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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Westminster Council House, 97-113 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5PT

Contact: Janis Best, Committee and Councillor Support Manager  Email:  jbest@westminster.gov.uk Tel: 07971 920521

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Relief Chair

To appoint a Relief Chair.

Minutes:

1.              Motion moved by the Lord Mayor and seconded by Councillor Matt Noble, that Councillor Angela Piddock be elected as Relief Chair.  

 

2.              Motion put, and on a show of hands, declared CARRIED. 

 

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 71 KB

To sign the Minutes of the Meeting of the Council meeting held on 25 January 2023.

Minutes:

2.1       RESOLVED:The minutes of the proceedings at the Council meeting held on Wednesday 25 January 2023 were, with the assent of the Members present, signed by the Lord Mayor as a true record of the proceedings. 

3.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations by Members and Officers of the existence and nature of any pecuniary interests or any other significant interest in matters on this agenda.

 

Minutes:

3.1       There were no declarations of interest. 

 

4.

Cabinet Report pdf icon PDF 106 KB

To receive and consider the following Cabinet report:

13 February 2023

 

Appendix 1:

Business and Financial Planning 2023/24 to 2026/27

 

Report

 

Appendix 1

 

Appendix 2

 

Appendix 3

 

Appendix 4

 

Appendix 5

 

Appendix 6

 

Appendix 7

 

Appendix 8

 

 

Appendix 2:

Capital Strategy 2023-24 to 2027-28

 

Report

 

Appendix A

 

 

Appendix 3:

Housing Revenue Account Business Plan 2023-24

 

Report

Appendices 1 & 2

 

Appendices 3 & 4

 

Appendix 5

 

 

Appendix 4:

Treasury Management Strategy 2023/24

 

Report and Appendices 1 to 4

 

 

Appendix 5:

Integrated Investment Statement 2023/24

 

Report and Appendices A to C

 

 

Appendix 6:

Pay Policy 2023-2024

 

Report

Appendix 1

 

Minutes:

4.1       The report of the Cabinet on 13 February 2023 was submitted. 

 

4.2       Following debate, to which Councillor Hug replied, the Lord Mayor then put the recommendations in paragraph 1 of the Cabinet report to a vote. A recorded vote was then taken: 

 

For the recommendations: Councillors Albert, Arrindell, Barraclough, Begum, Boothroyd, Bush, Butler-Thalassis, Carman, Chowdhury, Dimoldenberg, Eagleton, Fisher, Hassan, Hug, Jude, A Less, I Less, Lilley, McAllister, Noble, Ormsby, Piddock, Roca, Sanquest, Small-Edwards, Southern, Sullivan, Toale, Toki and Williams 

 

Abstaining:Councillors Arzymanow, Caplan, Cunningham, Dean, Devenish, Glen, Harvey, Hitchcock, Langford, Mitchell, Oteh-Osoka, Pitt Ford, Rigby, Robathan, Rowley, Sargent, Scarborough, Shearer, Short, Swaddle and Wilkinson 

 

Absent or not voting:The Lord Mayor andCouncillors Hyams andMendoza 

 

4.3       The Lord Mayor declared the recommendations in paragraph 1 of the Cabinet report as ADOPTED 

 

RESOLVED:  

 

Council Tax 

 

1)         That the council tax for a Band D be agreed at £477.91 for 2023/24.  

 

2)         That subject to the consideration of the previous recommendation, the council tax for the City of Westminster, excluding the Montpelier Square area and Queen’s Park Community Council, for the year ending 31 March 2024, be as specified in the Council Tax Resolution in Appendix 6.  

 

3)         That the Precepts and Special Expenses be as also specified in Appendix 6 for properties in Montpelier Square and the Queen’s Park Community Council.  

 

4)         That the formal resolution for 2023/34 attached at Appendix 6 including the council tax requirement of £64.974m be agreed.  

 

5)         Note the proposed Greater London Authority precept (Band D) of £434.14, an increase of £38.55 in the adjusted Band D precept.  

 

6)         That the Council continues the Westminster Community Contribution scheme to allow residents in the City to voluntarily contribute towards supporting discretionary services that support the three priorities of youth services, helping rough sleepers off the streets and supporting people who are lonely and isolated. 

 

Revenue Budget  

 

7)         To note the views of the Scrutiny Budget Task Group set out in Appendix 8.  

 

8)         That the proposed General Fund net budget requirement of £193.611m summarised in Appendix 4 is approved.  

 

9)         That the savings, pressures and investments for 2023/24 to 2026/27 set out in Appendix 1, 2 and 3, are approved.  

 

10)       That the Equality Impact Assessments included in Appendix 7 are noted to inform the consideration of the budget.  

