Issue - meetings

Cabinet received a report as part of the Council’s agreed two stage budget process, as outlined in the report considered by Cabinet on 24 November 2014.

The purpose of the report was to enable Cabinet to consider the feedback from consultation undertaken to date with Scrutiny, residents, partner organisations, businesses and other interested parties and to recommend to Council approval of phase one budget proposals.

An addendum document had been circulated prior to the meeting of Cabinet which contained revised recommendations.

Councillor Seaton introduced the item and provided an overview of the background to the issue. Further key points included the wide reaching ongoing budget conversation; the challenges faced due to the £44m cut in grant; the work which had been undertaken alongside officers and the cross party budget working group; the release of the budget proposals in two phases; full analysis of the feedback being included within the addendum to the Cabinet report; the feedback and consultation sessions  which highlighted the understanding that the public had in relation to the issues faced by the Council; the consultation responses being taken into account but also being balanced with achieving the required level of savings; the cessation of Your Peterborough magazine leading to a decrease in communication opportunities with residents; the issues raised being consistent throughout; the deferral of proposals for shrub replacement and grass cutting to Phase 2 of the budget proposals to allow further discussion; the proposal to charge for blue badge parking and the bigger issue being the availability of accessible spaces rather than charging itself and the work that would be undertaken alongside the disability forum to address this issue; comments which had been received with regards to proposals for bowls clubs and the further work that would be undertaken to identify alternative ways to provide the service; comments which had been received with regards to Council Tax Support, this not being part of the proposals for Council in December;  the comments which had been received relating to suggested savings and the work that was already being undertaken in relation to some of the suggestions; the second set of proposals which would have to close the remaining £8m savings gap and the feedback process which would be repeated for this second phase.

Councillor Seaton summarised by stating that the Council was committed to providing a bright future for the city and its residents and it was believed that the phase one proposals struck the right balance between tackling the financial challenges faced and maintaining focus on education, jobs creation and economic prosperity and quality of life for residents.

Cabinet debated the report and key points raised, along with responses to questions provided by the Executive Director of Resources included:

·         It was still unclear as to when the grant settlement would be;

·         There had been a number of concerns raised around the bowling greens. Could consideration therefore be given to postponing any decision on the bowling greens to the second phase?

·         The feedback received from the bowling  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6