Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report seeking comments on The Financial and Performance Review report for the third quarter of 2020-21.

Councillor Stubbs stated that it was good to see that the Council was forecasting to break even.  The Council was looking at approximately £5m adverse variances and although there had been support from the Government, this would not fully cover the amount.  An officer was asked to update Councillor Stubbs from where the shortfall would be made up.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Efficiency, Councillor Sweeney advised that the Government had paid out grants of almost £5m which had made a huge difference to the Council.  The Council’s Head of Finance/S151 Officer, Sarah Wilkes advised that the Government had helped councils out with various grants throughout the pandemic.  This Council had received an income loss grant of just over £2m.  Grants had also been received to help with additional expenditure incurred such as the social distancing aspect in respect of waste collection operatives where extra vehicles and staff had to be put onto the collections.  The costs associated for this were also covered by the grant from the Government.  As some services had to be closed due to the restrictions, some expenditure had reduced slightly such as J2 not using as much heating/lighting for the building.  In respect of Council Tax and Business Rates, the Government had offered incentives to claim back a proportion of those losses and had smoothed out the losses that the Council may have incurred through non-payment of the rates over a three year period.  All of the factors mentioned would enable the Council to reach a balanced outturn at the end of the current financial year.

Councillor Sweeney stated that, in addition, the ‘One Council’ programme would be done over the next couple of years which would help to put the Council on a more sustainable footing in the future.

The Chair thanked Councillor Sweeney and Sarah Wilkes for the report and moved on to the Performance Indicators.  Members’ attention was drawn to Priority 1: Local Services that work for Local People - point 1.7 relating to unmet demands to the Contact Centre.  It was reasonably fair to accept that there had been a large increase in contacts as a result of the pandemic.  Councillor Sweeney agreed that this was a fair point.  There had been a lot of people phoning up.  In addition, Councillor Sweeney praised the bin men for the recycling service and said that they deserved great credit for their efforts in maintaining the service so well.

Councillor Stubbs agreed with Councillor Sweeney with regard to the waste service.  In respect of point 1.7, Councillor Stubbs asked, given that the number of calls had been so high, would measures be put into place to mitigate that happening again in the next quarter and in future?  Whilst the current pandemic would begin to lessen its impact throughout the summer and into autumn, there would still be a need for people to continue to apply for various things in the near future.  The Government had today agreed to extend Coronavirus measures for at least six months.  Had this been taken into account looking forward?  Councillor Sweeney believed that it had.  The reports on the agenda were three months out of date and it would be interesting to see the final figure next Wednesday.  Once known, Members would be informed.  A request was made to see this as an update from Cabinet at the next meeting.

Priority 4 – A Town Centre for All.  Councillor Sweeney advised that the Markets Officer was poised to reopen the market with a full programme of events and speciality markets.

Resolved:     (i)         That the information be received.

                        (ii)        That Cabinet be requested to update this Committee with

the measures that had been or would be put in place to ensure that high numbers of calls were not experienced by the Contact Centre, as previously, especially within the next 6 months.