Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies received.

There were no declarations of interest received.

The Chair advised that as it was the first meeting of the Committee, he requested that the Committee consider item 8 prior to item 5 on the agenda to enable the Head of Resources to outline the Council’s financial position to the Committee.

Report by the Head of Resources (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Resources (circulated previously) regarding the Performance and Financial Management report for Quarter 4 of 2018/19.

The Head of Resources highlighted the following:

·         The quarterly Performance and Financial management report was also presented to full Council for consideration.  The report provided an update on the financial performance of the Council against the approved revenue budget for the financial year.  It also provided the opportunity for the Committee to challenge if key performance indicators were not being delivered within the agreed targets. 

·         This quarterly report was for the period up to 31^st March 2019 and therefore in the context of the Council’s current corporate priorities.

·         The revenue budget for 2018/19 was approved at Council on 21 February 2018 at £12.220m and as at 31 December 2018, the Council reported a net deficit of £0.019m against the budget.

·         The last quarter of the financial year had seen some favourable variances since the last reported position as a result of additional income through the one off pilot year for 100% Business Rate Retention scheme and additional savings achieved through the staffing budgets.

·         As at 31 March 2019, the final outturn position was a budget surplus of £0.754m, which was an overall movement of £0.773m from the last forecast at quarter 3.  The main reasons for the movement were detailed in Appendix A. £0.600m related to Business Rate income and this additional income would be placed into reserves as it was a one-off income.  Additional £0.060m vacancy savings and £0.100m from service area underspends had been achieved.

·         The original budget for 2018/19 included a forecast to achieve £0.200m worth of salary vacancy savings.  The previous performance report at quarter 3 forecast the saving would be exceeded by £0.025m this year and the actual resulted in further employee savings of £0.083m over and above the original target.

·         The implementation of the “Recycle more” project had been a challenge and resulted in some further additional costs this year together with a further decline in the sale price of recyclable materials, which had meant the original savings target for the year had not being achieved.

·         There had also been a significant reduction in the level of the planning fee income of £0.138m due to a reduction in the larger applications received, which was in line with other Local Authorities experiencing the same pressure.

·         The revenue budget surplus of £0.754m, once the contribution to the Collection Fund reserve of £0.236m had been made left a residual surplus of £0.518m.  It was proposed that the surplus would be set aside and placed in the earmarked reserves as detailed in paragraph 4.1.12 of the report.

·         Movement in Reserves and Balances detailed the movements to and from the earmarked reserves in 2018/19 as detailed in Appendix B of the report.

·         The Strategic Contingency Reserve movements and commitments as detailed in Appendix C of the report.

·         The 2018/19 Capital Programme as detailed in Appendix D of the report.

·         The 2019/20 to 2021/22 Capital  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Head of Paid Service to report.

The Head of Corporate and Community Services tabled draft corporate priorities for consideration by the Committee.  He advised the Committee that the Council was required to produce a Corporate Plan which set out the vision and corporate priorities for the forthcoming year and longer term.  It was important that the plan was in place as a priority.  He outlined the draft corporate priorities and the plans which would underpin each priority as detailed on the tabled paper.  A delivery plan would be produced containing specific actions for each priority, which would be continuously reviewed.   A report regarding the Council’s response to the Climate Change Emergency declaration would be considered at the next meeting of the Committee.  It was recommended that a cross party working group be appointed to formulate the Corporate Plan and that consultation with the public and all Councillors would be undertaken as part of the process. It was proposed that the timetable for the adoption of the Corporate Plan would be as follows:

18^th July 2019 – Policy Development Committee

5^th August 2019 – Strategy and Resources Committee

25^th September 2019 – Council to adopt the Corporate Plan

The Committee considered that the priority “developing visions for the main towns of North Devon” under the heading of “North Devon Future” should also include reference to the “communities of North Devon”.

Presentation by Head of Operational Services.

The Committee received a presentation by the Head of Operational Services regarding the Waste and Recycling Services.  He highlighted the following:

·         Waste and Recycling team formed part of the wider Operational Services Team.

·         141 staff within the Waste and Recycling team worked within recycling, refuse collection, garden waste collection, commercial waste, commercial waste recycling and street cleansing and public toilets.

·         Current service projects which included: unlimited recycling and 3 weekly residual collections trial, heavy weight recycling sack trial and the replacement of the process hall equipment.

·         It was anticipated that an options report would be presented to the Committee for consideration at its next meeting regarding the roll out of the 3 weekly residual collections trial.  Arrangements would be put in place for families that produce more waste due to the use of fully absorbent hygiene products.

The Head of Corporate and Community Services advised that an update would be received shortly regarding the future provision of the dog bin service.

The Head of Resources advised that public conveniences would be reviewed as part of the wider corporate review of all Council assets.  The Council was currently in discussion with Berrynabor Parish Council regarding the future management of public conveniences in Berrynarbor.

The Head of Operational Services advised that new netting had been purchased for all open vehicles to prevent recyclable materials coming off of vehicles.

To consider the appointment of 4 Members.  Copy of terms of reference of the working group (attached).

The Committee considered the appointment of four Members to the Joint Local Plan Working Group. 

The Committee noted that the terms of reference of the Group (circulated previously) stated that the membership for North Devon Council will include “Lead Members for Planning, Regeneration and the Environment” and that a meeting of the Group had been scheduled to take place in July 2019.  As no Lead Members had been appointed currently, it was considered that any appointments made should be on a temporary basis.