Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Bloch, for lateness from Councillor Reid, and for lateness and possible non-attendance from Councillor Christophides.

NOTED

Nil Items.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 4-6 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

There were no declarations of interests.

NOTED

Members to whom this applies must make a declaration if they are present at any part of the meeting and must not vote on any matter relating to the budget.  It is not sufficient for such members to refrain from voting or to absent themselves from the chamber for particular parts of the meeting. Failure to make a relevant declaration constitutes a criminal offence.

Members were reminded by the Chief Executive of the need to consider whether they needed to make a declaration in accordance with Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 in relation to unpaid community charge or council tax liability which was two months or more outstanding.

No such declarations were made.

NOTED

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 19 November 2012, and 17 January 2013 be signed as a true record.

There were no items to report.

There were no matters to consider.

There were no matters to consider.

There were no deputations or petitions.

a)    Corporate Committee – Report No.3 - 2012/13

RESOLVED

That the Corporate Committee – Report Nos. 03 /2012 -13 be received in respect of Treasury Management Statement for 2013/14, and that the recommendation concerning the Treasury Management Statement for 2013/14 be approved subject to an amendment detailed at page 24 on the Council summons - second line of the recommendation of Corporate Committee to read  ‘Appendix 4’ and not  ‘Appendix 5’.

(N.B. Cabinet concur with this recommendation. The version at appendix 6 of the Medium Term Financial Planning report (item 11 on the agenda refers) incorporates the updated version.

To consider the report of the Director of Corporate Resources in respect of Medium Term Financial Planning for 2013/14 - 2015/16 and to agree the Council Tax for 2013/14

Councillor Goldberg moved the budget report – Medium Term Financial Planning 2013/14 to 2015/16, and moved the recommendations contained therein. Councillor Kober seconded the MOTION.

Councillor Strang MOVED 5 budget amendments as set out below. Councillor  Wilson seconded the amendments to the MOTION.

Amendment 1 – General Fund Revenue Account

Protecting the most vulnerable and listening to residents

                                                                                                                                                   13/14

- ve is a saving)

Introduce a hardship fund, open to all residents facing

 financial stress, especially those no longer on full council

tax benefit.                                                                                       £248k

Reverse proposal to increase the number of events in

 Finsbury Park. The scale of proposed increase in use

of the park will disproportionately harm local communities.            £40k

Funded by:               

Capping communications budget at £1m per annum

(rather than £1.288m).                                                                  -£288k

Surplus/deficit                                                                              £0

Amendment 2 – General Fund Revenue Account

Protecting the environment, reducing waste and saving costs

Invest to increase recycling rates. At present, waste gathered        £477k

 in street bins is not separated and recycled. If all 900 street

bins were replaced with new segregated bins it is estimated

 that the savings in landfill charges would be £65k per annum

– meaning the bins would have paid for themselves within

7­-8 years in addition to carbon savings.

Restoring effectiveness of domestic recycling services by              £81k

providing the right type of service for the right location.

Where fortnightly collections are not working due to the

physical characteristics of the area, a more frequent

collection would be reintroduced. This allows for up to 15%

of households to have more frequent collection reinstated.

Accelerated low energy replacement of street lights. Current          £650k

budget assumes 46 years before all lights will be low energy.

Investing at an annual rate of £3m would replace all lights with

 low energy ones within 6 years, providing an annual saving in

power costs of £318k (plus maintenance savings, not budgeted

 for here) as well as enhancing local environment and making

 substantial carbon savings.

Funded by:

Enacting our existing policy on layers of management,                      -£1,433k

 whereby managers should manage at least 6 people directly.

There are currently 188 management posts (excluding site

 specific) that do not meet that standard. This would reduce

the number of management post by 25%, i.e. 47 management

posts removed through organisational redesign. It is

acknowledged that some of the manager roles targeted by this

 proposal also deliver services, and so a proportion of resource

will need to be reinvested into more front line staff.

(Assumes 6 months to implement, full savings in 14/15,

net of reinvested £600k pa)

Cheaper back office through shared services. This council has              0

failed to capture the opportunities many other authorities have

 taken in joint provision of back office services. The budget still

plans to spend £18.4m on IT, HR and Legal services next year.

It must be more imaginative in seeking partner (not necessarily

LAs, but other public bodies) to start capturing some savings

for Haringey's residents. This proposal targets a modest 3%

saving from IT, HR and Legal services, with a year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.