Transcript

Transcript

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Okay, it's 6. 30, so we will kick off this first executive of the new commission meeting and first I will ask the members of the council to join us for attending as well, we will start off with apologies for absence. Are there any apologies for absence? >> Yes, there's apologies from Councillor Rob Parkinson. >> Thank you very much. Declarations of interest, are there any declarations of interest that members wish to declare. No. Petitions and requests to address the meeting, there are no petitions, however the chair of the council has requested to speak on item 6, the application for the designation of a neighbourhood area for the parish of Hayford Park. I will invite parish Councillor Coggins to the front of the chamber at item 6 before the portfolio holder presents the report. Item 4 minutes of the previous meeting, no objections have been raised to these minutes, therefore do members agree to take as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on the 8th of April, 2024? Thank you, I will sign. Chairman's announcements, there are no announcements, just to reiterate again, welcome everybody to the first meeting of this municipal year of this new administration, I'm looking forward to achieving a great deal during this period, so thank you. So without further ado let's move on to item 6, the application for the designation of a neighbourhood area for the parish of Hayford Park, parish Councillor Coggins will you please come to the front to address the meeting. We'll now have up to five minutes and Tash will monitor that. Thank you. Good evening, and thank you for allowing me to speak. As introduced, I'm Tim Coggins, the chair of Hayford Park parish council. Our community is unique and rapidly evolving, distinct from others within the Midsharwell neighbourhood plan. We are advocating for a dedicated neighbourhood plan because the existing plan, the largest in the country is too extensive. True neighbourhood planning is meant to be focused and localised, reflecting the unique character and needs of individual communities like Hayford Park. We have established a neighbourhood plan working group that includes the main developer and has garnered good public interest and attendance. This collaboration underscores our community's commitment to a well considered and representative plan for Hayford Park, working with the surrounding parishes. Moving forward, I'm keen to address any questions that you may have. So thank you. Thank you very much for your address. I will now pass on to you, Councillor Conway as the portfolio holder for this item. Please will you present and propose this report. Thank you chair. The Midsharwell neighbourhood plan is indeed a large plan. It actually comprises of 12 parishes of which Hayford Park is just one. Hayford Park is actually the largest of the parishes and it actually has 2,398 residents and the whole plan has 8,000 residents so it really is the biggest in the country. And as Councillor Conway said, a neighbourhood plan should be a local plan. It's about the local community and the local space within the community. I would suggest that the neighbourhood at Hayford Park should have its own neighbourhood plan and I would propose that that was agreed. Thank you, Councillor Conway. Do I have a seconder for that? Councillor McLean, thank you very much. Are there any member comments or questions on this item? No. Okay, thank you. As I understand it, there's no reason not to approve this request. It's a valid application. The request has been made and we need very good reasons not to approve it regardless of what we think of it anyway. And the mid-chairwell neighbourhood plan cannot progress without the consent of Hayford Park Parish Council. That's the correct understanding, I think. Okay, thank you. If there are no further comments on this, we'll move to the vote. Could you please raise your hands? Those in favour? Thank you, that was unanimous. We'll move on to Item 7, the Performance, Risk and Finance Monitoring Report for the end of year 2023-2024. Councillor McLean, you are the portfolio holder for the finance aspects of this report and Councillor Brandt, you're the portfolio holder for the performance and risk aspects of this report. So, can I start with you please, Councillor McLean? Could you introduce the finance aspects and propose the recommendations? Thank you. Thank you, Chair. This report is historic and represents the prior financial year and covers the revenue and capital out-turns for the year ended 31 March 2024. The recommendations are to note out-turn for 2023-24, which is in a balanced position after a contribution to reserves of 4.461 million, to approve the use of reserves in Appendix 5, to note the reserves movement made under S151's delegated powers as part of the audit of prior years' statement of accounts at Appendix 5, to approve the re-profiled capital budget described in Appendix 1 and adjust 2425 capital programme accordingly. The Council's out-turn position for 2023-24 is balanced, this is subject to the agreement of a proposed transfer of reserves of 4.461 million. A high-level overview of the out-turn position can be summarised as services overall came in broadly in line with budget at 0.1 million overspend collectively. Underspend within policy contingency 3.133 million mainly due to grants announced that had not been relied upon and using 1 million less of the inflation and market risk contingencies that were then budgeted for. There is an underspend of 1.215 million on minimum reserve revenue provision due to the change in methodology that has been adopted as part of the revised MRP policy for 23-24 which was agreed by the Council in February 24 meeting. The Council has also received half a million pound dividend from Graven Hill, as a result of the profits the company has generated, the Council has not budgeted to receive this income. The net increase of business rates related to an income of 0.865 million. These are partially offset by the increasing provision for bad debts of 0.425 million. Setting aside of 0.828 million of interest for accounts that must be upgraded in line