Meeting of the Burnley Borough Council To be held at 7.00pm on Wednesday 8th April 2015 Town Hall Burnley 27th March 2015 Sir or Madam, Notice is given of a MEETING of the COUNCIL of the BOROUGH OF BURNLEY to be held at the TOWN HALL, BURNLEY, on Wednesday 8th April 2015 starting at 7.00 p.m. To transact the business specified below. Tom Forshaw Head of Chief Executive’s Office Members of the public may ask a question, make a statement, or present a petition relating to any matter for which the Council has a responsibility or which affects the Borough. Notice in writing of the subject matter must be given to the Head of Chief Executive’s Office by 5.00 pm on the day before the meeting. Forms can be obtained for this purpose from the reception desk at Burnley Town Hall, Manchester Road or at the Contact Centre, Parker Lane, Burnley or from the web at: www.burnley.gov.uk/meetings. Requests will be dealt with in the order in which they are received. A G E N D A 1. Minutes of the last meeting To receive, as read, the Minutes of the proceedings of the Full Council meeting held on the 25th February 2015 and to confirm them or otherwise (enclosed) 2. Declarations of Interest In accordance with the Regulations, Members are required to declare any personal or personal and prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this agenda and/or indicate if S106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them. Please note that phones and other equipment may be used to film, record, tweet or blog from this meeting. The use of those images or recordings is not under the Council’s control. No part of the meeting room is exempt from public filming. Under current legislation members of the public can film or record this meeting provided they don’t disrupt the meeting. 3. Mayors’ Communications To receive communications (if any) from His Worship the Mayor 4 Public Question Time To receive questions, statements or petitions (if any) from members of the public. 5. Items for Decision by the Council Agenda Page No. (a) Appointment of Mayor and Deputy Mayor 2015/16 13 To consider the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the 2015/16 Municipal Year (report enclosed) (b) Calendar of Meetings 2015/16 17 To consider the Calendar of meetings for 2015/16 (report enclosed) 6. Scrutiny Committee Chair’s Cycle 5 report 27 To receive the report of the Scrutiny Committee Chair on the fifth cycle of Scrutiny Committee meretings (report enclosed) 7. Strategic Plan Progress Reports Mark Townsend Leader 33 John Harbour Deputy Leader/Housing and Environment 35 Howard Baker Resources and Performance Management 41 Bea Foster Leisure and Culture 45 Tony Harrison Community Services 49 Shah Hussain Regeneration and Economic Development 53 (reports enclosed) 8. Questions To deal with questions (if any) relating to matters not contained in the Minutes before the Council and of which notice in writing has been received in accordance with Standing Order No 10 (2) Please note that phones and other equipment may be used to film, record, tweet or blog from this meeting. The use of those images or recordings is not under the Council’s control. No part of the meeting room is exempt from public filming. Under current legislation members of the public can film or record this meeting provided they don’t disrupt the meeting. Item 1 Minutes of the Last Meeting BURNLEY BOROUGH COUNCIL BURNLEY TOWN HALL Wednesday 25th February 2015 PRESENT MEMBERS His Worship The Mayor Councillor Andrew Tatchell in the Chair; Councillors Baker, Barker, Briggs, Brindle, Campbell, Cant, Carmichael, Chaudhary, Cooper, Cunningham, Ellis, Fifield, Foster, Frayling, Graham, Greenwood, Harbour, Harrison, Heginbotham, Hussain, Isherwood, Johnstone, Kennedy, Arif Khan, Wajid Khan, Large, Lishman, Martin, Monk, Newhouse, Pate, Porter, Reynolds, Royle, Sumner, Towneley and Townsend OFFICERS Mick Cartledge - Acting Chief Executive Helen Seechurn - Director of Resources Tom Forshaw - Head of Chief Executive‟s Officer Amanda Hubberstey - Acting Deputy Monitoring Officer Phil Moore - Head of Finance and Property Management David Donlan - Accountancy Division Manager Jeremy Richards - Communications Officer Amber Corns - Burnley Place Brand Manager Imelda Grady - Democracy Officer Elaine Newsome - Democracy Officer David Farrar - Mayor‟s Officer 68. Minutes RESOLVED The Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on the 26th January 2015 were confirmed and signed by the Chair. 69. Mayor’s Communications The Mayor extended the Council‟s condolences to Councillor Sue Graham on the recent loss of her husband. 