Agenda item

(NOTE: Councillors S. Matthews, H. Shepardson and A. Vaughan-Owen had earlier declared interests in this item)

The Committee considered the Revenue Budget Strategy 2018/19 to 2020/21 (Appendix A) which had been endorsed by the Executive Board for consultation purposes at its meeting on 27^th November 2017.  The report provided Members with the current view of the Revenue Budget for 2018/2019 together with indicative figures for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial years. The report was based on officers’ projections of spending need and took into account the provisional settlement issued by Welsh Government on 10th October 2017.

The Director of Corporate Services advised that although the announced provisional settlement of -0.5% was significantly better than the anticipated -2%, it still meant the authority had to identify efficiency savings for 2018/19 of £8.544m, compared to the initial £12.527m, and would continue to have a negative impact on the Council’s resources.

In summary, the budget proposals would assume full delivery of the £25.6m identified savings over the plan period. Furthermore, the budget proposals assumed a Council tax increase of 4.12% for 2018/19 and that a 1% movement in council tax levels equated to +/-£820k.

The Committee considered the following detailed budget information appended to the Strategy relevant to its remit:

·       Appendix A(i) – Efficiency summary for the Regeneration, Leisure, Planning and Non HRA Housing Services;

·       Appendix A(ii) – Growth Pressures summary for the Planning Service (none for the Regeneration, Leisure and Non HRA Services;

·       Appendix B – Budget extracts for the Regeneration, Leisure, Planning and Non HRA Housing Services;

·       Appendix C – Charging Digest for the Regeneration, Leisure, Planning and Non HRA Housing Services;

The following questions/issues were raised on the report:-

·        Reference was made to the impact on the budget of school based Early Voluntary Retirement and redundancy costs and what measures were being taken to address those.

The Director of Corporate Services confirmed they were being examined as part of the Council’s Human Resources Policies and included the possibility of staff facing redundancy being relocated to an alternative school seeking to employ staff.

·        The Director of Regeneration and Policy in response to a question on the Physical Regeneration Budget, advised that the increased budget was, in part, attributable to the inclusion within the accounts of the asset value of the Council’s properties, including recent acquisitions within Llanelli Town Centre.

·        Reference was made to a past proposal for introduction of a Universal Pass for residents of the County to access the councils’ country parks and other attractions and information was requested on the current position.

The Head of Leisure confirmed discussions were continuing on the proposal, specifically the I.T requirements. He also advised that consideration was being afforded to introducing a 5-7 day pass to the Council’s country parks which, if realised, would be included within the Charging Digest at a later date.

·        The Head of Leisure referred to a question on the proposed reductions in the fees and charges levied by the Council for the hire of equipment at its theatres, and confirmed they were being suggested as a means of making the service more cost effective and, hopefully, increase hire rates.

·        In response to a question on cross linking the council’s leisure and tourism destinations with the public sector, it was confirmed that was undertaken wherever possible and included publication of a hotel brochure and working with the private sector on introducing discounts.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that: