Transcript

Good evening. Welcome. My name is Councillor Ben Chappelline. I'm the leader of the Tumash-Washborough Council and I will be chairing this meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday 20th June 2024. So welcome to everybody. Before we start, please can you give your attention to the following safety and broadcasting announcements. Thank you, Chair. In the event of the fire alarm ringing continuously, you must immediately evacuate the building at walking pace. Officers will escort you via the most direct available route. This is a public meeting and proceedings are being webcast live online. A recording will also be available for playback on the Council's website shortly afterwards. You should all be aware that any third party is able to record or film Council meetings unless exempt or confidential information is being considered. The Council will not accept liability for any third party recordings. It is very important that the outcomes of the meeting are clear. At the end of each agenda item, the chair will ask whether the matter is agreed. In the absence of a clear majority or if the chair decides a full vote is desirable, a vote will be taken by a show of hands. Members should raise their hand to indicate their vote when called and keep their hand up until the count has been announced. Members requesting a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Caroline. So the first item is welcome to everybody to the first cabinet meeting of the municipal year for 2024/2025. And as I said earlier, I'm the leader of the Council, and I'm going to ask each member of cabinet to introduce yourselves as we go around the table. Good evening, everyone. I'm Justine Rutland. I'm cabinet member for economic development, which covers culture, tourism, business engagement, as well as economic development. And I'm also deputy leader of the Council. Good evening, Councillor Astra Birch, Housing and Communities, which includes social housing, homelessness prevention and rural communities. Good evening. My name is Mark Ellis. I'm transformation innovation. I'm focused very much more on internal structure of the Council, looking to improve things overall. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Councillor Chris Hall, and I'm responsible for finance and property, and I'll be working on developing the budget for this coming year. Good evening. I am Matt Lowe, and I'm in charge of planning. Good evening, everybody. I'm Pamela Wilkinson. I retain my portfolio for sports, leisure and health and have additional responsibilities for the cemetery and crematorium. Thank you all. In addition to the cabinet members present, we have the following members of staff. We've got William Benson, Lee Collier, Jane Fineman, Pamela Grover Morgan, Carlos Hone, Ellen Gilbert, David Scully and Caroline Britt. For the benefit of any members of the public who may be watching, I would like to explain a few things. Each report on the agenda today has previously been considered by the relevant Cabinet Advisory Board, and the views expressed by that Cabinet Advisory Board have been taken into consideration. Members of the Cabinet have had their agendas for over a week, and we've had the opportunity to study the papers and ask any factual questions of the staff ahead of the meeting. When each agenda item is being considered, the Cabinet responsible for the item will provide an overview of the report. Members of staff who have written the report will be available to answer questions. We will then move into Cabinet discussion and I will first ask for questions before opening the floor for debate. At the end of the debate, I will ask Cabinet members to confirm they have fully understood the matter and are content that any proposals and/or actions have been fully captured when we will then proceed to the recommendations and vote. Thank you. Agenda Item 1. Sorry, Leaders' Introduction and Announcement, we've covered. Item number 2 is Apologies for Absence, and we have got apologies for Councillor Rob Wilmington, who is on paternity leave. Item number 3, which is Declarations of Interest. Do any members of Cabinet have any declarations of interest they wish to make? No? I see none. So we'll move on to item number 4, which is Notification of Visiting Persons Registered to Speak, and we have none. Which means we'll move on to item 5, which is Minutes of a Meeting Dated the 21st of March. These are just for a record of the accuracy. Does anybody have any items or amendments they wish to make to those minutes? I'm looking at Pamela, Mark, Christine from the previous Cabinet meeting. No, we have not. So are we agreed on those minutes? Thank you very much. I'm happy to sign those. Moving on to item 6, questions from members of the Council, and we've had none. Which means we'll then move on straight to item 7, which is questions from members of the public, and we've also had none. And then we move on to item number 8, which is the Consideration of the Forward Plan as at the 1st of June 2024. Does anybody have any comments on the Forward Plan at all? Okay, good. So are we agreed? Okay. So we'll now move into something a bit more substantial. So for the purposes of the agenda, I'm proposing to move the items around a bit. So we're going to start with item number 14. So I'm going to ask Councillor Matt Lowe, Cabinet Member for Planning, if you can introduce item 14, which is a Capel Neighbourhood Development Plan, the Pre-Referendum Version. Over to you, Matt. