16/20
The Council considered a
report that presented a draft amended Budget for 2020/21 in light
of the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In the ensuing debate,
particular reference was made to:-
(a)
the work
undertaken by the Section 151 Officer.
A number of Members wished to thank the Section 151 Officer and her
finance team for their hard work in preparing this draft amended
Budget;
(b)
an amendment to
the motion. An amendment was PROPOSED and SECONDED that read as
follows:
That Part 1 of
the recommendation be revised as follows:
‘That the
first four options as set out in Section 5.2 of the presented
agenda report (totalling £433,000) be approved and a sum of
£880,000 be taken from the Unearmarked Reserve (making a total of
£1,313,000) in order to produce an Amended Revenue Budget for
2020-21.’
In expressing their support for
the amendment, some Members were of the view that it would be more
appropriate (bearing in mind that the COVID-19 pandemic was
considered to be an Emergency) for Unearmarked Reserves to be used in order to balance
the Revenue Budget for 2020-21. In
contrast, other Members felt that it would not be prudent to use
Unearmarked Reserves and were of the
view that Members should trust the advice of their highly respected
Section 151 Officer.
In line with
statutory requirements, a recorded vote was then undertaken on the
amendment. The voting on this amendment
was recorded as follows:-
For the motion (14): Cllrs
Abbott, Baldry, Birch, Brazil, Hodgson, Jackson, Kemp, Long, McKay,
O’Callaghan, Pannell, Rose, Sweett and Thomas.
Against the motion (17):
Cllrs Austen, Bastone, Brown, Chown, Foss, Hawkins, Holway,
Hopwood, May, Pearce, Pennington, Pringle, Reeve, Rowe, Smerdon,
Spencer and Taylor.
Abstentions (0)
Absent (0)
and the vote on this
amendment was declared LOST.
In line with statutory
requirements, a recorded vote was then undertaken on the
recommendation and was recorded as follows:-
For the motion
(17):
Cllrs Austen, Bastone, Brown, Chown, Foss, Hawkins, Holway,
Hopwood, May, Pearce, Pennington, Pringle, Reeve, Rowe, Smerdon,
Spencer and Taylor.
Against the motion (14):
Cllrs Abbott, Baldry, Birch, Brazil,
Hodgson, Jackson, Kemp, Long, McKay, O’Callaghan, Pannell,
Rose, Sweett and Thomas.
Abstentions (0)
Absent (0)
and the vote on the
recommendation was declared CARRIED.
It was then:
RESOLVED
1.
That the following ten options
(totalling £1,313,000) be approved in order to produce an
Amended Revenue Budget for 2020-21:
-
To use the 3rd trance of
COVID-19 funding received from Central Government
(£121,000);
-
To use the New Burdens Government grant
funding received for the administration of the Business Rates
Grants (£170,000);
-
To utilise the 2019/20 Statement of
Accounts underspend (£112,000);
-
To use funding from the Strategic
Change Transformation Programme (T18) Earmarked Reserve
(£30,000);
-
To cease the 2020/21 annual
contribution towards building up a budget for future years for the
Follaton Roof and Follaton Lift (£80,000);
-
To use funding from Unearmarked Reserves (£200,000);
-
To use funding from the Economic
Regeneration (Business Rates Pilot Gain) Earmarked ...
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