Agenda item

Members gave consideration to a report which presented the Executive Business Plan and the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024/25 onwards. 

 

The Leader made the following budget speech to Council in presenting the report: -

 

“As Leader of the Council, I am pleased to present the Budget for

2024/25. 

 

I present this along with our Executive Business Plan and Medium Term Financial Plan, all of which contribute to achieving our vision of making West Lindsey a great place to live, where people, businesses and communities can thrive and reach their potential.

 

Our communities have told us that certain things are important to them and we have endeavoured to address these issues when setting our priorities.  As a new Administration we have been able to include priority areas we feel will meet our vision for the District.

 

We have approved the strategy to take legal action against the Home Office to protect investment, Economic Growth and Regeneration at RAF Scampton which will deliver £300m of investment and prosperity to the District.  We believe this project has the potential to transform our district, creating opportunities for employment in some of the most exciting 21st century industries.  We believe this project is worth fighting for.

 

We aim to ensure that the investment brought in from the UK shared prosperity fund is maximised, with all its projects due to be completed on time. We have been committed to ensuring that the cinema project is supported and we are delighted that this project is now underway and look forward to it being completed early next year.

 

Markets are a key priority for our towns.  When they flourish, we believe they add vibrancy to public spaces, provide opportunities for social interaction and support the retail sector in our town centres.  In Gainsborough we are keen that our market place with its market, is developed to become the centre of a thriving Independent quarter of the town.

 

We aim to continue to grow our monthly farmers market and we are excited to announce that we will be starting a new weekly antiques market on the 30 March. This will run through to October.  Our commitment to culture and heritage will continue. Enabling these priorities to flourish whilst our improvements to the market place are underway, will be a priority.  Going forward we will strive to develop successful partnerships around heritage, culture and the Arts and use these partnerships to increase opportunities for our communities and help revive our town centres. 

 

Increasing opportunities for participating in sport, leisure and cultural activities is a priority.   Over recent years we have seen a decline in opportunities available for residents of West Lindsey and we are keen to reverse this trend. We have included additional resources for sports and cultural development in this budget, with two new development officers to be recruited. We are working closely with our Leisure providers developing our programmes in Market Rasen and Gainsborough and we are beginning to explore options for our Leisure centre in Gainsborough, considering ways that we may be able to expand and improve this facility going forward.

 

Ensuring the Council is meeting its new duties and obligations under the 2021 Environment Act  is a key priority. The Council is preparing to deliver food waste collections across the District and has included funding for this within the capital programme. We have focused on enforcement and anti-social behaviour, increasing fines for fly tipping and we have increased the budget in this area to allow for two additional enforcement officers.

 

We have expanded our award-winning waste collection service to offer households the opportunity to hire an extra-large, commercial sized bin for times when more capacity is needed creating an alternative to skip hire. We will be consulting with our residents on the green waste collection service to ensure this service best meets the needs of our communities.

 

We are Investing in green technologies and have recently received over £400,000 to make our leisure centre in Gainsborough more energy efficient by investing in solar panels.

 

Our services need to be as high performing as possible, and we are ensuring there is continuous learning and improvement throughout the organisation. This includes investing in a new customer contact system in 2024-25. We are investing in staff by training employees in the ‘West Lindsey Way’ and to ensuring staff are enabled and supported to be the best they can be.

 

As part of the Community Grant Scheme delivered from funding from the UK government, alongside our own matched funding, we are awarding grants for projects across the district to improve our community spaces, places and the activities available to residents based on community demand. These include a play area refurbishment in Keelby, a new multi-use games area at the Benjamin Adlard School, Gainsborough which offers physical activities for the wider community. We are funding a refit of the toilets in Reepham and Cherry Willingham Village Hall to increase accessibility. We are also enabling solar panel projects in Nettleham and Toft Newton to improve the sustainability of community organisations and contribute to a net zero carbon West Lindsey.

 

Funding is being provided for a new heritage project in Ingham and a project to provide a community space in the church in the village of Grayingham. In addition, we are supporting projects that are tackling issues that are affecting our residents such as a befriending service by Age UK.

 

Members of the public will be very conscious that a large number of local authorities are struggling financially with the particular challenges and high costs that the energy crisis have thrown up and with the country slipping into recession, these challenges do not appear to be going away anytime soon.

 

In the longer-term, Government funding may reduce but we are in a good place to meet any challenges from a sound financial position.

