Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

The Chair referred to the appointments of Mark Drakeford A.M. as First Minister of Wales and Julie James A.M. as Minister for Housing and Local Government. He enquired if the Executive Board would authorise him to write on behalf of the Authority congratulating them upon their appointments

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the Leader of the Council write to Mark Drakeford A.M. and Julie James A.M. congratulating them upon their appointments as First Minister of Wales and Minister for Housing and Local Government respectively.

There were no declarations of personal interests

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Board held on the 19^th November, 2018 be signed as a correct record.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Board held on the 3^rd December, 2018 be signed as a correct record.

“On 30 November it was announced that Morris Travel will be withdrawing from several bus routes in the North of the County. This will severally affect the elderly residents in our rural communities. What plans has the county in place to assist?”

“On 30 November it was announced that Morris Travel will be withdrawing from several bus routes in the North of the County. This well severely affect the elderly residents in our rural communities. What plans has the county in place to assist?

Response by Councillor Cefin Campbell, Executive Board Member for Communities and Rural Affairs:-

“I share your concerns because I’ve had numerous phone calls as well from residents in my ward who are affected by the proposed cuts in the routes. It’s something that rural communities are facing because, obviously, the bus routes are not as lucrative for bus companies in rural areas. The transport section of the Council are currently out to tender and the tender applications are in this week and they have been marketing to other bus companies the provision of these routes, so we’ll see what comes in this week. But, we are obviously mindful of the need to cater for people living in rural communities and many elderly people, for various reasons, are dependent on buses to take them not only to shopping but to the local G.P.’s and local hospitals and so on. It’s also something Edward that the Rural Affairs Working Group have been looking at quite a lot over the course of the last eighteen months, and we have been looking at various schemes moving forward pre-judging the pressures on current operators and the Bwc a Bus scheme works very well in some parts of the county and it may be possible to extend that provision across the whole of the north of the County. County Cars are in existence and there’s a voluntary community group called ‘Dolen teifi’ who run a voluntary scheme in some parts of West Wales as well. So it’s a model that we are looking at, and even models like a community co-operative to provide services/ bus services in rural areas, a volunteer service and also may be working with ‘Ynni Sir Gar’ to use their electric cars or even upgrade to an electric people carrier to take people from place to place but that needs, obviously, some fine tuning in terms of the logistics, but it’s certainly something we are looking at and mindful of. So, we’ll see this week what comes from the tender process but, moving forward we’ll need to extend the coverage as well to most parts of the rural communities that we have. I share your concerns and it was disappointing to hear they were cutting back on the routes but, we are endeavouring to do as much as we can to carry on providing a bus service in rural areas”.

The Chair advised that no public questions had been received.

Further to Minute 17 of its meeting held on the 4^th June, 2018 where the Executive Board approved the approach to be adopted under the Regional Homelessness Strategy, the Board received for consideration the final strategy document which outlined the key themes and priorities on how Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Powys would prevent homelessness over the coming years. It was noted the Strategy aimed to ensure sufficient options and opportunities were available for local people to access affordable or social housing to enable them to remain within their community of choice

The Executive Board in endorsing the report’s aim made reference to the term ‘Homelessness’ and to the conception that people presenting as homeless did not have a roof over their head and were ‘sleeping on the streets’. It was noted there were a number of different classes of homelessness which, for example, included rough sleepers, persons served with a notice to leave their property by their landlord or, who lived in overcrowded accommodation. Having regard thereto, there was a consensus consideration could be given to identifying an alternative terminology to homelessness.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED

The Executive Board considered a report on proposals for the County Council to sign up to the Courtauld Commitment 2025, a ten year voluntary agreement to reduce food waste by 20% by 2025 with the ethos of bringing together organisations across the food system to make production and consumption more sustainable. It was noted that whilst participation in the Commitment had no financial implications for the authority, it would provide access to campaign and other material to strengthen its existing aims and objectives in encouraging recycling of unavoidable food waste and meeting statutory targets:-

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that Carmarthenshire County Council sign up to the Courtauld Commitment 2025 as a demonstration of its existing strategy to reduce food waste.

