Committee asked questions
of officers and the Cabinet member for Finance.
·
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 a large 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 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 CCG
not taken up. A member asked why the payments were not taken
– can we encourage? Cabinet member responded that CCG cannot
invest in property so this caused an
issue. There were new rules with 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.