Meeting documents

RESOLVED

That the 28 Day Notices for the meetings of the Cabinet and the Chiltern and South Bucks Joint Committee be noted.

The Performance Indicators for Quarter 2, 2018-19 were considered and it was noted that of the 47 PI’s, only 3 were off target.  The reasons for these were discussed in detail and the main points were:

1.     Environment.  The data had not yet been received from SERCO but would be available shortly. 

2.     Food hygiene targets had not been met because they had been short of staff but there was provision to bring in short term agency staff. 

3.     Planning and Economic Development had also been short of staff but was expected to get back on target shortly.

4.     CdWR4 - number of missed containers.  This PI had been recalculated to bring it in line with other Council’s standards.  This still remained a difficult target to achieve but was more realistic and in line with joint waste contract partners.

5.     Customer Services had been short staffed but had 2 new staff members starting in November.

6.     Support Services had had problems with the vWorkspace desktop environment during September and there had been major outage of the uniform system following an upgrade.  This resulted in slightly slower response times from the helpdesk.

Councillors were concerned about the backlog of planning enforcement cases and asked how many remained to be resolved.  It was advised that there were about 400 cases currently.  Members requested that the number of open enforcement cases be added to the Data Only PI list.  It was asked whether staff were able to take annual leave at the same time as there were staff vacancies.  The response was that it was for the service manager to decide taking into account relevant factors.

There were currently 7 members of staff on long-term sick leave.  It was advised that the Joint Staff Committee would get detail on these cases and discuss.  There was concern that the number was increasing each month, even though it was within the target figure, and the Cabinet should be aware of this trend.

PI CdWr2 the percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting was discussed.  Suggestions were made of ways that more plastic could be recycled.  It was requested that this issue be highlighted for the Joint Waste Committee to seek improvement in this area.

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND

That Cabinet note the performance indicator reports and the comments of the Resources Overview Committee.

Note:  Councillor A Bacon entered the meeting at 7.10 pm

The Committee was reminded that the announcement of the decision to create a new unitary authority did not affect the legal responsibility to set a budget for 2019/20.  There would need to be provision made for transition costs under the obligation to co-operate but these were not yet known.  Most of the costs were now split as part of the shared services arrangement.  The budgets had been scrutinised by Policy Holders and Officers.  This resulted in budget reductions or additional income of over £300k. 

The number of properties in the District that would be subject to Council Tax had increased slightly by 0.8%.  The settlement details for local government had still not been received.  It was expected that there would be no changes to the limit to the annual increase in Council Tax but the budgets would be reviewed once the settlement had been announced.  A modest use of reserves of £107k was listed but this would be adjusted with the final figures.

Committee asked Cabinet to consider the following points when considering the budget:

1.     Business rate growth forecasts.  It was asked whether the trend for office conversions to residential accommodation by permitted development would undermine business rate forecasts.  It was advised that Chiltern had for the last 2 years taken part in a business rates pooling scheme.  It had also applied to take part in a business rates pilot scheme which would cover all the County’s authorities.

2.     It was asked if the 18/19 budget could be compared to the estimated outturn figures.  It was confirmed that budget monitoring was done monthly and could be provided to future committees.

3.     Amersham Multi-Storey Car Park.  The interest payable on the car park compared to the minimum revenue provision was queried.  It was suggested that the figures from the business case should be used in the budgets and it was confirmed that they were.

4.     Inflation expenditure on the pension contributions (P39) were explained as a 2% increase for all.

5.     Business Rate Precept for the Police (P37) it was confirmed that the Police are not funded through business rates.

6.     Public Conveniences (P71) the figure had gone down.  It was advised that there was a saving as business rates no longer payable following an announcement in the recent Budget.

7.     Car Park Management.  It was confirmed that the cost of the admin team was covered by car park income.

8.     Depreciation on P54.  It was advised that the decision had been taken to accelerate the depreciation on the Chiltern Pools as it would not be used beyond the next 2 years.  It was explained that this was a local authority form of accounting that did not affect the bottom line.  It was asked that the £2.9 million depreciation item be brought to the attention of Cabinet.

9.     Council tax rates (P34).  It was asked why the current Council Tax rates are higher in Chiltern compared to the other Bucks Districts.  It was advised that this was largely historical and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

The Committee considered a report which set out the proposed establishment and Terms of Reference for a joint sub-committee of the Resources Overview and Services Overview Committees called the ‘Chiltern Lifestyle Centre Scrutiny Sub-Committee’. The proposed committee would review each key stage of the evolving business case for the proposed redevelopment of the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre and conduct their proceedings in accordance with the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules as set out in Section C of Part 4 of the Council’s Constitution and the Council’s Access to Information rules.

RESOLVED

1.     That the report be noted.

2.     That the Terms of Reference of the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre Scrutiny Sub-committee attached at Appendix 1 be agreed.

3.     That 5 Members from the Resources Overview Committee, 5 Members from the Services Overview Committee and 1 Non-Committee Member be appointed to the Chiltern Lifestyle Scrutiny Sub-committee, comprising of:

Resources Overview Committee: Cllr N Rose, Cllr C Ford, Cllr J Gladwin, Cllr V Martin and Cllr D Phillips

Services Overview Committee: Cllr J Burton, Cllr N Varley, Cllr L Smith, Cllr P Jones and Cllr M Harker

Non-Committee Member: Cllr G Harris

4.     That authority be delegated to the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre Scrutiny Sub-committee to undertake the scrutiny role of both Overview Committees in respect of the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre and that views and recommendations be reported to Cabinet.

5.     That there be a new name, not the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre.