(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democracy that mandatory Voter ID will have in UK elections and to demand that this section of the new legislation is repealed immediately.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.