Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor S. Colella.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

The Leader invited Councillor P. McDonald in his capacity as Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board to provide a verbal update following the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 17th February 2025 and Finance and Budget Working Group held on 18th February 2025.

In doing so, Cabinet was informed the Board had pre-scrutinised the Local Development Scheme report due to be considered at this meeting, however there had been no recommendations made as a result of this pre-scrutiny.

It was confirmed however, that following detailed scrutiny of the Poverty Truth Commission (PTC) at several Finance and Budget Working Group meetings, Members felt that funding for the PTC should not be allocated as part of the Medium-Term Financial Plan 2025 – 2026 to 2027 – 2028. It was discussed that some of the areas which the PTC covered such as working with young people, were also dealt with by other organisations, that provided a similar service. Therefore, to allocate £40,000 to the project would not provide value for money for the residents of Bromsgrove. It was also stated that as a new Local Government structure was currently in the process of being decided upon, providing funding at this time would not be appropriate.

Cabinet were in agreement with this opinion and a recommendation to Council would be included in the Medium-Term Financial Plan when the report was considered later at this meeting at Minute No 77/24. Members noted that Officers and The Bromsgrove Partnership, who were to provide non-financial support for this project, would be notified of this decision by the relevant Cabinet Members.

The Leader thanked Councillor McDonald and the Board for the robust pre-scrutiny carried out in this area over the previous meetings of both the Board and the Finance and Budget Working Group.

The Overview and Scrutiny Board are due to pre-scrutinise this report at its meeting on 17^th February 2025. Any recommendations as a result of this pre-scrutiny will be published in a supplementary pack and be tabled at the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) presented the Local Development Scheme report for Members’ consideration.

Members were informed that this report dealt with the new timetable for the development of the Local Plan as a result of the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in December 2024. It was noted that it had been necessary to implement the timetable within a specific deadline as communications had been received from Central Government which stated, ‘areas must commit to timetables for new plans within 12 weeks of the updated NPPF or ministers will not hesitate to use their existing suite of intervention powers to ensure plans are put in place’.

The timetable included the consultation process which, it was noted, was due to take place in Summer 2025. Members would also be consulted on this process during Strategic Planning Steering Group meetings scheduled to take place throughout the year.

It was explained the overall process would take thirty months in total and result in the adoption of the Local Plan in 2028.

Members queried what the land supply currently was in Bromsgrove. Officers stated that it was 1.92 years, however, they would confirm this figure for Members following the meeting.

In proposing the recommendations, it was noted that there had been a slight amendment to those published in the main agenda. These updated recommendations appeared in the supplementary papers one pack and reflected that ‘authority be delegated to the Assistant Director of Planning and Leisure Services, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and WRS, to approve updates to the Local Development Scheme as required’. It was explained that this was in line with Bromsgrove District Council’s Constitution in that decisions were made as a collective rather than by individual Members. These updated recommendations would be considered at the Council meeting due to take place later that day.

Therefore, it was

RECOMMENDED that

1)    Bromsgrove District Council Local Development Scheme 2025 be approved as the Council’s programme for plan-making, effective as of 19^th February 2025;

2)    Delegated authority be granted to the Assistant Director for Planning and Leisure Services, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and WRS, to approve updates to the Local Development Scheme as required.

This report will be published in a supplementary papers pack to this agenda.

This report is due to be pre-scrutinised at a meeting of the Finance and Budget Working Group scheduled to take place on 18^th February 2025 prior to its consideration at this Cabinet meeting. Any recommendations arising from that meeting will be reported for Cabinet’s consideration in a supplementary papers pack.

The Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 officer presented the Council Tax Resolutions 2025 – 2026 for the consideration of Cabinet. It was explained that the report authorised the collection of Council Tax from Bromsgrove residents at the correct amount. Prior to the consideration of the report, it was noted that updated version of Schedules One and Two contained within the report had been re-issued for Members consideration. This was due to a rounding error which had been identified in the previous version.

It was stated that Council Tax included elements from the following:

• Worcestershire County Council
• Bromsgrove District Council
• Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia
• Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority
• Precepts from nineteen Parish Councils

Members were informed that Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority had met earlier on that day to agree their precept for 2025 – 2026 and it was confirmed that this had been agreed as detailed within the report.

Therefore, it was stated that the precepts for 2025 2026 were as follows:

It was highlighted that all precepting authorities had increased their charges by the maximum amount for the year 2025 – 2026 as follows:

• Worcestershire County Council – an increase of 4.99 per cent
• Bromsgrove District Council – an increase of 2.99 per cent
• Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia – an increase of 5.05 per cent
• Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority – an increase of 5.14 per cent
• Parish Councils - an average increase of 11.18 per cent.