 

We have been mindful that our residents expect us to be sensible with public money and at every turn we are fortunate to have the support of the very high level of financial expertise present in our senior officers and their teams and we thank them for this.

 

The 2024/25 budget has been set to ensure we continue to provide award-winning services, whilst investing for the future through the delivery of the capital programme.

 

The 2024/25 Budget supports delivery of our Corporate Plan objectives, protects our award-winning services, improves our customers’ experience, delivers efficiencies and will continue to deliver value for money for the residents of West Lindsey.

 

All of this is being delivered to the residents of West Lindsey for an average of £4.65 per week.

 

I therefore commend these measures to Council and am delighted to propose the recommendations”

 

The Leader of the Opposition, in responding, indicated their Groups shared common ground.  On the whole the Opposition were supportive of the matters raised in the Leader’s budget speech and welcomed that projects created under the former Administration were being continued.  News of the cinema completion, and local investment in local businesses were welcomed.  Regards Scampton and the approved stance, again these measures were fully supported.   The Leader of the Opposition offered similar praise to the Officers, for their expertise and efforts in creating a balanced budget in these difficult times.  However, he sought to propose an amendment to the budget in respect of the proposed increased investment into sport and cultural officers.  Providing context for this amendment, he spoke of delivering West Lindsey’s core business functions, referencing the motion earlier in the meeting, relating to a desire to increase capacity in street cleansing, kerb cleaning and footway cleaning.  The Opposition were of the belief that a good percentage of the growth fund could be allocated into street cleansing to afford all residents of West Lindsey, a cleaner environment, to work in and to live in.

 

It was suggested that focusing on sport and culture, would not provide District wide benefits to all residents, whereas if additional funding was added to street cleansing, all residents would benefit. The reserve earmarked for sports and culture he believed to be circa £100k. The Leader of the Opposition did take the opportunity to commend all Officers of the Council and acknowledged the award winning service offered by operational services, and as such was of the view that further investment into that service would enable the Council and its officers to continue to deliver high quality core service functions.

 

With clarity having been sought by the Section 151 Officer, for the avoidance of doubt, the Opposition Group Leader confirmed his amendment related to the £112,000 set aside in Member-led growth for two officers and the desire that this be re-allocated to street cleansing budget,  to reflect the increase demand on the service brought about by increased flooding events in the District and heavier than normal rainfall. 

 

As such the Opposition Leader proposed the following amendment: -

 

“that £112,000 allocated in Member-led growth for two officers be moved to the street cleansing budget”

 

The amendment was duly seconded and debate of the amendment ensued.

 

The Deputy Leader of the Administration expressed her disappointment in the amendment. Services and opportunities in sports, arts, culture and leisure had reduced in recent years and under the former Administration, the new administration wished to reverse this trend.  Arts Sports Culture and Leisure were an important factor in making a place.  The wider benefits to mental health and wellbeing of a good offer in such facilities was also well documented and proven. These proposed Officers would assist the Council in being able to attract funding once again, make best use of the numerous village hall facilities that existed across the District, help communities grow their current activities and attract those national bodies in Sports Development.  

 

It was agreed the Council’s street cleansing and refuse service was amongst the most valued by residents and performed excellent. It was suggested this should not be viewed as an either or proposal.  The motion around increasing resources in the street cleansing would progress and if financially feasible would be considered for implementation, it was also suggested that other responsible agencies should fulfil their duties and current issues were due to a lack of investment by other bodies for numerous years. She urged the Chamber that improving and increasing the wider sports culture leisure offer should not be rejected in favour of an increased street cleansing budget.

 

Opposition Members believed the amendment ensured District Wide benefits, which would not be achieved by funding such Officers.   Suggesting the benefits would only be to those living in Gainsborough and the surrounding area. It was further suggested that cleaner streets and preventing homes from flooding would be a greater priority to residents.

 

There was political exchange regarding the reason for drains and sewerage systems failing and whose responsibility that was, as well as political exchange regarding the recent history of sports development in the District and what had led to its reduction. 

 

Reference was made to the Cultural Strategy work ongoing , the opportunities it would afford and how these Officers would enable that work to be delivered. It was suggested the amendment would undermine the aspirations and desires of that emerging Strategy which had been awaited. Administration Members spoke of their desire to re-invigorate previous events in the District and spoke of how other authorities had managed to maintain their arts sports, culture and leisure offer.

