Agenda and draft minutes

It was proposed by Councillor C Parker, seconded by Councillor Parrott and

RESOLVED The Minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 2024 be approved as a correct record, subject to the removal of the word ‘below’ in the Recommendation at item 9 and signed by the Chairman.

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Members of the public may ask questions of the Chair. A maximum period of 15 minutes will be allowed with a maximum period of three minutes per questioner. The deadline for questions is no later than three working days before the date of the meeting i.e. should the meeting be on a Thursday the deadline would be the Friday before at 5pm.

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Members of the Council may ask questions of the Chair of the Committee subject to procedural rules. The deadline for questions is no later than three clear working days before the meeting.

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To note forthcoming issues anticipated to be considered by the Executive over the next 12 months. The Executive Forward Plan can be found here.

The Executive Forward Plan listing items to be considered over the next few months was noted, and consideration was given to whether any items were to be requested to come forward to the Committee prior to being considered by the Executive. There were no requests for items to come forward to the Committee

To review the Committee’s work programme

The committee’s work programme as circulated with the agenda showing issues to be considered by the Committee over the next few months was noted

To consider the attached report which includes the Executive report and appendices for the Executive meeting on 13 February 2024

This item was introduced by the Executive Member for Resources who explained that very little had changed from the report presented to the January meeting of this Committee except that the funding settlement had realised an additional £135,000 for the authority.  He was grateful to the members of the MTFP Task & Finish group for their work and had taken into account all of their recommendations.

The Chief Finance Officer presented a funding chart detailing the expenditure budget for 2024/25 and the funding sources analysed across Revenue and Capital.  It was noted that Teignbridge only received around 8% of the Council Tax due to the specific restrictions placed on District Councils (it used to be 11%).  Members found the Chart very helpful.

A number of questions were raised and either answered at the time or a follow up response offered if the information was not readily available.

It was proposed by Councillor C Parker, seconded by Councillor Parrott and agreed unanimously

RECOMMENDED

That these proposals be considered together with any subsequent consultation comments for approval by Council as the final budget for 2024/25 and the outline plan for the subsequent years 2025/26 and 2026/27.

The proposed budget includes:

• An increase in council tax of £5.70 or 2.99% to £196.41

• Maintaining 100% council tax support

• Continuing to react to the climate change emergency by maintaining ongoing revenue budgets for a climate change officer and associated spending, temporary staffing resources in revenue and provision in the capital programme, including ongoing provisions for corporate decarbonization schemes

• A £2 million provision for employment sites funded by borrowing

• Temporary funds for a Scrutiny Officer to assist Members with the Scrutiny function and working groups; other temporary resources including for facilitating the Modern 25 work

• Support for housing including the Teignbridge 100 whilst backing business and bringing people and organisations together for local neighbourhood planning

• Other central funding reductions – in particular provisional assumptions for business rates for future years and reset of the baseline

• Reserves at 12.7% of the net revenue budget or £2.4 million

• Infrastructure delivery plan investment funded by community infrastructure levy and external sources where available

• Continuation of grant funded South West Regional Monitoring Programme

• Town centre investment in infrastructure and employment

• Increasing revenue contributions to capital to £500,000 per annum

• Introduction of a blue badge car parking permit and associated staffing resources

• Councillors community fund set at £1,000

• Paying £1,000,000 off our pension deficit in 2024/25 to reduce ongoing contributions

• Maintaining existing voluntary grant contributions

Cllr G Taylor – Planning

Cllr Palethorpe – Estates, assets and parking

Planning

The Portfolio holder for Planning, Cllr G Taylor presented his biannual report.  The presentation covered:  Development Performance and Action Plan, progress on the Local Plan, the Housing Delivery Test, 5 year land supply, updates on the delivery of current projects, Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) success stories and an update on the position with Devon Building Control

Assets, Estates and Car-Parks

The Portfolio holder for Planning, Cllr D Palethorpe presented his biannual report.

Asset management

The Strategic Asset Plan is a key document that will be considered by Executive shortly and all members were encouraged to read the document as it will shape the future use of the assets across the whole area of Teignbridge.  This will be followed by a Strategy and an action Plan in coming months.

Car-Parking

This is being considered by a Task & Finish Group and Cllr Palethorpe is aware that many members are seeking additional car-parking which will be considered alongside the development of Electric vehicle charging bays.

The full presentations can be viewed here Agenda Overview & Scrutiny 2 6 February 2024

Car-Parking Group

Councillor Parrott reported on the last meeting of the group which considered the draft Car-Parking Plan and set out the dates for the group to finalise the report which would be presented to Overview & Scrutiny 2 at the next meeting

Medium Term Financial Plan Task & Finish Group

Councillor Parrott reported on the last meeting and the areas that were covered, mentioned that the next work of the group would be to receive a presentation on Modern 25 and to consider some other savings ideas and options.

The chair proposed that Assets & Estates Task & Finish Group was formed as the next group.  This was agreed unanimously