To receive the report and to consider any recommendations to Council arising from the meetings held on 29th January and 12th and 19th February, 2004.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor R.J. Phillips, presented the report of the meetings of Cabinet held on 29th January, 12th and 19th February and a supplementary annex on the report of the meeting held on 4th March, 2004, the latter having been circulated at the beginning of the meeting together with a revised report on the Council Tax Resolution and revised page 5 of the Budget Book.

In relation to Item 1.2 of the main report, Revenue Budget 2004/05 - the Leader moved an amendment based on the recommendation detailed in the supplementary annex, i.e. that the revenue budget proposals for 2004/05 be based on expenditure of £175,573,000 with a corresponding council tax at Band D of £959.53.  This would mean an increase of 8.9%, a reduction of 1.5% on the original proposal of 10.4%.  This followed a meeting at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister earlier in the week.

He stated that the Council would be maintaining its commitment to both Social Care and Education, two of its key service areas.

He emphasised that although the increase had been reduced to 8.9% he was still mindful of the hardship that would cause some residents, particularly those on low or fixed incomes.  He announced a campaign to raise awareness of available discounts and benefits.

He thanked those who had taken part in the consultation exercise which had helped shape the budget proposals.  The results showed that 50% of people were prepared to see Council Tax go up to maintain or improve services and 40% wanted it maintained at the level of inflation and were prepared to accept reductions in services.  

The amendment was duly seconded.

Councillor Chappell, on behalf of the Labour Group, supported the revised recommendation.  He said he would have been happier to see a rise of 10.4% as he thought the Council Tax had been kept artificially low for over 40 year with a consequent lack of investment in services.  However, he understood the need to avoid the risk of capping.  He asked the Council to set up a series of seminars to encourage those entitled to benefits to claim their entitlements.  He also asked for the documents sent out with the Council Tax and budget information to be made as easy to understand as possible as well as available in large print and Braille. 

Councillor T.M. James, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, recognised the difficulty that faced the Council over the setting of the Council Tax and thought that the current proposal could be implemented without too great an adverse effect on services.  He was concerned that even though the current proposal was 1.5% less than the original proposal it would still be too high to satisfy the Government who had indicated they would cap any Councils setting a rate higher than 5%.  He indicated that he would be abstaining from the vote.

Councillor Mrs French, who had seconded the amendment said it would cause difficulties for staff who were charged with delivering services to the community, but that there was a commitment to improving efficiency across the Council.  She spoke of the need to rationalise the Council's accommodation and the improvements needed on the IT infrastructure, both of which would provide longer term cost benefits.

Following a series of comments in support of the amendment and also some concern about the level of reserves and the continued risk of capping, Council voted for the amendment as follows:

For:  39

Against: 0

Abstentions: 17.

The motion was therefore carried.

In relation to Item 1.4 - Herefordshire Unitary Development Plan: Revised Deposit Draft, Councillor Chappell asked the Leader what evidence he had that the initial 300 houses proposed at Bullinghope would provide adequate funding for the Rotherwas Access Road.  He said that he had identified three alternative methods of funding the road and hoped that officers would investigate these sources further.  He was concerned that by 2021, 1800 houses would be built on the site and that it could be 2007 before the developers had built sufficient housing to pay for the road.  He was also concerned that St Martins and Hinton ward did not have sufficient facilities to cope with such a large housing scheme and warned of the ever present danger of flooding in the area.  He called on the Council to reject the proposal for the houses at Bullinghope, and moved that the proposal be removed from the draft plan.

The motion was duly seconded.

Several Councillors voiced concerns about the proposal and about other aspects of the UDP.  However it was noted that the deposit draft, once agreed, would be subject to a six week consultation period.  A number of Members, whilst expressing reservations about individual aspects of the Plan, expressed the view that this was not the appropriate way in which to deal with individual amendments given the process described.  It was felt there would be further opportunities to make changes to the Plan within the process .  A vote was taken and the motion was lost.

The Leader thanked the officers, the Cabinet Member (Environment) and other Cabinet Members, both current and previous, for their involvement in the development of the plan.

In response to a query about a lack of decisions recorded under some programme areas, the Leader advised that the report detailed decisions taken by Cabinet as a whole since the last meeting of Council and did not include decisions taken by individual Cabinet Members.  These were recorded in individual Decision Notices and were available in the Members' Room or on request.  Council was also reminded that the March meeting of Council was held primarily to deal with the Revenue Budget and setting the Council Tax. 

In relation to Item 13.1 - Older Peoples Service Business Case for Improvement and Development, Councillor Mrs Barnett, Cabinet Member (Social Care and Strategic Housing) announced a grant of £4.6 million for a new Extra Care Village in Hereford.  This was the largest successful bid countrywide.  She congratulated all officers involved in the project.

RESOLVED:  That the reports of the Cabinet meetings held on 29th January, 12th and 19th February and 4th March, 2004 be received and

That    (a)        a Medium Term Financial Plan (Appendix 1 to the report) be adopted for the four-year period commencing 2004/05; 

            (b)       £7 million be identified as the level of investment needed to support the Medium Term Financial Plan over the four-year period as part of the Revenue Budget Strategy 2004/5;

            (c)        a planned programme for redirecting expenditure from within existing budgets be adopted; 

(d)       the initial revenue budget proposals for 2004/05 be based on expenditure of £175,573,000 with a corresponding council tax at Band D of £959.53;

            (e) the basis of distributing supported borrowing for Transport, Education and Housing as outlined in Appendix 3 to the report be endorsed;

(f)        a capitalisation de-minimus limit of £10,000 be approved;

(g)       an amount of £5 million be approved by means of unsupported Prudential Borrowing to meet the preferred list of capital projects;

(h)       the Prudential Indicators detailed in Appendix 4 of the report, which include the  projected Capital Programme, be endorsed;

(i)the borrowing limits outlined in Appendix 4 of the report be approved;

(j)         the Treasury Management Strategy at Appendix 5 of the report be endorsed;

and

            (k) subject to the following amendments, the revised draft version of the UDP be approved for the purposes of public deposit:

                        (i) Page 78, paragraph 3, delete "in length" and insert "frontage";

                        (ii) Pages 144-145 delete paragraphs 7.7.17 - 7.7.20 and the follow-on paragraph headed "TCR19 - Hereford Livestock market - relocation", and substitute the replacement paragraphs attached at Appendix 6 of the report, and

                        (iii) Page 169, insert new paragraph 8.8.14 attached at Appendix 7 to the report.