Issue - decisions

Joe Chesterton, Divisional Director of Corporate Finance and the Council’s Chief Financial Officer, introduced the report of the Corporate Director of Resources advising on the Council’s budget position and Council Tax for 2008/09, the adoption of the rolling three year medium term financial strategy, capital strategy and a capital programme and referred to the proposed amendment submitted by the Minority Party, together with his comments on the impact of the proposals.

 

Councillor Bramley, Lead Member for Resources, presented the budget proposals that were agreed by the Executive on 19 February 2008, reminding Members that preparing a budget of this nature is a year long process that begins immediately after the commencement of a new financial year.  Councillor Bramley referred to the Resource Monitoring Panel which meets monthly to review spending and savings plans approved for the year and at this point he thanked Chief Officers and Heads of Service for their co-operation and support in preparing this year’s budget and at the Resource Monitoring Panel meetings.

 

Councillor Bramley advised that Barking and Dagenham have received a grant settlement of £95m, up 5.5%, and a Direct Schools Grant of £135m, up 5.1%.  The Labour Group’s budget proposals for 2008/09 will mean an increase in Council Tax this year amounting to just 72 pence per week or less for 85% of the Borough’s population.  For this increase there will be additional spending of 7.2% this year, approximately £19m extra on Council services that serve the local community, and he drew Members’ attention to two items in particular:

 

·  An increase of £700,000 for supporting young vulnerable adults who have been in care in the transition to adulthood;

·  Investment in Children’s Services – the Council is investing £2.5m to support vulnerable young people in their development and future.  That is the reason the Council was Corporate Parent of the Year.  He pledged that the many young people looked after by the Council would not be let down and the Council would do everything they could to give them the same support as other children in the borough.

 

Councillor Bramley also referred to the proposed level of spending on capital projects of £452m over the next three years, which includes:

 

·  £182m earmarked for building schools for the future

·  A new school for Eastbury Primary School

·  £1.6m over the next two years for disabled adaptations

·  £97m over three years to deliver on the Housing Strategy

·  £18m for a new Becontree Heath Leisure Centre

·  £7m for parks and green spaces

 

In conclusion, Councillor Bramley said that the Labour Group’s budget builds on previous commitments to raising educational standards, a cleaner, greener and safer borough, regeneration and the expansion of the Council’s housing stock.  Above all it is a budget to support the vulnerable.  He concurred with comments made by the Leader of the Council in his earlier address to Members and commended the budget to the Assembly.

 

Councillor Barnbrook then presented the Minority Party amendment to the budget as follows:

 

“The British National Party is presenting its budget for 2008/9 which includes prospective savings of £10.2m which will enable a no increase council tax which will benefit both residents and businesses within the Borough. The fundamentals of this budget provide for improved delivery over a range of services by performing functions on an in-house basis using Council staff rather than providing profits for agencies and contractors.

 

Unlike the Labour Council budget there will be no cuts to essential services such as public conveniences indeed we will reverse the trend of running down essential services and the public sector. A major part of the savings will come from dismantling the phoney public sector which has been created to serve political correctness.  In this respect we will not be cutting expenditure we will be slashing it.

 

Adult and Community Services Revenue Budget

 

Older Persons’ Services - The BNP anticipate savings of £2m by operating older persons’ services in-house instead of on an agency basis. The BNP believe it is possible to deliver a higher standard of service of meals on wheels from the Council from existing Council catering facilities. That in-house carers for the elderly operate in a more efficient and effective manner. Overall benefits will accrue from regular Council employees rather than to agency operatives who may come and go.

 

Learning Disabilities - Similarly, services covering learning disabilities would be operated more efficiently and effectively by an in-house service than by an agency where quality control must be more difficult to administer and monitor.

 

Safety and Parks Police - Safety and Parks Police is a service which can be run and delivered by Council staff.

 

Drugs and Alcohol Services - The BNP is so concerned with the interests of local people we would increase the budget to this service by £200,000 to take a direct action approach to the social problems of alcohol and substance abuse/misuse. At the same time savings of £100,000 could be made by eliminating agency expenditure.

