Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest from any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

Councillor R Dew declared an interest in Item 5 as his wife was a Band C Primary School Teacher and he remained at the meeting.

Councillor H Eifion Jones declared an interest in Item 5 as he was a local member and Governor of 2 schools in Band A.  He remained at the meeting to discuss the report but left the Chamber prior to any voting thereon.

Councillor K P Hughes declared an interest in Item 5 as he was a Governor for a Band A school and also had a grandson and granddaughter attending a Band A school.

Councillor Alwyn Rowlands declared an interest in Item 5 as he was a Governor at Beaumaris Primary School which was listed as a Band A school in the report.

The Committee Services Manager declared an interest in Item 4 (reference to voluntary redundancy) and was not present at the meeting during discussion thereon).

No urgent matters at the time of dispatch of this agenda.

None to declare.

To submit the report of the Head of Function (Resources). – TO FOLLOW

Submitted for information – The report of the Head of Function (Resources) updating previous assessments of financial reserves and advising the Executive that they may be able to release reserves and the Council’s general balance to support the 2014-15 budget on a one-off basis.  The position will need to be reviewed for 2015-16 and beyond when the out-turn position for 2013-14 is known.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

To submit the report of the Head of Function (Resources). – TO FOLLOW

Submitted - The report of the Head of Function (Resources) on the initial 2014/15 budget proposals for consultation following the release of the final RSG settlement on 11^th December, 2013.

Reported by the Portfolio Holder - That the Executive had approved a savings target of £7.75m for services at it meeting in July, which was set at a figure identified at that time as the likely budget gap for 2014/15.  The overall budget gap for the period 2014/15 to 2018/19 was currently forecasted to be of the order of £15m.

The current draft budget proposals indicated that savings of £7.416m had been put forward by services, although included within that figure were unconfirmed savings of £1.4m from Social Services.  Further work was being carried out to determine the level of savings that could be achieved in that service area.

The current budget gap following the release of the final grant settlement had been revised to £7.661m for 2014/15.

Based on that and on work being done between the Finance Service and budget holders savings totalling £7.416m had been proposed, which substantially met all of the budget gap of £7.774m reported to the Executive on 4th November, 2013 and the revised forecast arising from the final grant settlement.  The balance between the current budget gap and savings proposals would have to be covered by the use of balance should further saving not be identified.

Having considered the savings and growth proposals, an initial budget package had been prepared with a number of potential options for consultation.

Attached to the report were the following appendices:-

Enclosure A - Summary of Draft Standstill Budget Gap 2014/15

Enclosure B - Proposed Savings 2014/15

Enclosure C - Summary of Proposed Growth 2014/15

RESOLVED to approve the initial budget proposals for formal consultation and to delegate to the Head of Function (Resources) in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Resources the authority to finalise the budget consultation document.

(The Committee Services Manager declared an interest in Paragraph 6 of the report and was not present at the meeting during discussion thereon).

To submit the report of the Director of Lifelong Learning.

Submitted – The report of the Director of Lifelong Learning seeking Executive approval regarding the underlying principles of the School Modernisation strategy and the associated Strategic Outline Programme (SOP).

The Modernisation Strategy described the aspirations of the County Council to provide the very best educated provision for all the children and young people on the Island.

The Strategic Outline Programme was an outline business case for school infrastructure modernisation over a 15 year period and was closely linked with the modernisation strategy.  If the SOP was agreed, Welsh Government would agree, in principle, to contribute a maximum of 50% match funding towards each project.

As four of the Executive Members had declared an interest in the matter and had left the Chamber, there was no quorum present to vote on the matter.  The Chairman therefore declared that the matter would be deferred until the next scheduled meeting in January, 2014 or an earlier date if possible.

RESOLVED that in view of the fact that no quorum was present, to defer consideration of the matter until the next scheduled meeting of the Executive on 13^th January, 2014, or to an earlier date if possible.

(Councillors K P Hughes, H Eifion Jones and Alwyn Rowlands declared an interest in the matter, spoke at the meeting and thereafter left the Chamber prior to any decision thereon).

(Councillor R Dew declared an interest in the matter and remained at the meeting).