Agenda and minutes

The Director of Legal and Governance (and Monitoring Officer), on behalf of all Members and officers’ present at the meeting, declared a general Non-Registrable Interest in respect of items related to the setting of the Council Tax for 2022/2023.

The Leader of the Council, with the consent of the Chairman, took the opportunity to make a statement to Council regarding the current conflict between Russia and the Ukraine.  He spoke about the unfolding situation and how many Ukrainian people had already been made refugees with others suffering and losses to life increasing by the day.  A local Ashfield business, Taylors Transport, had already responded to the situation and were currently shipping collections of clothes and aid to the war torn areas of Ukraine.

He concluded by stating that the Council were standing side by side with the Ukrainians and would do whatever it could to offer support as needed.

(At this point in the proceedings and in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 30.1, Councillor Helen-Ann Smith moved suspension of Council Procedure Rule 16.4, in relation to the "Content and Length of Speeches", to enable the mover and seconder of agenda item 3(a) (Annual Budget and Council Tax 2022/23 and Medium Term Financial Strategy Update) to speak on the matter with no time limit imposed. Having been seconded by Councillor Daniel Williamson, the motion was duly carried.)

Council was requested to approve the recommendations from the Cabinet

meeting held on 22 February 2022 in relation to the Annual Budget and

Council Tax Setting for 2022/23 and an update for the Medium Term Financial

Strategy (MTFS).

(In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 30, it was moved by Councillor

Helen-Ann Smith and seconded by Councillor Tom Hollis that Procedure

Rules 10 (Duration of Meeting) and 23 (Conclusion of Proceedings) be

suspended, for the duration of the meeting, to enable all matters on the

agenda to be satisfactorily concluded. Having been put to the vote, the Council agreed with this course of action.)

RESOLVED that

a)    a £5 annual increase in the level of the District’s own Council Tax for 2022/23, setting the Band D equivalent at £195.46, be approved;

b)    the proposed 2022/23 Revenue (General Fund) and HRA Budgets as set out in the report (Sections 3 and 4), be approved;

c)    the proposed Capital Programme and associated borrowing 2021/22 to 2025/26 as set out in the report (Section 5), be approved;

d)    the 2021/22 Revised HRA and Capital Budgets as set out in the report (Sections 4 and 5), be approved;

e)    the estimated financial challenge in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2023/2024 and 2024/25 and the planned approach to address the challenge (Section 8 and Appendix 2), be noted;

f)      the proposed use of reserves as set out in the report (Table 5 (General Fund) and Table 9 (HRA)), be approved;

g)    the comments and advice of the Corporate Finance Manager (Section 151 Officer), provided in compliance with Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003, as to the robustness of the estimates included in the 2022/23 Budget and the adequacy of the reserves for which this budget provides (Section 9), be received and accepted;

h)    the proposed 2022/23 budgets reflecting the agreed changes to Fees and Charges approved by Cabinet on 25th January 2022, be noted;

i)      a potential call of up to £250k from the Corporate Transformation Reserve required to further progress the Digital Service Transformation (DST) programme at a quicker pace than had previously been planned (Section 3.7), be noted;

j)      the Local Government Association’s Finance Health Check report (Appendix 3), be noted;

k)    the proposed 2022/23 Capital Strategy (Appendix 4), be noted and approved;

l)      the proposed 2022/23 Treasury Management Strategy (Appendix 5), be noted and approved;

m)  the recently notified successful bid for funding of up to £1.203m from the BEIS Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and its addition to the Capital Programme (Paragraph 5.9), be approved.

RESOLVED

that the Council Tax levels for 2022/23 on the basis of a Band “D” tax level for the District Council’s own expenditure of £195.46 (£5 increase), be approved as follows:-

1.    That it be noted that on 8 December 2021 the Council calculated the Council Tax Base for 2022/23

a.    for the whole Council area:  34,052.7

b.    for dwellings in those parts of its area to which a Parish precept relates –

The Parish of Annesley and Felley:  547.6

The Parish of Selston:  3,713.0

2.    That the calculation of the Council Tax requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2021/22 (excluding Parish precepts) is £6,655,941.

3.    That the following amounts be calculated for the year 2022/23 in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Act:

5.    That the Council, in accordance with Sections 30 and 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, hereby sets the aggregate amounts shown in the tables below as the amounts of Council Tax for 2022/23 for each part of its area and for each of the categories of dwellings.

  2022/23 Council Tax amounts by band:

Council was requested to consider the recommendations from the Audit Committee meeting held on 31 January 2022.

RESOLVED

that the Public Sector Audit Appointments’ invitation to opt into the sector-led option for the appointment of external auditors for five financial years from 1 April 2023, be accepted.

Council was requested to approve and adopt the Pay Policy Statement for

2022/23.

RESOLVED

that the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for 2022/23, as presented, be received and approved.