Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

To consider whether any of the items listed on the agenda should be considered with the press and public excluded on the grounds that it is thought likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that there would be disclosure of confidential information in breach of an obligation of confidence or of exempt information as defined in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

RESOLVED:  That all items be considered with the press and public present.

To agree that the minutes of the meeting held on 22 November 2005 be deferred to the next ordinary meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 November 2005 be deferred to the next ordinary meeting of the Committee.

The Chair welcomed the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive to the meeting. 

The Chair stated that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was trialling the holding of separate meetings on the question and answer sessions with Members and the Chief Executive from the main Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings.

The Chair invited Members to put their questions to the Leader and the Chief Executive.  Members also asked supplemental questions which were duly answered.

Expected Budget Outturn 2005/06 

Question 1:  What are the anticipated areas of overspend and what action is being taken to try to reduce this?

The Chief Executive responded that the second quarter budget monitoring report had been submitted to the Cabinet meeting held on 10 November 2005.  The report showed a forecast overspend this year of £2.9m and she advised that there were a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, the Council was spending more on demand led services, particularly children's services.  The Council had a statutory duty to look after children.

Secondly, there were wider economic factors which were beyond the Council’s control such as the state of the housing market (which meant the Council was losing income from land charges), interest rates (which affected the Council’s investment income) and the rate of business growth (which affected how much of the business rates the Council could collect and retain under the new scheme).

Thirdly, whilst the majority of the new savings in this year's budget, which totalled more than £6m, were being achieved, there were a few areas where these had not been delivered.  Officers were continuing to work on the various projects to ensure that the savings were delivered in due course.

In relation to procurement, the Council had achieved savings of £4.2m to date (against a cumulative target of £6.7m) and was seeking to deliver a further £1m by the end of the year.  The Council had been using innovative techniques, such as e-auctions and collaborating with other councils on projects, wherever possible.  The Council was also carrying out intensive pieces of work in the main service areas and reviewing all contracts.  The new Business Transformation Project (BTP) would give more scope and capacity to find efficiencies in the future.

The Chief Executive explained that the procurement card was being re?launched as the take?up had been lower than anticipated.  She added that the low take?up had had an adverse effect on the procurement savings.

The Leader reiterated some of the points made by the Chief Executive and stated that, whilst budgets for some of the services provided by the Council were outside its control, it was essential that the overspends that were within the Council’s control, were known and controlled.  He added that the Council was not being complacent about the situation and that detailed budget reviews were underway in all areas to identify further action to reduce the overspend and that the relevant Portfolio Holders would keep a close watch over this exercise.  It was noted that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 366.