Agenda and minutes

*HC 42            

No apologies were received in advance of this meeting.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting.

            If Councillors have any questions relating to predetermination, bias or interests in items on this Agenda, then please contact the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

*HC 43          

Members were invited to declare any interests in the items of business to be discussed and these were declared as follows:

Cllr J B Moody declared a Personal Interest in agenda item 7: ‘Month 7 Revenue Budget Monitoring 2020/21 (to the end of October 2020)’ (Minute *HC 48 below refers) by virtue of also being a Member of Tavistock Town Council and remained in the meeting and took part in the debate and vote thereon.

To consider those items which, in the opinion of the Chairman, should be considered by the Meeting as matters of urgency (if any)

*HC 44           

The Chairman informed that there were no items of urgent business to be raised at this meeting.

Minutes of meeting held 1 December 2020

*HC 45 

The Minutes of the Hub Committee meeting held on 1 December 2020 were confirmed as a true and correct record.

*HC 46 

In accordance with the Hub Committee Procedure Rules, there were no questions submitted by members of the public.

*HC 47         

Members were presented with the most recently published Hub Committee Forward Plan that set out items on the agenda for Hub Committee meetings for the next four months. 

In discussion, the need to reinstate the practice whereby each Hub Committee agenda included an opportunity for a Hub Committee Member to provide an update on their respective portfolio areas was recognised.

*HC 48            

Consideration was given to a report that presented the latest Revenue Budget Monitoring position for the Council (i.e. to the end of October 2020).

In discussion, the following points were raised:-

(a)    A number of Members wished to put on record their thanks to the Section 151 Officer and her colleagues for their excellent financial stewardship;

(b)    When questioned, the lead Member confirmed that, as an approximate ballpark figure, the net revenue funding loss to the Council as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic was in the region of £180,000;

(c)    By way of an update on the financial support being provided by the Council to Fusion Leisure, it was noted that Sports England was in the process of setting up a fund which it was hoped would help to mitigate the amount of financial support that would be required from the Council;

(d)    Whilst noting that lessons could be learned from the Tavistock Guildhall Heritage project, the Committee expressed its widespread support for the proposals.  Furthermore, it was hoped that the project would become a major asset that would create considerable economic benefits for Tavistock.

It was then RESOLVED that:

1.      the significant forecast income and expenditure variations for the 2020/21 financial year and the overall projected underspend of £90,000 (1.2% of the total annual Budget of £7.713 million) be noted;

2.      the loss of income streams already experienced by the Council from April 2020 to October 2020 of £0.712 million (as set out in Section 6 of the presented agenda report) be noted;

3.      Council be RECOMMENDED to transfer £220,000 into a COVID Earmarked Reserve to protect against future COVID losses in 2021-22 (as set out in Section 1.8 of the presented agenda report); and

4.      Council be RECOMMENDED to fund £30,000 of audio-visual equipment for the Tavistock Guildhall Heritage project and to finance this from the Business Rates Retention Earmarked Reserve (as set out in Section 7 of the presented agenda report).

*HC49             

The Committee considered a report that set out the draft Revenue Budget Proposals for 2021-22.

During discussion, reference was made to the reader friendly nature of the report for which the Section 151 Officer was thanked.

It was then RESOLVED that the Hub Committee:

1.      note the forecast budget gap for 2021/22 of £0.104 million (1.4% of the predicted Net Budget of £7.3 million) and the position for future years;

2.      note the current options identified and timescales for closing the budget gap in 2021/22 and future years in order to achieve long term financial sustainability; and

3.      RECOMMEND to Council that the Council continue to be part of the Devon Business Rates Pool for 2021/22, subject to there being no announcements within the Finance Settlement (expected to be announced in the week commencing 14 December 2020), which in the opinion of the Section 151 Officer (in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Portfolio Holder for Finance), would change this recommendation.

(NOTE: THESE DECISIONS, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF MINUTE HC 48 (PARTS 3 AND 4) AND HC 49 (PART 4) (WHICH ARE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COUNCIL MEETING TO BE HELD ON 16 FEBRUARY 2021) WILL BECOME EFFECTIVE FROM WEDNESDAY 16 DECEMBER 2020 UNLESS CALLED IN, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SCRUTINY PROCEDURE RULE 18)