 

Community and Development - The BNP would do away with agency grants. The BNP is committed to supporting local voluntary organisations and groups provided that they comply with terms and conditions to any grants which ensure local tax payers see a real return for their investment. As an example: where sporting or arts organisations are in receipt of Council grants they must be able to prove an adequate level of fundraising themselves and evidence that their product is accessible to all members of the community. This may mean for some of them that they have to arrange visits by elderly residents of the Borough to their facilities thus proving they are part of the community. We believe by taking a more responsible approach to community development, savings of £200,000 may be anticipated and the voluntary sector will be driven to be more effective.

 

Equalities and Diversities - The BNP anticipate savings of £100,000 in the staffing budget.

 

Children’s Services

 

We will strive to reduce the volume of agency providers and we will reduce the sums available for service provision and make savings of £5.3m. We will maximise local provision of services by introducing capped and budget driven services and we will review the possibility of off-shoring where there is a consensus that it would benefit the ethnic integrity of the client.

 

Customer Services

 

Refuse Collection - We will bring the refuse collection in house giving a net saving of £200,000.

 

Frizlands Depot and Passenger Transport - The BNP will merge these two entities because the BNP is committed to the concept of renewable fuel sources and environmentally friendly transport. The BNP will invest £300,000 in eco-friendly vehicles ranging from hybrids to electric mini buses.

 

Environmental Health and Trading Standards - The BNP is committed to protecting and improving the health of the Borough residents and also waging war on the exploitive practices of people traffickers, gang masters, and abusers of animal welfare. The BNP propose to spend an additional £400,000 on increased staffing of environmental health and trading standards. Officers will focus on the areas of hygiene in particular in areas of TB and halal food, bush meat and counterfeit goods.

 

Revenue and Benefits - The collection of revenues and the payment of benefits is one of the most important functions of the authority. The BNP note the way the business community has negligible arrears and whilst the vast majority of Council taxpayers realise their obligations the small minority that don’t will be severely targeted. The BNP will intensify the level of targeting in the residential area and anticipate this will bring savings of £1.5m, a 1 percent improvement.

 

Regeneration

 

Public Conveniences - The BNP is committed to maintaining this most fundamental of government services. Therefore, unlike Labour, we will not close all public conveniences. The BNP will spend an additional £150,000 on a high profile staffing, cleaning and a security presence. We will eliminate the £3,000 agency costs.

 

On/Off Street Parking - On/off street parking is not a significant revenue generator for the Council nor should it be. However the over exuberant enforcement in certain areas of the Borough is seen as a deterrent to the success of local shops and small businesses. It is the BNP’s opinion that an adequate service can be provided by more selective control with fewer traffic wardens. Therefore, we propose savings of £403,000 can be made.

 

Highways Maintenance - The BNP can see no advantage to the taxpayers of the Borough in making profits for private companies. We propose to bring the service in house and anticipate net savings of £500,000.

 

Adult Basics Skills Initiative - An element of this relates to paying for learning for asylum seekers. The BNP does not see why the Council and taxpayers should fund this so the BNP proposes cuts of £50,000.

 

Parks and Open Spaces - The BNP believes that parks and open spaces are better managed and safer places when run in the traditional way with full time Council employees on site. We believe this can replace the existing agency arrangements, provide a better and safer service and save the taxpayer £200,000.

 

Cemeteries - The BNP wishes to encourage the honouring of our ancestors and in order to make cemetery visits easier we will spend £44,000 as a first step to provide shelters and toilets facilities at cemeteries.

 

Allotments - The BNP wishes to encourage the production of home-grown food and will provide £20,000 for the provision of storage facilities as a step towards mini farmer/barter markets.

 

Sports Centres - The chief officers have been unable to give us a precise costing for that element of expenditure known as celebrating diversity. We are not interested in celebrating diversity, just Britishness and in the absences of figures from the officers we anticipate that £500,000 of political correctness can be slashed and the burden on residents and businesses removed.

 

Sports Development - The BNP believes that competitive sport is part and parcel of the healthy development of individuals and groups. To this end we make available £100,000 for professional sport coaching from the borough’s leisure centre.

 

Arboriculture and Nurseries - We will eliminate £50,000 of agency expenditure and spend an equivalent sum on extra training, staffing and transport.

 

Resources

 

Human Resources - A service which was traditionally known as the personnel department, have a budget in the region of £6.5m. In the BNP’s opinion a bogus industry has been created around community priorities, promoting equality opportunities and celebrating diversity.  BNP believe the roll of the personnel department is simply to ensure the adequate professional staffing of Council departments to achieve the necessities of local government. We propose therefore that £3m of the £6.5m be given the chop and the bulk of this will come from employee expenses.

