Agenda item

(a)  To consider the following notice of motion from Councillor Walker

“Council notes that the introduction of Voter Identification for the Local Elections on 4th May 2023.

The Elections Act 2022 will require voters to present an approved form of Photo ID at a polling station in order to vote. Acceptable ID includes passports, driving licenses, older persons bus passes and Voter Authority Certificates for those without an existing valid ID.

Council notes there is little evidence that voter fraud is a systematic issue in UK elections:

·         In the 2019 General, Local, European and Mayoral Elections only 4 convictions resulting from allegations of in-person voter fraud – out of 58 million votes cast.

·         In the 2021 Local Elections just one caution for election fraud was issued by the police.

Council fully agrees with the comments made by the Electoral Commission to the Government in September 2022 advising that the new rules could not “be delivered in a way which is fully secure, accessible and workable”, pointing out that 7.5% of voters do not currently hold an acceptable form of ID and over 1000 voters were denied the opportunity to vote during Voter ID trials in the 2018 and 2019 Local Elections.

Council is deeply concerned that the requirement to provide Photo ID will present a significant barrier for thousands of residents in North Devon to exercise their right to vote – and these barriers will disproportionally affect ethnic minority, low income, disabled, LGBT+, elderly and young voters.

Council notes the acceptable forms of ID listed by the Government are weighted towards more affluent and older voters who are more likely to possess passports, driving licenses, older persons bus passes and senior PASS cards. Forms of photo ID most likely to be held by younger people (such as young person's railcards) have been excluded.

Council believes the rushed and last-minute timeframe in which this legislation has been enacted will put an enormous strain on staff and resources at North Devon Council to communicate the new rules to voters, provide Voter Authority Certificates to thousands of local residents and training polling station staff in less than 4 months in the lead up to the 2023 Local Elections.

Council instructs the Chief Executive, the Leader of the Council and other group leaders to write to the Cabinet Office to express the Council’s complete opposition about the damaging effect on democracy that mandatory Voter ID will have in UK elections and to demand that this section of the new legislation is repealed immediately.”

(b)  To consider the following notice of motion from Councillor Worden

“2023/2024 Provisional Local Government Rural Settlement

Under the Provisional Settlement proposals, the gap in funding between rural and urban areas will, in fact increase. There is therefore a continuation of historic underfunding and unfairness for rural communities.

Once again, through the proposals, rural residents, communities, and businesses will, through their principal local authorities, find themselves in comparison to their urban counterparts both:

• Overcharged – through higher Council Tax in rural areas (20.3% higher in rural areas);
• Short-changed – through the flawed – urban biased – funding formula/distributional methodology

HEADLINE ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSALS

The Rural Services Networks (RSN’s) analysis of the Provisional Settlement proposals shows in 2022/23 rural residents in comparison to residents in urban areas will, on average:

• Pay £109.73 (20.6%) per head more in Council Tax
• Get some £111 (59.4%) per head less from Settlement Funding Assessment (SFA) (general grant)
• (Despite all of the above) still have over less overall Spending Power per head.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

More fundamental changes in local government funding have been delayed yet again. There will be no action in “this Spending Review period” – effectively in the life of this Parliament.

The impact of the delays to the review are:

1. London is getting some £236M a year more in Government Grant than the formula says it should (of which £166M is received by only 5 boroughs) – this at the expense of rural and non-London local authorities.
2. Rural Services Delivery Grant (RSDG) was at £85M in 2020/21 (and still is at that level). £85M should, as presently assessed, be £96.27M in 2023/24 to reflect inflation.
3. Due to their underfunding, Rural Councils in 2022/23 were only able to budget to spend £67.00 per head on so-called discretionary services whilst urban areas budgeted to spend almost twice that (£131.3I per head).
4. Cost of Living is higher in rural areas, but wages earned in the rural economy are lower. 
5. If in 2021/22 rural residents had paid the average urban band D council tax, those council taxpayers collectively would have been better off to the tune of £419.3m. Much of this would have been spent by them locally meaning a loss to the rural economy generally.  This impact is greater still when the difference between average London and average rural Band D council tax is applied, and sees the rural council taxpayers collectively, and rural economy, suffering to the tune of £1.520bn. THIS IS FOR A SINGLE YEAR – the cumulative impact over a period would have been enormous.
6. As an example, an average Band D charge for Herefordshire Council this year is £2114 but for Southwark is £1595. That is over £519 (or 32.5%) more a year for rural residents to be paying in Herefordshire compared to Southwark residents.

This Council:

1.    Agrees with the RSN that ACTION is needed NOW

2.    The existing formula should be applied from 2023/24 - in full without damping. This does not require any new monies to be found.

