Issue - meetings

That Members supported the reporting model as presented.

The Corporate Finance Manager presented a report with information on planned investment in County towns, as requested by a Notice of Motion to County Council in December 2017.  The report had been revised following discussion at the April meeting of the Committee.

Councillor Jones said that the Notice of Motion had sought information on both capital and revenue investment.  The Corporate Finance Manager said that this would be picked up during his presentation.  He explained that the information had been allocated to the seven areas of the County, based on the seven principal towns and their catchments, as approved by the Council for the Wellbeing Assessment undertaken in 2017.  Details were shared on individual schemes and funding arrangements for each town centre catchment area.  Information was given on significant themed capital programmes, with explanation on why it was not possible to include analysis of routine capital maintenance.  The report also set out the approach to be taken for reporting on revenue schemes as part of the Revenue Budget Monitoring item.

Councillor Jones said that the purpose of the report was to provide evidence on equitable spend.  Whilst he agreed with the way this had been measured, he said that all aspects of the Notice of Motion (including highway and transport networks etc) as agreed by Council, should have been included.  He gave examples of significant investment in highways infrastructure which could have been captured.  The officers said that the report provided substantial detail on £41m of capital spend and that to report on the remaining £4m would have significant resource implications.  They spoke about the challenges on incorporating highways investment whilst taking account of the criteria for grant funding and Council policies.

Councillor Attridge suggested that information could be shared on major grants such as significant investment through Safer Routes to Communities.

The Chairman commented on the definition of catchment areas and acknowledged the difficulties involved.  The Chief Officer advised that areas were based on the Wellbeing Plan.

Following remarks by Councillor Johnson on expanding the remit of the report, the Chief Officer spoke about the limitations on resources to produce the information.

Councillor Heesom thanked officers for the report and Councillor Jones for his involvement on the matter, adding that the report had emerged into a format that would be helpful for future use.

RESOLVED:

That Members supported the reporting model as presented.