Issue - meetings

That the County Council approve the recommendations of the Cabinet from its meeting held on 18 February 2014 as set out in appendix 1 of the report to Cabinet attached to the Council report.

The Head of Finance presented a report which provided Members with the recommendations of the Cabinet for the Council Fund Capital Programme 2014/15 and Indicative Funding to 2017/18.

The Head of Finance and Director of Environment jointly gave a presentation and commented upon the following areas:-

·        Capital Programme Context

·        Funding

·        Core Capital Programme

·        Capital Receipts and Core Programme

·        Allocating the Core Programme

In moving the recommendation, Councillor Aaron Shotton, the Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance said that it was important that the capital programme was set with a sustainable level of capital receipts. 

Councillor Mike Peers queried how rigid the programme was and whether it could be reviewed if capital receipts were realised.  Councillor Richard Jones asked if the Single Status/Equal Pay reserve could be used as a one-off to overcome the reduction of £0.720m on repairs and maintenance for schools from the level indicated last year for 2014/15.  Councillor Robin Guest asked for an update on the issue of rollovers or deferring capital projects and asked whether the Council’s assets were to be revalued.  He accepted the prudent and realistic approach being taken on the capital programme. 

In response to the questions and comments, the Director of Environment said that capital receipts would be reviewed on an ongoing basis and that rollover requests were challenged.  These were for projects that had been allocated funding but had not been delivered and even though requests for rollover could be submitted, they were not always permitted.  The Chief Executive said that technically an allocation could be made from the Single Status/Equal Pay reserve but he advised against it due to the many variables associated with Single Status/Equal Pay.  The work on Equal Pay was nearing a conclusion but if any reserve was held following transition to Single Status, it would be held and used for people costs in the organisation. 

Councillor Jones sought an amendment to the recommendation to allow funding for repairs and maintenance for schools be increased to at least £2.1m to prevent further issues of disrepair for schools in the future.  The Head of Finance advised that the Chief Executive had explained why the Single Status reserve could not be used and that any proposals agreed today to include school maintenance would need to be found from within the £7.403m general funding for 2014/15.         

RESOLVED:

That the County Council approve the recommendations of the Cabinet from its meeting held on 18 February 2014 as set out in appendix 1 of the report to Cabinet attached to the Council report.