37 QUESTIONS BY COUNCILLORS IN ACCORDANCE WITH COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULES PDF 9 KB
The Chairman of the Council, the Chairmen of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 13.
Minutes:
Question 1 - Councillor Beer to Councillor Malvisi, Cabinet Member for the Environment
At the February 2021 full Council Budget Meeting, we approved the maximum increase in Council Tax and increased car parking charges to be applied in our own Babergh carparks. The reasons stated at the time were due to the forecast budget position of a £1.8 million deficit. This was presented at many workshops and by finance officers and the Cabinet Member for Finance.
To help balance this position we were given several options;
Introduce the full allowed council tax increase, introduce car parking charges and close the Sudbury Advice Centre.
I voted against these charges being introduced, based on the information supplied at the time.
We now have the final 2020/21 financial outturn, which shows a rather different position, we now have a £725,000k surplus.
So, in light of this information will the Cabinet withdraw the introduction of any car parking charges?
This will give our town centres of Sudbury and Hadleigh a breathing space to recover from Covid 19, this would certainly send out the correct message to our hard pressed residents of Babergh and show that as a Council we do listen to our traders and the public at large.
Response to Cllr Beer from Cabinet Member for Finance
Thank you for your question Cllr Beer. Before handing over to Cllr Malvisi to answer the specific matter of our cark park tariffs, I would like to correct a couple of misconceptions in your question.
Firstly, I would like to point out that we provide an Access Point, not an advice centre. We have never run an advice centre in any of our face-to-face locations. This may seem like a pedantic comment, but it is important as it gets to the nub of some of the criticism of the decision to move it. And I want to provide a further clarification and say that we have moved it, not closed it – it is still very much open and successfully serving our residents. Part of the reason for the move was that it would give us savings, but it needs to be understood also that the contract was due to expire in March and we took the opportunity to design a more appropriate service, aligned with our Customer Strategy and the changing way our residents interact with the Council.
Secondly, I did report, when I presented the budget, that we were forecasting a cumulative three-year deficit of £1.7m. This still stands and I don’t expect it will improve in the foreseeable future – indeed, it may well go further in the wrong direction, but officers are currently reviewing the figures as part of the preparation for setting the budget for next year. The favourable outturn of £736k does not change this because most of it was one-off benefits that won’t necessarily be repeated in future years. We have used this money to top up some reserves, most notably the Climate Change and Biodiversity Reserve and the ... view the full minutes text for item 37