3. There can be no justification for penalising rural authorities by continuing to deny them their full formula allocations. They have already been denied that benefit for 9 years.
4. If the formula is not going to be applied, then the amount necessary to do so for rural councils should be distributed via the Rural Services Delivery Grant (RSDG) mechanism and all authorities exemplified in benefiting from the 2013 formula changes should receive the relevant amount through RSDG.
5. Furthermore, RSDG should be uplifted in line with inflation, in the same way as the Settlement FundingAssessment (SFA).
6. Agrees to ask our M.P. to lobby government for fair funding for rural councils and to write to the Chancellor supporting the RSN campaign.”

(c)  To consider the following notice of motion from Councillor Tucker

“Motion on Potholes

The potholes this winter have increased significantly in number in North Devon and are becoming dangerous and causing a lot of damage to vehicles. It was reported on BBC Spotlight that up until 20 January, 4,156 potholes were recorded in the Devon County Council area, compared with 3,494 in January 2022. That’s just the ones that the public have reported and our roads are getting into a real state in many areas.  The Department of Transport claims that on average about £1bn is being spent nationally each year on road maintenance.  This is nowhere near enough to meet the challenges faced in our area. Devon alone could spend the annual amount this year.

Council requests:

1.    That our M.P. raises the lack of funds for road maintenance with Government ministers.

2.    That Team Devon be asked to speak to the M.P’s for their areas about this problem.

3.     That this Council supports Devon County Council in any campaign they might undertake to persuade the Government to provide more funds so that the potholes can be repaired and roads resurfaced on a more regular basis.”

(a)  To receive the following notice of motion from Councillor Walker

Councillor Walker presented her notice of motion to Council and requested that the notice of motion be amended to remove the reference to “Chief Executive”.

It was moved by Councillor Walker and seconded by Councillor Cann “that the notice of motion be adopted subject to the removal of the reference to “Chief Executive””.

RESOLVED that the Leader of the Council and other group leaders be instructed to write to the Cabinet Office to express the Council’s complete opposition about the damaging effect on democracy that mandatory Voter ID will have in UK elections and to demand that this section of the new legislation is repealed immediately.

(b)  To receive the following notice of motion from Councillor Worden

Councillor Worden presented his notice of motion to Council. He advised that since the publication of the agenda, the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 had been confirmed. On 6 February 2023, the Government had announced the actual support details and there had been a slight change.  The Rural Services Delivery grant (RSDG) in 2020/21 was £85m and he advised that it should increase to £96.27m in 2023/24 to reflect the impact of inflation. It had been announced in the Finance Settlement that it would increase to £95m, the result has provided an additional £40,000 of RSDG funding, however a corresponding reduction of the same amount within the separate Funding Guarantee grant has in effect resulted in the same level of funding for North Devon. 

It was moved by Councillor Worden and seconded by Councillor Lofthouse “that the notice of motion be adopted”.

RESOLVED that this Council:

1.       Agrees with the Rural Services Network that action is needed now:

(a)      The existing formula should be applied from 2023/24 - in full without damping. This does not require any new monies to be found.

(b)      There can be no justification for penalising rural authorities by continuing to deny them their full formula allocations. They have already been denied that benefit for 9 years.

(c)           If the formula is not going to be applied, then the amount necessary to do so for rural councils should be distributed via the Rural Services Delivery Grant (RSDG) mechanism and all authorities exemplified in benefiting from the 2013 formula changes should receive the relevant amount through RSDG.

(d)           Furthermore, RSDG should be uplifted in line with inflation, in the same way as the Settlement Funding Assessment (SFA).

2.    Agrees to ask our M.P. to lobby government for fair funding for rural councils and to write to the Chancellor supporting the RSN campaign.

(c)      To receive the following notice of motion from Councillor Tucker

Councillor Tucker presented his notice of motion to Council.

It was moved by Councillor Tucker and seconded by Councillor Knight “that the notice of motion be referred to the Strategy and Resources Committee for consideration and that the Committee also consider writing a letter to the Chief Executive of Devon County Council, Leader of Devon County Council, Councillor Hughes (Portfolio Holder and Lead Member for Devon County Council Highways repairs) and the MP to lobby the Minister to give Devon County Council a fair slide of funding to undertake highway repairs in North Devon and to put pressure on Devon County Council to start the repairs on the pot holes as soon as possible.”

Councillors Biederman, Henderson, Leaver, Roome and Yabsley declared Other Registerable Interests as Members of Devon County Council, however, given the proposal to refer the matter to Strategy and Resources Committee, which does not directly affect their interest, these Councillors were able to take part in the deliberation and vote.

RESOLVED that the notice of motion be referred to the Strategy and Resources Committee for consideration and that the Committee also consider writing a letter to the Chief Executive of Devon County Council, Leader of Devon County Council, Councillor Hughes (Portfolio Holder and Lead Member for Devon County Council Highways repairs) and the MP to lobby the Minister to give Devon County Council a fair slice of funding to undertake highway repairs in North Devon and to put pressure on Devon County Council to start the repairs on the pot holes as soon as possible.