Agenda item

To approve a Budget for the Charter Trustees of Taunton for the rest of 2019/20.

The Clerk to the Charter Trustees introduced this item. The Charter Trustees had lodged a request for funding to the District Council (Somerset West and Taunton) at its inaugural meeting on 4^th June 2019. This was because in their first year of existence Charter Trustees are not able to raise their own precept under legislation and had to have an amount provided for them by the District body.

Somerset West and Taunton Council had discussed this matter at their Full Council meeting on the 16^th July 2019 and made the following resolutions:

·       Transfer the 2019/20 Unparished Area budget of £46,399, to be allocated in line with the approved scope and governance of the Charter Trustees including the cost of the mayoralty, support costs and local grants scheme.

·       Transfer the balance of unallocated legacy funds from previous years’ TDBC Unparished Area Special Expenses Precept, to be administered by the Charter Trustees of the Town of Taunton.

·       The transfer of legacy balance and future CIL Infrastructure Payments derived from the Unparished Area to the Charter Trustees of the Town of Taunton, once appropriate governance arrangements have been devised by the Charter Trustees to the satisfaction of the SWTC Head of Performance and Governance and the S151 Officer.

·       Recommend the relevant Head of Function consults the Mayor, as representative of the Trustees, regarding the allocation of the legacy General Fund Unparished Area Play Equipment Capital Budget for use within the unparished area.

·       The Charter Trustees be required to satisfy the SWTC S151 Officer that there are appropriate arrangements in place for the proper administration of and accounting for the funds to be transferred.

·       Note that in future years, the Charter Trustees will be in a position to raise its own precept to fund its responsibilities.

During the discussion of this item, Members made comments and asked questions which included:-

·       The Joint Independent Remuneration Panel were thanked for their work in calculating an allowance.

·       It was requested that the figure provided for the Mayoralty in the final budget (18/19) for Taunton Deane Borough Council was provided to the Charter Trustees, which included costs for the Car and Driver for example.

·       It was requested for further detail to be provided on the restrictions or criteria regarding the use of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to be provided.

·       This information and guidance could be provided subsequent to the meeting by an officer in the Planning area that covered CIL. The former Unparished Area Committee had expressed a desire to explore the use of the CIL funding to improve cycling infrastructure within the Town Centre.

·       The Clerk to the Charter Trustee’s had had initial conversations with two officers in the Commercial Investment team about presenting to the Trustee’s on a project that could potentially support the use of the CIL Funding on cycling infrastructure.

·       Members supported this and requested County Council involvement.

·       Regulation 59c states that a local council must use CIL receipts passed to it in accordance with regulation 59A or 59B to support the development of the local council’s area, or any part of that area, by funding the provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure or anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area. £44,000 of that CIL budget was awarded in October 2015 and according to the regulations must be spent within a five year time limit.

·       A Member Briefing on CIL was considered a session to aid understanding of the topic.

·       It was understood that the County Council were also seeking views on the CIL monies that had been received as part of the Killam’s development.

·       Clarification was sought on the detailed bids underneath the budget lines on amounts paid out against previously agreed commitments (£23,315) and amounts committed but not yet settled (£30,012).

·       The detail on these bids could be circulated to all Charter Trustees after the meeting and had been included in the response to David Orr, with all bid decisions to be published as before and available to members of the public.

·       Councillor Booth urged Councillors who were aware of capital improvements to be required to be made to Parks within the Unparished Area to contact himself and Cllr R Lees as there was a piece of work being undertaken looking at this area.

RESOLVED that the Taunton Charter Trustees:-

a)    Approved the Budget for the Charter Trustees of Taunton for 2019/20 until 31st March 2020 with the following allocations:-

       i.          As recommended by the Joint Independent Recommendation Panel (JIRP) and the Shadow Council approved the award of a Special Responsibility Allowance for 2019/20 for the Mayor of Taunton at £2,930 and £1,570 for the Deputy Mayor for Taunton.

      ii.          That CPIH be used to inflation-index both Mayoral allowances in future years.

    iii.          That after a year’s experience of the offices of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the allowances be reviewed by the JIRP.

    iv.          Approved an amount of circa £500 for insurance costs associated with the Historic Civic Regalia, Insignia and Silver and associated property that vested with the Charter Trustees on 1 April 2019. (£505.85 was the cost in 18/19).

     v.          Ring-fenced an amount from the budget to be spent entirely on Mayoral activities such as travel expenses and event organisation and hosting within the unparished area. Based on estimates from previous years spend and depending on activities planned this is suggested as being an amount that should not exceed £10-£15,000.