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. The Capel Neighbourhood Plan is an extensive, highly detailed document that has been in development for several years. It has been consulted upon locally in the community and commented upon by residents and elected representatives and by officers at the Council here. It has now been looked at by an independent examiner who's made a number of comments and recommendations about the plan, which were laid out in your documents. The examiner has recommended the plan go to referendum, subject to modifications being made. These modifications have been accepted and agreed by Capel Parish Council. Following this process, the documents were reviewed by the CAB and recommendations were accepted. So it's for us now as Cabinet to note, we are asked to note and publish the examiner's recommendations, approve the modifications of the neighbourhood plan as they're set out, approve that the neighbourhood plan go to referendum, and if that referendum is positive, to make the plan official at the next full Council. Carlos or Ellen, I'm not sure which of you is taking the reins now. That's me. Thank you very much, Councillor Lowe. So thank you, Chairman and good evening members. So as Councillor Lowe has already indicated, this report relates to the progress made on the Capel neighbourhood development plan, which was presented to the Communities Housing and Environment Cabinet Advisory Board on the 4th of June, where all four recommendations set out in the report were agreed. So the report sets out the progress made on the Capel neighbourhood development plan, which began production in 2020. The report sets out section two, the details of the previous stages of the development of the plan, which has included two rounds of public consultation at draft stage and submission stage. So the neighbourhood plan has recently been to examination and examined by an independent examiner. The independent examiner's report is attached at Appendix A of the papers. The purpose of the examination is to examine the plan to establish whether it meets what are known as basic conditions, which are set out at paragraph 2.9 of the report. And if basic conditions aren't met, to recommend modifications to the plan to ensure that the basic conditions are met and then subsequently to advise on whether or not the neighbourhood plan should proceed to referendum. And once successful at referendum, neighbourhood plans become part of the statutory development plan for the borough, against which planning decisions are made. The independent examiner has put forward modifications, which are set out at Appendix B of the report. And those modifications have been agreed by the parish council, who have worked the modifications into Appendix C, which is the referendum version of the neighbour plan. So that's the version that people will vote on at the referendum, which is scheduled for the 5th of September. And then at Appendix D is the formal decision statement, which the council are required to publicise. If the recommendation is accepted today, this will be an important step forward in the next stage of the neighbour plan process, for which a considerable amount of hard work has been undertaken by the local community to get to this point. Thank you. Thank you, Ellen. Does anybody have any questions for Ellen on this item? No. The item is open for debate. So in that case, let's proceed to the recommendations. There are four recommendations. Recommendation one is that the independent examiner's report on the Capel neighbourhood development plan, CNDP at Appendix A, be noted and be published. Recommendation two, that the submission CNDP be modified in part as set out in Appendix B. Recommendation three, the cabinet decides to progress the CNDP as set out in Appendix C to referendum and agrees a publication of the decision statement and Appendix D. And recommendation four reads that the cabinet recommends that if the referendum result on the CNDP is positive, the council formally makes a CNDP as set out in Appendix C, which will be subsequently considered at the next full council meeting post referendum. Are we agreed? Thank you very much. We'll move on to item number 15, which is the High-wheeled AONB management plan for 2024 to 2029. And I'm going to ask Councillor Matt Lowe, cabinet member, for planning to introduce the item, please. