Minutes:
The Chairman advised that there had been a meeting of the Finance and Budget Working Group on 17th November 2022, with the following items discussed at that meeting:
· update on the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2023/24 to 2025/26;
· the Notice of Motion that was referred for consideration by the Finance and Budget Working Group at the meeting of Full Council held on 3rd November 2021;
· Finance and Performance Monitoring Report Q2 2022/23; and,
· An update on Fees and Charges 2023/24.
The Chairman reported that following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, it was announced that councils would be allowed to raise Council Tax by up to 2.99 per cent for the next financial year. It was also noted with respect to MTFP that the provisional local government financial settlement for 2023/24 was now expected to be announced in the week commencing 19th December 2022.
With respect to the Motion referred by the Full Council for consideration of the Finance and Budget Working Group, it was stated that it related to a proposal for the business case to be produced for providing free short term car parking for Blue Badge holders in all Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) owned car parks and subsequently considered as part of the budget setting process. The Chairman reported that although most Members considered the provision of this was considered prohibitively expensive for the Council at the current time, the Working Group asked Officers to first investigate if more up-to-date data could be provided from available sources, such as parking ticket machines, to determine the demand for Blue Badge parking spaces in Bromsgrove.
With regards to the Finance and Performance Monitoring Report for Q2, the Chairman reported that the Working Group was informed that the Council was forecasting a revenue overspend in the region of £342,000 for the 2022/23 financial year as of end of Q2. It was brought to the attention of Members that the staff pay award for 2022/23 had now been agreed, which presented an additional revenue cost of approximately £676,000 and which would need to be accounted for in the 2022/23 financial year.
With regards to Fees and Charges, the Chairman reported that at its 17th November meeting the Working Group considered those fees and charges that were for discretionary services provided by the Council and for which the Council was in direct competition with private sector organisations.
The Chairman announced that Councillor J. King had submitted a request to join the Finance and Budget Working Group for the remainder of this municipal year. During the discussion that followed, some Members argued in favour of holding a vote on the matter at this meeting. The majority of Members, however, put forward a proposal to defer making the decision on the matter to a future meeting to enable Officers to prepare a report detailing the constitutional implications of a Councillor who was not currently a Overview and Scrutiny Board Member joining the Finance and Budget Working Group.
This proposal was put to the vote and it was:
RESOLVED that a decision on the matter detailed in the pre-amble above be deferred to the next scheduled meeting of the Board when an Officer report is presented on the implications of a non- Overview and Scrutiny Board Councillor joining the Finance and Budget Working Group.