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Agenda and minutes
 

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Barum Room - Brynsworthy. View directions

Contact: Corporate and Community Services  01271 388253

Link: Audio Available Here

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received form Councillors Barker and Campbell.

 

Councillor Yabsley advised that Councillor Barker had stepped down from the Committee and would be replaced by Councillor Jenkins and that the appointment would be confirmed at Full Council on 24th July 2019.

2.

Declarations of Interest.

(Please telephone the Corporate and Community Services team to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting. Interests must be re-declared when the item is called, and Councillors must leave the room if necessary).

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest announced.

3.

Performance and Financial Management Quarter 4 of 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 167 KB

Report by the Head of Resources to the Strategy and Resources Committee on 3rd June 2019 (attached).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report to the Strategy and Resources Committee on 3rd June 2019 by the Head of Resources together with a minute extract (circulated previously) regarding the Performance and Financial Management Quarter 4 of 2018/19.

 

The Head of Resources advised that the report had already been subject to consideration by the Strategy and Resources Committee on 3rd June 2019 and that it set out the financial performance for the 2018/19 year. He added that this final report as at 31st March 2019 was written in the context of the Corporate Plan under the Executive Structure. A short presentation in relation to the Council’s current financial position would follow later in the agenda.

 

He highlighted the following points within the report to the Committee:

 

·         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 was reporting 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; additional income through the one-off pilot year for 100% Business Rate Retention scheme and additional savings achieved throughout our staffing budgets.

·         As at 31st March 2019it was pleasing to report that the final out turn 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 shown in Appendix A Variations

in the Revenue Budget.

·         For 2018/19 year the Council had built in £1.252m additional business rates income growth into the base budget over and above its ‘baseline’ funding. At 31st December 2018 the forecast position assumed additional income of £0.200m on top of the growth already factored into the budget and a further one-off additional income from the 100% Business Rates Retention Pilot for 2018/19 of £0.750m. The additional one-off income from the Pilot was placed into four earmarked reserves at the Quarter 3 position to fund future year projects.

·         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 was forecasting this saving would be exceeded by £0.025m this year; the final quarter of 2018/19 had actually resulted in further employee savings of £0.083m over and above the original target.

·         The “Recycle more” service changes were introduced in June 2017; the take up of the new garden waste service exceeded the Council’s expectations; 2017/18 year saw a total sign up of 17,320 properties (the original estimated take up was 13,000 properties). This had

grown further in 2018/19 with 18,134 properties signing up for the garden waste service.

·         The implementation of the ‘Recycle more’ project had been a challenge and had resulted in some further additional costs for the year together with a further decline in the sale price of recyclable materials, which had meant the original savings target for the year not being achieved. We had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Work Programme/Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 19 KB

To consider the Policy Development work programme/forward plan 2019/20 (attached).

 

To discuss whether the following items should be added to the work programme:

 

·         Climate change/carbon reduction.

·         National Health Service (NHS) Long Term Plan.

·         Management of the Taw and Torridge estuaries.

·         Fair funding for education.

·         Air Quality update.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the work programme/Forward Plan for 2019/20 (circulated previously).

 

The Chairman addressed the Committee to seek the views of the Members in relation to the following items for discussion and potential inclusion within the work programme:

 

·         Climate change/carbon reduction.

·         National Health Service (NHS) Long Term plan.

·         Management of the Taw and Torridge estuaries.

·         Fair funding for education.

·         Air quality update.

 

The Committee discussed each of the points above and made the following points:

 

·         There was a Water Quality Task Team established in 2016, which met jointly with Members from Torridge District Council and produced an effective sharing mechanism between the two Councils. Devon Council were currently reviewing the water quality of the estuaries and there was also ongoing work in relation to the 100 year flood prevention plan for the River Taw. The Biosphere were also currently undertaking a study of the water quality.

·         Fair funding for education had generated a great deal of concern amongst local Head Teachers, with the funding per student within the North Devon area less than the national average. School intake numbers had reduced and as a result many schools were struggling financially with less funding.

·         Air quality update should be focussed on whole of North Devon and not just Braunton. The document that was currently out for consultation centred on Braunton.

·         The Corporate Plan, which would include the commercialisation heading would be presented to the Committee in July 2019.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)   that the Work Programme be noted; and

 

(b)   that the following items be prioritised and agreed as follows:

 

(i)            NHS Long Term plan – That the Corporate and Community Services Officer seek the availability of Members and potential invitees to arrange a meeting;

 

(ii)          Fair funding for education – The Senior Officer for Education at Devon County Council be invited together with local Head teachers to attend a meeting and make local schools aware;

 

(iii)         Management of the Taw and Torridge estuaries – That the Biosphere and Torridge District Council be invited to attend a future meeting; and

 

(iv)         That Air quality be incorporated within climate change and that the Head of Place be invited to attend a future meeting of the Committee to discuss issues in Braunton.