Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors K. Taylor and P. J. Whittaker.

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 minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 7^th January 2025 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 7^th January 2025 be approved as a true and accurate record.

The minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 6th January 2025 were considered.

The Leader confirmed that there were no outstanding recommendations from this meeting requiring Cabinet’s consideration.

It was noted that the Strategic Parking Review report was pre-scrutinised at the Board’s meeting which took place on 11^th February 2025. This had resulted in some recommendations being made to Cabinet. These recommendations would be considered during the Strategic Parking Review agenda item, as detailed at Minute No. 69/24.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 6^th January 2025 be noted.

The Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer presented the Pay Policy 2025 – 2026 report for Cabinet’s consideration.

It was reported that the Localism Act required all English and Welsh Local Authorities to produce a Pay Policy statement. The Act required the statement to be approved by Full Council and to be adopted by 31^st March each year for the subsequent financial year. The Pay Policy Statement for Bromsgrove District Council 2025 – 2026 was included at Appendix 1 to the report.

The purpose of the statement was to provide transparency with regard to the Council’s approach to setting the pay of its employees by identifying the following:

a)    the methods by which salaries of all employees were determined.

b)    the detail and level of remuneration of its most senior staff i.e. ‘chief officers,’ as defined by the relevant legislation.

c)     the Committee(s) responsible for ensuring the provisions set out in this statement were applied consistently throughout the Council and for recommending any amendments to Full Council.

The Council’s pay and grading structure comprised of Grades one to eleven. These were followed by grades for Managers, Assistant Director 1, Assistant Director 2, Director WRS, Executive Director, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Executive; all of which arose following the introduction of the Shared Services agreement between Bromsgrove District and Redditch Borough Councils.

It was explained that within each grade there were a number of salary / pay points. Up to and including Grade eleven scale, at spinal column point forty-three and that the Council used the nationally negotiated pay spine scale. Salary points above this were locally determined. It was clarified that the Council’s Pay structure was set out in point 6 in Appendix 1 to the report.

All Council posts were allocated to a grade within this pay structure, based on the application of a Job Evaluation process. Posts at Managers and above were evaluated by an external assessor using the Hay Job Evaluation scheme.

Bromsgrove District Council, like the majority of Local Authorities was committed to the Local Government Employers national pay bargaining framework in respect of the national pay spine and annual cost of living increases negotiated with trade unions.

All other pay related allowances were subject of either nationally or locally negotiated rates.

Bromsgrove District Council was managed by a Senior Management Team who managed Shared Services across both Bromsgrove District and Redditch Borough Councils. These management roles had been job evaluated on this basis, with the salary costs for these posts split between both Councils.

It was reported that the Pay Policy also set out the following:

·       The recruitment of Chief Officers

·       Additions to the salaries of Chief Officers

·       Termination payments

·       Advertisement/publicity of posts

Members were informed that like most Local Authorities, Bromsgrove District Council did not operate a performance related pay scheme.

The Council’s definition of lowest paid employees were persons employed under a contract of employment with the Council on full time (37 hours) equivalent salaries,in accordance with the minimum spinal  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68/24

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration presented the Strategic Parking Review report for Members’ consideration. It was noted that there had been some disappointment in the length of time it had taken for the report to be presented to Members. It was also noted that the report did not fully address the business case to look at alternative providers, including an in-house service. Unfortunately, it was felt that this would no longer be an option due to the delays experienced. It was explained however, that there was still the opportunity to make some amendments if necessary to the Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Wychavon District Council in order to ensure the best provision for Bromsgrove and its residents.

As a result of the detailed discussions at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11^th February 2025, several recommendations were made by the Board as follows:

• Recommendation 1 – The Business Case and Service Review for the Strategic Parking Review be deferred for 6 months until the issues identified have been addressed as not fit for purpose, in that it did not cover bringing the service in-house.
• Recommendation 2 – there should be an increase in the proposed Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) patrol time, greater than 25%, included in the Service Level Agreement (SLA), as the current proposal of 25% was not considered to be adequate.
• Recommendation 3 - More CEOs should be funded to operate in the District as opposed to introducing an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) service.
• Recommendation 4 – The Council retained cash payment options for car parks in the District.
• Recommendation 5 – A study be launched reviewing parking in Alvechurch.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration addressed these recommendations during the presentation of the report and stated that as a result of the pre-scrutiny there had been several changes to the recommendations contained within the Cabinet report.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration explained the amendments and further recommendations as follows:

Recommendation 6 – It was suggested that additional wording in bold be included in this recommendation as follows:

“The Assistant Director of Regeneration and Property Services following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, subject to any scrutiny of the proposals, develops a detailed business case and implementation plan including all technical surveys and full costs to install, where practicable and affordable, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems to Recreation Road South, St Johns and Windsor Street car parks and to also investigate other car parks under the ownership of the Council.”

It was explained that this amendment was as a response to the recommendation from the Overview and Scrutiny Board in respect of deferring the business case, the implementation of an ANPR system at some locations in the District and the wish to retain cash machines for payments within the car parks throughout the District. It was further clarified that it had been a directive from the previous Government that a cash  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69/24

Appendix A to this report will be published in a Supplementary Papers pack to this agenda.

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.

As a result of the recommendations agreed during Minute item 69/24 there would need to be some adjustments made to the MTFP and this will be reported to the Cabinet and Council at the meetings due to take place on 19^th February 2025 as the agendas for these meetings had already been published. It was reported that these amendments would reflect the following:

1)    An additional £85,000 be added to parking budgets, which is broken down as:

                                              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

2)      £100,000 added to the Capital Budget in 2025/26 for ANPR systems to Recreation Road South, St Johns and Windsor Street car parks.

Members were informed that the Council had set its budget in two Tranches this year, as it had during the 2024/5 Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) process. The initial Tranche was published in December 2024 and approved initial pressures and increases at Council in January 2025. This second Tranche should be considered as the final now that the Local Government Settlement figures were known.

It was highlighted that as with many Local Authorities the additional National Insurance contributions would impact on the budget. Members were informed that Bromsgrove District Council currently had a shortfall of £200,000 per annum. Furthermore, it was noted that not all Grant allocations were currently known.

Departmental changes, due to contract pressures had also been taken into account. These departmental changes resulted in an overall £1.387million revenue pressure in the 2025/6 financial year and then £938,000 by 2027/8.

At Tranche 1, there was a £1million deficit which needed to be closed, rising to an ongoing £1.5million in 2027/8. It was clarified that £1million of this ongoing amount from 2026/7 onwards was linked to the impact of the delivery of the Food Waste Service at the Council.

The Provisional Local Government Settlement was made on 18^th December 2024. In that Settlement the Council’s Core Sending Power was unchanged at £13.42million. This zero increase in spending power resulted in a significant change in funding with Councils now expected to have a 2.99 per cent increase in Council Tax to get to that a ‘break even’ position, with a reduction of ‘Other Grants’ by a corresponding amount.

It was reported that the Government had given specific targeted Grant Funding for a number of initiatives. This funding was single year, as Local Government funding was due to change significantly for the 2026/7 settlement.

The impacts on the Council for this targeted funding was detailed as follows:

·       £700million additional grant funding – Bromsgrove District Council had not received any additional grant funding.

·       Council Tax in Tranche 2 would be increased from 1.99 per cent to 2.99 per cent.

·       £233million additional Homelessness Prevention Grant –  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70/24

There was no Urgent Business on this occasion.