Agenda and minutes

The General Counsel reported apologies from Mr Booth, Mr Butler, Mr Dance, Mr Homewood, Mr Horwood, Mr Koowaree and Mr Manion.

(1)         Dr Sullivan declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest as her husband was employed by the County Council in the Early Help and Prevention Team and stated that she would withdraw from the meeting during consideration of Amendment 1 (Youth Services).

(2)           Mr Lewis declared an interest as his wife worked for the County Council.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2018 be approved as a correct record, subject to the amendment of a typographical error on page 18 and the inclusion of Ms S Hamilton in the list of Members present at the meeting.

New Year’s Honours List

The Chairman referred Members to the list of New Year Honours Recipients from Kent and formally congratulated all those who had received an Honour.

(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 are in arrears and must not cast their vote on anything related to KCC’s Budget or Council Tax.

(2)           The Chairman stated that all Members would have received an email from Democratic Services, dated 7 February 2019, setting out the process and order of the budget debate.

(3)        The Chairman moved and the Vice-Chairman seconded that:

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

Procedure Rule 1.28 be suspended in order that Mr Carter,  proposer of the original motion, be allowed to speak for 12 minutes and Mr Oakford, the seconder, be allowed to speak for 5 minutes, the Leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independents Groups speak for 8, 6 and 4 – minutes respectively, with the Proposer of the motion being given a 5 minute right of reply; and the Cabinet Members to speak for up to 12 minutes when introducing each directorate debate;

Procedure Rule 1.35 be suspended in order for the proposer and seconder of the original motion to be permitted to speak on more than one occasion.”

Agreed without a formal vote

(4)           The Chairman then invited Mr Shipton, Head of Finance (Policy, Planning and Strategy), to give a presentation on various issues relevant to the budget. As part of this presentation, Mr Shipton, as acting Section 151 officer, confirmed that the budget estimates were robust and the level of reserves adequate, as required by the Local Government Act 2003.

(5)        Mr Carter moved and Mr Oakford seconded the following motion:

            “(i) The County Council is asked to agree the following:

            (a)       Net revenue budget requirement of £986.374m for 2019-20.

(b)       Capital investment proposals of £999.573m over three years from 2019-20 to 2021-22 together with the necessary funding and subject to approval to spend arrangements.      

(c) The new Capital Strategy as set out in appendix 1 of this report including

the Prudential Indicators.

(d)       The Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Statement as set out in appendix 2 of this report.

  (e)       The flexible use of capital receipts referred to in paragraph 1.16 and as set out in appendix 3 of this report.

(f)        The directorate capital programmes as set out in section 1 of the draft Budget Book published on 2nd January 2019 as amended by the changes in this report (see appendix 4 of this report).

(g)       The directorate revenue budget proposals as set out in draft Budget Book published on 2nd January 2019 as amended by the latest updates included in this report (summarised in appendices 5, 6, 7 and 8 of this report).

(h)       Delegate responsibility to Cabinet Members and Corporate Directors to manage the budget within the parameters set out  ...  view the full minutes text for item 120.