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. So the High-wheeled National Landscapes updates for your consideration are, firstly, it's an update to the AONB management plan for the period 2024 to 2029. This is the fifth edition of the management plan and has been worked on for a year by officers from this council and 14 other councils plus expert stakeholders. It lays out how the High-wheeled AONB will be managed in the five-year period. It has been out to full public consultation and has been approved by the Joint Advisory Committee. A number of the other 14 councils have already approved it. The second thing for your consideration is a service level agreement between the council and East Sussex for the same period. In order to manage the relationship, to ensure that work is carried out properly and that there is means for dispute resolution between the parties, this SLA has been revised. The revisions meet the suggestion that this council made that a new SLA would be appropriate for an increase in financial contribution, which brings me on to the third thing, which is a proposal for a revised financial contribution to cover this plan period. Up until now funding has remained static since 2014 and so has fallen in real terms. The Joint Advisory Committee has requested an increase in our contribution to £8,901 for the year 2023/4 and that subsequent years our contribution should increase automatically with inflation, subject to annual budget settlements. Then there is the proposal to adopt the Dark Skies Planning Advice Note. This note provides technical details on lighting and light sources to help minimise the adverse effects of lighting. It will act like a supplementary planning document and help officers and others on planning decisions. So I won't read out the recommendations again because you're going to be doing that chair shortly. One thing, the Cabinet Advisory Board added a recommendation at the meeting whenever it was a couple of weeks ago and their recommendation was that there should be a proposal that training on the plan and on the Dark Skies advice be provided to all members of the council. So that was captured in the document that you have. There were additionally some other discussions about the Dark Skies guidance at the Cabinet Advisory Board meeting and there were some recommendations made by Cabinet Advisory Board members which are outside the scope of this report. So they weren't recorded in it but I was asked to bring them to Cabinet. These recommendations are, and this is not official language, it's a phrasing, that officers investigate what can be done to minimise light pollution in line with the Dark Skies advice on existing council lighting facilities, such as board facilities, and ensure that future updates to council facilities are made in accordance with the guidance. And the second thing was that Dark Skies guidance be carried across into the sustainability area to ensure that it doesn't get pigeon-holed in as a purely planning-based issue. I know we're here to discuss the AO and OB proposal rather than those extra things, but we need to take note of them and spread them to whoever takes them. I'll hand over to David to give some more information. Thank you. Thank you very much for that comprehensive introduction. I'm conscious that there might be an issue over name change, particularly as we have some new members. So I just remind members first through that paragraph 1.3 in the report to note that on 22nd November 2023, all designated areas of outstanding natural beauty in England and Wales were rebranded by the government as national landscapes. So thus the High World A&AB is now referred to as the High World National Landscape. And the High World A&AB Unit, which is the group that represent the 15 local authorities that work together on the High World, are now referred to as High World National Landscape Partnership, of which we're a member, and the organisation that members go to on that is called the Joint Advisory Committee. However, the legal title in planning and the policy status remains confusingly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. So that's why it is a High World Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan. So if there is any confusion around that, it's not always easy to unpick. And thank you to the Council for explaining what the recommendations cover. It's quite simply Recommendations 1 and 2 about the process of adopting the High World A&AB Management Plan that's taken some time to be brought forward with consultation with the Council and the other 15 authorities. And it formally goes off to the Secretary of State. It's a statutory requirement to have an A&AB Management Plan for this Council. The second part, which is the Recommendations 3 and 4, are about the service level agreement and funding. And again, we've worked on that to make sure that we understand the responsibilities of the parties and how we interact and how funding will be delivered. The fifth recommendation is the Dark Skies Guidance Document, which is just being finalised, and that supports our existing policies and emerging policies for outdoor lighting in the local plan. In terms of going forward, the members recommended there was training on this, you know, to make sure that we fully understand our responsibilities about the management of the High World Area. It doesn't just apply to planning, it