Notes
of an
informal meeting of
Scrutiny
Committee Members
|

|
held
on Thursday,
22 September 2022at
7.00
pm
virtual
meeting
Open to the public, including the
press
|
In
attendance:
|
Councillors: Nathan Boyd (Chair), Ron Batstone
(Vice-Chair),
Jerry Avery,
Hayleigh Gascoigne, David Grant, Max Thompson,
Eric de la Harpe and Ben Mabbett
|
Officers: Candida Mckelvey, Democratic Services Officer,
Simon Hewings, Head of Finance and Richard
Spraggett, Strategic Finance
Manager
Guests:
Councillor Andrew Crawford, Cabinet member for Finance
|
<AI1>
1.
Apologies for
absence
None.
</AI1>
<AI2>
2. Urgent
business and chair's announcements
No urgent business, but chair did run through
procedure for the virtual meeting and reminded committee that
specific technical questions on the financial outturn report should
be emailed to the finance officers.
</AI2>
<AI3>
3.
Declaration of interests
None.
</AI3>
<AI4>
4. Minutes
of the last meeting
The notes of the informal meeting on
2nd August were noted.
</AI4>
<AI5>
5. Work
schedule and dates for all Vale and Joint scrutiny
meetings
Committee noted the work programme. A new date
for joint scrutiny would be arranged shortly – it was
postponed as it was scheduled on the same day as the State
Funeral.
Committee members were reminded to contact the
chair if there were any additions or queries to make.
</AI5>
<AI6>
6. Public
participation
None
</AI6>
<AI7>
7. Financial
Outturn report 2021-22
Committee asked
questions of officers and the Cabinet member for Finance. The
report covers a period that included a Covid-19 lockdown which had
an impact.
·
Item 24. Car parking income was down against budget by £216k.
A member asked whether this was net gain, or net loss on the car
parks overall. Officer responded that car parks lost £186k,
and the council received some central government support in the
form of general grant funding, so the funds were not recorded
against a particular service and therefore does not show in this
particular report.
- Item 25: The hire of vehicles pending
purchase of our own fleet made up the remaining overspend of
£49,000. A member asked how hiring vehicles costs £49K?
How many vehicles, what did we use these vehicles for? What caused
the delay in purchase? Officer responded that vehicles were for
grounds maintenance since the return of the service being in-house.
There was a long lead time for purchases and hopefully electric
vehicles would be sourced.
- Item 27. The garden waste service overspent
by £340,000. A member asked how exactly does the suspension
of service during the driver shortage (during Covid) translate into
such an overspend? Officer replied that customers were given three
months for free as recompense, equalling a loss of income. There
was a period of time with no billing. Communicating the details of
service suspension was an additional cost.
- Item 33. In addition, the council
commissioned external advisors to undertake a review of business
rates premises in the district to identify any premises that should
be paying business rates but were not on the rating list. A member
asked how this worked? It was responded that the councils rely on
an inspection service from Capita but there was a limit on what
they could achieve. New identification methods will be used through
GIS images and advanced technology.
- Table 1 page 10 – on the contingency
budget line we made £363k. A member asked what this
was? Officer replied it was the grant money referred to earlier, in
a general pot. Classified as general grant funding for completeness
for this analysis.
- Delayed projects – a member asked were
we content delaying for good reasons and whether we can move
forward with enough resource. Officer replied that we were
optimistic in project completion and also covid contributed to
slippage. There were other issues that replace covid, but we need
to get better at profiling and preparing for such issues.
- Page 19 – CIL payments to Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG) not taken up. A member asked why the
payments were not yet taken up – can we encourage? Cabinet
member responded that CCG cannot invest in property so this caused
an issue. There were new rules with the CCG replacement, known as
Independent Care Networks – they can do property schemes
soon, and this would get the payments spent. They may be looking
for a significant scheme claim rather than a drip feed of
funds.
- It was asked when will inflation hit- did it
affect the period in this report? Cabinet member responded not in
21-22, also confirmed by Head of Finance.
- Backlog on business rates – this was
queried, and officer responded that the new identified businesses
will be liable to pay rates and have a positive impact.
- In paragraph 17 – why doesn’t it
add up? It was responded that officers report variances over 50k.
There was a bit of overspend in that pot but minor.
- Recruitment – Cabinet member explained
that there was improvement on recruitment this year, we were closer
to full complement of staff this year.
Resolved:
After having their questions answered,
committee noted the report.
</AI7>
<TRAILER_SECTION>
The meeting closed at 7.29 pm
|
Chair:
Date:
</TRAILER_SECTION>
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