Agenda item

Councillor I C Bates, the Leader of the Council and Chairman of the Cabinet presented the Report of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19th November 2009.

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In connection with Item No. 42, Councillor T V Rogers, Executive Councillor for Finance, reaffirmed the decision of the Cabinet to review the level of expenditure proposed for Huntingdon Bus Station as requested by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Economic Well-Being) and advised Members, that together with the Director of Commerce and Technology, he had presented the Council’s budgetary position at meetings held recently with representatives of the five Town Councils in the District.

In presenting the draft Budget and Medium Term Plan (MTP), Councillor Rogers reminded Members of the Council’s current financial position which had involved the use of revenue reserves in 2008/9 to meet the deficit between income and expenditure.  As these reserves would continue to reduce to approximately £11 million by 2011, Councillor Rogers drew attention to the Council’s decision to embark upon a strategy to identify savings of £500,000 in 2010/11 and further reductions in subsequent years.  Key elements of the approach taken by the Cabinet in the preparation of the budget were described to the Council.  At the same time Councillor Rogers made it clear that there were a number of uncertainties remaining which might require changes to be made to the budget before its final approval at the Council meeting in February 2010.  Councillor Rogers commended the recommendations of the Cabinet on the draft Budget and MTP 2010 – 2015 to the Council.

The Leader of the Opposition, Councillor P J Downes, acknowledged the contribution made by the Overview and Scrutiny Panels to the budgetary process and suggested that the District Council had found itself in a difficult financial position for five reasons.  These were the external influence of the recession, local government financial technicalities that had disadvantaged the authority, the loss of interest from the use of reserves, the imposition of capping on tax levels and the probable reduction in public expenditure by Government.  In his view, the Council had to consider seriously the prospect of shared services and the opportunities which might arise from the “Making Cambridgeshire Count” exercise.

On the same subject Councillor I C Bates, Leader of the Council, contended that the Council Tax charge for a Band D property still represented good value for money and that the District Council continued to provide excellent services.  He added that the authority would seek to work increasingly with partners to reduce expenditure and pursue the possibility, where appropriate, to share services.

On the same subject and in response to questions from Councillor M F Shellens on the possibility of the District Council caretaking/investing Parish Councils’ funds to maximise interest which could be generated from reserves, Councillor Rogers replied that he would seek the advice of the Director of Commerce and Technology and respond to the questioner in writing.

Whereupon, having been moved and seconded and put to the vote, the recommendation contained in Item No. 42 was declared to be CARRIED.

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In connection with Item No. 43 and in response to questions by Councillor Mrs M Banerjee and P J Downes regarding the Huntingdon West Area Action Plan, Councillor Dew assured the questioners respectively that any difficulty arising from the surface water drainage system would be addressed by individual development applications as part of the planning process and that he had noted the concern expressed about the adequacy of the proposed road network to meet the expectations of development in that area.

Whereupon, having been moved and seconded and put to the vote, the recommendation contained in Item No. 43 was declared to be CARRIED.

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In connection with Item No. 49 and in response to a question from Councillor P J Downes, Councillor J A Gray, Executive Councillor for the Environment and Information and Technology indicated that a report would be submitted to a future meeting of the Cabinet on the initiatives proposed to promote the 10:10 climate change campaign in the District.

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Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

  that, subject to the foregoing paragraphs, the Report of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19th November 2009 be received and adopted.