Agenda and minutes

[Note:  The Chair, after having received a request from Councillor Philip Hughes, Cabinet Member for Public Protection, agreed to change the order business on the agenda.  Item 6, was taken prior to Item 4.  However, for ease of referencing, these minutes reflect the order of business itemised on the agenda for the meeting.]

An apology for absence was received from Councillor P. M. Edwards.

The Chair formally welcomed to the meeting, Mr Rhodri Griffiths, Head of Place and Sustainability.

The Chair, on behalf of the Committee expressed condolences to the family of the late Councillor Mair Stephens.

There were no declarations of any prohibited party whips.</AI2>

The Chair advised that no public questions had been received.

[NOTE: Councillor D. Phillips declared an interest in Appendix ‘C’ to the report (Charging Digest) did not speak or vote on that Appendix].

The Committee considered the report presented by the Cabinet Member for Resources on the Council’s Revenue Budget Strategy 2022/23 to 2024/25, as endorsed by the Cabinet for consultation purposes at its meeting held on the 17^th January 2022.  The report provided Members with the current view of the Revenue Budget for 2022/2023 together with indicative figures for the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 financial years based on officers’ projections of spending requirements and taken account of the provisional settlement issued by Welsh Government on the 21^st December 2021.  It also reflected current departmental submissions for savings proposals after taking account of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the delivery of those savings.

The Cabinet Member advised that the provisional settlement from Welsh Government this year was considerably higher than what was planned for, however he also highlighted that the scale of expenditure pressures that this Authority and other Local Authorities were facing was also at an unprecedented high level, which offset the higher settlement. The provisional settlement represented an average increase of 9.4% across Wales on the 2021/22 settlement.  Carmarthenshire’s settlement figures saw an increase of 9.2% (£26.335m) thereby taking the Aggregate External Finance to £311.957m for 2022/23 which included £302k in respect of the Social Care Workforce Grant.

Across the whole of the council’s budgets, validation added £23m, by some margin the highest we have needed to allow for in recent years. 

The budget also included £12.5m. for new departmental expenditure pressures which have been identified by departments and were inescapable if we are to continue to deliver our main services at the current level.  As with the inflationary uplift, this was considerably more than the norm and reflected the scale of pressures on the current Council’s services.

In respect of the savings proposals (Appendix Aii), the Cabinet Member explained that the continued response to the pandemic had further impacted on the delivery of efficiencies. 

Nevertheless, it was highlighted that the Councils budget strategy had put forward some £3.8m of savings next year and a further £7.9m over the following 2 years. 

In relation to this committee’s remit, the current proposals totalled some £886k in year 1 and a further £1.6m over the following 2 years. 

The Budget Strategy proposed a Council Tax of 4.39% for 2022/23, in line with the Medium-Term Financial Plan, and that proposal would be considered as part of the budget finalisation process over the next month and where the Authority received further clarification on cost and grant funding with a view to limiting the Council Tax increase as far as possible. Final budget proposals would then be presented to the Cabinet late February, to ensure a balanced budget was presented to County Council.

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

·     Appendix A(i) – Efficiency summary for the Environment and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Committee considered the Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring Report, presented the report relevant to the Environmental and Public Protection Services, which provided an update on the latest budgetary position as at 31^st October 2021 in respect of the 2021/22 financial year.

It was reported that the projections reflected the re-imbursements received from Welsh Government for additional Covid-19 related expenditure via the hardship fund and also to cover the loss of income from services impacted by the pandemic.  The Environmental and Public Protection section was projecting an underspend of £256K on the revenue budget and net variance of £17,160K compared with a working net budget of £18,270k giving a -£1,110k. 

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

·       In response to a query raised in relation to the Green Waste Collection, the Environmental Services Manager clarified that the surplus was due to the increased customer base and confirmed that that the service was on track and had achieved its planned breakeven position.

·       The Environmental Services Manager in response to a query raised on the charges for public conveniences reported that the planned increased had not been put into effect due to the pandemic.

RESOLVED that the report be received.

The Committee considered a report on the Local Environment Quality Management Plan 2022-2026, presented by the Cabinet Member for Environment and the Cabinet Member for Public Protection.

The plan included the direction of the Council’s litter management within the County for the next four years and aimed to demonstrate how litter management would be undertaken, whilst contributing to the Council’s Corporate Strategy, with particular emphasis Wellbeing Objective 10 – Healthy and Safe Environment; look after the environment now and in the future.

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

·       In response to a query raised regarding the number of officers were available within enforcement, the Head of Waste and Environmental Services reported that there were currently 8 officers with 1 vacancy, therefore a total of 9 staff within the enforcement team.

·       Reference was made to section 11.2 – Voluntary Groups and Other Organisations.  More information was sought regarding the publicity of information to encourage and aid members of the public and Town/Community Councils to engage in setting up groups to clean villages and rural areas.  The Cabinet Member for Environment highlighted that this would be relevant to the Pride in your Patch initiative will be re-instated.  The Environmental Services Manager further explained to members that the ‘Pride in your Patch’ initiative works to engage local communities seek volunteers to become litter champions who would then arrange local litter picks. The Policy and Strategy Officer, Environmental and Enforcement reported that there were currently 52 groups registered across Carmarthenshire and that he was currently working closely with the risk assessment team regarding appropriate insurance cover for volunteers.  Other initiatives were effective which included Caru Cymru project and Keep Britain Tidy.

·       The Policy and Strategy Officer, Environmental and Enforcement in response to a query in relation to the disposal of adhoc litter picking stated that an online Googleform had been introduced which enables members of the public to notify the Authority of the litter pick event/activity which will also collect the data in relation to where the bags of litter would be located and arrangements would be made to collect them.

·       Furthermore, in response to a query raised in accessing the red bags specifically for litter pickers, the Policy and Strategy Officer, Environmental and Enforcement explained that Keep Britain Tidy issue the red bags to registered Keep Wales Tidy Champions.  In addition, the clear bags were issued to the Authority’s Local Environment Quality Champions, an initiative which was developed over the pandemic.

·       Reference was made to the ongoing issue of dog fouling.  It was asked if any progress had been made with discussions with the Police Constable in regard to the receipt of a fine being shared between the Council and PCSO officers. The Head of Waste and Environmental Services explained that work had been undertaken with the police by way of a letter to the Chief Constable and training and provided fixed penalty stationary to the police. It was reported that whilst the police were supportive, they depended on the availability  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee considered the list of forthcoming items to be placed on the agenda for the next meeting scheduled to take place on 7^th March 2022 and was afforded the opportunity to request for any specific information that Members may wish to include within the reports.

The Chair informed the Committee that he had received a request to include a report on the Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) report onto the next meetings agenda.  The Chair proposed to accept the request as the report seeks to provide a future strategy of accessibility for the HWRC service in Carmarthenshire, this was duly seconded.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that:

7.1      the list of forthcoming items to be considered at the next scheduled meeting on the 7^th March 2022 be noted;

7.2      the HWRC report be included on the next meeting’s agenda –

          7^th March 2022.

7.3      the Committee’s revised Forward Work Programme 2021/22 be noted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 22^nd December, 2021 be signed as a correct record.