Agenda and minutes

Finance, Assets & Performance Scrutiny Committee - Thursday, 5th December, 2024 7.00 pm

Venue: Astley Room - Castle

Contact: Geoff Durham 742222 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES

Minutes:

Apologies were received as listed above.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest stated.

3.

MINUTES OF A PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 243 KB

To consider the Minutes of a previous meeting.

Minutes:

Cllr Stubbs asked if any action had been taken with regard to the report on the turnover of staff referred to in Item 9 of the minutes and expressed concerns that the latter may not reflect the full extent of the debate.

 

The Chair said that the matter had not been taken to Cabinet yet and advised that the recordings of a number of meetings were not entirely audible which may have caused difficulties in transcription.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) recalled that it had been agreed to postpone the report on One Council until the staff survey results were received so that this could be incorporated into the report.

 

Since then the survey had been completed and the team was currently extracting the information which would be fed into the report to be submitted at the next meeting.

 

Cllr Stubbs reiterated his concern over the fact that what had been agreed had not been taken to the report that went to Cabinet as opposed to the one that was scheduled to go back to this Committee.

 

The Chair confirmed that it was his understanding that the results were to be incorporated into the report to be submitted to this Committee and that he did not think that the latter had the authority to decide what was to be discussed at Cabinet meetings although suggestions could be made by members.

 

Cllr Stubbs said that the Scrutiny Committee needed to have the confidence that they were listened to and were not there to tick boxes.

 

Resolved:    That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 18th September 2024 be agreed as a true and accurate record subject to the resolution of item 9 being amended as follows:

 

that the work programme be adjusted and include both an update on the One Council program and the thoughts of the executive team and officers on the staff survey process, to be taken together at the meeting of the Committee scheduled in January 2025.

 

Watch the debate here

4.

FIRST DRAFT SAVINGS PROPOSALS 2025/26 pdf icon PDF 540 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader / Portfolio Holder for Finance, Town Centres and Growth presented the report on the First Draft Saving Proposals for 2025/26.

 

The Chair invited members to make suggestions of additional savings if they had any for officers look into.

 

Cllr Grocott enquired about the Funding Strategy in relation to the Annual Leave Purchase Scheme and the replacement of Council Tax Support Grant with demand led contributions for Parish Councils.

 

The Deputy Leader expressed his support for the possibility for staff to purchase additional leave as required. About the introduction of demand led contributions, these would allow local councils to request fundings for specific projects to supplement their own budgets.

 

The Chair asked if there was data supporting the fact that it was mainly small parish councils making use of the Council Tax Support Grant.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) advised that £30,000 had been issued to Parish Councils, the majority of the parishes received £200-£300 and three parishes received a larger amount and therefore £10,000 had been retained so that, if any more funding was required, bids could be submitted.

 

Councillor Grocott stated that some Parish Council’s had more staff than others and would like to see something added in that would supplement all parish and town councils.

 

Councillor Waring asked for more clarity on what the funding could be used for and stated that Kidsgrove Town Council would lose £13,000 as a result of the change.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) advised that all parish/town Councils would be provided with a list of what bids could be submitted for before the end of the current financial year.

 

Councillor Stubbs asked when the Town Council was written to, to advise that this would be done – as budget setting had commenced.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) advised that parishes were emailed approximately one month ago to inform them that this would be withdrawn from 1 April, 2025 and that there would be £10,000 left out of the £30,000 whilst parishes were considering their precepts.

 

Councillor Stubbs stated that the Council were top-slicing £20,000 from the parish councils and, referring to Kidsgrove Town Council, stated that there were more people, more services and more demands. Councillor Stubbs stated that £13,000 was a lot to take away in one go and it would be a big hit to their budgets and asked why no consultation had been carried out.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) advised that there was a budget consultation which was currently live where any comments could be fed back.  Kidsgrove Town Council would be entitled to place a bid for the entire £10,000 or part thereof. 

 

The Deputy Leader asked Councillor Stubbs what Kidsgrove Town Council was responsible for.  Councillor Stubbs stated that the main expenditure was for the Kidsgrove Ranger and there was also the running of the Community Hall.

 

The Chair stated that there were a number of Committee members who were also Parish Councillors’ or lived  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

FINANCE AND PERFORMANCE REPORT QUARTER TWO - 2024/25 pdf icon PDF 312 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance, Town Centres and Growth introduced the Finance and Performance report for Quarter 2.