 

Democracy and Partnerships - The BNP does not believe it is necessary to spend £5m of taxpayers’ money to assist members and staff to deliver socialist priorities. Again an industry has been created around so called community engagement and marketing. The BNP believes that a budget for electoral and registration services should cost £2m less than this. We do not believe the head of service should be the Council whistle blowing officer, the BNP takes the view that the finance professionals of the internal audit section are in the best position to do this.

 

Strategic Finance and Audit - The BNP believe that the strategic finance and audit play a key roll in ensuring the proper probity of the Council. And its merits are undervalued and the department is understaffed to realise its potential. To this end we will make available £200,000 to strengthen the internal audit function to ensure by a system based approach that the Council complies with all statutory duties, the security of its operating systems, and its achievement of value for money and to perform a whistle blowing function.

 

Capital Programme

The BNP believes there is one issue within the Capital Programme that in its importance outweighs all other issues. The BNP is totally opposed to the residential development of the Thames Gateway. The BNP believes that as this land is on the flood plain that it would be in the interests of public safety, the environment, and to allow for unknown factors in the future, that it should be left undeveloped. We do not believe this will be detrimental to the provision of housing in Barking and Dagenham and in London in general. Within the context of the BNP’s demographic and law and order strategy, by not developing this land there will be a significant financial saving to the borough’s taxpayers by the elimination of the resulting revenue costs of capital development.

 

Revenue Development of Housing Portfolio

To indicate the BNP’s commitment to ensuring that Council housing moves towards meeting the needs of the local population it is proposed to make an initial contribution of £2m sourced from Revenue as the start of a policy of replenishing the Council housing stock from its original base as opportunity permits.”

 

There then followed a lengthy debate on the amended budget proposals put forward by the Minority Party.  A number of the Executive Portfolio Holders questioned the validity and sustainability of the proposals in areas such as parks police, parks and leisure facilities, housing and services to children and older people.  The view was expressed that the proposals could not be delivered without a major impact on service provision and large scale redundancies.  However, Councillor Barnbrook reiterated that his party’s proposals would not involve cuts to services or jobs.

 

The Chief Executive referred to officers’ statutory responsibilities in assessing all budget proposals and the Chief Financial Officer advised that the Labour Party’s budget is robust and sustainable but that the proposals of the BNP cannot be fully substantiated at this stage of setting the Council budget for 2008/09.

 

Councillor Bramley was invited to sum up the Labour Party’s budget and Councillor Barnbrook to do likewise in respect of the BNP proposals.

 

Councillor Bramley said that the amendment submitted by the Minority Party was a cuts and redundancies budget which would result in 192 job losses in one department alone.  He reiterated the Chief Financial Officer’s view that, given the impact on services as identified by Corporate Directors and the position on the investment into Council services of £10m, which is currently unidentified, that the Minority Party budget changes are unsustainable.  Councillor Bramley concluded by saying that the Majority Party was calling for a recorded vote as they wanted to know who would be voting for redundancies and they would make sure that the people of this Borough know.

 

Councillor Barnbrook referred to his opening speech saying that he believed the Minority Party’s amendment was sustainable and robust.

 

Councillor Fairbrass moved the motion for a recorded vote, which was seconded by Councillors Alexander, Bramley and Liam Smith.

 

The Minority Party amended budget was put to the vote and by a majority vote was rejected as follows:

 

Name	For	Against	Abstain	Absent
Councillor A Agrawal		?
Councillor J L Alexander		?
Councillor R W Bailey	?
Councillor Mrs S J Baillie		?
Councillor R J Barnbrook	?
Councillor W F L Barns		?
Councillor G J Bramley		?
Councillor R J Buckley	?
Councillor Ms E Carpenter		?
Councillor S Carroll		?
Councillor H J Collins				?
Councillor N Connelly			?
Councillor J Davis		?
Councillor J R Denyer		?
Councillor Miss C L Doncaster	?
Councillor Mrs S A Doncaster	?
Councillor R W Doncaster	?
Councillor C J Fairbrass		?
Councillor M A R Fani		?
Councillor Mrs K J Flint		?
Councillor N S S Gill		?
Councillor S S Gill			?
Councillor D Hemmett				?
Councillor Mrs D Hunt		?
Councillor I S Jamu		?
Councillor J K Jarvis	?
Councillor S Kallar		?
Councillor Mrs C A Knight	?
Councillor Miss T A Lansdown	?
Councillor R C Little		?
Councillor M A McCarthy		?
Councillor J E McDermott		?
Councillor M E McKenzie		?
Councillor Mrs P A Northover		?
Councillor W W Northover		?
Councillor E O Obasohan		?
Councillor B Poulton		?
Councillor Mrs J E Rawlinson				?
Councillor Mrs L A Reason		?
Councillor Mrs V Rush		?
Councillor L Rustem	?
Councillor L A Smith		?
Councillor Miss N E Smith		?
Councillor J Steed	?
Councillor D A Tuffs	?
Councillor Mrs P A Twomey				?
Councillor G M Vincent		?
Councillor L R Waker		?
Councillor P T Waker		?
Councillor Mrs M M West		?
Councillor J R White		?

