Agenda and minutes

Councillors are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 regarding disclosable pecuniary interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any public questions or statements on the business of the Shadow Overview and Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the procedure rules as set out in the Shadow Dorset Council Constitution.

There were no questions or statements from members of the public.

To consider a report on the Budget for the Dorset Council.

The committee received and considered a report of the Lead member for Finance and Interim Section 151 Officer, which provided an update on the finance of Dorset Council and how a balanced budget for 2019/20 had been developed.  The Shadow Overview and Scrutiny Committee was invited to consider any comments that they wished to make on the 2019/20 budget to be forwarded for consideration by the Shadow Executive Committee on 11 February 2019.  The 2019/20 budget would be set by the Shadow Council on 20 February 2019.

The Lead Member for Finance, Councillor Ferrari introduced the report and provided an overview of the work that had been undertaken.  He noted that a key element of the work had been about bringing together financial efficiencies and was not about reducing services.  Transformation was not within the scope of the work that had been undertaken, but the budget ensured a stable position for the new Council to progress this work.

In addition to the report, the Interim Section 151 Officer provided a presentation for the committee which covered:

·                The headlines from the budget proposals

·                What had been done to make sure that the budget process and proposals were robust

·                The risks in the budget

·                The future challenges

·                What would happen next including the timetable for approval of the budget

Members considered the issues arising from the report and presentation and during discussion the following points were raised:

·                In response to a question, members noted the financial impact of the Dorset Waste Partnership not being able to use low quality recycling.  It was also noted that fuel costs had been higher in the current financial year and the impact of maintenance costs

·                Car parking charges would not be changed for the next financial year

·                Where charges were being aligned across the area it was noted that this had been driven by advice from service experts.  It was not a common policy to always align charges at the highest level.  There was a request for information on new charging structures to be included in the briefing to be provided to members

·                The position with Negative RSG was seen as good news within the financial settlement

·                Reference was made to work undertaken to harmonise Council Tax across the area of the Dorset Council from day 1 and it was noted that the change in Council Tax level would vary across the different existing council areas depending on the current Council Tax base for each existing council

·                In response to a question it was noted that further work would be undertaken on the asset strategy

·                LGR implementation costs were an estimate at the current time

·                In response to a question it was noted that all councils were bringing in investments and reserves to the new Council.  During the work in bringing the budget together there was a focus on the end point.  A request was made for the relevant figures from each existing council to be provided to members at the briefing on the budget

·                The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be specified in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.