applies to other parts of the Council, so the training will go out to all members. And there's also a change in the statutory duty, which that will be brought to members' attention as well through that training. And we will cover raising issues around dark skies within that training so members can pick up on that and apply that to other areas of their work and decision making. So it's been through a long period of gestation, and it's important in terms of our duties that we're seen to be proactive and taking forward these plans as part of our statutory duty, so it is recommended to you for adoption, and the recommendations are quite clear about how that needs to be done. But I'm obviously happy to answer any questions you may have, bearing in mind some of you may not have been involved in this work previously. Thank you, David. Thank you, Matt, for a comprehensive introduction. Does anybody have any questions on it? No. Does anybody wish to say anything? Apart to say there was lots of nice pictures about lighting that I'd never thought about until I saw those, which was very interesting. Kind of hit the geek spot, so thank you. Okay, in that case, let's move to the recommendations, which are set out in your agenda papers at page 380 of the agenda, and I'm not proposing to read out the whole text. So on recommendations 1 to 6, are we agreed? Agreed. Thank you very much. That saves me reading them out. Okay, thank you. Carlos, Ellen, thank you. I know you've had a long day with a local plan, so I hope you get to enjoy your evening when you get home safely. Thank you. Okay, so next on the item, we're going to do a performance summary quarter for quarter 4, and I'm going to ask Mark Ellis to introduce the item. Mark is responsible for innovation and transformation, which is a new portfolio in cabinet. So, Mark, it's over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. So this document presents performance of the Council's projects and services in the fourth quarter of the financial year 23/24, covering the period from January to March 2024. The aim is to provide a comprehensive and transparent overview of how the Council is delivering priorities and objectives, and how it manages the risks and challenges that may affect the performance. The document is based on performance and management framework that the Council established to ensure the Council gives residents stakeholders and political leaders as a result of their achieve. So passing over to, I think, Pamela, Grover and Morgan to continue the discussion here. Thank you. As Mark said, this report summarises progress on the Council's ongoing projects and 2020 KPIs, 15 of which have targets in Q4 of 2023 to 2024. Of those 15 targets, 11 were performing, two were underperforming, and two were unavailable. The underperforming indicators were the number of sick days lost to illness and the percentage of parking transactions paid by Ringo. The detail on the projects is set out in Appendix A to the report. Detail in the indicators is set out in Appendix B to the report. And the remedial plans for underperforming indicators are at Appendices C and D. Happy to take any questions. Do we have any questions? Does anybody wish to comment? I'll just say the call centre figures were discussed at the Cabinet Advisory Board. I think Paul Taylor gave a pretty comprehensive answer on that one. Mark? He did and certainly I visited the call centre last week as well and I must admit I'm refreshed of how much they've actually come on in the last six to 12 months as well. So congratulations to everyone there as well for that. Thank you. So if nobody else wishes to say anything, we'll move on to the recommendations. There are three. Recommendation 1 reads that the Cabinet notes a summary of project performance over Q4 for 2023 to 2024 at Appendix A. Recommendation 2 that the Cabinet notes a summary of service performance over Q4, 2023 to 2024 at Appendix B. And Recommendation 3 that the Cabinet notes the recovery plans for Q4 for 23/24 at Appendices C to D inclusive. Are we agreed? Thank you very much. So we'll move on to item number 17 which are complaints for summary quarters 3 and 4. And I'm going to ask Mark to introduce this item as well, please. Thank you, Mark. And thank you again, Chair. So this report provides an overview of complaints closed by Tom Riddleborough Council under the Council complaint procedure during the quarters 3 and 4. The report examines the closed complaints received and looks at learning feedback and trends being gained from the information presented. So again, passing over to Pamela for this one. Thank you. In terms of statistics, we had 91 complaints closed in the second half of 2023/24, 77 were at Stage 1, 14 were at Stage 2, 61% of Stage 1 complaints were disagreed with, and 64% of Stage 2 complaints were disagreed with. The Council met its target in respect of answering 70% of Stage 1 complaints within a 15-day time period, and 79% of Stage 2 complaints within a 20-day time period targets 80%. Top three services attracting complaints were waste and street scene, reps