Agenda item

(1)          Mr Oakford moved, and Mr Gough seconded the motion that:

“Pursuant to section 25 of the Local Government Act, the County Council is asked to note this report and agree to have due regard to the contents when making decisions about the budget.”

(2)          The Corporate Director for Finance said that, as the Section 151 Officer, she was legally required to give her opinion on the robustness of the budget estimates and the level of the Council’s reserves.  She said that, having taken into account a number of factors including the highly uncertain operating environment, the significantly increased financial risks being faced by the Council in both the short and medium term, a detailed assessment of the budget estimates, the Council’s financial resilience, the risks it was facing and the proposed approach to strengthening reserves contained in the appendices to the draft budget report at item 5 of the agenda and presented at a member briefing on 4 February, in her opinion, the budget estimates set out at item 5 of the agenda were robust as were the level of reserves.

(3)          The Chairman put the motion set out in paragraph 1 above to the vote and the vote was as follows:

For (65)

Mrs Allen, Mr Balfour, Mr Barrington-King, Mr Bartlett, Mrs Bell, Mrs Beresford, Mr Bird, Mr Bond, Mr Booth, Mr Bowles, Mr Brazier, Mr Butler, Miss Carey, Sir Paul Carter, Mrs Chandler, Mr Chard, Mr Chittenden, Mr Clinch, Mrs Cole, Mr Collor, Mr Cook, Mr Cooke, Mr Cooper, Mrs Crabtree, Mr Dance, Mrs Dean, , Mrs Game, Mr Gibbens Mr Gough, Mrs Hamilton, Mr Harman, Mr Hill, Mr Hills, Mrs Hohler, Mr Holden, Mr Homewood, Mr Hook, Mr Horwood, Mr Hotson, Mrs Hurst, Mr Kite, Mr Lake, Ida Linfield, Mr Long, Mr Love, Mr Manion, Mr Marsh, Mr McInroy, Mr Messenger, Mr Monk, Miss Morton, Mr Murphy, Mr Northey, Mr Oakford, Mr Pascoe, Mr Payne, Mrs Prendergast, Mr Pugh, Miss Rankin, Mr Simkins, Mr Sweetland, Mr Thomas, Mr Whiting, Mr Whybrow, Mr Wright.

Against (3) Miss Constantine, Mr Lewis, Dr Sullivan

Abstain(1)  Mr Farrell

Motion carried.

(4)          Resolved that, pursuant to section 25 of the Local Government Act, the County Council notes this report and agrees to have due regard to the contents when making decisions about the budget.