The Executive Board considered a report which provided an initial view of the 5 year capital programme from 2019/20 to 2023/24, which would form the basis of the budget consultation process with members and other relevant parties.  It was noted that feedback from the consultation process, along with the outcome of the final settlement, would inform the final budget report which would be presented to the Council for consideration in February, 2019.

The Executive Board Member for Resources stated that the report followed the approval of the capital programme in February 2018 and the proposals contained therein had developed the programme for an additional year and proposed amendments where necessary for changes in service demands and funding.

The main areas of change were outlined within Section 5 of the report which included, continued investment in 2023/24 in the Disabled Facilities Grant, Highways and Bridge Maintenance, Road Safety, capital maintenance (buildings), transformation strategy projects and school Band B schemes. Additionally, the Highways Division had secured funding for two years, via a Road Refurbishment Grant for 2019/20 and 2020/21.

The Modernising Education Programme had also changed for years 2019/20 to 2023/24 with the re-profiling of budgets and the introduction of some new schemes including Kidwelly, Hendy, Llandeilo and both Welsh Medium and Dual Stream schools in Ammanford. That was due to the Welsh Government having recently announced their approval for the Band B programme running to 2024 with the significant change in the intervention rate from 50% to 65% for schools generally and from 50% to 75% for special schools. That had provided the authority with scope to deliver more schools within the £129.5m Band B programme of which it funded £70m,

It was noted that also included were the City Deal Schemes for the Wellness Village and Yr Egin. The Llanelli Leisure Centre and the Llanelli area review had also been identified as key components of the Wellness Village.

The Executive Board Member confirmed the programme included borrowing, both supported and unsupported, capital receipts, capital grants and capital contributions. If adopted, it proposed a fully funded spend of some £260m over the next five years, inclusive of £128 of external funding.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the provisional capital programme be noted and endorsed for consultation purposes.

The Executive Board considered the report on the Council Tax Base 2019-20. It was reminded that the Council was required to determine, on an annual basis, its Council Tax Base and the Council Tax Base of each community within its area, for the purpose of calculating the level of Council Tax for the forthcoming financial year and, under the provisions of Section 84 of the Local Government Act 2003 and the Local Authorities Executive Arrangements (Functions and Responsibilities) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2004, the annual calculation had been delegated to the Executive Board.

The calculation of the Tax Base for the County Council for 2019-20 was detailed in Table 1a and summarised in Table 1b, which were appended to the report.  The calculation for individual Town and Community Council areas for 2019-20 was summarised in Table 2 and detailed in Appendix A, which were also appended to the report. 

The Board noted that the Tax Base report provided calculations that were Authority-wide as well as broken down into all community and town council areas for their precept purposes and that the Council Tax Base for the financial year 2019-2020 had been calculated at £72,440.46.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that:

10.1.    the Council Tax Base calculations for the financial year 2019-20, as detailed within Appendix A of the report, be approved;

10.2.    a Council Tax Base of 72,440.46, as detailed within tables 1a and 1b of the report, be confirmed in respect of the County Council area;

10.3.    the relevant tax bases for the individual community and town council areas, as detailed in table 2 of the report, be confirmed.

The Executive Board, in accordance with the 2018/19 Treasury Management Policy and Strategy (adopted by Council on the 21^st February, 2018 – Minute 10 Refers) received an update on the treasury management activities for the period 1^st April, 2018 to the 30^th September, 2018.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED THAT IT BE RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL THAT the report be received.

The Executive Board considered a report on the NJC pay Award – Implementation of new Pay Spine - 1^st April 2019 which in summary entailed:-

·        A new pay spine with new points 1 to 22 and with 2% incremental points up to point 43, which will replace the current pay spine;

·        A new base point of £9.00 per hour;

·        5 new points for which there was no current equivalent;

·        A minimum increase of 2%.

The Board was advised that it had been estimated the overall cost to the 2019/20 budget of implementing the pay award was £5m, including pension and National insurance contributions. However, once added to the NJC, Soulbury and Teachers pay increases and taking account of the £28m grant funded posts, the cost to the Council’s net 2019/20 budget was £6.2m.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the recommended approach outlined in the report for on-going consultation with trade unions, Pay Advisory Panel and Executive Board be endorsed

The Chair reported that there were no items of urgent business.