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There is no summary of this meeting yet. Summaries are written once the council publishes the minutes, which are its official record of what a meeting decided. They usually appear a few weeks after the meeting.
There were no disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.
None.
Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.
Cllr Rob Stewart Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy and Ben Smith the Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer attended to give an overview which prompted discussion and questions on the following. · On 19 October Cabinet approved the recommendation to reinforce the need for all service directors to contain their spending this year. · Q1 shows an overspend with further actions to be confirmed in subsequent quarters. · There has been widescale reporting of financial pressures in other Councils. Risks are growing for the whole of local government. · The Contingency Fund budgeted contribution was set at £6m for 2023/24 as set out in the budget report approved by Council in March 2023. Contingency is anticipated to be fully allocated this year. · The 2023/24 budget includes a provision of £20m, mainly for inflation. This was increased specifically because of the levels of general inflation forecast for 2023/24 and the unprecedented energy price rises. · The savings tracker has been re instigated with a forecast currently at 70% to be achieved by the end of the year. There is expectation this will improve. · The residual shortfall will be met from a further draw from earmarked reserves of around £20m. · Housing Revenue Account is under greater pressure than in recent years which has led to the need to increase revenue budgets.
Several public questions were received relating to Skyline. The Leader addressed the questions however on 13 November a planning application for Skyline was submitted and due to the formalities of the planning process this restricted the ability to comment.
Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Phil Holmes, Head of Planning and City Regeneration and Lee Richards, City Centre Team Leader attended to give an update on the Skyline development. Discussion centred around the following points. · Skyline has a UK based company, Skyline (Swansea) Limited, but its larger parent company, Skyline Enterprises Limited, will act as guarantor under the proposed lease. · The are no planned access restrictions to Kilvey Hill. · Later this month as part of its duties a public open space notice consultation period will commence which will be advertised in due course. · Skyline will now progress its planning application and develop the next phase of the scheme with work aiming to commence on site next year. · Skyline has advised the cost of the project has increased from £35m to £40m mainly due to inflation.
The public were excluded from the meeting on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as set out in Paragraph 14 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.
Councillors must say when they have a personal link to something being discussed, such as a job, a property or a family member. A prejudicial interest is one strong enough that the councillor usually leaves the room and takes no part.
Declarations are read from the minutes once they are published.
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