Agenda and minutes

Up to 15 minutes are allowed for public participation.  Participants are restricted to 3 minutes each.

There was no public participation.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 11 April 2019.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 April 2019 were approved as a correct record.

Members may make declarations of Interest at this point or may make them at any point in the meeting.

There were no declarations of interests.

Members considered a report on annual treasury management activities and prudential indicators for 2018/19 in accordance with the Local Government Act 2003.

Following discussions between Members and officers, the following points were highlighted:

·         Treasury investment activities had generated £246,000 of investment interest at an average rate of 1.57%;

·         There had been a good return on balances; the report showed that no regulatory limits had been broken;

·         The valuation volatility reserve was set at 5%, and if used, could be rebuilt during the year;

·         West Lindsey District Council’s (WLDCs) purchased investments had long leases, and should lead to increases in values rather than decreases;

·         Full due diligence was carried out on the occupants of properties that were being considered for purchase by WLDC.  Professional advice would be sought from the relevant sectors;

·         As an authority WLDC can borrow for the current year and two years ahead.  Money cannot be borrowed and put into other investments for income generating purposes.

RESOLVED toaccept the Annual Treasury Management Report and actual Prudential Indicators and recommend to Full Council for approval.

Members considered a report setting out the final budget outturn position for revenue and capital in 2018/19, as well as setting out a request to accept a grant and to incur expenditure to be claimed in arrears against the grant.  The points highlighted were:

·         There had been a £664,000 surplus, an increase of £30,000 from the Period 4 report in 2018/19;

·         A grant of £100,000 had been awarded by One Public Estate (OPE) for project work in relation to the stabilisation of RAF Scampton following the closure announcement.  WLDC was acting as the joint accountable body along with Lincolnshire County Council;

·         A charging authority must prepare and publish a report detailing the amount of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was attached at Appendix B.

·         The position on car parking had worsened by £9000 but work was underway to improve this in 2019/20;

·         The volatility reserve was voluntary to show that the authority was acting prudently.  This cash would still be in the Authority’s bank account, but was primarily to protect the revenue account from any variation in the value of market properties..

RESOLVED to:

(1)        accept the out-turn surplus position of £664k.

(2)        approve a contribution of £263k to the Valuation Volatility Reserve as per the Non-Treasury investment strategy.

(3)        approve the remaining £401k be transferred to the General Fund working balance.

(4)        accept the grant awarded by One Public Estate (OPE) of £100k and West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) acting as joint accountable body with Lincolnshire County Council (LCC), agreeing to

incur expenditure to be claimed in arrears against the award.

(5)        note the items contained at Section 4;

a. Section 137 expenditure statement for 2018/19, showing contributions made to certain charitable funds and not for profit bodies providing a public service in the UK.

b. Building Control Account for 2018/19, showing the deficit for the chargeable and non-chargeable work for the year.

(6)        accept the final capital outturn position of £21.079m.

(7)        to note the Revenue Outturn Subjective Analysis

(8)        note the content of the Regulation 62 of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations 2010 report.

Members considered a report on progress and delivery for period 4, 2018/19.

This report looked at how services were performing against key performance indicators.  It revealed that 36% of indicators were exceeding their target, 48% were meeting their target, and 16% were below their target.

The following points were highlighted:

·         A number of areas started the year below target and ended there too.  There had been no upward shift in homelessness prevention, or the time taken to resolve housing enforcement.  Community safety had moved from an amber target to a red target at month’s end;

·         For the first 2019/20 report there would be new performance measures. A performance workshop had taken place for enforcement; it was felt that the measures being used for this report were not reflective of the service;

·         The Home Choices Manager was due to come to the next Corporate Policy and Resources meeting to give more information on their department;

·         Markets was a volatile area, and the success or failure of it was reliant on the stallholders.  A markets appraisal was underway;

·         In some cases it was taking over 8 months to complete the process of Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs).  A new county-wide framework was being put in place from July 2019, combined with the six other districts in Lincolnshire.  The current arrangement for DFGs had 8 suppliers; the new framework would have 28 suppliers;

·         There had previously been a policy of renovating long-term empty properties and bringing them back into use; however this was a very costly process.  The approach now was to make available grants and aids for landlords.  There had currently not been a high level of appetite for these grants;

·         The targets set in the progress and delivery report go through a robust process.  The targets were subject to scrutiny from the Performance and Programmes Team, the Executive Directors of Resources and Operations, as well as the teams involved in the work;

·         Members were also consulted for their comments on the targets being set;

·         The figures used in the report regarding market stalls on a Saturday were an average for a three month period.  This took into account the number of stalls that were paid for; there would be occasions where stalls had been paid for but the stallholder was not present on a Saturday.  There were also some stallholders that paid for several pitches; this could appear to some as one stall, when it fact it was several.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Members considered a report containing a proposal to run the Budget Consultation in 2019, to inform the 2020/21 Budget.

The report was being seen earlier in the year than previous iterations.  The previous three years had centred on cutting budgets; this time around it was being based on WLDC’s Corporate Plan.

One Member raised a potential issue on section 3 of the survey, and a question on ‘charging for food safety re-inspections’.

RESOLVED to agree the proposal for consulting on the 2020/21 budget.

The Democratic and Civic Officer informed all present that the workplan would continue to be populated throughout the year.

The workplan was then noted.

To resolve that under Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

RESOLVED that under Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Members considered a report on options for the location of future operational depot facilities.

                        RESOLVED to approve the recommendations as written in the report.

Members considered an annual report of the commercial property investment portfolio.  The following points were highlighted:

·         This was the second annual report; 4 properties had been acquired in the year, making five in total costing £15.95 million;

·         A greater return had been made from the yield being in excess of the target;

·         It was good to see that the portfolio included properties within the District as well as other properties across the East Midlands;

·         Other purchases that had been worked on were not progressed if they were found to be unsuitable.  There were other times when WLDC had been outbid;

·         Some caution needs to be taken with the High Street and any potential purchases in this area;

·         The Economic Development Strategy was about investing back into the District;

·         Some authorities have invested large sums of money into commercial property; WLDC follows CIPFA recommendations. 

RESOLVED to note the report.