Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting

There were no minutes. The Chair confirmed they would be available at the next meeting. 

To receive any apologies for absence

The Chair gave the following apologies for absence:

·         Councillor Howard was Chairing a different committee at the Joint Budget.

·         Councillor Clark

·         Councillor McLean attended the Joint Budget presentation, but was unable to attend the Committee due to another engagement.

R Twidle gave the following apologies:

·         Councillor Adeleke

·         Councillor Silwal

·         Councillor Armytage was attending a different committee at the Joint Budget.

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

During the course of the meeting Cllr Tindall declared an interest; he said a company of which he is a principal shareholder rented a garage from DBC.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation

None.

None.

Finance and Resources

C Baker, F Jump, B Hosier and N Brown gave a presentation regarding the budget for their service areas to the Committee.

The Chair thanked the contributors to the presentation and asked Members if they had any questions on the issues covered. 

Cllr Taylor asked a question relating to cards.  He said that on one side the Officers were saying cards were increasing costs and on the other, cards are saving money and reducing costs. He asked if there was an equalisation on that.

C Baker said probably not overall, he said it depended on the balance of the numbers who are using them and what they are used for.  C Baker explained that Electronic Purchasing Cards (EPC) reduced costs; however this was balanced against the costs of credit card charges, particularly when people used them to pay. He said DBC could not avoid charging costs that needed to be paid. Cllr Taylor thanked C Baker.

Following a question from Cllr Taylor regarding the Rossgate Shopping centre receiving an allocation of £110K, N Brown confirmed this and advised that work would commence in the middle of next year because of the need for scaffolding.

Cllr Tindall referred to pg 15 of the Agenda pack.  He quoted the figure of £366Kreduction in Homeless Grant.  He said that he had discussed homelessness problems over the last month and because of the changes in legislation, DBC was going to have greater difficulty with homelessness; he wondered why there was reduction. C Souto said that this was actually an income for the year that would be received on the basis of a new grant which will be ring-fenced to the Homelessness Service and will be specifically spent on homelessness.

Cllr Douris referred The Tour of Britain; he noted from the agenda pack that there was a £150K saving which indicated there would not be one next year. He asked if DBC had withdrawn from it or were unsuccessful in bidding for it.

Cllr Harden explained when DBC first did the Tour of Britain, in 2014/2015, there was an option to have ‘first bite’ of a future Tour. With the regeneration of the Town Centre, DBC decided to host the Tour again to showcase the new Town Centre. They were, however, quite expensive to facilitate, therefore this decision would need to be reviewed.

Cllr Douris asked if the officers were satisfied that with the credit card purchasing, and if DBC were receiving full VAT receipts, to ensure that repayment VAT was matched? C Souto and F Jump confirmed that there were very rigorous controls in place around purchases, and that VAT receipts could be provided.

The Chair asked B Hosier to clarify what was the retained parking service. B Hosier said that parking enforcement was carried out by Indigo Staff, but two members of staff had been directly retained by DBC (S Barnes and D Rodger).

Cllr Tindall referred to pg 18 of the agenda pack regarding Car Parking, specifically supplies  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

The Chair highlighted the Work Programme is on pages 54 - 56. No comments were raised by the Committee regarding this item.