In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 17.4.1, an extension of time was given to Councillor John Burden and an equal amount of time to Cllrs Jordan Meade and Harold Craske.

 

The Chief Executive reminded Members that all individual votes in relation to the budget and any amendments thereto would be recorded as required by legislation.

 

It was moved by Cllr John Burden and seconded by Cllr Lee Croxton that:-

 

            the motion before Council as set out in the order paper be approved.

 

An amendment was moved by Councillor Jordan Meade and seconded by Councillor Ejaz Aslam that:-

 

The ConservativeGroup movethat theBudget shouldbe amendedto provideadditional resourcesto thePlanning Directorate.

 

It is thus proposed that in order to strengthen our planning enforcement capabilities and to improveboth customerservice andmember engagementon planningmatters, thatthe budgetis amendedto enable:

 

·         Therecruitment ofan additionalPlanning EnforcementOfficer

·         The recruitment of a new Planning Liaison (Community & Member Engagement) Officer

 

Bothadditional Officerswould be employedon a full-timesalary andgraded at Scale5/6.

 

The costingfor eachpost (£36,650)has beenbased onthe estimated2022-23 staffcosts andis inclusiveof basicsalary, localallowance, EmployerPension andNational Insurance Contributions.

 

Total cost of amendment would be £73,300 (2022/23) plus an additional £4,000 in start-up costs, allowing for each new officer to be issued with laptops, docking stations, screens, licences, etc. tofacilitate agileworking.

 

This amendment will be funded from:

 

The TownPier &Pontoon Reserveof £135,980should betransferred intothe PlanningPolicy Reserve,rather thaninto theClimate ChangeReserve.

 

This wouldsee therevised PlanningPolicy Reservestand ata totalof: £568,870

 

The yearone costof thisamendment £73,300+ £4kstart-up costswill befunded fromdrawing onthe nowamended PlanningPolicy Reserve.

 

The yeartwo costof thisamendment £74,770(which includesa 2%inflationary increase)will befunded fromdrawing onthe now amendedPlanning PolicyReserve.

 

From year threeonwards, the two additional postswill befunded from savings:

 

The CommunityDirectorate (Specificallyfound fromCommunity Events& Engagementactivities)

·         CommunityEngagement G094/34504                             £11,000

·         CommunityEvents G209/34355                                      £20,000

·         StGeorge’s ArtsCentre Events G259/70230                  £20,000

·         MatchFunding (to attractexternal funds)G259/34272 £15,000

 

With theremaining balancemet from thePlanning PolicyReserve.

 

Impact on the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP)

 

The fundingof the amendmentis setout inthe tablebelow:

 

Year	MTFP Year	Total  costof proposedamendment £		Planning Policy Reserve Funding £	Service Codes   £	Total fundingfor proposedamendment £
1	2022/23	77,300		77,300	--	77,300
2	2023/24	74,770		74,770	--	74,770
3	2024/25	76,270		10,270	66,000	76,270
4	2025/26	77,800		11,800	66,000	77,800
5	2026/27	79,360		13,360	66,000	79,360
6	2027/28	80,950		14,950	66,000	80,950
7	2028/29	82,570		16,570	66,000	82,570
8	2029/30	84,220		18,220	66,000	84,220
9	2030/31	85,900		19,900	66,000	85,900

 

The amendment would remove funding of £135,980 planned for the Climate Change Reserve, withthis insteadbeing directedto thePlanning PolicyReserve.

 

The year one cost of the amendment could be met from the amended Planning Policy Reserve withno impact on the activity intended to be funded by the Reserve.In year two, only £58,680 of the redirected funding to the Planning Policy Reserve would be available to meet the cost of theamendment. The balance of £16,090 in year 2 and the draw from the Reserve in year 3 onwardswould be diverting funds from the activity intended be met from the Reserve, the purpose of whichis “To meet the financial liabilities arising from the development and maintenance of the GraveshamLocal DevelopmentScheme”.

 

There would be an ongoing reduction in the annual funding available to deliver Community Events &Engagement activities.

 

Approval, comments and sign-off of the Section 151 Officer:

 

I can confirm that I have examined the amendment put forward by the Conservative Group to theproposed General Fund Revenue Budget for 2022/23.The amendment would continue to produce abalanced revenuebudget for2022/23.

 

The amendment includes recurring expenditure, the funding of which has been considered andreflected. It has been specifically costed and is therefore considered to be a sufficiently robustestimates tobe included in thebudget.

 

The amendment would enable the Community Directorate to fully assess in years one and two howthe proposed budget reductions (specifically from community events & engagement activities) couldbe delivered and any impacton suchactivity.

 

The proposal is balanced from 2024/25 only by the use of the Planning Policy Reserve.The use of theReserve for this purpose isnot currently inline withthe reason forholding the Reserve.