and benefits, and planning. And the Council made one compensation payment in period two of 200 pounds for time and trouble. Happy to take any questions. Thank you, Pamela. Any questions on that one? Anybody wish to say anything? No. Okay, so we'll move to the recommendation, which is very, very brief. Recommendation one is that Cabinet note summary of complaints over period two, which is from the 1st of October 2023 to the 31st of March 2024. Are we agreed? Thank you very much. So we'll now -- thank you, Pamela. Thank you. We'll move on to item number 10, which is the Strategic Risk Register, and I'm going to ask Chris Hall, Cabinet Member for Finance and Property, to introduce the first item. Thanks. Thank you very much, Chair. The report is for Cabinet to note and support. Once a year, the Strategic Risk Register comes to us to approve. The report outlines the key risks to the Council, as well as the mitigation plans as to how the Council would manage those risks were they to occur. So with your approval, the report will proceed to the Audit and Governance Committee. Thank you. Justine. Thank you. I just wanted to make -- ask if I could make a small change to Scenario 4, which under current controls, deliver UK shared prosperity -- oh, sorry, wrong one -- deliver new economic development strategy. Can we just reword that for clarity, which would be -- it's on page 59, deliver approved economic development strategy 2023 to 2026, because I think it may be read as we are still trying to get the economic development strategy through the decision-making process. Is that clear? I'm happy to write an email about that. I did talk to David about it earlier today. Yes, certainly we can make that change. Thank you. And we'll need to just double-check the names of the members as well who own the risks. Yeah, clearly this was written in that interacting period. This will be updated for when it comes before Audit and Governance Committee. Lovely. Thank you. Thank you, Lee. That's helpful to know. Does anybody wish to comment on the item? No? In that case, we'll move to the recommendations. Recommendation 1, the Cabinet considers and notes the strategic risk register and the arrangements for managing risk. Are we agreed? Thank you very much. Item number 11, which is the Cabinet management report for Quarter Number 4. I'm going to ask Chris Hall to introduce that item as well, please, Chris. Thank you very much, Chair. So this evening we'll be rounding off the financial year 2023 to 2024 with the quarterly reports which feature in your agenda packs. Before the officers introduce each item and take any questions, I'd just like to say a few words about the conclusion of this financial year. These quarterly reports round off the budget that was originally set in March 2023, which originally forecast a deficit of over £900,000 to be drawn from reserves. You'll have seen from the reports that we have overachieved on expectations from our income streams and investments, together with a significant underspend on operating costs. As a result, the financial year generated a substantial surplus rather than a deficit. Since then, the budget set by my predecessor, Councillor Ellis, in February is already balanced, heading into this financial year of 2024/2025. We're now in a much more stable place than we were two years ago. Our auditors agree with that. The necessary steps have been taken to put the Council's finances on a firm and stable footing. Such was the strength of our financial performance at the end of Q4. We have been able to take further steps to shore up our strategy of acquiring Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre by paying down the internal borrowing from working capital in its entirety and also fully funding the Council's capital programme. I'm recommending that we adopt the proposed updates to the Council's capital programme as detailed in the capital management report. I'd like to thank Lee and Jane's finance team for all the work that goes into getting the annual accounts completed ahead of the deadline at the end of the financial year. All the reports were noted by the Cabinet Advisory Board and were approved unanimously. Thank you, Chris. Over to you, Jane. Thank you. Well, I'll start with the capital management report. Where Cabinet originally approved capital expenditure of $12.6 million for 23/24, but the actual for the year increased to $15.9 million by Q4. The largest schemes were the purchase of the Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre, as already indicated by Councillor Hall, the Local Authority Housing Fund Round 1 and Disabled Facilities Grants. Capital projects added to the programme or increased, including those rescheduled from 22/23 to 23/24. New schemes included the Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre and the Local Authority Housing Fund Round 1 and variations to the schemes within the year included the Weald Leisure Centre decarbonisation scheme. Projects deferred to next year include a number that are yet to commence or that was started in 23/24, but will continue into