Agenda and minutes

Venue: Microsoft Teams

Contact: Email: committees@broxtowe.gov.uk 

Media

Items
No. Item

56.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members are requested to declare the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interest and/or other interest in any item on the agenda.

Minutes:

Councillors G Marshall, S J Carr and R I Jackson declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 9 as being on the Beeston Town Centre Board.  Minute number 64 refers.

57.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 239 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Council meeting held on 16 December 2020.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2020 were confirmed as a correct record.

58.

MAYOR'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Minutes:

The Mayor gave a resume of her time in office and expressed thanks to Councillors and officers by working together for the good of all the residents of Broxtowe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 The Mayor gave a presentation of recent events she had attended that included:

 

·         The Holocaust Memorial day – be the light in darkness

·         New Dementia Bungalows in Beeston

·         Food donations from the Belfry Hotel

·         Arc Cinema Development in Beeston

·         Opening the Community Testing Site in Stapleford

 

The Mayor further announced that the Council’s partners in Gutersloh were organising a European Light and Music Festival in 2022 and has invited local schools and music groups who would like to take part to contact the Mayor’s Office.

 

59.

VOTE OF THANKS

Minutes:

A vote of thanks was proposed by the Mayor and seconded by Councillor H Land in order to show gratitude to the Chief Executive and Officers for the exceptional service they have provided to the residents of Broxtowe during the pandemic. Especially to the staff within front line services.

 

A recorded vote was proposed by Councillor M Radulovic MBE and this was seconded by at least five other councillors. The voting was as follows:

For

Against

Abstain

E H Atherton

 

 

D Bagshaw

 

 

S A Bagshaw

 

 

L A Ball BEM

 

 

B C Carr

 

 

S J Carr

 

 

M J Crow

 

 

E Cubley

 

 

T A Cullen

 

 

S Easom

 

 

D A Elliott

 

 

L Fletcher

 

 

J C Goold

 

 

D Grindell

 

 

T Hallam

 

 

R I Jackson

 

 

E Kerry

 

 

S Kerry

 

 

H G Khaled MBE

 

 

LA Lally

 

 

P Lally

 

 

H Land

 

 

G Marshall

 

 

J W McGrath

 

 

J M Owen

 

 

P J Owen

 

 

J Parker

 

 

J C Patrick

 

 

D Pringle

 

 

M Radulovic MBE

 

 

T Roberts Thomson

 

 

P D Simpson

 

 

H E Skinner

 

 

C M Tideswell

 

 

I L Tyler

 

 

D K Watts

 

 

E Williamson

 

 

R D Wilimott

 

 

 

 

 

60.

REFERENCES

60.1

PAY AWARD AND REVIEW OF ALLOWANCES pdf icon PDF 251 KB

Finance and Resources Committee

11 February 2021

 

The Committee considered the recommendation of the Independent Remuneration Panel regarding the pay award for members.

 

During the debate it was noted that this was a difficult decision to make because being a Councillor was considered to be an opportunity that should be available to everyone, though it was agreed that the freeze was the appropriate cause of action given the public sector pay freeze for staff earning more that £24,000.

 

RECOMMENDED to full Council that members’ allowances be frozen in line with the employees’ pay award

 

Minutes:

11 February 2021

Finance and Resources Committee

 

Councillors considered the recommendation of the Independent Remuneration Panel regarding the pay award for members. It was agreed that the freeze was the appropriate cause of action given that the public sector pay freeze for staff earning more than £24,000.

 

            RESOLVED that members’ allowances be frozen in line with the employees pay award.

61.

PAY POLICY STATEMENT - 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 183 KB

To seek Council approval for the Pay Policy Statement for 2021/22.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered the Pay Policy Statement for 2021/22 in line with the statutory requirement- Section 38 of the Localism Act 2011, to publish the statement to increase accountability in relation to payments made to senior members of Local Authority staff by enabling scrutiny and publishing the Pay Policy Statement also meets requirements under the Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency.

 

RESOLVED that the Pay Policy statement for 2021/22 be approved.

62.

DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION UPDATE pdf icon PDF 481 KB

To update Councillors on progress relating to the setting up of an interim vehicle for the East Midlands Development Corporation and request approvals to proceed to the next steps set out in the recommendations.

 

Minutes:

Members were updated on progress relating to the setting up of an interim vehicle for the East Midlands Development Corporation. Alongside the opportunity, the investment would bring along with jobs and strategic growth to the area. Councillors were asked to confirm that Councillor M Radulovic MBE as the shareholder representative on the Oversight Board and the Chief Executive as the officer director for the independent board which is accountable to the oversight board be appointed.