 

Sarah Parfitt

Director (CorporateServices)

 

Following a debate, the amendment was put to the meeting and declared to be lost by 22 votes to 18:-

 

 

For the motion	Against the motion	Abstain
Cllrs: D Ashenden, Aslam, Bains, Broadley, Dibben, A Elliott, E Elliott, Harding, Hills, Hoskins, Jassal, Lane, Meade, Morton, Pritchard, Rice, Tiran and Wardle.	The Worshipful the Mayor Cllrs: Burden, Bungar, Caller, Croxton, Francis, Gow, Hayre, Khabra, Mochrie-Cox, Morley, Mulheran, Rana, C Rolles, L Rolles, Sangha, Scollard, Singh, Sullivan, Thandi, Thompson and Wallace.	Cllrs: Craske and Pearton.

 

The substantive motion was put to the meeting and declared to be carried by 23 votes to 18:-

 

For the motion	Against the motion	Abstain
The Worshipful the Mayor Cllrs: Burden, Bungar, Caller, Craske, Croxton, Francis, Gow, Hayre, Khabra, Mochrie-Cox, Morley, Mulheran, Rana, C Rolles, L Rolles, Sangha, Scollard, Singh, Sullivan, Thandi, Thompson and Wallace.	Cllrs: D Ashenden, Aslam, Bains, Broadley, Dibben, A Elliott, E Elliott, Harding, Hills, Hoskins, Jassal, Lane, Meade, Morton, Pritchard, Rice, Tiran and Wardle.	Cllr: Pearton.

 

It was therefore resolved that:-

1.    It benoted thaton 5January 2022the Director(Corporate Services)calculated;

 

(a)        the Council Tax Base 2022-23 for the whole Council area as 34,829.66 Band D equivalent properties, inaccordance withRegulation 3of theLocal Authorities (Calculationof CouncilTax Base)Regulations 1992 made under Section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended by Section 74 of theLocalism Act2011.

 

(b)        fordwellings inthose parts ofits areato whicha Parishprecept relatesas setout below;

	Part of theCouncil's area:		Units
	Cobham		671.13
	Higham		1,583.41
	Luddesdown		104.58
	Meopham		3,071.07
	Shorne		1,154.76
	Vigo		717.40
	Gravesham & Northfleet		27,527.31
	Total		34,829.66

2.         Calculatethat theCouncil Taxrequirement forthe Council's ownpurposes for2022-23 (excluding Parish precepts) is£7,592,170 (£217.98per BandD Property).

 

3.         Thatthe followingamounts becalculated by theCouncil forthe year2022-23 inaccordance withSections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended by Section 74 of theLocalism Act2011:

 

	(a)		£74,838,850				being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out inSection 31A(2)of the Acttaking into accountall preceptsissued toit by ParishCouncils.
	(b)		£66,774,820				being theaggregate of theamounts whichthe Councilestimates forthe itemsset out inSection 31A(3)of theAct.
	(c)		£8,064,030				being the amount by which the aggregate at 3(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 3(b)above, calculatedby theCouncil inaccordance with Section31A(4) of theAct asits CouncilTax requirementfor theyear.
	(d)		£231.53				being the amount at 3(c) above , all divided by Item 1a above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 31B(1) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year (including Parish precepts).
	(e)		£471,860				being the aggregate amount of all special items (Parish precepts) referred to in Section 34(1) of the Act.
	(f)		£217.98				being the amount at 3(d) above less the result given by dividing the amount at 3(e) above by Item 1a above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 34(2) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which no Parish precept relates.
(g)		Part of theCouncil's area:										£
		Parish of:
						Cobham						270.13
						Higham						295.98
						Luddesdown						287.84
						Meopham						263.08
						Shorne						254.55
						Vigo						392.66
being the amounts given by adding to the amount at 3(f) above the amounts of the special item or itemsrelating todwellings in those parts ofthe Council's areamentioned abovedivided ineach caseby the amountat 1(b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 34(3) of the Act, as the basic amounts ofits council taxfor the year for thedwellings in thoseparts ofits area towhich one or more specialitems relate.
(h)				Partof the Council's area
													Valuation Bands
					A			B	C				D			E		F		G			H
Parish of:					£			£	£				£			£		£		£			£
Cobham					180.09			210.10	240.12				270.13			330.16		390.19		450.22			540.26
Higham					197.32			230.21	263.09				295.98			361.75		427.53		493.30			591.96
Luddesdown					191.89			223.88	255.86				287.84			351.80		415.77		479.73			575.68
Meopham					175.39			204.62	233.85				263.08			321.54		380.00		438.47			526.16
Shorne					169.70			197.98	226.27				254.55			311.12		367.68		424.25			509.10
Vigo					261.77			305.40	349.03				392.66			479.92		567.18		654.43			785.32
All otherparts					145.32			169.54	193.76				217.98			266.42		314.86		363.30			435.96

being the amounts given by multiplying the amounts at 3(f) and 3(g) above by the number which, in theproportion set out in Section 5(1) of the Act, is applicable to dwellings listed in a particular valuation banddivided by the number which in that proportion is applicable to dwellings listed in valuation band D, calculatedby the Council, in accordance with Section 36(1) of the Act, as the amounts to be taken into account for theyear inrespect ofcategories of dwellings listed in different valuationbands.

 

Note:  During the debate, the Mayor drew attention to the time remaining and stated that under Council Procedure Rule 12 she would extend the time allowed for the remaining business to be concluded.