Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed Councillor David Ashton, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Partnership and Finance, and Myfanwy Barrett, Corporate Director of Finance, to the meeting.

Councillor Narinder Singh Mudhar was welcomed to his first meeting of the Committee.

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:

[Note:  The meeting was also notified, during this item, that Councillor John Cowan would be attending as a Reserve Member for Councillor Janet Mote, but Councillor Cowan subsequently did not attend].

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee, Sub Committee, Panel or Forum;

(b)               all other Members present in any part of the room or chamber.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda item 5 (b) – Question and Answer Session - Budget Proposals for 2009?10 to 2011?12

Councillor David Ashton declared a personal interest in that his daughter-in-law worked at the Council.  He would remain in the room to answer questions from the Committee.

Councillor Margaret Davine declared a personal interest in that her mother was in receipt of social care from the Council.  She would remain in the room to ask questions relating to this item.

Councillors B E Gate and Anthony Seymour declared personal interests as members of their families were in receipt of single person Council Tax Allowance from Harrow Council.  They would remain in the room to ask questions relating to this item.

Councillors Narinder Singh Mughar and Yogesh Teli declared personal interests in this item by virtue of their roles as Cabinet Support Members to the Portfolio Holders for Performance, Communications and Corporate Services and Adults and Housing respectively, but stated that as they had not taken part in any meetings or decisions relating to this item their interests could not be considered to be prejudicial.  They would remain in the room to ask questions relating to this item.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2008, be deferred until the next ordinary meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2008 be deferred to the next ordinary meeting of the Committee.

To receive deputations (if any) under the provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 10.

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations were received at the meeting under the provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 10.

In accordance withLocal Government Act (Access to Information Act) 1985, the item on the budget was admitted late to the agenda to allow Members to ask questions on the budget which was being considered by Cabinet the following day.  Reference to this item had inadvertently been omitted from the agenda when it was circulated.

The Committee received a presentation from the Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Partnership and Finance.  He stated that the Council had adopted an integrated planning framework to ensure that the Corporate Plan and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) were developed in tandem.  He outlined the Council’s priorities for 2009?10, which were:

·                     Better Streets

·                     Improve support for vulnerable people

·                     Build Stronger Communities.

The Leader stated that the number of priorities had been reduced from previous years in order to ensure that they received appropriate funding, including growth.  The development of the MTFS would continue to be increasingly challenging because of the low level of reserves held by the Council, as a result of which the Council did not have much flexibility to utilize its reserves in the short term.  There was also an expectation from the Council’s external auditor that the levels of reserves would continue to increase.  The current economic climate and the credit crunch had also put additional pressures on the budget.  It was therefore intended to revise the policy of adding £1m to reserves each year until such time as general balances exceeded £5m.  A revision in the policy would be considered by Cabinet in December 2008.

Members were informed that the Council had a statutory duty to approve a balanced budget and that a substantial amount of work had been carried out with the Directorates.  Savings were being sought through the Directorates, and the Council would be examining how its services were delivered and whether any changes would assist the challenging financial position.  The final budget proposals and the Council’s Corporate Priorities would be submitted to Cabinet in February 2009 initially and thereafter to Council for approval.

The Leader and the Corporate Director of Finance responded to a question on the involvement of Price Waterhouse Coopers, the Council’s external auditor, in carrying out a comparative performance analysis and the associated costs of this commissioning exercise.  They stated that the report had been prepared for use nationwide and the costs were low.  Bench?marking was an essential ingredient to judging performance and the report provided ‘real time’ results.  In?year tracking would also be available should a number of boroughs subscribe to this requirement.  The Corporate Director agreed to provide the Committee with the costs incurred in engaging Price Waterhouse Coopers in this analysis.

In response to a question during the course of the meeting on how the administration had arrived at three priorities, the Leader stated that this had been achieved through consultation with a Residents’ Panel, Have Your Say consultation and by engaging with people in the Town Centre.

In response to questions from Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 470.