Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence (if any)

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Clarke, Collins, A Foster, Iliffe, Hoy, Musson, Niblock, Renwick, Rose, Stevenson, Sutton and Woods.

To receive declarations of interest (if any) including under Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

None received. 

 The Chairman reminded everyone of the general housekeeping requirements for the meeting and informed everyone that the meeting would be live streamed.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 27 November 2024.

On the motion of The Chairman, duly seconded, it was

RESOLVED:

To confirm, as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting of Council held on 27 November 2024.

To consider the report of the Council Leader and Members' questions on the report

The Leader made reference to the honour of being able to bestow the title of Honorary Freedom of the County on Mr Albert Kier during the previous meeting; an extraordinary gentleman who truly deserved the honour.

He made reference to the two key items included on the agenda which were the Budget reports and also the report in relation to Local Government Reorganisation.

With regard to the budgetary items he stated that the purpose of today’s meeting would be to set a balance budget not withstanding inflationary pressures and government funding reductions whilst sustaining frontline services long with the challenges each service area encountered.

In respect of Local Government Reorganisation, he confirmed that central government had confirmed its intention to implement this upon all two-tier areas and an interim plan was required to be submitted by 21st March 2025. The aim of the reorganisation was essentially to achieve efficiencies whilst delivering value for money services and maintaining a simplified structure that made sense for local people.

He reported that there had been a recent meeting of the East Midlands County Combined Authority and that it continued to evolve shaping the future of government investment in our region. He referred to the budget that had been set at the annual meeting and the schemes and work currently being undertaken.

In response to a question from Councillor Fordham in relation to the points the leader made in respect of the Council Tax and a request for the date of the next budget commission where this would be scrutinised in detail, Councillor Lewis deflected responding until the relevant item was discussed fully later in the meeting.

To consider public questions (if any)

Question from Karl Barrow to Councillor B Lewis, Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Tourism and Climate Change

“This Council’s recent press release claiming significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions infers that this is the case countywide and that is the result of actions by the County Council.  Analysis by Derbyshire Climate Coalition of official DESNEZ data challenges this, showing that almost all of the reductions so far are the result of actions outside the Council’s control such as decarbonisation of the UK energy supply.   

Does this Council accept that this press release is misleading to the public and what action will this Council take now to set the record straight and co-ordinate action to reduce emissions countywide at a speed and scale commensurate with what the global scientific consensus says is essential to meet our legal obligations to address the climate crisis?”

As Mr Barrow did not attend the meeting a written response was provided to him, as follows:

“Derbyshire County Council’s latest annual report on delivery of its Climate Change Strategy (which was considered by Cabinet on 9 January 2025), and the associated recent press release, acknowledge that whilst there have been significant reductions in emissions from the Council’s own estate and operations, Derbyshire’s emissions are reducing at a slower rate than the national average. This is largely due to the technical and economic challenges associated with decarbonising the county’s heavy industry, as well as wider national challenges that impact the county, such as the scale of action and funding needed to make all homes energy efficient and to transition all vehicles to zero or low carbon alternatives.    

It is widely recognised, including by the Local Government Association[1], that local authorities are directly responsible for 2-5% of local emissions and can only influence around a third of emissions in their area. With this in mind, the Council is committed to leveraging its leadership and influencing role and working in partnership with others to reduce Derbyshire’s emissions across all sectors.  

With decarbonising industry being the biggest challenge and being heavily reliant on national funding and policy, the Council is actively working in partnership with the sector, particularly the mineral products industry, to help decarbonise energy systems, industrial processes and transport. This includes the formation of a Memorandum of Understanding with the county’s mineral products industry in April 2023 to work together on decarbonisation efforts. Since its formation, this partnership has been lobbying government for systemic change on aspects that have an impact on industry’s ability to decarbonise, such as planning policy restrictions and national grid constraints that impede renewable energy project development. This work has also included strengthened areas of collaboration on topics such as green skills and sustainable transport. 

The Council has also secured significant government funding to support the decarbonisation of Derbyshire’s transport sector, including for the delivery of its Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), the Low Emission Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) programme, and numerous active travel  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9/25

To receive petitions (if any)

None received.

The Director of Finance introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting in relation to the Reserves Position and Reserves Policy.

On the motion of Councillor S Spencer, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED to:

1)    Note the current position on Earmarked Reserves;

2)    Note the details of the amounts to be released from Earmarked Reserves balances to the General Reserve;

3)    Note that the £30.000m released from Earmarked Reserves is expected to be fully required to mitigate the forecast 2024-25 overspend, with the balance being funded from the RCCO Earmarked Reserve held to support revenue budget management, and so ensure that the General Reserve balance remains at a minimum level; and

4)    Approve the Reserves Policy at Appendix Five to the report.