 

Differing views were expressed about the real impact such Officers would have, while counter arguments were made regarding the impact £100k street cleansing would have on flooding.

 

With further political exchanges, and counter challenges over statements previously made during the debate, in the absence of new points, the amendment was put to the vote.   This being a recorded vote in line with legislative requirements, votes were cast as set out below : -

 

For: - Councillors Barrett, Bierley, Bridgwood, Brockway, Brown, Fleetwood, Lawrence, Lee, Morris, Palmer, Patterson, Pilgrim, Rodgers, and Smith (14)

 

Against: - Councillors Bailey, Boles, Bunney, Carless, Clews, Darcel, Dobbie, Flear, Hague, Howitt-Cowan, Key, Mullally, Rollings, J Snee, M Snee, Swift, Velan, Westley and Young (19)

 

Abstain: - No Votes (0)

 

With a total of 14 votes for and 19 against the amendment wasdeclared LOST.

 

Further debate ensued in which Members from across all sides of the Chamber reflected on the significant financial challenges Local Government as a sector faced and were proud to be able to have a balanced budget whilst still seeking to improve and extend services. It was suggested by the Opposition their commercial investment strategy had been significant in generating income and reducing reliance on reducing government grant.

 

Officers were applauded for their assistance, advice and expertise.  Arising from two questions it was confirmed projected income from all sources for 2024/2025 was circa £43million.  Officers undertook to provide the total income for the current year outside of the meeting, given it was not to hand.  Officers also explained financial regulations, noting that revenue money could be spent to fund either revenue or capital items.  Capital monies – for example monies generated through sales of assets could not be used to fund revenue services (day to day costs).

 

Bringing the debate and comments to a close and having had the recommendations, as set out in the report, moved and seconded, they were put to the vote. In accordance with required legislation for voting on the Council’s budget, a recorded vote was taken.

 

Votes were cast as set out below:

 

For: - Councillors Bailey, Barrett, Bierley, Boles, Bridgwood, Brockway, Brown, Bunney, Carless, Clews, Darcel, Dobbie, Flear, Fleetwood, Hague, Howitt-Cowan, Key, Lawrence, Lee, Morris, Mullally, Palmer, Patterson, Pilgrim, Rodgers, Rollings, Smith, J Snee, M Snee, Swift, Velan, Westley and Young (33)

 

Against: - No Votes (0)

 

Abstain: - No Votes (0)

 

With no Councillors voting against the proposals, the recommendations were declared CARRIED unanimously and on that basis it was:-

 

RESOLVED that: -

 

(a)        Members recognise the external environment and the financial challenges which the Council could face in the medium to longer term depending on future government policy;

 

(b)        the Statement of the Director of Corporate Services (Section 151 officer) on the Robustness of Estimates and Adequacy of Reserves at paragraph 1.10 be accepted;

 

(c)        the Medium Term Financial Plan 2024/25 to 2028/29  be approved with an awareness of the risks associated with it, as detailed at Appendix 2;

 

(d)        the formal Council tax resolution as detailed in Appendix 8, be approved, this being a band D equivalent amount of £241.55;

 

(e)        the Revenue budget 2024/25 detailed at paragraph 1.4 be approved;

 

(f)         the movement in earmarked reserves detailed at paragraph 1.6 be approved;

 

(g)        the level of fees and charges for 2024/25 as detailed at Appendix 3 be approved;

 

(h)        the Capital Investment Strategy at Appendix 4 be approved;

 

(i)         the Capital Programme 2024/25 – 2028/29 and financing detailed at Appendices 5 and 6 be approved

 

(j)         the Treasury Management Strategy 2024/25 be approved and the Treasury Investment Strategy, the Borrowing Strategy and the Treasury and Borrowing Prudential Indicators detailed at Appendix 7 be adopted;

 

(k)        the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy as contained in the Treasury Management Strategy at Appendix 7 be approved; .

 

(l)         the 2024/25 Pay Policy Statement and Human Resources statement at Appendices 13 and 14 be approved;

 

(m)       the introduction of a new Markets fee and charge for operators who deliver between eight and twenty five stalls on a specialist market be approved at a charge of £10 per stall and the age range for Young Traders be changed to 16 – 30, to align with National Market Trader Federation guidelines;  and

 

(n)        Corporate Policy and Resources committee be delegated to approve any changes to existing Fees and Charge required during the year, after the budget has been set.