 

 A recorded vote was proposed by Councillor M Radulovic MBE and seconded by a minimum of five other Councillors. The voting was as follows:

 

For

Against

Abstention

E H Atherton

L Fletcher

D Pringle

D Bagshaw

 

 

S A Bagshaw

 

 

L A Ball BEM

 

 

B C Carr

 

 

S J Carr

 

 

M J Crow

 

 

E Cubley

 

 

T A Cullen

 

 

S Easom

 

 

D A Elliott

 

 

J C Goold

 

 

D Grindell

 

 

T Hallam

 

 

R I Jackson

 

 

E Kerry

 

 

S Kerry

 

 

H G Khaled MBE

 

 

L A Lally

 

 

P Lally

 

 

H Land

 

 

G Marshall

 

 

J W McGrath

 

 

J M Owen

 

 

P J Owen

 

 

J Parker

 

 

J C Patrick

 

 

M Radulovic MBE

 

 

T Roberts-Thomson

 

 

R S Robinson

 

 

P D Simpson

 

 

H E Skinner

 

 

C M Tideswell

 

 

I L Tyler

 

 

D K Watts

 

 

E Williamson

 

 

R D Willimott

 

 

 

 

            The Committee NOTED the appendices 1, 2 and 3 of the report and RESOLVED that;

 

1.   Councillor M Radulovic MBE be appointed as the Councils shareholder representative on the Oversight Body for the Interim Vehicle with the Chief Executive as the office director on the independent board.

 

2.   The Council’s funding profile for the interim vehicle be revised to £167,000 in 2021/22, £167,000 in 2022/23 and £166,000 in 2023/24 with funding commencing from 1 April to enable the incorporation of the interim vehicle.

63.

APPOINTMENTS TO THE LIBERTY LEISURE LTD BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Council is asked to consider amendments to the Directors of the Board of Liberty Leisure Limited and RESOLVE accordingly.

 

 

Minutes:

Members noted the issues with having the Chair and Vice Chair of the Leisure and Health Committee being on the board of Directors of Liberty Leisure. This had placed them both in a difficult position as Chair and Vice-Chair with policy decisions at both the board and at the Committee.

 

 It was stated that the resignation from the board would provide greater transparency and prevent issues surrounding conflicts of interest.

 A query was raised with regards to transparency and how Directors of Liberty Leisure would be able to relay operational items back to the Council.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1.   Councillors I L Tyler and D Bagshaw be replaced and Councillor D Grindell and M Hannah be appointed to the Liberty Leisure board.

 

2.   Members to be provided with written advice from the Monitoring Officer to clarify any conflicts of interest to members being on the Liberty Leisure Directors board.

64.

TO APPROVE THE REVENUE AND CAPITAL BUDGETS, PRUDENTIAL INDICATORS, TREASURY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, INVESTMENT STRATEGY, MEDIUM TERM GENERAL FUND FINANCIAL STRATEGY AND FIX THE COUNCIL TAX FOR THE YEAR COMMENCING 1 APRIL 2021

Minutes:

The Leader reflected the sad and incredibly difficult year it has been and sent thoughts and prayers to all those families who had lost loved ones including remembering with great fondness Councillor R H Darby and gave thanks to his family for the service he gave to this Council and residents of this Borough.

 

The Leader offered his own personal thanks and gratitude to all the residents, businesses and staff who have worked tirelessly throughout this last year and say a special thank you to those in the public sector especially the NHS, Police, Fire, and Armed Forces who had ensured the public are best serviced by their dedication to duty. With the vaccination rollout being delivered by the NHS within Broxtowe the Leader would continue to campaign on behalf of the Council and all of the residents to ensure that a community based rollout was accessible to everyone within the Borough.

 

The Leader thanked the Finance team for the rapid disbursements for business grants and relief given and support offered to businesses during the lockdown and tier arrangements. £25m grants and business rate relief of around £17m to 1,500 businesses, organisations, groups and individuals.

 

The budget proposal focussed on the continuation of delivering high quality services across Broxtowe to all residents and to ensure that post COVID-19 economic, health and wellbeing and our green futures strategy is at the heart of this Councils agenda.

 

This year’s financial settlement would be a one year settlement based on 50% of business rates retention and the details on future finance settlements have been promised in November 2021 as part of the spending review.

 

Financial projections for the funding of services are reliant on income from council tax, business rates, fees and charges and commercial activity. Prudent assumptions of business rates income and the business rates pool on future modest growth.

 

·     Income from the New Homes Bonus will only be £19,400 consultation underway on a reformed scheme. Closes 7 April 2021.

·     Small increase in the Broxtowe element of council tax of £5.00 per band D property in line with government recommendations. Takes the charge from £166.85 in 2021/2021 to £171.85 in 2021/2022 per band D property.

·     1.5% increase in council house rents and garage fees to continue investment into housing stock, again in line with government guidelines.

·     An ambitious post pandemic economic based on sustainable investment and growth, a significant capital investment in our housing stock based upon the findings of our stock condition survey and investing in green energy technology and the eradication of fuel poverty.

·     Business growth strategy committed investment in all 4 major town centres with Levelling up bids for Kimberley and Eastwood. Beeston will see the opening of the new cinema and associated development. Stapleford Town Fund prospectus formally submitted to the government for approval.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, a recorded vote was required. The voting was as follows:

 

For

Against

Abstention

D Bagshaw

 

 E H Atherton

S A Bagshaw

 

L  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.