Agenda, decisions and minutes

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Executive which provided an outline of the key features of the context within which the Council would be operating in 2015/16.

The report recommended:-

that the Council note the content of the report.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendation.

At this juncture, Councillor McCaig moved as a procedural motion, seconded by Councillor Yuill:-

That the Council consider the General Fund Revenue Budget and Non-Housing Capital Programme agenda items together.

On a division, there voted:-

For the procedural motion  (19)  -  Councillor Blackman, Cameron, Corall, Cormie, Delaney, Dickson, Jackie Dunbar, Greig, Jaffrey, Kiddie, MacGregor, McCaig, Malone, Noble, Samarai, Jennifer Stewart, Sandy Stuart, Townson and Yuill.

Against the procedural motion  (22)  -  Lord Provost; and Councillors Allan, Boulton, Carle, Cooney, Crockett, Donnelly, Lesley Dunbar, Finlayson, Forsyth, Graham, Grant, Ironside, Laing, Lawrence, Malik, Milne, Jean Morrison, Nathan Morrison, Taylor, Thomson and Young.

The Council resolved:-

to reject the procedural motion, and therefore consider the General Fund Revenue Budget and Non-Housing Capital Programme agenda items separately.

The Council had before it a report by the Acting Director of Corporate Governance which presented details of the General Fund revenue budget for 2015/16 along with indicative five year budgets.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)       approve the revenue budget for 2015/16 as at appendix 1 to the report, along with an indicative five year budget;

(b)       approve the continuation of a Risk Fund to mitigate against any in-year cost pressures;

(c)        agree to freeze the level of Council tax for 2015/16 at the same level as 2014/15;

(d)       approve the changes to fees and charges as indicated in appendix 7 to the report;

(e)       approve that a sum of £2.93million be earmarked from the 2014/15 underspend to support a service redesign programme within Children’s Services, with regular updates to be provided to committee;

(f)        agree that revisions to budgets for Arm’s Length External Organisations (ALEOs) to reflect future pay awards be reported to the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee; and

(g)       agree to continue to retain uncommitted revenue reserves in accordance with the reserves strategy, which presently showed a requirement for £11.3million to be held.

Councillor Laing moved, seconded by Councillor Boulton:-

That the Council approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Councillor Yuill moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Malone:-

That the Council -

(1)       approve the revenue budget for 2015/16 as appended below, along with an indicative five year budget; and

(2)       approve recommendations (c) to (g) as contained within the report.

The Council had before it a report by the Acting Director of Corporate Governance which provided details of the non-housing capital programme for 2015/16, along with indicative investment levels for the five year business plan period, and an update on the Strategic Infrastructure Plan.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)       approve the non-housing capital investment programme of £398million over the five year business plan life-cycle, as at appendix 1 to the report, which included projects within the recently approved Strategic Infrastructure Plan; and

(b)       approve the Prudential Indicators as at appendix 4 to the report.

Councillor Laing moved, seconded by Councillor Boulton:-

That the Council approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Councillor Yuill moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Malone:-

That the Council -

(1)       approve the non-housing capital investment programme of £398million over the five year business plan life-cycle, as amended in the appendix below, which included projects within the recently approved Strategic Infrastructure Plan; and

(2)       approve the Prudential Indicators as at appendix 4 to the report.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Executive which presented the draft Common Good budget for 2015/16, along with an indicative budget for 2016/17 to 2019/20.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)       approve the Common Good budget for 2015/16 as detailed in appendix 1 to the report;

(b)       note the 2016/17 to 2019/20 indicative Common Good budgets set out in appendix 1 to the report; and

(c)        note the intention to undertake a review of the Common Good budget during 2015/16 by way of a zero based budget appraisal.

Councillor Laing moved, seconded by Councillor Boulton:-

That the Council -

(1)       approve the Common Good budget for 2015/16 as detailed in appendix 1 to the report with the exception of line 45;

(2)       approve the investment in loans fund sum of £3,078,500 at line 45 and the following non-recurring expenditure items totalling £421,500:-

(3)       note the 2016/17 to 2019/20 indicative Common Good budgets set out in appendix 1 to the report; and

(4)       note the intention to undertake a review of the Common Good budget during 2015/16 by way of a zero based budget appraisal.

Councillor Yuill moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Malone:-

That the Council -

(1)       agree to allocate £250,000 to a Common Good Community Initiatives Fund to be used to make funding awards to community organisations (including community councils, residents’ associations, tenants’ associations and community centres) to support specific projects which will deliver a long term benefit to communities;

(2)       agree that funding awards from the Common Good Community Initiatives Fund should be limited to a maximum of £15,000 per organisation, that these awards be non-repeatable for individual projects and that the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee should be responsible for making the awards;

(3)       note the various internal and external bids received for funding from the Common Good Fund and agree to remit consideration of these to the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee with the proviso that a total of no more than £177,000 is awarded to these various projects;

(4)       agree to reduce investment in the loans fund by £427,000; and

(5)       otherwise approve the recommendations contained within the report.

The Council had before it a report by the Acting Director of Corporate Governance which provided details of the budget included in the General Fund budget for 2015/16 relating to the NESPF, and an indicative budget for 2016/17 to 2019/20.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)       note the provision contained within the Council’s General Fund budget for 2015/16;

(b)       note the 2016/17 to 2019/20 indicative budget;

(c)        instruct the Head of Finance to recover the actual costs from the NESPF; and

(d)       note progress on the introduction of a service level agreement.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

- GEORGE ADAM, Lord Provost.