Following the adjournment of the meeting held on 6 January 2020, the meeting will resume and the Committee will ask questions of the members of the Cabinet in respect of service delivery matters related to items in the Updated Financial Forecast/Budget 2020/21 and HRA Budget Proposals 2020/21 that are relevant to their respective portfolios.

The Committee will then decide what comments and/or recommendations it wishes to submit to Cabinet in relation to the updated Financial Forecast/Budget 2020/21 and HRA Proposals 2020/21.

Following the adjournment of its meeting held on 6 January 2020, the Committee resumed its scrutiny of the Financial Forecast / Budget Proposals for 2020/21 and HRA Budget Proposals 2020/21 as follows:-

Following the end of the meeting on 6 January, the questions that the Committee requested answers to were circulated to the relevant Cabinet Members and Officers in order to enable responses to be provided. Those questions and written responses received were circulated to Members of this Committee at the start of this reconvened session.  They are appended to these Minutes.

Members of the Cabinet, accompanied by the appropriate Management Team Member or other Senior Officer, attended the meeting in turn and points of clarification, requests for amplification and other supplementary matters in respect of the written questions and answers formed the discussion with the Committee. 

Having considered all of the information that had been provided, it was RESOLVED that the following RECOMMENDATIONS to be submitted to the Cabinet:-

1.      Cabinet identifies a range of seafront enhancements/cliff stabilisation/beach protection arrangements, in consultation with seaside communities in the District (including relevant Town and Parish Councils) and seeks to fund these through an associated expansion of beach huts in those communities.

2.      Cabinet instigates a review of the Public Conveniences Strategy with a view to realising the full benefits of the intended investment for all of the toilets being retained.

3.      Commercialism should be a specific part of an existing Portfolio Holder’s responsibility or that a new Portfolio position should be created to take forward the agenda for commercialism as part of a means of contributing positively to meeting the budgetary pressures on the Council as identified in its MTFS.

4.      Cabinet, as part of the budget development to support the corporate plan, looks favourably at providing sufficient funding for meaningful interventions for 2020-21 onwards that will support economic growth for businesses and key sectors such as energy.

5.      Cabinet be recommended to approve the retention of the estimated surplus of £363K in the HRA from 2019/20 for capital investment in the Council’s housing stock.

6.      In view of the Government’s unexpected continuation of Revenue Support Grant to this Council in 2020/21, Cabinet be recommended to approve the passporting of Local Council Tax Subsidy Grant to Parish/Town Councils in the District in 2020/21 to be confirmed on the same basis as previously.

7.      Cabinet be recommended not to approve the proposed adjustment to the budget to remove expenditure of £68,250 based on the Government’s commitments to exempt public conveniences from NNDR liability; as there is no indication that the necessary Parliamentary processes will be undertaken to introduce this measure.

It was further RESOLVED that the decisions concerning this Committee’s work programming and the work programming of the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee, as set out in the appendix to these Minutes, be approved.