Issue - meetings

That having considered the Revenue Budget Monitoring 2019/20 (Month 10) report, the Committee confirms that there are no specific matters which it wishes to have reported to the Cabinet.

The Finance Manager presented a report on the revenue budget monitoring position for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as at Month 10 prior to consideration by Cabinet.  This reflected the budget position at the close of the financial year if all things remained unchanged.

The operating deficit of £1.625m was a positive movement of £0.041m compared with the previous month.  The measures introduced to mitigate the overall projected overspend position had made a significant impact and this work would continue with specific areas under tactical review as detailed in the report.  This included additional funding for Parc Adfer which was currently being pursued.    In addition, there was potential for late grant awards from Welsh Government (WG) to improve the position.  Amongst the major variances were overspends for Out of County Placements and Streetscene & Transportation in respect of resolving flooding issues.

On the tracking of planned in-year efficiencies, the achievement of 91% was expected to remain unchanged at year-end.

On Reserves and Balances, the projected year-end balance on Contingency Reserves was £3.244m.  The significant risk on projected levels of school balances was again highlighted.

The allocation of WG funding to support school ICT networks would be allocated against existing spend, with a request to Cabinet for the resulting underspend to be carried forward to the next financial year.

On the HRA, a projected underspend of £0.062m would leave a closing un-earmarked balance of £1.385m, which was above the recommended guidelines on spend.

Councillor Jones referred to the additional cost of maintaining security and safety of Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) following incidents of vandalism.  He questioned whether the CCTV facilities at the Buckley site had been working prior to these incidents and that this may have been a contributing factor.  The Chief Officer said that CCTV was often the first target for vandalism and would ask the Chief Officer for Streetscene & Transportation to provide a response.

Councillor Heesom asked for information on costs and timescale for addressing damage to cabling/pipeline along the A548.  The Finance Manager agreed to pursue a response from the Chief Officer for Streetscene & Transportation.

The recommendations in the report were moved and seconded by Councillors Jones and Johnson.

RESOLVED:

That having considered the Revenue Budget Monitoring 2019/20 (Month 10) report, the Committee confirms that there are no specific matters which it wishes to have reported to the Cabinet.