Agenda and minutes

James Starbuck, Corporate Director apologised for his inability to attend the meeting.

Councillors Bryan Davies, Euros Davies, Gareth Davies, Endaf Edwards, Raymond Evans, Rhodri Evans, Wyn Evans, Keith Henson, Chris James, Gwyn James and Gareth Lewis declared a personal and prejudicial interest should any discussion arise relating close family members/close personal associates/related-parties who are employees/officers of the Council or teachers within schools in the County or for the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

Councillor Keith Evans extended his condolences to the family of Dilys Davies on their recent bereavement. Dilys was working in the Revenue and Benefits department and had worked for the Council for over 24 years.  He also extended his condolences to the family of Dafydd Elis Thomas on their recent bereavement, a prominent politician in both Welsh and UK politics.

Councillor Keith Evans congratulated the following:

a)    Deian Gwynne and Caio James on winning their first cap for the Wales under 20 Rugby Team;

b)    Ella Williams for winning Silver in the British Junior Women category at the British Open Airgun Championship;

c)     Byron Davies and John Jones who received recognition by the Football Association for Wales for over 40 years of service to Dewi Stars;

d)    Rhys Salcombe from Aberystwyth, one of a team of four that won a BAFTA and an Oscar for Special Visual Effects for the film ‘Dune: Part Two’;

e)    Ceredigion Young Farmers’ Clubs for taking part in the Pantomime competition at Felinfach, and to Pontsian Young Farmers Club who came first, and will now be representing Ceredigion at a national level.

It was RESOLVED to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Council meeting held on 23 January 2025.

Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

Councillor Bryan Davies, Leader of the Council presented the report to Council thanking Officers, Members and Chairs of the Scrutiny Committees for their input. He noted that the initial draft settlement from the Welsh Government was 3.6% and that the Cabinet along with Plaid Cymru and Independent members of the WLGA had been lobbying for 7%. The Welsh Government had settled for a funding floor of 3.8%, and as a result the situation had not changed significantly, resulting in a proposed decrease to the Council Tax increase from 9.9% to 9.3%. He noted that the core Council Tax increase equated to 4.3%, with an additional 0.6% resulting from the increase to the Mid and West Wales Fire Authority levy, 2.9% resulting from changes to the employers’ National Insurance contributions, and 1.5% resulting from a recommendation from Scrutiny to invest in waste collection and planning enforcement services.  He also noted an increase of 8.3% to the delegated schools’ budget, including grant funding. He acknowledged that a 9.3% increase was significant, emphasising that the Cabinet were eager not to cut services or staffing during 2025/26.

Councillor Gareth Davies, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement thanked Officers for preparing the budget and Members of the Scrutiny Committees for their consideration of the reports.  He noted that Cabinet had received a letter from the Independent Group, stating that they were unable to support the budget for 2024/25 as they felt that some of the savings were unachievable. He acknowledged that not all of the savings had been achieved, noting 3 items that were still in a red status, however no further reductions had been proposed for the 2025/26 budget.  He also noted the Independent Group’s recommendation to review all posts with a salary exceeding £45k with the exception of education and frontline services.  Councillor Gareth Davies noted that 72% of such posts are employed within Education (mainly within Schools), 6% are corporate manager roles, and 2% relate to the Leadership Group (with several posts being statutory posts).  Of the remaining 20%, 13% are posts within frontline services and 1% relate to work such as Growing Mid Wales. The remaining 6% (40 posts) are professional roles within support services such as legal, human resources, ICT and finance.  Having considered these in detail, the Cabinet concluded that any reduction to these services would impact directly upon the frontline services. He also noted the Independent Group’s recommendation in relation to agency staff, noting that this had started to reduce; however the majority of these roles relate to statutory services such as social care.

Councillor Gareth Davies provided an outline of the proposed budget as outlined in the report, which included the revenue budget, a breakdown of expenditure and what the council tax pays for, the council tax reduction scheme, the capital strategy and multi-year capital programme and the prudential indicators for capital and treasury management.

Members noted that they appreciated the work and the commitment of all employees stating that it was not the intention of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Councillor Gareth Davies, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement presented the report to Council.  Members enquired as to the frequency of payments to the Town and Community Council, and it was confirmed that payments are made in 3 equal instalments at the end of April, July and October.

Following a vote it was RESOLVED:

3.1 To note that at its meeting on 03/12/24 the following amounts were approved by the Council’s Cabinet for the year 2025/26 in accordance with regulations made under Section 33(5) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:

(a)   34,421.81 being the amount calculated by the Council, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (Wales) Regulations 1995, as amended by the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) and Council Tax (Prescribed Classes of Dwellings) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2004, as its Council Tax Base for the area.

(b)     PART OF THE COUNCIL’S AREA

COUNCIL TAX BASE 34,421.81

being the amounts calculated by the Council, in accordance with Regulation 6 of the 1995 Regulations (as amended by the 2004 Regulations), as the amounts of its Council Tax Base for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items relate;

3.2 To approve the amounts calculated by the Council for the year 2025/26 in accordance with Sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as set out below:-

(a)      £298,637,969 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(2)(a) to (e) of the Act.  This includes £180,000 in respect of National Non-Domestic Rates Relief.

(b) £87,793,000 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(3)(a) to (c) of the Act.

(c) £210,844,969 being the amount by which the aggregate at (a) above exceeds the aggregate at (b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act, as its budget requirement for the year.

(d) £144,224,579 being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its Council Fund in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Councillor Gareth Davies, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement presented the report to Council.

Following discussion and a vote it was RESOLVED to agree to the:

a)    approval of the Treasury Management Strategy for Borrowing and Investments for 2025/26

b)    approval of the Minimum Revenue Provision Policy for 2025/26; and

c)     delegate authority to the Section 151 officer in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement, to amend the Treasury Management Strategy, and Investment Schedule, during the course of the year.

Councillor Matthew Vaux, Cabinet Member for Partnerships, Housing, Legal and Governance and Public Protection presented the report to Council outlining the proposed changes to the Constitution.

Members asked for clarification on item 25 of Document H: Delegations to the Corporate Lead Officer Economy and Regeneration – “To determine planning applications where the same decision has been made within the past 12 months from the valid date and no changes have occurred”, asking whether it would apply where additional information has been provided. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the delegation applied to applications where no changes have occurred.

Members also asked for clarification on item 28 of Part 3: Responsibility for Council Functions, which related to the power to determine (Town/Village) Green applications, pursuant to S15 Commons Act 2006. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that that this was for clarification in case of any future doubt or challenge, and that there had been no change to the current practice.

Following a discussion and a vote it was RESOLVED to:

1.     approve the changes to the Constitution as set out in Appendix 1-6.

2.     Authorise the Monitoring Officer to update the Council’s Constitution to reflect the above changes.