To approve the council tax amounts for each category of dwelling in Herefordshire, including precepts from West Mercia Police, Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority and Herefordshire parish councils for the financial year 2019/20.

The report was introduced by the deputy leader who moved the recommendations contained in the supplement. The meeting was referred to the supplement which contained the precept agreed by Hereford City Council. All precepting authorities had indicated their precepts which formed part of the council tax setting decision for the Council.

The Leader seconded the recommendations and explained that a comprehensive debate at the previous meeting of Council had set the budget.

The points below were raised in the debate which followed:

·         The police and crime commissioner’s precept had been scrutinised by a working group of the police and crime panel. A member explained that the precept increase of 9.94% had been set to recruit additional police officers and a commitment had been made by the commissioner to limit the precept increase for the following year to 3%;

·         A member felt that the proposed police officer recruitment would not compensate for the reduction in the number of officers since the introduction of police and crime commissioners and that the precept of the commissioner was evidence of ineffective scrutiny;

·         There was concern that precept increases were above the rate of inflation and this was attributable to significant cuts in central government funding for Herefordshire Council since 2010. The deputy leader explained that precept increases over the last 10 years fell between the RPI and CPI indictors of inflation. It was acknowledged that the increase in the precept was greater than desired but it was not out of step with increases in other areas;

·         There was concern about the variation in the level of precepts agreed by parish councils in the county. It was considered whether large increases could be attributed to the delegation of responsibilities from the council. It was felt that an analysis of the variation and those reasons for it should be undertaken to determine if there were strategies parish councils could employ, such as sharing services, which could help in the delivery of local services.

·         It was noted that the council tax setting report was a technical exercise which the Council was required to undertake annually.

The recommendations in the supplement were put to the record vote and carried by 42 votes in favour and 1 against.

For (42): SP Anderson, PA Andrews, BA Baker, JM Bartlett,  WLS Bowen, TL Bowes, H Bramer, CR Butler, ACR Chappell, EE Chowns, MJK Cooper, PE Crockett, P Cutter, BA Durkin, PJ Edwards, CA Gandy, KS Guthrie, EPJ Harvey, TM James, PC Jinman, AW Johnson, JF Johnson, JLV Kenyon, JG Lester, MD Lloyd-Hayes, PP Marsh, RI Matthews, MT McEvilly, PD Newman, FM Norman, CA North, RJ Phillips, AJW Powers, PD Price, P Rone, A Seldon, NE Shaw, J Stone, EJ Swinglehurst, A Warmington, DB Wilcox, SD Williams.

Against (1) D Summers.

Abstentions (0)