Report of Cabinet 18 January 2016

Please note that this report has been printed separately for Budget Panel on 13 January, Cabinet on 18 January and Council on 27 January.  Members are reminded to bring their copy to this meeting.

Council received a report of Cabinet, including the original report presented to Cabinet at its meeting on 18 January 2016 and an additional report from the Shared Director of Finance setting out the Council Tax Resolution for 2015/2016.

The Mayor moved the Budget report, incorporating the following amendment agreed at Cabinet, which was seconded by Councillor Watkin.

“In light of the Budget Panels recommendations and a further review by officers of the Equality Impact Assessment and benchmarking exercise agrees that the increase in charges for 2016/17 for burials is reduced by 50%. That officers review the impact of this increase on demand and undertake further benchmarking during that financial year with a view to securing:

·                                                                    cost recovery in the face of budget pressures and reduction in government grant

·                                                                    income to facilitate additional resourcing requirements of the Cemetery Strategy

·                                                                    alignment of the council’s costs with those of similar authorities

·                                                                    management of the demand for diminishing cemetery space.

It is agreed that the fees to non-residents remain at 3 times the charges made to residents as this is a key policy to manage the demand on the depleting stock of available grave space.”

Councillor Bell moved the following amendment which was seconded by Councillor Khan –

“We propose our amended version of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) following appropriate scrutiny.  This will include a freeze to Council Tax, no change to residents burial costs and a five times rise for non-resident burial costs, a free collection of 3-bulky items and extra savings through a 10% cut in councillor’s special responsibility allowance and the Mayoral allowance and by cutting the costs of the council’s printing by a third (£41,000.)

In order to protect the most vulnerable people in our town, we propose £1million to be kept in reserves for Homelessness prevention and to go for further growth by allocating up to £1.5 million to the capital programme for St Albans Road, promoting jobs, growth and regeneration for the local economy”

Members debated the original motion and the amendment. 

The amendment was then put to the vote

                   In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 the votes were recorded as follows –

                   Those Members voting in favour of the amendment:

                   Councillors Bashir, Bell, Connal, Dhindsa, Ewudo, Haley, Joynes, Khan, Mauthoor, Mills, Shah, Turmaine and S Williams

                   Those Members voting against the amendment:

                   Mayor Thornhill, The Chairman Councillor Hastrick, Councillors Bolton, I Brown, J Brown, Collett, Counter, Crout, Derbyshire, Hofman, Johnson, Martins, Rindl, Scudder, Sharpe, Taylor, Walford, Watkin and T Williams

                   Those Members abstaining from voting

                   Councillors Mehta, Rogers, Silver, Topping and Whitman

                   The amendment was LOST by 13 votes to 19 and 5 abstentions

                   The original motion was then put to Council.

Those Members voting in favour of the original motion:

                   Mayor Thornhill, The Chairman Councillor Hastrick, Councillors Bolton, I Brown, J Brown, Collett, Counter, Crout, Derbyshire, Hofman,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56

Report of the Shared Director of Finance

Please note that this report has been printed separately for Budget Panel on 13 January, Cabinet on 18 January and Council on 27 January.  Members are reminded to take their copies to these meetings.

A report was received from the Shared Director of Finance on service level expenditure, funding and council tax levels for the medium term 2016/17 to 2018/19 including consideration of the use of reserves and balances.

The report had also been considered at the Budget Panel meeting on 13 January and the minutes were circulated at the meeting.

The Mayor thanked the Budget Panel and stated that it was important that all members of Budget Panel understood the position of the council and were reassured that the council’s accounts had been done properly.  Discussion about how the budget had been divided could be reserved for the full Council meeting.

There had been one item from Budget Panel which was brought to Cabinet’s attention.

The Head of Corporate and Client Services described that issues had arisen at Budget Panel around the work on Equality Impact Assessments as a result of some communities requiring burial that they might be disproportionately affected by an increase in burial fees.  The benchmarking which had been carried out on the fees was not only with Hertfordshire authorities but also London Boroughs, such as Brent and Harrow who had a cemetery close by in Carpenders Park.  The original figures which went to Budget Panel were closer to those of London.  It was now proposed to reduce the increase to 50% and monitor the impact of this on demand, income and on different communities.  The Council would also look at what other local authorities had done this year with their charges and what investment was required to implement the cemetery strategy which would be coming to Cabinet in February.  It was still proposed that non-residents would pay three-times the fees due to the need to manage demand as land availability was restricted and currently estimated at seven to nine years.

An additional recommendation to amend the increase was circulated at the meeting:

“In light of the Budget Panel’s recommendations and a further review by officers of the Equality Impact Assessment and benchmarking exercise it is recommended to Cabinet that the increase in charges for 2016/17 for burials is reduced by 50%.  That officers review the impact of this increase on demand and undertake further benchmarking during that financial year with a view to securing:

• cost recovery in the face of budget pressures and reduction in government grant
• income to facilitate additional resourcing requirements of the Cemetery Strategy
• aligning the council’s costs with those of similar authorities
• to manage the demand for diminishing cemetery space.

It is recommended that the fees to non-residents remain at 3 times the charges made to residents as this is a key policy to manage the demand on the depleting stock of available grave space.”

The Mayor stated that apart from burying people who had no means, burials were a service that the council could chose to provide.  Each service needed to cover its costs and burial charges were considerably less than at other authorities.  However, the points made by Budget Panel were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43