 

Councillor Lewis asked why there was no prudent figure shown within the income to reflect any interest gathered on any unspent capital funds within the report.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) referred to paragraph 2.6 (a), which showed how much interest had actually been received as at the end of quarter two, which was £507,000 on money that had been held in the bank account in respect of the Future High Street  and Town Deal Funds.  A question had been raised previously as to why the Council did not recognise interest that would be earned, as part of the budget.  On setting the budget, there was a plan of what the Capital Expenditure would look like and it was expected that the Majority of the Town Deal and Future High Street Funds would have been spent and ordinarily it would not have earned any interest.  There were two elements to this:  interest on money held in the bank and also interest that the Council does not spend on the borrowing if none had been undertaken.

 

It was anticipated that some borrowing would be required by the end of the current financial year.

 

The Chair stated that it was correct to say that, whilst the Council did not plan to have large amounts of Government funding sitting in the accounts, it had been able to save money on borrowing interest costs and had also generated interest.

 

Councillor Waring referred to interest that would be paid in future years.   Was it correct that a significant amount of that would be refunded by the developer and would that be put into a reserve somewhere as a deficit or would it be shown in the accounts as a windfall.

 

The Service Director for Finance (S151 Officer) advised that there were two parts of the interest that would be borrowed; borrowings for the Capital Programme and the Capital and Centric projects, if borrowing was required, the interest payments could be capitalised so that when Capital and Centric purchase the asset back from the Council, they cover the interest costs. 

 

The Chair moved onto the Performance Indicators.

 

Councillor Stubbs referred to performance indicator ID1.8a – Digital Transactions; only 80% of the target was being reached for digital transactions and asked if this needed to be nearer to 90% for One Council to be successful.

 

The Deputy Leader stated that the indicator was a bit of a mixture .  Certain information was available on the website for residents but, ordering a brown bin, for example, became a transaction.

 

The Policy and Strategy Business Manager advised that there were three aspects to this indicator: the target; the quarterly results did not come in as equal flows and there was also big billing runs in the new year.  There was a steady increase in people being able to self serve around council tax  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

TOWN DEAL AND FUTURE HIGH STREET FUND UPDATE pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader / Portfolio Holder for Finance, Town Centres and Growth introduced the report on the projects funded by the Town Deal and Future High Sreet Fund which money had almost all be spent.

 

Cllr Stubbs referred to the wordcount for the Kidsgrove section equating to 8% of the total of the report of roughly 2,000 words and enquired about tangible economic benefits in relation to the funds. He asked why the budget for the train station did not take into account the coal and shafts found under the area.

 

The Deputy Leader responded that the money was used for the road infrastructure and that the circa 1700 jobs that would be created would be open to Kidsgrove residents.

 

The Regeneration Manager advised that a remediation proposal called a geogrid was initially thought to be suitable with a car park in addition upgrading the station being originally planned. A review by the network rail mining specialist leaded to the decision of a more extensive intervention including investigation works. Changes in the Coal Authority Permit also included a longer process.

 

Cllr Stubbs asked about HS2 fundings and if the Government paper relating to it could be made available as requested by one of the local MPs.

 

The Regeneration Manager responded that the initial reference document for the promise of additional funding from the cancellation of HS2 was called the Network North document and was publicly available and featured Kidsgrove train station although there was no mention of figures.

 

The Chair read paragraph 62 of the Network North document stating that an unprecedented uplift in funding would be provided for 13 local authorities in the Midlands. The total investment would be of £2.2 billion and would be funding schemes such as refurbishment of stations in Longport and Kidsgrove. While it was frustrating that things were not moving faster this was down to national bodies like the UK Coal Authority and Network Rail which were not accountable to the Council.

 

Cllr Stubbs asked why the Canal project which started 18 months ago had not been signed off and allowed to move forward as well as why, on a separate note, had members not been made aware of the changes to the Shared Service Hub.

 

The Regeneration Manager said there had been a change in personnel in the Canal and River Trust which were responsible for the delivery on the Canal footpaths and that works were now scheduled to start in January. On the funding issue a performance return was to be sent to the government. The Council had indicated that they wish to take the option of fundings to be renewed for Newcastle and Kidsgrove from March 2025 onwards to ensure sufficient well-planned consideration for those projects.

 

Cllr Stubbs wondered if there was any plan B in the event of the HS2 funding failing to materialize.

 

The Regeneration Manager responded that contingency plans were in process with lobbying of the local MP and the County Council to benefit from the Local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 227 KB

Minutes:

Resolved:    That the work programme be noted.

8.

PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

Any member of the public wishing to submit a question must serve two clear days’ notice, in writing, of any such question to the Borough Council

Minutes:

There were no questions received from members of the public.

9.

URGENT BUSINESS

To consider any business which is urgent within the meaning of Section 100B (4) of the Local Government Act 1972

Minutes:

There was no urgent business.

10.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Monday 17 December 2018 (7:00pm)

Minutes:

Resolved:    That the next meeting be scheduled on 16th January 2025.