Minutes:
Councillor Meekins stated that no questions had been received under Procedure Rule 8.6 and asked if there were any questions under Procedure Rule 8.4 from Councillor Booth.
Councillor Booth commented that the Leader had made a commitment at the last meeting to have a discussion on affordable housing and asked when that would be scheduled? Councillor Boden agreed it is a very important and serious issue which is being looked at but it is not yet been possible to bring everything together so that the options available can be published. Therefore, he cannot give a specific date currently, but it will be before the next meeting of Cabinet or at Cabinet itself. He reiterated the importance given to this and the urgent need to deal with the lack of affordable housing. Councillor Booth thanked Councillor Boden and added that it is important to drive this through as a policy for people to be able to live in the communities they have grown up in.
Councillor Booth said in respect of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy, the equalisation appears to show that there will be no changes to it in future years. He asked whether Councillor Boden believes this to be realistic given FDC’s considerable underspend in the past which would have gone into the equalisation reserve and further asked if Councillor Boden could confirm the final underspend for the last financial year? Councillor Boden agreed that the figure for the budget equalisation reserve is both wrong and unrealistic, however, this is deliberate because it is ultimately a balancing figure based at the end of each financial year on whether the Council has an overspend or underspend, comparing income with expenditure and what was agreed four years ago was that in those years where there is an underspend, more money will be transferred into the budget equalisation reserve to be used against future years where there is an overspend, or to help keep Council Tax levels down. However, he had not anticipated four years ago that every year there would be an increase in the reserve because every year there would be more income than expenditure. Councillor Boden stated that there has been systemic underbudgeting in the organisation but stressed this is not a criticism of officers as they can only budget for what they know about and the Council never knows what money Government are going to give in the forthcoming 12 months, which makes it very difficult to budget but officers are prudent as well as consistent, and they say that if there is not the promise of specific money from Government then they will not budget for it. He has asked officers to continue in this way so they are always comparing like for like and, therefore, do not get an unpleasant or unwanted surprise. In respect of Councillor Booth’s question about last year’s underspend, Councillor Boden added that it is still subject to audit, but currently looks like being an excess of income over expenditure of nearly £800,000, taking our budget equalisation reserve to £1.8 million and this money will provide cover to help deal with any unexpected challenges or to help keep Council Tax down. He stated his absolute confidence in the work that is being done by the finance officers and he has explicitly asked them to continue to operate the budget process in the way they have done in the past. Councillor Booth asked for a breakdown in how there is such variance in the figures between February and now and where that extra £700,000 has come from since February? Councillor Boden responded that the breakdown has been given in the agenda item 6 of today’s Cabinet meeting.
Councillor Booth asked Councillor Boden for an update to the commitment regarding the moving of the March Fountain and what action has been taken since the last meeting? He further asked if any partners have been contacted regarding the concerns raised and in respect of the possibility of reviewing the current proposal and if any feedback had been received from them regarding this? He felt this information would be particularly useful as background information considering the next item on the agenda being the petition received regarding the fountain. Councillor Boden said the specific actions taken have been firstly that the current proposed location of the fountain has been outlined on the carriageway in red for anyone to view, there have also been regular weekly coffee mornings held by Octavius Infrastructure for people to ask questions, held at the former Barclays Bank Building, with Octavius being the County Council appointed contractors to oversee the work and Fenland District Council has entered into a contract with County Council, and there has also been a high level member briefing note regarding the potential changes in location. However, he stated that the difficulty is that there is no allocation in the budget for redesigned drawings so members will have to look at the risks involved and there is also the potential for delivery delay as it will need to be brought to September Cabinet, there could be increased costs incurred depending on the level of change and there is the danger that Planning Committee may not agree, however, a small change may not require planning permission. Councillor Boden further added that checks are required with Historic England being a statutory consultee and, in his opinion, as a statutory consultee the Council is obliged to listen to them but does not have to follow what they said yet he has been informed that the one time when a suggestion was made that the fountain be moved to the Market Place that Historic England vetoed it and he does not have the advice about whether or not Historic England do have the right of veto or if they are just a statutory consultee that the Council needs to take into account but he has been told that Historic England gave as its rationale for the proposed location is that this was the closest available location to the existing position. He stated that there is also the reputational damage of any failed attempts to relocate the fountain which will need to be taken into account and there are larger environmental and wider design details, with significant civil engineering redesigns which may be necessary and then there is the issue of stakeholder co-ordination with the Council’s partners, including funding partners. Councillor Boden made the point that there are still a number of issues still to be resolved and a report will be produced subject to what is decided at Council today for Cabinet to consider and decide upon in September but his personal position remains as it was at the last Full Council meeting to the extent that if it is possible and reasonable to do so he would like to make sure the Council gets the best decision and the fact that a decision has already been made should not be the end of it, members should look as rationally as possible as to whether or not an alternative may be credible but he retains that open mind and willingness to listen recognising that it was possibly the wrong decision last year and something different is required.