Agenda and minutes

The Director of Governance and Law reported apologies from Mr I S Chittenden and Mr S C Manion.

(1)          Mrs J Whittle declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in the debate on the Strategic and Corporate Services Directorate as her husband was an employee in that Directorate and she would be withdrawing from the meeting during consideration of this matter.

(2)          Mr G Cowan declared an interest in that both he and his wife were foster carers.

(3)          Mr G Koowaree declared an interest as he had a grandson in care supported by Kent County Council and a relation receiving a direct payment for home care.

(4)          Mr C Caller declared an interest as his wife was employed in a Kent County Council school as a teaching assistant and his son was employed by Kent County Council.

(5)          Mr T Maddison declared an other significant interest in any debate on salaries as his son was employed by Kent County Council.

(6)          Mr B Sweetland declared an interest as his wife was a specialist teacher at Ifield School.

(7)          Mrs P Brivio declared an other significant interest in any debate on salaries as her son was employed by Kent County Council.

(8)          Mr C Simkin declared an interest as his wife was employed in Goudhurst School.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 11 December 2014 be approved as a correct record.

(a)       New Year’s Honours List

The Chairman stated that he would like to formally congratulate all those who received an Honour in the New Year Honours List 2015, especially those within the County.  He particularly made mention of Thomas Winsor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, who received a Knighthood for his dedicated public service and Miss Kate Lampard DL, who received an OBE for her outstanding work with the National Health Service, and particularly her involvement in the investigation into Jimmy Savile, and Ms Dorothy Weedon, who received an MBE for political service, particularly in Maidstone. 

(b)       Freedom of the City of Canterbury

The Chairman stated that he was pleased to announce that Canterbury City Council at its meeting on Thursday 15 January had awarded the Freedom of the City to Mrs Amanda Cottrell, OBE, Sir Graeme Odgers and Mr Paul Barrett.  Mrs Cottrell was the first lady to be awarded this honour.

(c)        Petition from residents in Cobham

The Chairman invited Mr Sweetland to come to the dais to present a petition signed by 170 residents of the village of Cobham in his division, asking the County Council to take action over the speed of vehicles driving through the village.

The Chairman then invited the Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Mr David Brazier, to come to the dais to accept the petition and to ensure it was properly investigated and responded to.

(1)     The Chairman reminded all Members that any member of a local authority who was liable to pay Council Tax and who had any unpaid Council Tax amount overdue for at least two months, even if there was an arrangement to pay off the arrears, must declare the fact that they were in arrears and must not cast their vote on anything related to KCC’s budget or Council Tax.

(2)     He stated that all Members should have received a letter from the Head of Democratic Services, dated 4 February, setting out the process and order of the budget debate at today’s meeting, together with the letter dated 10 February, which contained copies of two amended appendices relating to the Strategic and Corporate Services restructure.

(3)     In addition, and in view of Mrs Whittle’s Pecuniary Interest in the Strategic and Corporate Services restructure, the Chairman stated that he proposed to take the vote on recommendation (k) separately to the remainder of the recommendations on the budget report at the end of the debate on the Strategic and Corporate Services directorate and that he had consulted Group Leaders before making this decision. He added that Members would find on their desks a revised set of recommendations, which separated out recommendation (k) and also amended the figure for capital investment proposals in recommendation (d), so that it was now the same as the figure contained in paragraph 1.8 of the covering report.

(4)       The Chairman moved, the Vice-Chairman seconded that:

(a)       Procedure Rule 1.12(2) be suspended in order that the meeting be extended to 5.00pm if necessary;

(b)       Procedure Rule 1.28 be suspended in order that the Leader be allowed to speak for a maximum of 12 minutes, the seconder of the original motion to speak for up to 5 minutes, the Leader of the UKIP, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independents Groups for 10, 7, 5 and 3 minutes respectively, with the Leader being given a 5 minute right of reply and the Cabinet Members being allowed to speak for up to 4, 5 or 6 minutes each when introducing each Directorate debate; and

 (c)       Procedure Rule 1.35 be suspended in order for the mover and seconder of the original motion to be permitted to speak on more than one occasion.

Agreed without a vote

(5)     The Chairman then invited Mr Shipton, Head of Financial Strategy, to give a presentation and to comment on various issues relevant to the budget. 

(6)       Mr Carter moved, Mr Simmonds seconded the approval of the contents of the Budget 2015/16 and the Medium Term Financial Plan 2015 – 18 (including Council Tax setting for 2015/16) and to approve the following proposals:

(a)       Revised revenue budget requirement of £916.479m for 2015-16

(b)       The revised revenue budget for KSAS (BB page 49 line 40) to £1,481.5k

(c)        The revised revenue budget for contributions to/from reserves (BB page 65 line 147) to £2,187.4k

(d)       Capital investment proposals of £728.337m over three years from 2015-16 to 2017-18 together with the necessary  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.