The Director of Finance introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, that gave details of the Budget Consultation Results.

On the motion of Councillor S Spencer, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To note the views of the consultation respondents regarding the Revenue Budget for 2025-26.

The Managing Director introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting that proposed a Revenue Budget and Council Tax for 2025-26.

On the motion of Councillor S Spencer, duly seconded and in accordance with the Local Authority (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 a recorded vote was taken as follows:

For the motion:

Councillors Ainsworth, Allen, Ashton, Athwal, Atkin, Barron, Bryan, Bull, Cupit, A Dale, C Dale, Dixon, Flatley, Ford, M Foster, George, Gillott, Greenhalgh, Grooby, Gourlay, Grooby, Hart, Hayes, Haynes, Hickton, Hobson, Hoy, Iliffe, Innes, Kemp, King, Lewis, Major, Mihaly, Moss, Muller, Murphy, Nelson, Parkinson, Patten, Ramsey, Siddle, Smith, Spencer, Swann, Taylor, Wharmby, Wilson, Woolley and Yates.

Against the motion:

Councillors Bingham, Burfoot, Fordham and Kinsella.

RESOLVED to:

1)    Note the details of the Autumn Budget 2024, the Local Government Finance Policy Statement 2025-26 and Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2025-26 and other announcements as outlined in Section 4 and Appendix 5 to the report;

2)    Note the Government’s expectations about Council Tax levels for 2025-26 at Appendix 5 to the report;

3)    Approve the precepts as outlined at Appendix 5 to the report;

4)    Approve that billing authorities are informed of Council Tax levels arising from the budget proposals as outlined in Section 4 and Appendix 5 to the report;

5)    Approve the contingency to cover non-standard inflation as outlined at Appendix 6 to the report. The contingency to be allocated by the Director of Finance, as S151 Officer, once non-standard inflation has been agreed;

6)    Approve the budget pressures in Section 5 and service pressure items identified at Appendix 6 to the report;

7)    Approve the funding change to budgets to replace one off funding provided in 2024-25 as outlined at Appendix 6 to the report;

8)    Note the shortfall between ongoing available funding and expenditure met by the use of one-off savings and reserves as outlined in Section 6 of the report;

9)    Approves the level and allocation of budget savings as outlined in Section 7 and Appendix 7 to the report;

10)  Note the remaining budget gap over the period of the Five Year Financial Plan as outlined in Section 6 and Appendices 7 and 8 of the report;

11)    Note the comments of the Director of Finance, as S151 Officer, about the robustness of the estimates and adequacy of the reserves as outlined in Section 3 and Appendix 4 to the report;

12)    Note the details of the Council’s consultation activity as outlined in Section 9 of the report and set out in the Budget Consultation Results report;

13)    Approve the Council Tax requirement of £441,021,660 which is calculated as follows;

The Director of Finance introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting in relation to Capital Programme Approvals, Treasury management and Capital Strategies for 2025-26.

On the motion of Councillor S Spencer, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED to:

1)    Approve the new Capital Starts Programme set out in Appendix 2 to the report, including the reallocation of existing borrowing approvals (Section 2.5 of Appendix 2), and approves the procurement and award of contracts which support the delivery of the Capital Programme. All contract awards will then be subject to approval by Executive Directors (via an Executive Director Report) under the relevant Departmental Scheme of Delegation;

2)    Approve the detailed Planned Asset Maintenance Programme for 2025-26 as set out at Appendix 3 to the report;

3)    Adopt the Treasury Management Strategy for 2025-26 set out at Appendix 4 to the report;

4)    Adopt the Investment Strategy for 2025-26 set out at Appendix 5 to the report;

5)    Adopt the Capital Strategy for 2025-26 set out at Appendix 6 to the report;

6)    Approve the changes to the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) policy from 1 April 2024 and adopt the Minimum Revenue Provision Statement for 2024-25 and 2025-26 set out at Appendix 7 to the report; and

7)    Adopt the Flexible Use of Capital Receipts Strategy as set out in Appendix 8 / paragraph 2.7.

The Managing Director introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting that sought approval of the authority’s Council Plan 2025-29 and Service Plans for 2025-29.

On the motion of Councillor B Lewis, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED to:

1)    Approve the authority’s Council Plan for 2025-29 and Departmental Service Plans for 2025-29 as recommended by Cabinet at the 30 January 2025 meeting; and

2)    Approve the Strategic Objectives implementation Plan 2025-29 as recommended by Cabinet at the 30 January 2025 meeting.