next year. These include the Local Authority Housing Fund still, Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre and the acquisition of sports sites strategy. The report includes a new request for £21,000 for boosters to the Mobile Signal in Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre, which should improve the take-up of Ringo. You heard about Ringo a little earlier, we're not quite meeting our performance targets, so this should help us with take-up and will also reduce the use of the pay machines and thereby the cost of processing card payments. And finally, in Quarter 4, we received a small payment for the disposal of a piece of land on Erich Road, that was £26,000. Thank you. Thank you, Jane. Does anybody have any questions for Jane? Does anybody wish to comment? No? In any case, we'll move to the recommendations. Recommendation 1 of 4 is that capital projects is that Cabinet note the unaudited actual gross and net expenditure for the year and sources of finance as shown in Appendices B to D. 2, that Cabinet approve the proposed variations to the capital programme set out in Notes 4.3 to 4.16. Recommendation 3, that Cabinet approves the inclusion of new scheme into the capital programme as set out in Note 4.17. And Recommendation 4, that Cabinet approves the proposed movement between years set out in Note 4.17. Are we agreed? Sorry, 4.18. Okay, so we'll move on to item number 12, which is the revenue management report for Quarter 4, and I'm going to go straight over to Jane because Chris has already done the introduction. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, as Councillor Hall says, we finished the year, we finished the accounts, but the auditors don't come until July, so all of the figures that I'm going to give you now are unaudited at this time. So we finished the year with actual expenditure of 12.9 million, that's 3.7 million under budget. Income was above budget by 4.7 million. 2.3 was due to an increase in on-street parking income, mainly the result of the implementation of the Public Realm 2 enforcement. Off-street parking income was half a million above budget as people are returning to in-person working and buying parking season tickets. Rental income was 1.2 million above budget following the Council's purchase of the long leasehold of the Royal Victoria Place shopping centre. Rental receipts from the retail tenants are now received by the Council rather than the ground rent for the centre. The Assembly Hall theatre income was 705,000 above budget and costs have been controlled, bringing the total subsidy cost for the theatre down to just £167,000. Staff vacancies have continued however and by year-end costs were 1.2 million under budget. That's very similar to the position at the end of last year. Costs were 2.1 million above budget. Large contributors were the service charges and business rates for Royal Victoria Place. The Council, now as landlord, is required to pay the service charges and the business rates for any properties that are vacant within the centre. So £659,000 was paid for service charges and £250,000 for the business rates. Overall though, the Council received a £706,000 surplus from our VP in the year, £176,000 less than the budgeted ground rent of £882,000. Now the Council's working really hard with its advisors to fill those vacant units so the position should improve during this financial year. Costs were also half a million higher for building maintenance and repairs, which was a combination of additional works needing to be done and prices rising. In a minute I'll explain to you what happened with Treasury management but in summary the actual interest was 1.9 million above budget and that was due to improved interest rates and more cash being available to invest and this has all been transferred to reserves to fund the capital programme. Business rates from the collection fund were greater than budgeted by 1.6 million and this is an exercise that we do only at year end so until we get to the year end it's often very, very difficult to know what level of surplus we're going to have. The surplus comprises this year a combination of business rates growth since the inception of the business rates retention scheme back in 2013/14 and importantly this year the release of the provision on appeals, which is a one-off gain. This surplus was also transferred to reserves for the capital programme. Overall as you can see in Appendix D the Council had 28.8 million pounds of usable reserves as at the first of April 23, so the beginning of the financial year, and by the end of the year the reserves have fallen to 26.8 million. However, as Councillor Hall explained, the capital program was only one million. The capital programme for the year has been fully funded including the purchase of the Royal Victoria Place and that's without any further internal borrowing. This also includes a 1.3 million pounds that was paid this year from the Grant Volatility Reserve to fund the Council's share of the deficit held on the collection fund and also importantly we're now forecasting that we