70. Revenue Budget Monitoring Q3 2014/15 th With reference to Minute 71 (16 February 2015) of the Executive, Full Council 08/04/2015 Page 1 of 10 consideration was given to the revised Revenue Budget for 2014/15, based upon actual spending and income in Quarter 3 to 31st December 2014 RESOLVED 1. That approval be given to the latest revised budget of £15,701k as shown in Appendix 1.. 2. That the net transfers to earmarked reserves in the quarter of £670k as shown in Appendix 4 be approved. 3. That requests for revenue budget carry forward into the 2015/16 revenue budget totalling £111k set out in paragraph 12 of the report be approved and it be noted that these savings are excluded from the revenue budget forecast underspend of £55k. 4. That approval be given to a payment to the Leisure Trust of £218k to using £83k of budget set aside as Leisure contingency and £135k from in year general underspends. 5. That approval be given to a payment of £77k to cover the Council‟s 50% share of the costs of redundancies in Burnley Leisure. 71. Capital Budget Monitoring Q3 2014/15 With reference to Minute 75 (16th February 2015) of the Executive, consideration was given to the revised Capital Budget for 2014/15 based upon monitoring in Quarter 3 to 31st December 2014. RESOLVED 1. That a revised capital budget for 2014/15 totalling £11.171,315 , as outlined in Appendix 1 be approved; and 2. That the proposed financing of the revised capital budget totalling £11.171.315 as shown in Appendix 2 be approved 72. Revenue and Capital Budgets and Council Tax 2015/16 Consideration was given to the Housing Capital Programme 2015-2018, the Revenue and Capital Budgets and Council Tax for 2015/16. It was moved by Councillor Howard Baker and seconded by Councillor Mark Townsend: “That the Council approves the proposals contained in items c to i on the agenda and adopts the relevant minutes of the Executive. These relate to the approval of the Council‟s Housing Capital Programme 2015 – 2018, the revenue and capital budgets and setting the rate of Council Tax 2015/16. An amendment was proposed by Councillor Mathew Isherwood and seconded by Councillor Ida Carmichael: “To remove the Wards Opportunities Capital Fund, to freeze council tax, Full Council 08/04/2015 Page 2 of 10 thereby reducing council tax income by £110k, and take up of council tax freeze grant of £71k and reduce the Executive by one member saving £4k from the revenue budget. Also to recommend referral to the Boundary Commission for an electoral review with the aim of reducing councillor numbers by a third, which if successful this could save up to £40k per annum with reserves of £35k being used as a „bridge‟ until this saving is achieved.” . In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 16.7, a recorded vote was taken on the amended motion; For the Motion Councillors Ida Carmichael, David Heginbotham, Mathew Isherwood, Andrew Newhouse and Cosima Towneley Against the Motion Councillors Howard Baker, Jonathan Barker, Charlie Briggs, Paul Campbell, Frank Cant, Saeed Chaudhary, Julie Cooper, Jean Cunningham, Trish Ellis, John Fifield, Bea Foster, Gary Frayling, Sue Graham, Joanne Greenwood, John Harbour, Tony Harrison, Shah Hussain, Marcus Johnstone, Tracy Kennedy, Arif Khan, Wajid Khan, Stephen Large, Margaret Lishman, Tony Martin, Elizabeth Monk, Lian Pate, Tom Porter, Paul Reynolds, Ann Royle, Jeff Sumner, Andrew Tatchell and Mark Townsend Abstentions Councillor Margaret Brindle Accordingly, the amendment was lost In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 16.7, a recorded vote was taken on the original motion; For the Motion Councillors Howard Baker, Jonathan Barker, Paul Campbell, Frank Cant, Saeed Chaudhary, Julie Cooper, Jean Cunningham, Trish Ellis, John Fifield, Bea Foster, Gary Frayling, Sue Graham, Joanne Greenwood, John Harbour, Tony Harrison, Shah Hussain, Marcus Johnstone, Arif Khan, Wajid Khan, Stephen Large, Tony Martin, Elizabeth Monk, Lian Pate, Paul Reynolds, Ann Royle, Andrew Tatchell and Mark Townsend Against the Motion Councillors Ida Carmichael, David Heginbotham, Mathew Isherwood, Andrew Newhouse and Cosima Towneley Abstentions Councillor Charlie Briggs, Margaret Brindle, Tracy Kennedy, Margaret Full Council 08/04/2015 Page 3 of 10 Lishman, Tom Porter and Jeff Sumner Accordingly, the motion was declared to be carried and it was RESOLVED: 1) That the use of £700,000 prudential borrowing to contribute to the resources available for the Housing Capital Programme 2015-2018 be approved; 2) That the latest Medium-Term Financial Strategy be approved; 3) That the Reserves Strategy, as appended to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy be approved; 4) That it be noted that a refreshed document will be provided regularly when required as an aid to monitoring the continued delivery of an annually balanced budget and in the light of anticipated Spending Review announcements in the medium term; 5) That the approach that has been adopted