The Executive Director for Adult Social Care and Health introduced a report that sought approval of the Derbyshire Community Safety Agreement, 2024-2027.

On the motion of Councillor C Hart, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To approve the Derbyshire Community Safety Agreement, 2024-2027.

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, that sought approval for the amendments to the Improvement and Scrutiny Procedure Rules for inclusion in the Council Constitution.

On the motion of Councillor S Swann, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To approve the amended Article 8 – Improvement and Scrutiny Procedure Rules at Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 respectively to the report for inclusion in the Constitution.

The Director of Finance introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting in relation to Performance Monitoring and Budget Monitoring/Forecast Outturn 2024-25 as a Quarter 2 (30 September 2024).

On the motion of Councillor S Spencer, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED to note:

1)    The update of Council Plan performance, progress with the delivery of savings, and the Revenue Budget position/forecast outturn for 2024-25 as at 30 September 2024 (Quarter 2);

2)    The position on Reserves; and

3)    The significant actions, as set out in the report, which will be undertaken across the Council which are required to reduce the significant revenue overspend detailed in the report, and ensure the delivery of planned savings.

The Managing Director introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, in relation to Local Government Reorganisation.

Councillor B Lewis proposed the recommendations in the report, which were duly seconded, in the following terms:

1)    Note Government intentions for the requirement of local government reorganisation across two-tier areas of local government in England;

2)    Note the request from Government to submit an interim plan for local government reorganisation in Derbyshire by 21 March 2025;

3)    Note the Government timeline for local government reorganisation in Derbyshire;

4)    Note the County Council elections will not be deferred and will take place on 1 May 2025;

5)    Approve a proactive approach to local government reorganisation for Derbyshire for the reasons outlined in the report;

6)    Authorise the Leader and Managing Director to engage with Derbyshire councils to develop options for reorganisation proposals where they are consistent with the principles outlined in the report;

7)    Authorise the Managing Director to commit appropriate resources to raise awareness and to seek public and stakeholder views accordingly of options for reorganisation proposals;

8)    Approve a single County Unitary as the indicative preferred option for local government reorganisation in Derbyshire for the purpose of seeking public and stakeholder views;

Councillor J Dixon proposed an amendment, which was duly seconded, in the following terms:

That Council:

a)    Notes Government intentions for the requirement of local government reorganisation across two-tier areas of local government in England;

b)    Notes the request from Government to submit an interim plan for local government reorganisation in Derbyshire by 21 March 2025;

c)     Notes Government timeline for local government reorganisation in Derbyshire;

d)    Notes the County Council elections will not be deferred and will take place on 1 May 2025;

e)    Approves a proactive approach to local government reorganisation for Derbyshire for the reasons outlined in the report

f)       Authorises the Leader and Managing Director to engage with Derbyshire councils to develop options for reorganisation proposals;

g)    Authorises the Managing Director to commit appropriate resources to raise awareness and to seek public and stakeholder views accordingly of options for reorganisation proposals;

h)    Delegates authority to the Managing Director, in consultation with Leader of the Council to submit an interim plan to Government by 21 March 2025 for Local Government Reorganisation in Derbyshire which takes account of the views of the public and stakeholder views;

i)       Notes the use of £3,000 for public awareness raising to be met from existing budgets and approves funding of £200,000 to support work to raise awareness and seek public and stakeholder views of options for local government reorganisation and to support the preparation of the required submissions to government of preferred options for reorganisation proposals;

j)       Instructs the Leader and/or Managing Director to share any interim proposal submitted to the Minister with all elected members of the council at the time of its submission;

k)     Requires that a report back on Local Government Reorganisation is brought to the next Full Council in March 2025.

A vote  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19/25

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting that provided details of Decisions taken as a matter of Urgency and Key Decisions and Special Urgency.

On the motion of Councillor S Swann, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED to note:

1)    The key decisions taken where special urgency provisions were agreed as detailed at Appendix 2 to the report; and

2)    The urgent decisions taken where the call-in procedure was waived under the Improvement and Scrutiny Procedure Rules as detailed in Appendix 3.

With the time approaching 5:00pm, and on the motion of The Chairman, duly seconded, it was,

RESOLVED:

That under rule 4.1 of the Council Procedure Rules the meeting should be extended by 30 minutes to continue until 5.30pm to enable the remaining business on the agenda to be considered.

