Agenda and minutes

41.1     RESOLVED – to confirm the minutes of the previous meeting of the County Council held on 18 October 2016 as a correct record.

42.1     Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Keeley, Phillips, Pursglove, Scott, D Shing and Wallis

NEW YEAR’S HONOURS

43.1     On behalf of the Council the Chairman congratulated all those who lived or worked in East Sussex who had been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List. In particular, the Chairman congratulated Councillor John Barnes who had been awarded an MBE for voluntary services to the community.

CHAIRMAN’S ACTIVITIES

43.2     The Chairman reported that he had attended a number of engagements since the last meeting of the County Council including: the presentation of awards ceremony for the South East Reserve Forces and Cadets Association, the Cuckmere Buses 40^th Anniversary tea, the Pestalozzi founders day, the All Saints church dinner, the Lewes Bonfire celebrations and the Eastbourne Silver Band’s 5^th Annual Remembrance Concert. I have also attended an East Sussex Prayer Breakfast, a RNLI Service, the BBC South East Awards, the Christmas Pontifical Sung Vespers and the Heathfield Works Graduation Evening. I attended carol concerts at Newhaven, St John’s Ambulance, the Mayor of Lewes’ concert, the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, Hastings Sea Cadets and the County Council carol concert. I have also attended a Christmas reception at Surrey County Council, 2 Citizenship Ceremonies and the Eastbourne and the Lewes Holocaust memorial events. I have also visited the refurbished Grangemead care home. I have hosted a Christmas reception and a carol concert in Lewes. The Vice Chairman has also attended a number of events.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

43.3     The Chairman indicated that the Chinese New Year began on 28 January. The Chairman wished all present a very happy Chinese New Year.

PRAYERS

43.4     The Chairman thanked Reverend Steve Daughtery for leading prayers before the meeting

43.5     The Chairman informed the Council that immediately before the meeting the following petitions had been received from members:

44.1     There were no questions from the public.

45.1     There were no declarations of interest.

46.1     The Chairman of the County Council, having called over the reports set out in the agenda, reserved the following paragraph for discussion:

Cabinet                                                            -           paragraph 1

NON-RESERVED PARAGRAPHS

46.2     On the motion of the Chairman of the County Council, the Council ADOPTED those paragraphs in the reports of the Committees that had not been reserved for discussion.

Paragraph 1 –Reconciling Policy, Performance and Resources

47.1 Under Standing Order 23, the Council agreed that the speeches of the Leaders of the six groups (or their nominees) on paragraph 1 of the Cabinet’s report should be extended beyond five minutes.

47.2 Councillor Elkin moved the adoption of paragraph 1 of the Cabinet’s report.

47.3     The following amendment was moved by Councillor Tutt and seconded:

Delete paragraph 1.78 of the Cabinet’s report and replace with:-

(1)  approve, in principle, the draft Council Plan at Appendix 1 and authorise the Chief Executive to finalise the Plan in consultation with the relevant Lead Members;

(2)  approve the net Revenue Budget estimates for 2017/18 as set out in Appendix 2 with the following amendments

1.    Reinstate early help savings in 2017/18 - £0.610m

2.    Reinstate Standards and Learning Effectiveness Service savings in 2017/18 - £0.122m

3.    Reinstate East Sussex Better Together savings by investing to support the establishment of integrated locality teams to reduce the call on acute care- £1.957m

4.      Reinstate Connecting 4 You savings (for carers, substance misuse, working age adult care, directly provided services and older people community care) totalling £0.581m

5.      Reinstate core funding for SPARK - £0.045m

6.      Provide additional investment into village maintenance support - £0.050m

Total of proposed revenue amendments - £3.365m

To be funded by:

7.         Reduce the Revenue Contribution to Capital by a further £1.0m to £3.0m - £1.0m

8.         Transfer in part the New Homes Bonus contribution to capital to revenue - £1.175m

9.         Capitalise investment into highways drainage - £1.0m

10.       Recognising that items 7-9 have an associated cost relating to increased borrowing reducing the sums available by – (£0.700m)

11.       Reduce the budget for communications - £0.500m

12.       Use parking surplus for existing transport services - £0.150m

13.       Increase target savings for BSD/Orbis - £0.200m

14.       Delete post for Culture Strategy - £0.040m (part year) in 2017/18

Total of proposed revenue funding amendments - £3.365m

(3) in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to agree that:

(i) the net budget requirement is £365.0m and the amount calculated by East

Sussex County Council as its council tax requirement (see Appendix 7) for

the year 2017/18 is £257.4m;

(ii) the amount calculated by East Sussex County Council as the basic amount

of its council tax (i.e. for a band D property) for the year 2017/18 is

£1,314.36 and represents a 4.99% (3% of which relates to the Adult Social

Care precept) increase on the previous year;

(4) advise the District and Borough Councils of the relevant amounts payable and council tax in other bands in line with the regulations and to issue precepts accordingly in accordance with an agreed schedule of instalments as set out at Appendix 7

(5) authorise the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer, Leader and Deputy Leader, to make adjustments to the presentation of the budget to reflect the final settlement and budget decisions;

(6) approve the fees and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

(a)  Oral questions to Cabinet Members

(b)  Written Questions of which notice has been given pursuant to Standing Order 44

ORAL QUESTIONS TO CABINET MEMBERS

48.1     The following members asked questions of the Lead Cabinet Members indicated and they responded:

WRITTEN QUESTIONS PURSUANT TO STANDING ORDER 44

48.2    Three written questions were received from Councillor Lambert for the Lead Member for Transport and Environment. The questions and answers are attached to these minutes.

48.3    There were no supplementary questions.