The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies were received by Councillors Amos and Skeels (with no substitutions).

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest by Councillors in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting.

Subject to providing two working days' notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted notice of a question.

To set out the budget proposals for 2023/24 in respect of both the General Fund (GF) and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for consideration by the Committee.

At the Committee’s formal meeting on 11 January, it heard how the General Fund and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget proposals for 2023/24 had been considered by Cabinet on 16 December 2022. 

The Committee had been provided, as part of the material for them to consider, the following:

1)     Updated General Fund Financial Forecast Including Proposed Budget Changes in 2022/23 along with Budget Proposals for 2023/24 – the report considered by Cabinet on 16 December 2022.

2)      Updated Housing Revenue Account Business Plan and Budget Proposals 2023/24– the report considered by Cabinet on 16 December 2022.

The format for the meeting provided for the following elements.

A series of questions were asked by the Committee and responses were provided in writing to the Committee.  The Minutes of the meeting record those questions and responses in an Appendix. Further supplementary questions were asked of Cabinet Members and responses provided.  

During the dialogue with individual Cabinet Members, the following commitments to written responses being provided were given to the Committee:

·         Cllr Alex Porter, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, and Tourism - regarding the implemented measures to reduce energy costs in leisure facilities and the envisaged pay back position in cash terms for those measures and the CO₂ savings generated, the Council’s position on sea defences at the Naze in Walton-on-the-Naze and, separately, about past and future surveys of relevant beaches in relation to the need for future recharges of sand on those beaches.

·         Cllr Paul Honeywood, Portfolio Holder for Housing – in relation to empty Council housing stock, its liable for the same Council Tax premiums as a private dwelling and, how many empty Council homes were subject to the different premium levels levied for Council Tax.

·         Cllr Carlo Guglielmi, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and IT - question regarding the premium council tax rate on empty homes, how many empty homes were there at the start of the year versus how many at the end of the year and if he considers the levying of the premium to be a success.

The Committee expressed their gratitude to the Council’s Section 151 Officer for his support for the budget scrutiny process, and more generally in respect of the budgetary position of the Council.  In addition, the Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.