Issue - meetings

Resolved:     (a)       That it be recommended to Full Council that the revised minimum balances requirement be £1,500,000 with the excess of £350,000 above the current levels being transferred to the Contingency Reserve (£80,000), the Insurance Fund (£120,000) and the Provision for Bad Debts (sundry debtors) (£150,000)

(b)       That the 2012/13 General Fund Revenue Budget and the Capital Programme 2012/13 as detailed in the report to Cabinet dated 18 January 2012 be recommended to Full Council for approval together with a recommendation that there be no increase in the Borough’s council tax for 2012/13.

(c)        That the contribution from the Budget Support Fund be £179,000.

A report was submitted to enable Cabinet to recommend the 2012/13 General Fund Revenue Budget and the 2012/13 Capital Programme to Full Council in February 2012 and to consider the comments from the Transformation and Resources Overview and scrutiny Committee.

The Chair of the Transformation and Overview Committee was in attendance to feedback comments from the Committee meetings on 18^th and 25^th January 2012. The Committee had discussed many areas including the £523k budget shortfall gap and the impact of the £60k subsidy from the Government, the upkeep costs of Jubilee 1 and Knutton Recreation Centre and the maximisation of income streams from car parking and Jubilee 2.

The Council tax level was debated and concerns had been raised regarding the knock on effect of a 0% increase this year on future Council Tax levels. There was however no recommendation that Council Tax should be increased. The Committee had also requested additional information for its meeting on 25^th January which included detail on the insurance fund, a breakdown of the 60 FTE jobs that had been removed from the Council’s structure and information of the remaining potential savings identified in the service reviews carried out in 2010.

The Chair of the Transformation and Resources Committee thanked Officers for the provision of all the requested information and congratulated them on a well written and comprehensive report.

The good work and valuable contribution of the Scrutiny Committee was also noted.

Resolved:     (a)       That it be recommended to Full Council that the revised minimum balances requirement be £1,500,000 with the excess of £350,000 above the current levels being transferred to the Contingency Reserve (£80,000), the Insurance Fund (£120,000) and the Provision for Bad Debts (sundry debtors) (£150,000)

(b)       That the 2012/13 General Fund Revenue Budget and the Capital Programme 2012/13 as detailed in the report to Cabinet dated 18 January 2012 be recommended to Full Council for approval together with a recommendation that there be no increase in the Borough’s council tax for 2012/13.

(c)        That the contribution from the Budget Support Fund be £179,000.