 

The substantive budget approved by the Executive was put to the vote and by a majority vote was agreed (all Labour Party Members present voted for the substantive budget, all BNP Members voted against and the Conservative Member and the Chair abstained), as set out below:

 

(i)  A revenue budget and Council Tax increase of 4.31% for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and note the 1.96% increase in the Greater London Authority precept giving an overall increase of 3.75% for 2008/09 as set out in Appendix 1 and 1(i) of the report;

 

(ii)  The position on reserves as set out in paragraphs 3.1 and 3.4 of the report;

 

(iii)  The Statutory Budget Determinations and Amount of Council Tax for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham:

 

1.  That it be noted that at its meeting on 18 December 2007 the Executive calculated the amount of 51,429.5 as its Council Tax Base for the year 2008/2009 in accordance with Regulation 3 of the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992 made under Section 33(5) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

 

2.  That the following amounts be now calculated by the Council for the year 2008/2009 in accordance with Sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government and Finance Act 1992:?

 

	(a)	£515,129,878			being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(2) (a) to (e) of the Act
	(b)	£367,881,378			being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(3)(a) to (c) of the Act
	(c)	£147,248,500			being the amount by which the aggregate at 2(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 2(b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act, as its budget requirement for the year
	(d)	£94,975,641			being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its General Fund in respect of redistributed non?domestic rates, revenue support grant reduced by the amount of the sums which the Council estimates will be transferred in the year from its General Fund to its Collection Fund in accordance with Section 97(3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and further increased by the amount of any sum which the Council estimates will be transferred from its Collection Fund to its General Fund pursuant to the directions under Section 98(4) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 made on the 7 February 1994.
	(e)	£1,016.40			being the amount at 2(c) above less the amount at 2(d) above, all divided by the amount at 1 above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 33(1) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year.
(f)			Valuation Bands
A			B	C		D	E	F	G	H
£			£	£		£	£	£	£	£
677.60			790.53	903.47		1,016.40	1,242.27	1,468.13	1,694.00	2,032.80
being the amounts given by multiplying the amount at 2(e) above by the number which, in the proportion set out in Section 5(1) of the Act, is applicable to dwellings listed in a particular valuation band divided by the number which in that proportion is applicable to dwellings listed in valuation Band 'D' calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 36(1) of the Act, as the amounts to be taken into account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings listed in different valuation bands.

 

3.  That it be noted that for the year 2008/2009 the Greater London Authority has stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Council, in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for each of the categories of dwellings shown below:-

 

  Precepting Authority - Greater London Authority

 

  Valuation Bands

 

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£
206.55	240.97	275.40	309.82	378.67	447.52	516.37	619.64

 

4.  That, having calculated the aggregate in each case of the amounts at 2(f) and 3 above, the Council, in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, hereby sets the following amounts as the amounts of Council Tax for the year 2008/2009 for each of the categories of dwellings shown below:-

 

Valuation Bands

 

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£
884.15	1,031.50	1,178.87	1,326.22	1,620.94	1,915.65	2,210.37	2,652.44

 

(iv)  A Capital Programme for 2008/09 to 2011/12 in accordance with the recommendations approved by the Executive on 19 February 2008 as set out in Appendix 3 and 3(i) of the report;

 

(v)  The Medium Term Financial Strategy as set out in Appendix 4 of the report;

 

(vi)  The Capital Strategy as set out in Appendix 5 of the report; and

 

(vii)  The Prudential Indicators as set out in Appendix 6 of the report.