Agendas, reports and minutes

A Special Meeting of the Highland Council will take place in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Thursday, 15 February  2018 at 10.30am.

Webcast Notice: This meeting will be filmed and broadcast over the Internet on the Highland Council website and will be archived and available for viewing for 12 months thereafter.

Your attendance at the meeting is invited and I append a note of the business to be transacted. 

Yours faithfully,

Stewart Fraser
Head of Corporate Governance 

 

1.  Calling of the Roll and Apologies for Absence
A’ Gairm a’ Chlàir agus Leisgeulan

2.  Declarations of Interest
Foillseachaidhean Com-pàirt

Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting. Any Member making a declaration of interest should indicate whether it is a financial or non-financial interest and include some information on the nature of the interest. Advice may be sought from Officers prior to the meeting taking place.

3.  Membership of the Council
Ballrachd na Comhairle

Tribute will be paid at the meeting to the late Councillor Billy MacLachlan. 

In this regard, it is confirmed that a By-Election for Ward 11 (Caol and Mallaig) has now been arranged and will be held on Thursday, 5 April 2018. 

4.  Revenue Budget 2018/19                                     
Buidseat Teachd-a-steach 2018/19

There is circulated Report No. HC/1/18 dated 7 February 2018 by the Depute Chief Executive/Director of Corporate Resources. 

The Council is asked to consider the report and:-

(i)    agree a 3% increase in Council Tax as detailed in Section 8.4 of the report;
(ii)   agree the specific proposals for additional income and reduced expenditure as per the savings proposals outlined in Booklet A and detailed in Booklet B;
(iii)  agree to no increase in the revenue budget for loans charges, thereby limiting capital spend to that which can be financed from the current loans charges budget of £56.7m; and
(iv)  note the delivery of the savings approved in previous years as outlined in Paragraph 9.2 of the report.  

5.  Housing Revenue Account – Revenue Estimates 2018/19                       
Cunntas Teachd-a-steach Taigheadais – Tuairmsean Teachd-a-steach 2018/19

At its meeting on 25 January 2018, the People Committee agreed to make recommendations to the Council in relation to the Housing Revenue Account – Revenue Estimates 2018/19. 

In this connection, an Extract from the Minutes of the Meeting is circulated which recommends that the Council agree:-

(i)    a 0.5% increase for Council House rents for 2018/2019;
(ii)   that the above percentage increase (0.5%) is applied to all residential HRA rents and service charges and to Gypsy/Traveller site pitches;
(iii)  that rents for garages and garage sites be increased by 3%;
(iv)  that non-HRA rents for leased property should increase as stipulated in existing contracts; 
(v)   that the estimated HRA surplus of £4.722m in 2018/2019 be applied as Capital from Current Revenue to fund HRA capital investment; and
(vi)  that proposals on delegation of functions on setting garage rents to Local Committees be included as part of the next planned review of the Scheme of Delegation.

6.  Membership of Committees, etc
Ballarachd Chomataidhean, msaa
 
Members are advised that Mr J McGillivray has confirmed that he has left the Independent Group and will now be a Sutherland Independent Member. In addition, Mr K Gowans has left the Independent Group and will now be Non-Aligned. 

On that basis, the political make-up of the Council is now as follows:-

Independent – 28/SNP – 19/Scottish Conservatives – 10/Liberal Democrat – 9/Labour – 3/Green Party – 1/Sutherland Independent – 1/Non-Aligned – 2

The formula in respect of the number of places on Strategic Committees remains as 10/7/4/3/1.

Members are also asked to agree the following – 

Environment, Development & Infrastructure Committee – Mr M Finlayson to replace Mr K Gowans
Audit & Scrutiny Committee – Mr D MacKay to replace Mr K Gowans
Redesign Board – Mr L Fraser to replace Mr K Gowans 

Valuation Joint Board – Ms M Smith to replace Mr W MacLachlan
Valuation Joint Board – Mr A MacKinnon to replace Mr K Gowans
Valuation Joint Board (Substitute) – Mr D Macpherson to replace Mr A MacKinnon

CoSLA – Mr C Smith to replace Mrs A MacLean

CoSLA Executive Board (Environment and Economy) – Mr D Macpherson to replace Mr K Gowans

Northern Roads Collaboration Joint Committee (Substitute Member) – Mr J Gray to replace Mr K Gowans