can fully fund the capital programme just in 27/28, which is a significant achievement. There were a couple of questions at the FIT advisory board around the allocation of reserves to fund capital expenditure rather than using internal borrowing. The transfers to or from reserves are the very last set of entries that we put through the Ledgers at year-end. All capital expenditure should be funded in accordance with the accounting and prudential codes and our own internally approved policies. The funding of our VP from reserves ensured our compliance. It should be noted that the cash balances available for investment are completely unaffected by whether capital is funded from reserves or internal borrowing. Internal borrowing is the use of our existing cash balances to fund capital expenditure and therefore are very different from external borrowing such as through the Public Works Loan Board. So by funding through reserves rather than internal borrowing, the Council saves a repayment charge to the revenue budget in future years, which is really positive as it will not have to account for paying back that internal borrowing into the future. So the only final thing that I'd like to draw your attention to is that as again, Councillor Hall said, we've published our draft annual financial reports online. This we managed by the statutory deadline of 31st May and I'd really like to encourage you to go and have a look. Thank you. Thank you, Jane. Does anybody have the audacity to ask any questions after that detailed explanation? Justine, go on, be a rebel. I don't have a question, actually. I just want to say what a fantastic and really positive report, set of reports we have this evening. And since culture is in my portfolio, I just wanted to give a shout out to the Assembly Hall Theatre Management team who are really doing a really excellent job, not only in creating a very exciting programme and selling more tickets and putting on more shows, but keeping on top of their costs as well and giving us a really fantastic asset. So thanks to them. Thank you, Jane and Lee. Thank you. Does anybody else wish to say anything else on that one? No? In that case, let's move to the recommendations for item 12. Recommendation 1, the cabinet note, the unaudited actual revenue expenditure out turn and impact on reserves for the year ended 31st March 2024. Are we agreed? Thank you. We'll move on to item number 13, which is a Treasury and Prudential Indicator Management Report for quarter four. Straight back to you, Jane. Thank you. Thank you. So the unaudited actual income for interest from investments and bank accounts is £3.342 million, which is an increase of £1.922 million from the approved budget. The bank interest rate set by the Bank of England is still 5.25%, and the Council has achieved an actual interest rate of 5%. This is compared to the original budget of 3.07%, showing that we've actively taken full advantage of the interest rates on offer in the market. The average funds available for investment were budgeted to be £46.2 million, but by the end of the year, we actually had £66.8 million available, and this is partially due to additional cash being available from interest and revenue budget surpluses. And finally, just to confirm that none of the Prudential Indicators were breached in quarter four. Thank you. Thank you, Jane. Any comments? No? Nobody want to ask anything? Nobody? Okay, great. So we'll move on to the recommendations, and there are two of them. Recommendation one reads that cabinet note the Treasury management and Prudential Indicator position for 2023 to 2024. Recommendation two, that cabinet note the unaudited actual for investment and bank interest is 3,342,000, an increase of 1,922,000 from the approved budget of 1,420,000 and a further 47,000 from the quarter three position. Are we agreeing? I agree. Thank you very much, Jane. So we'll move on to item nine, which is the appointments to outside bodies, which is my paper. So the council is asked every year to appoint councillors to outside organisations as representatives of the council on those bodies, and you have got the list of councillors that we've asked to serve on those bodies. Since the agenda has been published, Councillor Diane Hill from Southland High Brooms has been confirmed as a borough's appointment to relate West and Mid Kent. I'm happy to take any questions if anybody's got any. No? Does anybody wish to debate the matter? No? Okay. So there are four recommendations, and recommendation one, two, three, four and five. Okay. I'm not proposing to read those out. So are we agreed? Agreed. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the next item, which is urgent business, and I can confirm that we've had no urgent business. So we'll move on straight on to item 19, which is the date of the next meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, the 25th of July in the refurbished council chamber that we're sitting in at the moment, and that will be at the earlier time now of 6pm. It's 18.45, and this meeting is closed. Thank you very much. Good evening.