with interest rates. There was a budget for the year of 29.070 and there is an in-year underspend of 15.749 million of which 15.395 is recommended to be re-profiled for the future years. There are closing balances subject to the Executive's approval of 37 million reserves revenue and 6 million capital. Appendix 5 also details adjustments to reserves for historic years required as part of accounting adjustments totalling 8.7 million. That have been agreed by the S151 Officer and Delegation. As part of the Delegation, the S151 Officer is required to inform the Executive which this is doing. All the recommendations are noted on the table within the agenda and I propose this to the Executive. Thank you very much. Councillor Brandt, please could you present the performance and risk aspects and then second the report? Thank you, Chair. During a full year of changes and challenges, the Council's overall performance remained strong confirming a complement of being a high-performing Council working hard to embed the culture and continuous improvements providing excellent services and keeping our residents at the heart of everything we do. At the end of 2023-24, the Council achieved 26 of the 27 objectives from the Council's Business Plan. The Council's net additional housing completions goal ended the year behind the expected target, achieving 77.4% of the set objective for the year, provisionally reporting 884 completions. I put forward to please note that the final figure which is expected to be higher will be reported at the end of Quarter 1 after the site visits have been completed. Appendix 12 highlights the notable actions for the past year on top of the Council's regular work. Regarding risk monitoring, there are no score changes in the leadership risk register in the last month of 23-24. You can find that in Appendix 11. During Quarter 1 of 20-24-25, the Council is undergoing a review of risk policy and all the risks within the leadership risk register and the results of this review will be shared with the Committee as part of the Finance and Performance Risk Report in Quarter 1. Therefore, I put forward that the Executive note this report and I second Councillor McLean's recommendation. Thank you very much. Are there any members who wish to comment or ask questions on this report? I see none. So this is a summary of the performance risk and financial status for the financial year that has gone. Obviously that was under the previous administration. We are asked to note this and to approve certain financial matters in the recommendations laid out in the report. Could you please raise your hand clearly if you are in favour of those recommendations. That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Now we move on to Item 8, the Oxfordshire Council's Charter, which I will propose. The Oxfordshire Council's Charter is a piece of work that is being carried out by councils across the County intended to show a commitment to working with parishes and to enhance partnership working across our councils. It is a cross-council initiative, which has been through extensive consultation and is voluntary and refers to sensible, simple principles around joint working. As the consultation says, an endorsement here is additional assurance to, as the conclusion says rather, the endorsement is additional assurance to Chilwell Parishes that CDC remains committed to communicating and working collaboratively with them and as somebody who believes in fostering relationships between the district and parish councils, this sounds like a sensible and good idea to me, and I therefore am happy to propose the recommendations contained in the report. Do I have a seconder? Councillor Pruden, thank you very much. Are there any member comments or questions on this? Does anybody wish to say anything? No? Okay. So, if you are in favour of the recommendation set out in the report, could you please raise your hand now? That is again unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay, so now we move on to Item 9 on the agenda. This is the appointments to partnerships, outside bodies, member, champions and the shareholder committee for the year 2024 to 2025. An updated appendix to this report has been published setting out the proposed appointments. This report again comes under my portfolio, so I'll propose it. As is conventional, we are asked to make a number of appointments to the outside bodies, partnerships and so on, which constitute executive functions, i.e. these are appointments within the remit of the executive. We are further asked to delegate authority to the assistant director for law and governance in consultation with myself to address vacancies that may arise in year. And as a reminder, anyone appointed should update their register of interests. I'm therefore happy to propose that we agree the appointments are set out in Appendix 1 and the recommendations in the report. Can I have a seconder for this, please? Thank you, Councillor Pruden. Now to the vote. Please raise your hand clearly if you are for the recommendations to set out in the report. That's unanimous again. Again unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay. Item Number 10. It is a notification of an urgent item, which is the making of the Dedington Neighbourhood Plan. This report is submitted to notify us of an urgent officer decision that was taken. There is no decision for us to take, just to note the urgent action. Councillor Conway, as the portfolio holder for this item, do you have anything to add? No, thank you, Chair. This actually went through the full council on the 22nd of May this year. Thank you very much, Councillor Conway. Are members happy, therefore, to note the report? Thank you very much. Okay. Item 11, urgent business. There are no items of urgent business. Item 12, exclusion of the press and public. The following two items that come next, items 13 and 14, have been marked as exempt. I therefore propose that we move to exclude the press and public for these items. Please, can I have a seconder to do so? Councillor Patendon, thank you very much. Do members agree? Thank you. We will just wait a moment then for the webcast to stop. [BLANK_AUDIO]