Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director (Finance & Transformation).

Council received a report of the Executive Director (Finance & Transformation) on the Budget Proposals and Medium-Term Forecasts 2025/26.

Councillor Scott and Councillor Jones moved and seconded the Budget report.

Councillor Kingsbury and Councillor Mitchinson moved and seconded the amendment to the budget as follows:

“Enforcement can often be a concern of residents when development happens without consent, and when plans are not adhered to. Planning enforcement continues to be stretched in dealing with the complexity and number of enforcements requested. Staff turnover in recent years has impacted some enforcement cases. With a larger team there would also be more resilience if temporary vacancies occur. Therefore, we propose to allocate £127k out of the Strategic Initiative Earmarked Reserve to fund the recruitment of one full time senior enforcement officer for a fixed term of 2 years to increase the pace of resolution of enforcement, number of enforcement cases undertaken, reduction in outstanding cases and provide resilience to the team, thereby supporting residents in their valid concerns.”

On being put to the vote, Full Council voted as follows for the amendment:

(FOR: 10

Councillors: Kingsbury, Mitchinson, Sarson, Bardett, Cragg, Fitzsimon, Lass, Michaelides, Short and Trigg)

AGAINST: 29

Councillors: Holloway, Quinton, Bonfante, Scott, Grewal, Moore, Thorpe, Hobbs, Skoczlyas, Asare, Rowse, Platt, Jones, A.Chesterman, Bonkur, H.Goldwater, Birleson, Skottowe, Nix, Zukowskyj, Gilbert, Siewnak, Shah, Watson, Otumunye, Weston, Panter, L.Chesterman and Marsh)

The amendment to the budget report was declared lost.

The recommendations in the report were put to the meeting and it was: 

RESOLVED:

(FOR: Councillors: Holloway, Quinton, Bonfante, Scott, Grewal, Moore, Thorpe, Hobbs, Skoczlyas, Asare, Rowse, Platt, Jones, A.Chesterman, Bonkur, H.Goldwater, Birleson, Skottowe, Nix, Zukowskyj, Gilbert, Siewnak, Shah, Watson, Otumunye, Weston, Panter, L.Chesterman and Marsh)

(AGAINST:

Councillors: Kingsbury, Mitchinson, Sarson, Bardett, Cragg, Fitzsimon, Lass, Michaelides, Short and Trigg)

The Budget and Medium-Term Forecasts 2025/26 were approved.