Agenda and decisions

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 8 October 2024.

Question from Councillor Stuart Wilson to Councillor Peter Strachan, Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration

A political leaflet from prominent Buckinghamshire Councillors was distributed recently in Chalfont St Giles stating they were “fighting plans for 100,000 homes on local Green Belt” which I take to mean Green Belt in Buckinghamshire rather than Chalfont St Giles. The recent Member briefing on the proposed NPPF changes stated that up to 50,000 dwellings could be accommodated on non-Green Belt land, leaving 13,000 dwellings on sites in the Green Belt based on the prior housing need used for the new Local Plan.

Could the Cabinet Member please clarify whether a revised target of 86,000 dwellings under the proposed new housing need method is intended or likely to be entirely built on the local Green Belt given its distribution across the county (or 100,000 houses including a new town in all likelihood outside of the Green Belt given planning constraints) and confirm that Planning will continue to brief Members on the likely balance between development on non-Green Belt and Green Belt to avoid any confusion or inaccuracy?

Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to Councillor Steve Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport and Councillor Thomas Broom, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment

You will be aware that we recently experienced Flooding at Meadway in Buckingham due to the extremely high level of rainfall, which has caused extensive damage to several properties. You will also be aware that there was flooding in Mitre Street which caused major damage to a bungalow and that there is an ongoing problem in Western Avenue in respect of drainage capacity which is resulting in the flooding of properties on a regular basis irrespective of heavy rainfall.

Residents are of the opinion that these events are the result of poor maintenance and repairs not being undertaken which leads to there being no capacity to deal with high rainfall within the highway drainage system. Given the significant impact this has on the affected residents, please may I seek assurance that these ongoing concerns are being addressed and that a proper and timely response will be given to residents, and ask what is the planned capital expenditure to address these matters within Buckingham?

For Cabinet to note the Select Committee Work Programme.

Cabinet were asked to consider the recommendations of the School Attendance Review Group which was formed to investigate the extent of school non-attendance within Buckinghamshire since the pandemic and to ascertain how schools and the local authority were working together to address the issue, which was currently a national concern.

RESOLVED – 

(1)   That the Rapid Review Group, as well as the supporting Officers, be thanked for their work and subsequent recommendations.

(2)   That Cabinet’s responses to the School Attendance Review 2024 and recommendations, as detailed at the meeting, be agreed.

Note: a complete breakdown of the scrutiny recommendations and Cabinet’s responses can be found here

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The Council’s Capital Programme for 2024/25 to 2027/28 was approved by Full Council in February 2024 as £666.264m.  The programme was revised to £674.977m following additions agreed by Cabinet in July 2024.    The report set out the recommended changes for approval and would result in the Capital Programme increasing to £686.639m.   Since the Budget changes agreed by Cabinet in July 2024, £2.007m of additions have had Leader or Cabinet decision approval (Denmark Street Future High Street project, Disposal of Old County Offices, Aston Clinton Traffic Calming Phase 1, and the Libraries Transformation Programme).  

The report recommended further changes which had been recommended through the Council’s Gateway process: 

• Additions of £10.237m for new projects of which £5.187m are externally funded from grants and s.106, and £5.000m for additional roads funding is to be transferred from the Revenue budget, as originally approved at full council due to the Capital nature of the works, and a further £50k for Aylesbury Town Centre Improvement works funded from the Economic Reserve.  

• Reductions of £0.582m, where external funding has been reviewed.

• A reprofile of the programme to align with current project delivery plans, including £24.487m is recommended to be reprofiled from 2024/25 to future years.  

RESOLVED that the recommended changes to the Capital Programme be approved:

1. £10.237m of additions to the Capital Programme, of which £5.187m are funded from ringfenced grants and s.106, and £5.050m is funded from ringfenced council reserves. 

2. £0.582m of technical adjustments from the capital programme for adjustments to external funding. 

3. The revised £686.639m Capital Programme, with £24.487m reprofiled from 2024/25 into future years.  

4. the release of funding of £3.222m relating to the projects set out in section 5 of the report.   

This report set out the forecast Revenue and Capital outturn position for Buckinghamshire Council for the financial year 2024/25 as at Quarter 2.  The Council continued to experience significant financial pressures due to increases in demand, complexity of need and market insufficiency in key services, primarily High Needs Block (DSG), Children’s Social Care, Home to School Transport, Temporary Accommodation and Adults Social Care. These pressures were in line with those being experienced nationally.

The forecast revenue outturn position at Quarter 2 was an adverse variance of £8.4m (1.7% of Portfolio budgets) compared with £6.5m reported in Q1. This was primarily due to pressures in Education and Children’s Services around additional placements for Looked After Children, Transport Services linked to increases in demand in Home to School Transport and in Climate Change & Environment due to Waste Collection contract costs and income pressures in the Waste Service.  

Within the overall position there was an adverse variance of £14.3m (3%) in Portfolios (£10.0m last quarter) offset by a £5.8m (£3.5m last quarter) favourable variance in Corporate & Funding. The forecast for the Dedicated Schools Grant budget was an in year deficit of £13.1m (£7.7m Q1), primarily due to ongoing pressures within the High Needs Block. An Action Plan had been developed to address the significant issues in this area.

The forecast position on capital budgets £185.1m against a budget of £181.8m, a net accelerated spend of £3.3m (1.8% of the budget). £4.4m accelerated spend related to the Highways contract linked to Structures and Plane and Patch. The budget included an approved savings programme totalling £95.3m over 3 years with £41.3m of additional income and savings to be delivered in 2024/25.  Delivery of savings for 2024/25 (including in-year mitigations) was currently forecast at 98.1% after taking into account mitigations (97% last quarter) with £0.8m (1.9%) of unmitigated pressures included in the adverse variance reported above.

Actions would continue to be required to closely manage the in-year financial position.

Paragraph 2.3 of the report needed to be corrected to say £14.3m.

RESOLVED –  That the Quarter 2 Budget Management Report 2024-2025, and the risks and opportunities contained within it, be NOTED.

The quarterly performance report provided details of the key performance measures reported through the corporate performance framework for 2024/25 and the performance scorecard. which provided information on four key elements of performance for the Council covering Finance, Customer Service, Performance and Human Resources indicators. Within the performance report and performance scorecard, outturns which were performing at or better than target were classified as Green, those which were within 5% of the target were Amber and those which were more than 5% of the target were Red. At the end of Quarter 2, 91 indicators had outturns reported with a Red, Amber or Green status. Of these, 63 were Green (69%), 11 were Amber (12%) and 17 were Red (19%).

RESOLVED that the performance report be noted including the action taken to improve performance where required.

17 December 2024 at 10am