Decision details

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet note the latest budget forecasts of the General Fund, HRA, and Capital.

KEY DECISION:

No

PORTFOLIO:

Finance and Corporate / All

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED/REJECTED:

As set out in the report.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST:

None

DISCUSSION:

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate presented the report highlighting that it was the first financial monitoring report of the financial year.  The purpose of the report was to reflect on the rephasings from the previous year, in particular £896,000 from the General Fund, £1.931 million for the capital programme and £60,000 within the Housing Revenue Account.

Other substantive variations related to the refuge and recycling service, including the Council fully utilising the additional grant from DEFRA of £151,000 to support the rollout of the new service.  An additional £150,000 had been agreed by the Section 151 officer to allow the service to start the planning and immediate commencement of the trial of food caddies behind the gates in areas within the perambulation where there were free roaming animals. 

The Portfolio Holder reported that he fully endorsed the recommendation within the report, including the allocation of additional funding towards the waste service as covered within the report.

The Assistant Director of Finance in addition, highlighted that the pay award had been agreed with an increase of 3.2%.

A non-Cabinet member questioned the ‘behind the gates’ trial and sought to understand why the additional expenditure had not been budgeted and planned for. It was felt by another member that had the audit carried out prior to the introduction of the new service been more comprehensive that the expenditure would have been planned for. 

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate addressed the points made, highlighting that the council had sufficient reserves on which to draw upon, for what was a major service change and that it was expected that the roll out would be difficult.  It was therefore understandable that it would require change and adaptations to address any issues.  The council was responding as issues arose and the service was adapting to the problems identified.  There were reserves available to afford the changes to the roll out of the waste service.

A non-Cabinet member highlighted that the issues now arising from the roll out of the new service, had been raised in meetings in 2020 and 2021 and that members had received the outcome of the residents survey at a meeting.  The top issues raised within the survey was of the proposed waste service centred around accessibility and issues of livestock in the forest.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate noted that the report being considered was about financial monitoring and summarised that there were adequate resources to meet the challenges.