Agenda item

Report by Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive (circulated previously) regarding the Lynton Agency Performance Review.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised that the current Lynton Agency Agreement was due to expire at the end of March 2023.

He explained that the agreement was originally reviewed in February 2015 and that as part of the review North Devon Council approved the service improvement framework to objectively review services to improve the customer experience and/or value for money. As a result of this work the review of the Lynton and Lynmouth agency agreement was added to the review programme. The revised agreement was reviewed and approved by the Executive again in April 2017.

Following a successful agency arrangement being in place for the above 3- year period, a further report to the meeting of Strategy and Resources on 4 November 2019 it was approved to continue with the agency agreement for a further period of 3 years.

He added that the purpose of the report was to update members on the progress against the 14 review recommendations put forward by the review team; to receive the financial outturn for the agency for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 years and to make recommendation about the future delivery of the services for 2023/24 year onwards.

He drew the Committee’s attention to the following points in the report:

·         A summary annual report on the agency performance for the period of 2020 to date and financial outturn from the Lynton and Lynmouth Town Clerk was detailed in appendix A of the report.

·         The only remaining review recommendation that was outstanding was in relation to exploring a joint way forwards to reducing public convenience costs.

·         There was a significant forecast budget gap being faced by this Council and in working towards bridging those gaps, Members had held Budget Working Groups to look at a range of options including exploring different ways of delivering some services without impacting upon them.

·         Discussions had been ongoing with local town and parish councils about the potential transfer of the public conveniences facilities to them. A decision such as this would clearly pass the financial burden for maintaining and cleaning the facilities to the local town or parish council and the Council was mindful that in order to fund that impact could result in a requirement to increase their share of the local tax precept.

·         The Council was mindful that public conveniences were often seen as vital facilities in communities and so, the preferred alternative to closure would be to transfer those facilities to the relevant town or parish council which was a similar approach to that had been adopted by other Local Authorities in recent years.

·         Following the original 2015 agency review, the revised forecast figures presented by Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council were projecting a net budget surplus (excluding parking fines) of £48,912; which was in line with the in-house North Devon Council costing put forward as part of the review process, detailed below:

·         As outlined in the report from the Lynton and Lynmouth Town Clerk;the actual financial performance for 2021/22 year had resulted in a net surplus of £115,424 which was returned to North Devon Council.

·         The previous years’ saw a financial return from the agency as follows;

Ø  2018/19 net surplus of £60,177

Ø  2019/20 net surplus of £65,843

Ø  2020/21 net loss of £505

Ø  2021/22 net surplus of £115,424.

·         The pandemic year of 2020/21 saw a significant decline in car park income (such as we saw across all NDC car parks) and income was £87,000 down on the budgeted level. However, separately North Devon Council claimed part of this income loss back through the support the Government provided Councils under the scheme for 75% reclaim of net losses on Sales, Fees and Charges. Therefore the above net loss against the agency budget had been mitigated by this separate transaction claim back to the Council.

·         The agency accounts for periods 2020/21 and 2021/22 were set out in Appendix B (2020/21) and Appendix C (2021/22).

·         As outlined in the report from the Lynton and Lynmouth Town Clerk, the projected financial forecast for the current 2022/23 year was in line with the agreed budgeted surplus position.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive added that when the agency agreement was due for review in three years’ time that a further report would be presented to the Committee six months in advance to seek agreement to continue with the arrangements.

The Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer advised Councillor Patrinos he has an Other Registrable Interest as he is a Member of Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council. His reasoning for this advice was that there is a direct agreement between North Devon Council and Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council for the Lynton Agency and this decision relates to the proposal to review this and enter into a new agreement which accordingly has a direct impact on the finances and well-being of the Town Council.  In accordance with the Code of Conduct this would be considered as clouding his judgment and so the advice is that Councillor Patrinos may speak as a member of the public but may not take part in the deliberations or vote.

Councillor Patrinos thanked the Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer for his advice.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive added that there was a financial impact whereby the Lynton Agency arrangement benefited the Town Council through recharging a proportion of the establishment overheads.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the annual report and that the actions being taken to ensure that performance against the 14 review recommendations is at the desired level be noted;

(b)  That North Devon Council enter into a new agency agreement with Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council with effect 1st April 2023 for a period of 3 years, with a formal review on that date be approved; and

(c)   That delegated authority be given to the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, in consultation with the Senior Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, to agree the terms of the new agency agreement with Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council.

Councillor Patrinos declared an Other Registrable Interest as a member of Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council and did not vote on the recommendations.