 

11)       Note the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan 2023/24 and 30-Year Housing Investment Plan presented concurrently to Cabinet on 13 February 2023 that recommends the HRA budget and rent levels for 2023/24. Capital Programme  

 

12)       Note the Capital Strategy 2023/24 to 2027/28, forecast position for 2022/23 and future years’ forecasts summarised up to 2036/37 report also presented to Cabinet on 13 February 2023 that recommends the Council’s capital programme and financing. Reserves, Balances and Budget Estimates  

 

13)       Agree the reserves policy as set out in section 10 of the Section 151 officer’s report;  

 

14)       Note the opinion of the Section 151 Officer with regards to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

General Purposes Committee Report - Member Allowances Scheme 2023 - 2024 pdf icon PDF 57 KB

To receive, consider and debate, if chosen, the following General Purposes Committee report:

 

Appendix 1

 

 

Minutes:

5.1       The Opposition Party had selected for debate the report on the Member Allowances Scheme 2023-2024 as set out on the agenda. Councillor Tim Mitchell moved, and it was seconded by Councillor Melvyn Caplan that the recommendations in the report be amended, as follows: 

 

“That recommendation 1 of the Report of the General Purposes Committee - Member Allowances 2023-24 be amended to read “Be recommended to approve, in line with the staff pay award for 2022/2023, a 4.04% uplift for the basic allowance and all SRAs.” 

 

5.2       Following debate, The Lord Mayor put the amendment to the recommendations to the vote and following a show of hands declared the amendment to the recommendations LOST.  

 

5.3       The Lord Mayor then put the unamended recommendations to the vote and following a show of hands declared the recommendations CARRIED. 

 

5.4       In accordance with Council Procedure Rules a recorded vote was requested by Councillor Swaddle. 

 

For the recommendations: Councillors Albert, Arrindell, Barraclough, Begum, Boothroyd, Bush, Butler-Thalassis, Carman, Chowdhury, Dimoldenberg, Fisher, Hassan, Hug, Jude, A Less I Less, Lilley, McAllister, Noble, Ormsby, Piddock, Roca, Sanquest, Small-Edwards, Southern, Sullivan, Toale, Toki and Williams 

 

Against the recommendations:Councillors Arzymanow, Caplan, Cunningham, Dean, Devenish, Eagleton, Glen, Harvey, Hitchcock,  Langford, Mitchell, Oteh-Osoka, Pitt Ford, Rigby, Robathan, Rowley, Sargent, Scarborough, Shearer, Short, Swaddle and Wilkinson 

 

Absent or not voting: The Lord Mayor andCouncillors Hyams andMendoza 

 

RESOLVED: 

 

That Full Council:  

 

1)         Approve the Member Allowances 2023-2024 Option 4 scheme, as set out in the report, with effect from 1 April 2023. 

 

2)         Approve the amendment to the Dependents/Carers Allowance Policy as set out in Appendix B of the report. 

 

6.

General Purposes Committee Report - Constitutional Changes pdf icon PDF 57 KB

To receive, consider and debate, if chosen, the following General Purposes Committee report:

 

Appendix 1

 

Minutes:

6.1       The Lord Mayor put the recommendations of the General Purposes Committee report to the vote and on a show of hands declared the recommendations adopted.  

 

RESOLVED: 

 

That Full Council:  

 

1)         Approve the introduction of a 30-minute public participation item at Full Council meetings in line with the headline proposals set out in section 4 of the report.  

 

2)         Approve the amendment of the petitions scheme to support public participation at meetings of Full Council as set out in section 4 of the report.  

 

3)         Agree that table 4 as set out in section 4 of the report detailing changes to meeting timings in the Full Council standing orders be adopted.  

 

4)         Approve the selection of Councillor Issues to be in proportion to the sizes of Groups on the council and to remove the random selection of councillors for this item with this process replaced by nominations made by Groups.  

 

5)         Approve the removal of the future policy plan as a device for selecting debates (and the accompanying requirement for a briefing note to be produced) and its replacement with a requirement for the Group proposing a subject for debate to give a short descriptive paragraph to frame the debate.  

 

6)         Approve the delegation of authority to the Monitoring Officer to adopt such changes agreed by Full Council into the Constitution and to update and maintain supporting documents such as the Full Council Public Participation Protocol, including to make changes to public participation rules in consultation with Group Whips and Chair of the General Purposes Committee.  

 

7)         Approve that a review of the Public Participation Protocol be undertaken in Spring 2024.  

 

8)         Approve the amendments to the scheme of Outside Bodies as set out at section 5 of the report, subject to Imperial College Court being retained on the list of recognised outside bodies.  

 

9)         Approve that the Director of Law to investigate further any issues around the indemnity of members serving on an outside body.