To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Coppinger.  Councillor Targowska reported that she would be late.

To receive any declarations of interest

Councillor D Wilson declared a none Pecuniary Interest in item 8 ii, Council Funding for Local Organisations as he was a trusty on the Maidenhead and Windsor Citizen Advice Borough.  He declared he would not take part in the discussion on this item

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2019.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2019 were approved as a true and correct record subject to Cllr D Wilson being listed as in attendance.

None.  The chairman welcomed the new Managing Director Duncan Sharkey.

The Lead Member for Finance and Economic Development introduced the report that contained the 2019/20  the Treasury Management Strategy 2019/20 and also provided Cabinet with a summary of treasury activity in 2017/18.

The Lead Member informed that he was recommending that Cabinet approves that Council adopts the new strategy that shows how the Council prudently, efficiently and effectively managed its finances in accordance with legislation.

Cabinet were informed that paragraph 4.6 of the report showed that investment return for 2017/18 was 0.61% compared to the benchmark of 0.60%.  At the end of the financial year 2017/18 the Council borrowed £20,000,000 in the short term with this being repaid in full by the 1st May 2018.

Paragraph 4.8 showed that at 31st March 2018 the authority’s total long term external borrowing was £57,049,000 with an average interest rate of 4.97% that had been inherited and carried for the past 12 years.  The authority continued to monitor if it was prudent to continue to carry on repayments above current inflation levels or repay early with associated penalties.

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet:

i) Approves and adopts the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy.

The Lead Member for Finance and Economic Development introduced the proposed 2019/20 budget report.

Cabinet were informed that the budget for 2019/20 had been set against a national backdrop of continuing political uncertainty, including the impact of Brexit, and demand and costs of social care in both adults and children’s services. The authority had to continue to provide quality services from a prudent resource base.

There were pressures during the current financial year that had been taken into consideration during the budget build process these included a gross overspend in children’s services of £4.0m, predominantly for children-in-care, and resident advantage card parking charge discounts £0.7m.  It was good to see an unexpected increased use of the discount but this did create a budget pressure.

Forecasted general reserves for the end of the current financial year are £8.2 million which was £2.3 million above the minimum recommended level.

The Lead Member went on to explain that service spend would increases by £11.2m on the 2018/19 revenue budgets.  £5 million of this increased budget would be for children’s and adults services so the vulnerable in our society could be protected.

The prudent budget allowed weekly bin collections to continue, parking discounts for advantage card holder continues, environmental health, enforcement, CCTV, Community Wardens and tree inspections are all being invested in.  There was going to be £0.5 million invested in community facilities such as libraries, leisure centres, Norden Farm, the Guildhall and York House Windsor resident access.

To help fund this growth the Council needed to be run efficiently and thus there were proposed efficiency savings of £5.5 million and additional grant income of £1.3 million.

The budget also continued to ensure £300k being made available for grants , even though other authorities were cutting their grant allocations.  There would be prudent extra payments of £4 million into the pension fund to cover the shortfall caused by low risk investment income and it was expected that there would be £2.2 million received from the business rates pilot scheme. 

Base Council Tax would be increasing by 2.99% to £961.33 Band D still remaining the lowest outside London.  The Adult Social Care Levy to remain unchanged at £74.74 for Band D.  It was expected that by the end of 2019 / 20 reserves will have grown by an additional £3.5 million taking it to £11.7 million which would be £5.9 million above the recommended minimum level.  The Lead Member explained that the increased reserves was to protect the authority from the economic and political uncertainties in forthcoming years. 

There would be £25.7 million gross investment in capital projects which included £12.7 million invested in highways, £2.9 million on community infrastructure and £100k for place making in the centre of Windsor.

The Lead Member informed that it was expected to see borrowing increasing to £80 million by the end of 2019 / 20.  Foreseeable property company receipts, government grants and developer contributions materially exceed the level of commitments. 

The Chairman mentioned that the Lead Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5b

Cabinet considered approval of recommendations from the Grants Panel for grants to voluntary organisations. Although the discussion took place in Part II, it was agreed that the decisions of the Grant Panel should be minuted in Part I.

Cabinet also approved the additional awards to Electric Eels Swimming Club of £1,000 and Windsor Homeless Project £2,100.

BCF ‘3’ Fund

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet approved the recommendations from the Grants Panel that the applications listed below for the allocation of RBWM / ‘3’ Grassroots Funding be noted and the decisions be minuted in Part I following Cabinet’s confirmation of the Panel’s recommended awards:–

Community Grants

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet approved the recommendations from the Grants Panel that the grants as detailed below be approved, subject to:-

a)       The approval of the budget.

b)      The organisations receiving Community Grants for capital projects obtaining any requisite planning or building regulations consents and producing copies of audited accounts and evidence of the availability of finance for the remainder of the schemes. Organisations receiving Community Grants for Revenue costs or Service Level Agreements being required to complete an Annual Return Form which should demonstrate written evidence that the money had been spent according to their application and to identify the specific outcomes achieved as a result of the grant awarded.

c)       The organisations receiving Kidwells Trust Grants:-

i)     Providing suitable acknowledgement for the grant assistance in all publicity material.

ii)    Ensuring that there is adequate insurance cover for items purchased with grant assistance.  Continuing to look for other forms of sponsorship for special events.

d)      Organisations should, wherever possible, seek funding from other sources to ensure that they were not solely reliant on funding through the Royal Borough and it be noted that those organisations would not necessarily be automatically awarded funding year on year.

ii) That the following decisions be minuted in Part I following Cabinet’s agreement of the budget:

e)          Cabinet approved awards to Electric Eels Swimming Club of £1,000 and Windsor Homeless Project £2,100.  

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on items 7-8 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To consider the Part II minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 31 January 2019.