To consider questions submitted by Elected Members

Question from Councillor S Burfoot to Councillor C Cupit, Cabinet Member for Highways, Assets and Transport

"Most councillors will be aware of the huge amount of money, over £2 million in less than one year, paid out to in compensation for damage to vehicles caused by the huge number of potholes throughout Derbyshire.  Does the Council agree that it would be better to spend this money on fixing potholes to a high standard rather than compensating road users for damage to their vehicles, not to mention compensating cyclists and pedestrians for injuries caused by drivers attempting to avoid the numerous potholes."

Due to time constraints, this question was deferred to the next full Council meeting scheduled for 26 March 2024.

Question from Councillor E Fordham to Councillor N Hoy, Cabinet Member for Adult Health and Social Care

“On the Council website if you want to consider living in a Council owned and run care home, it suggests asking 32 (thirty two) questions before applying and only after considering 31 questions is the 32nd question, “Do you want to live here?”.  Is the Council content that its processes and systems are sufficiently attractive, robust and fit for purpose for the advertising of and filling of beds in our care homes?”

Councillor Hoy provided a written response as follows:

“The questions that you reference on our website are designed to assist anybody possibly looking into residential care, whether that be a private care home or DCC home.  These questions are designed to support anyone who may be looking for a care home to get a sense of what things they should be thinking about in terms of which home to choose.”

Question from Councillor E Fordham to Councillor C Cupit, Cabinet Member for Highways, Assets and Transport

“Can the Cabinet Member update members on the flood schemes and whether the Council is content that the Environment Agency are progressing schemes fast enough and will the Council changes its stance to remove the pedestrian bridges from Spital towards town.

Too often due to flooding Spital has been cut off from Chesterfield Town creating serious issues for accessing residents, for those seeking to get home from the rail and coach stations and indeed to access the hospital atop Hady Hill. Is it not the case that the Council should be pushing for greater urgency on flooding measures, on improving all road and pedestrian bridges over the rivers and waterways and that the Council should not be going along with the proposal to remove pedestrian bridges, thereby risking residents being isolated and trapped in the inevitable situation of a flood in the near future?”

Councillor Cupit provided a written response as follows:

“Thank you to Cllr Fordham for his questions. To start with the specific point around Spital and the footbridges, as you note, it is proposed to remove these as it is considered that both bridges can trap debris from the river during high flow conditions, which can cause a backing up effect  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/25

Councillor Taylor left the meeting at 5.25pm;

Councillors Gourlay and George left the meeting at 5.30pm.

Councillor Barron left the meeting at 5.35pm.

Councillor Wharmby proposed a motion that was duly seconded, in the following terms:

On 17 December 2024, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall announced in the House of Commons that there will be no compensation for Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi – the word is now in the Collins English Dictionary) saying: “We cannot accept that in the great majority of cases, sending a letter earlier would have affected whether women knew their state pension age was rising.”

A few weeks earlier, a number of other compensation schemes had been announced in the Budget, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer made no mention of the expected measures for Waspi women in her speech. Even so, Liz Kendall’s announcement on 17 December came as a total shock to Waspi campaigners.

Waspi has campaigned for years on the basis that up to 3.8 million older women were penalised financially because of the way the decision to raise the state pension age for women to match that of men was communicated.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigated the matter over a long period. In an initial report in 2021, which was subject to a motion and debate at Derbyshire County Council, the Ombudsman found the Department for Work and Pensions guilty of maladministration in the handling of the changes. Then, in March 2024, its final report said those affected should be compensated.

Throughout the years, Waspi campaigners were assured by an array of Labour politicians that if their party formed a future Government the 1950s women would receive compensation payments.

In a stunning betrayal that surely astounds anyone who believes a promise should be a promise, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has abandoned its pledges to the Waspi campaign in yet another audacious act of treachery, and this is one of the key matters at issue in this motion.

The Council notes that:

-         During its last two meetings, all Members of Derbyshire County Council, with the exception of Labour Councillors, supported local pensioners by urging the Government to reverse its cruel decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance (a measure that risks leaving many pensioners in danger of going cold during the winter and in severe financial hardship) and have backed the County’s farmers in their fight against Labour’s destructive Family Farm Tax which will ruin many local businesses and lead to more expensive food bills for everyone. The residents of Derbyshire will no doubt now expect their County Council to stand up for the betrayed Waspi women.

-         The Labour Government’s damaging and divisive tax-and-spend Budget on 30th October 2024 has been widely condemned for wreaking financial havoc on the UK economy and being a long-planned full-frontal ideological assault on working people, pensioners, farmers, family businesses, house-buyers, bus passengers, housing landlords, local authorities, schools, hospices and other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22/25