Resolved:  That the Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 17 November 2020 be approved, and signed as a correct record.

No additional declarations of interest, were received.

The Chairman announced that ‘Care for our Community’ had been instrumental in helping residents through COVID-19 for the best part of a year, with 1,269 volunteers the help on offer included: collecting food and prescriptions; having someone to talk to; walking the dog; and other small tasks for people who may be shielding.  Since March 2020 there had been 1665 requests.  The service had run until 31 October 2020 and was then re-instated on 4 November when the new lockdown restrictions came in. The service was 7 days a week and all requests were triaged by the People and Places Team before being passed onto the volunteer leads to help. The Team had also worked closely with the NHS Volunteer First Responders to deliver patient transport services for residents who needed to get to Vaccination and hospital appointments.  This was especially important right now as a further 1.7m people across the country were urged this week to shield until they had their jab.

He also advised that in the past year the Business Rates team, assisted by a number of others, had distributed millions in grants to local businesses.  The total amount as at last week had been in excess of £32.6m and consisted of more than 4,800 payments, which was much needed support in these very challenging times.

Finally he advised that as part of his preparation for the meeting, he had looked back at past meetings and noted that the February meeting in 2020 had been the last meeting in the Council Chamber. Two weeks later had been the first lockdown and a general cancellation of all meetings at the office - to be replaced by Zoom – a situation that he personally, and which was mirrored by other members and officers that he had spoken to, could not end soon enough.

No questions had been received.

No petitions had been received.

a)             Calculation of Council Tax Base and other tax setting issues

Councillor Fleming moved and Cllr Dickins seconded the recommendations from Cabinet, which sought approval of the calculation of the District’s tax base for council tax setting purposes. 

Resolved:  That

a)    the report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Officer - Finance & Trading for the calculation of the Council’s tax base for the year 2021/22 be approved;

b)   pursuant to the report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Officer - Finance & Trading and in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992 (as amended) the amount calculated by the Sevenoaks District Council as its council tax base for the whole area for the year 2021/22 shall be 50,876.85;

c)   pursuant to the report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Officer - Finance & Trading and in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992 (as amended) the amount calculated by the Sevenoaks District Council as the council tax base for 2021/22 for the calculation of local precepts shall be:

d)    any expenses incurred by the Council in performing in part of its area a function performed elsewhere in its area by a parish or community council or the chairman of a parish meeting shall not be treated as special expenses for the purposes of section 35 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

b)             Council Tax Setting 2021/22

Councillor Fleming moved and Cllr Dickins seconded the recommendations from Cabinet and the recommendation contained within Appendix K to the report to Council, subject noting that recommendation (a) to Appendix K which would form (d) onwards of the final motion, should read 17 November 2020 not 5 November 2020.

The Leader stated that in November Full Council had given cross party support for a budget that balanced savings, protected frontline services and investment returns, and had made assumptions regarding council tax levels which had not been possible to set at that time and had needed to wait this meeting.

By putting savings in place a full three months before this evening, overall pressure on the budget had been reduced by £90,000. Again, Sevenoaks District Council had innovated and shown the way, putting itself ahead of the game and reducing the impact on all the district’s council tax payers.

The last year had seen a huge impact on many people’s lives across the district. There had been increased numbers of households coming to the council for help. Whether, housing, employment, training, council tax and benefits, or local businesses, all had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90.

a)            Monitoring Officer’s Annual Report

Councillor Ball moved and Councillor Raikes seconded the recommendation from the Standards Committee.

Resolved:  That the report be noted.

a)            Pay Policy Statement

Councillor Fleming moved and Councillor Dickins seconded the report which sought approval of the Pay Policy Statement in order to fulfil the Council’s statutory requirements under the Localism Act.

Resolved:  That the Pay Policy Statement be adopted and published on the Council’s website.

No questions had been received.

No motions had been received.

The Leader of the Council reported on the work that he and the Cabinet had undertaken in the period 2 November 2020 to 5 February 2021.  Councillor Purves requested that the Leader circulate any notes he may have on his meetings with Kent Highways.

Members considered and noted, the quarterly report on special urgency decisions.