Budget discussed behind closed doors

Councillors are due to set out their plans for a new budget behind closed doors.

A report on capital for August, which projects Powys County Council’s spending, as well as its sale of assets, will also be held in a confidential session.

Councillors of the Democratic Services committee will be given an opportunity to discuss moves to have meetings of the Finance Panel back in confidential session, today, Monday, September 30.

Whatever they decide, it appears the Finance Panel has already been taken back behind the curtain.

The agenda tomorrow’s meeting on Wednesday, October 2, has three items that have been judged to be confidential. As well as the draft financial overview and forecast for August, the capital report the same month and the action plan for the CIPFA (Chartered Instituted of Public Finance and Accountancy) review, which includes a presentation on transforming financial management, will also be held in private.

Public interest

The reports for both the financial overview and forecast, as well as the capital report for August, are expected to be published soon after.

They should be part of the agenda papers for the cabinet meeting, due to be held on, Tuesday, October 8. They are deemed confidential according to monitoring officer and head of legal and democratic affairs, Clive Pinney, who has determined that category three of the access to information procedure rules applies to the items.

His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 14.8 of the Council’s Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person including the authority holding that information.

These factors in Mr Pinney’s view, outweigh the public interest in disclosing this information.

Mr Pinney added: “Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting.”

At the last cabinet meeting on September 17 it had been revealed that the financial black hole the council must plug had ballooned from just under £13 million at the end of July to nearly £22 million.