It was noted that the Parish Council precepts were determined at a local level and were dependent on the services provided and numbers of residents within that Parish. Members noted that Parish Councils were subject to scrutiny of their accounts and annual Statement of Accounts were published on the website or independently audited depending on income and turnover.

The total amount generated from the collection of Council Tax was £11,250,708.49 which was the combined total of Bromsgrove District Council’s amount of precept of £9,876,907.05 and parish precepts of £1,373,801.44.

Members attention was drawn to the following areas contained within the report:

1)    For the year 2025 - 2026, Worcestershire County Council, Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia, and Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority had issued precepts to the Council in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act for each category of dwelling in the Council’s area as indicated below:

2)    That the Director of Resources was authorised to make payments under section 90(2) of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76/24

Included in this agenda is the covering report which will have been considered already at the Cabinet meeting due to be held on 12^th February 2025. As only Appendix A to the report has not previously been considered by Cabinet only the covering report and Appendix A will be made available to discuss at this meeting of Cabinet. The rest of the appendices have not changed and are therefore not due to be debated at this Cabinet meeting.

The Medium-Term Financial Plan - Tranche 2 Budget including Fees and Charges report has been subject to public consultation. Any feedback arising from that consultation process will be presented for Cabinet Members’ consideration at the meeting.

Appendix A to this report will follow in a supplementary pack to this agenda for this meeting.

This report is due to be pre-scrutinised at a meeting of the Finance and Budget Working Group prior to its consideration at this Cabinet meeting. Any recommendations arising from that meeting will be reported for Cabinet’s consideration in a supplementary papers pack.

The Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer presented the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) - Tranche 2 Budget including Fees and Charges (following consultation) report for the consideration of Cabinet.

In doing so, Members were reminded that an updated MTFP had been issued for this meeting as a result of discussions that had taken place at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11^th February 2025 and Cabinet meeting held on 12^th February 2025. There had been some amendments made to the recommendations contained within the Strategic Parking Review report which had resulted in the following:

a)    An additional £85,000 be added to parking budgets, allocated as follows:

i)       Additional funding of £70,000 for increased numbers of Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs)

ii)     £15,000 for maintenance of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system

b)    £100,000 added to the Capital Budget in 2025/26 for ANPR systems to Recreation Road South, St Johns and Windsor Street car parks

Further amendments to the previous report also reported to members included:

1)    Paragraph 3.19 of the MTFP report was discussed in detail and the wording amended to ensure

·       Schemes were prioritised

·       That General Fund balances did not reduce below £5million.

2)    A risk added to the Risk Section within the report following correspondence from Birmingham City Council regarding access to Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) funding during the 2025/26 financial year.

3)    Inclusion of Appendix A to the report which contained draft Departmental Budgets.

4)    Revenue bottom line changed from a £167k deficit to a £252k deficit for 2025 - 2026.

5)    Revenue bottom line changed from a £1,030k deficit to a £1,115k deficit for 2026 – 2027.

6)    Revenue bottom line changed from a £399k deficit to a £484k deficit for 2027 – 2028.

7)    Support from Reserves rose from £1,596k to £1,851k.

8)    General fund balances reduced from £12,781m to £12.526m.

9)    Capital spending in 2025/26 increased from £8.017m to £8.117m.

This updated MTFP report had also been considered at the Finance and Budget Working Group (FBWG) meeting held on 18^th February 2025. The Leader invited Councillor P. McDonald, in his role as Chairman of the FBWG, to inform Members what discussions had taken place during consideration of this report. It was noted that the FBWG Members felt that £1000,000 for an ANPR system was a significant cost. It was also noted that legal work needed to be carried out in respect of installation of ANPR in order to comply with any regulations involved in implementing such a system.

The Chairman of the FBWG also reported that there had been some discussion regarding Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers within the District at this meeting. It was noted that the current contract provider and the Council were in a profit share agreement and that profits would not be likely for approximately eight to ten years. Councillor McDonald expressed that after some research he had discovered that there were more beneficial models available when working with EV contractors  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77/24

There was no Urgent Business on this occasion.

At the time of publication, the Cabinet meeting due to be held on 12^th February 2025 had not yet taken place. Therefore, the minutes from this meeting will be published in a supplementary papers pack to this agenda.

The minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 12^th February 2025 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 12^th February 2025 be approved as a true and correct record.