Minutes of Meeting of the Highland and Western Isles Valuation Joint Board held in Committee Room 1, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, on Wednesday, 29 April 2009 at 10.30 a.m.
Present:
Representing The Highland Council
Mr J McGillivray, Mr L Fraser, Mr F D S Black, Mr P Cairns, Mr J Gray
Representing Western Isles Council
Mr K Murray
Officials in attendance:
Mr D Gillespie, Assessor and Electoral Registration Officer
Mr A Bernard, Treasurer’s Office
Miss J Maclennan, Clerk’s Office
1. Preliminaries
Due to the unavoidable absence of both the Convener and Vice Convener, it was necessary to appoint an interim Convener for the meeting.
Mr J Gray, seconded by Mr F D S Black, nominated Mr K Murray, Western Isles Council. There were no other nominations.
The Board therefore AGREED to appoint Mr K Murray to act as interim Convener for the meeting.
2. Apologies for Absence
Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mrs H Carmichael (OCD), Mr R Rowantree (OCD) and Ms M Smith of The Highland Council and Mr M MacLeod of the Western Isles Council.
3. Minutes of Last Meeting
There had been circulated and APPROVED Minutes of the Board Meeting of 7 January 2009 subject to the following:-
i. Item 4, Revenue Budget – second paragraph, second sentence
Be amended to read “Since its previous meeting of the Board, the Department had been concerned with the clearance of rating appeals, preparatory work for the 2010 rating valuation and the publication of the new Electoral Register on 1 December 2008.”
4. Scheme of Delegation
Members were informed that the Board had an obligation to review its Scheme of Delegation Scheme of Delegation on an annual basis. In this connection, there was circulated an updated Scheme reflecting recent Board decisions, including the appointment of the Monitoring Officer, changes in job titles at The Highland Council and providing additional clarity in relation to the Clerk’s remit.
The Board APPROVED the updated Scheme of Delegation.
5. Revenue Budget Monitoring Statement 2008/09
There had been circulated Report No VAL-6-09 comprising a statement and commentary by the Assessor and Electoral Registration Officer on Revenue Expenditure and Income for the period to 28 February 2009. The report showed actual net expenditure for the period of £2,372,000, a current underspend of £49,000. With no major variances expected for the remainder of the financial year, it was anticipated that the budget would continue to show a small underspend.
The Board NOTED the report.
6. Annual Audit Plan 2008/09
There had been circulated Report No VAL-7-09 by Ms K Jenks, Audit Scotland setting out the 2008/09 Annual Audit Plan for the Highland and Western Isles Valuation Joint Board. Planned work in 2008/09 included an audit of the financial statements and a review and assessment of the Joint Board’s governance arrangements in a number of key areas. Main risk areas had also been identified including the introduction of Single Status. In this regard, Members were reminded that it would be necessary, at some point, for the Board to make adequate provision in its budget for any financial implications that would arise as a consequence of the introduction of Single Status.
The Board NOTED the report.
7. Review of Discretionary Policies Under the Local Government
Pension Scheme
There had been circulated Report No VAL-8-09 by the Treasurer reviewing the Board’s discretionary policies under the Local Government (Scotland) Pension Scheme 2008.
The Board:-
i. AGREED the proposed changes to its policies as detailed in the report;
ii. NOTED the content of the Administering authority policies;
iii. NOTED that all policies would be reviewed in 2014; and
iv. AGREED to retain an “opt out” provision allowing reconsideration of any
discretionary policy if the special circumstances of an individual case merited
it.
8. Freedom of Information Publication Scheme
Members were reminded that under Section 23 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, the Board had a duty to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme setting out the information it routinely made publicly available. In this connection, there had been circulated Report No VAL-9-09 by the Clerk detailing the reasons for the review and seeking the homologation of the action taken by the Clerk, in consultation with the Convener and Vice Convener, in approving the adoption of the revised Publication Scheme by the due date of 28 February 2009.
During discussion of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in general, it was explained that proposals were currently being explored with a view to standardising charges. It was also confirmed that, as a result of as much information being made readily available, the number of FOI requests had not risen significantly.
Thereafter, the Board HOMOLOGATED the action taken and NOTED that the Scheme would be available on the Board’s web pages and that copies could also be obtained from the Clerk’s office.
9. Gender Equality Scheme Annual Report
Following on from the previous item, Members were reminded that the Board was also required to publish its annual report on its Gender Equality Scheme by 29 June 2009.
As the Board would not meet again until 12 August 2009, the Board AGREED to delegate powers to the Clerk, in consultation with the Convener and Vice Convener, to prepare and publish the Board’s report by the due date.
10. Departmental Report
There had been circulated Report No VAL-10-09 by the Assessor and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) advising on the current position of the main activities of the Department. Since the previous meeting of the Board, the Department had been concerned with preparations for the 2010 rating revaluations and ongoing maintenance of the council tax list and valuation roll.
In particular, the Assessor and ERO was pleased to report that the recent local government by-election had went well. Preparations were now underway for the European Parliament election on 4 June 2009 and which would involve the use of personal identifier checking for postal votes. Initial trials had proved satisfactory and no difficulties were anticipated. Work was also continuing to promote participation in elections and which had already resulted in election fliers being included in the annual council tax run.
As Members would be aware, the Scottish Government had announced that the introduction of a local income tax was to be deferred and consequently work on maintaining the Council tax register had continued. Work was also progressing with the 2010 rating revaluation although some cases from the 2005 revaluation exercise still required to be heard by the Lands Tribunal.
In discussion, it was confirmed that some city centre properties had benefited from a reduced valuation as a result of the on-going streetscape and city centre improvement works. It was explained that this approach had been adopted as a result of the length and intensity of the works involved.
Thereafter, the Board NOTED the report.
The meeting ended at 11.20 a.m.