 of the Revenue Budget Proposals report and the formal Council Tax Resolution set out at (2) below.

 

d)      Approves the proposal to increase Council Tax by 4.99% in 2021/22:

         

·       1.99% general increase in the ‘relevant basic amount’ in 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24, and

·       3% for the ‘Adult Social Care’ precept in 2021/22.

 

e)      Approves the continuation of the Council Tax Hardship scheme and awards all existing working age Council Tax Support (CTS) recipients registered as at 31 March 2021, a discretionary Hardship award equivalent to the value of their 2021/22 liability.

 

f)       Approves the treatment of all new, post 31 March 2021, claims for CTS in accordance with the existing CTS scheme, as the vast majority of recipients will receive 100% support, and ensures direct information and advice for further discretionary support is detailed in notification letters.

 

g)      Approves the planned application of earmarked reserves as detailed in Section 6 of the Revenue Budget Proposals report.

 

h)      Approves the Fees and Charges for 2021/22 and those relating to Registration of Births, Death and Marriages and Allotments also shown for 2022/23, as set out in the Fees and Charges booklet.

 

i)          Delegates authority jointly to each Corporate Director in consultation with the Director of Finance and Systems to amend fees and charges which are within their respective delegated powers during 2021/22 in the event of any change in VAT rate, as appropriate.

 

j)        Delegates authority jointly to each Corporate Director in consultation with the Director of Finance and Systems to amend fees and charges during 2021/22 which are within their respective delegated powers where the economics of the charge levels have changed (e.g. costs have risen unexpectedly), or for commercial reasons.

 

k)      Approves the proposal to increase the minimum level of General Reserve for 2021/22 at £8.0 million, an increase of £1 million from 2020/21 (Section 6.6 of the Revenue Budget Proposals report).

 

l)       Approves the Capital Strategy, Prudential and Local Indicators and overall level of the Capital Programme and Asset Investment Fund of £415.40 million (as detailed in the Capital Strategy, Capital Programme and Prudential Indicators 2021-24) of which £184.37 million relates to 2021/22; including the proposal in relation to £10.0 million of new prudential borrowing.

 

m)     Approves the Treasury Management Strategy 2021/22 to 2023/24, including the debt strategy (Section 3), the Treasury Investment Strategy (Section 5) and the Prudential Indicators, including the Authorised Limit (as required by Section 3(1) of the Local Government Act 2003, Operational Boundary, Minimum Revenue Provision and investment criteria, as set out in Appendix 3 of the report.

 

n)      Approves the proposed distribution of Dedicated Schools Grant as recommended by the School Funding Forum and Executive, as summarised in Section 7 and detailed in Annex I of the Revenue Budget Proposals report.

 

o)      Due to the late publication of the Final Local Government Finance Settlement, delegates authority to the Council’s designated Section 151 Officer to vary the level of Budget Support Reserve needed to balance the 2021/22 revenue budget in the event of any change at final settlement.

 

That in recommending approval of the above, the Council confirms that it has taken into consideration:

 

p)      The objective assessment by the Director of Finance and Systems of the robustness of budget estimates and adequacy of the financial reserves (Section 6 and Annex H of the Revenue Budget Proposals report).

 

q)      The Executive’s response to the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations to the budget proposals as included in a separate report considered at the Executive meeting held on 17 February 2021.

 

r)       The Council’s Public Sector Equality duty.

 

s)      The results of the consultation on the budget proposals where required.

 

That in addition, the Council notes the following:

 

t)       The approval on 6 January 2021 under delegated powers by the Corporate Director of Finance and Systems of the Council Tax Base for 2021/22 at 75,816 Band D equivalents.

 

u)      the estimated Council Tax deficit for 2020/21 has been calculated at £4.06 million and will be collected over the three years 2021/2022 to 2023/24 in line with the updated legislation to assist in the management of COVID-19 related pressures. Contributions towards the deficit will be made by the Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner Precept and Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services) in proportion to their 2021/22 precepts.

 

v)      The base budget assumptions as set out in the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) as detailed in Annex A of the Revenue Budget Proposals report.

 

w)     The budget gap for the two years 2022/23, £11.12 million and 2023/24, £10.30 million.

 

x)      The recurrent budget gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue into 2022/23 and is estimated that £7.1 million will be met from reserves.

 

y)      That the Capital Programme for 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 is to be set at an indicative £184.37 million, £144.13 million and £86.90 million respectively (indicative at this stage as a number of capital grants not yet known).

 

z)      That the Council Tax figures included in the report for the Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner Precept and Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services) are the recommended provisional amounts pending their formal approval.

 

(2)       That, as referred to in c) above, the Council calculates the formal Council Tax Resolution as follows:

 

Valuation Bands

 

 

PARISH COUNCIL PRECEPTS