Issue - meetings

That the report be noted.

The Corporate Finance Manager introduced a report to provide Members with Revenue Budget Monitoring 2012/13 (Month 11) information for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) due for submission to Cabinet on 21 May 2013.

It was reported that the projected year end position, as estimated at Month 11, was a net underspend of £2.334m on the Council Fund and a projected net underspend of £0.574m on the HRA.  For Council Fund, the table in 3.01 showed a reduced overspend of £0.590m in Lifelong Learning, which was offset by underspends in other directorates, most notably of £2.564m in Community Services.  Reasons for all the movements from month 10 were detailed in Appendix 1.  The report also included various requests for carrying forward funding as detailed in 3.16 - 3.21 and an update on non-standard inflation which remained unchanged from the previous month.

The Corporate Finance Manager confirmed that the report now included estimates for the additional costs arising from the impact of the severe weather period earlier in the year totalling £1.2m.  The estimate included actual costs arising when the incident occurred (falling in 2012/13) of £0.629m and other estimated costs in relation to the recovery period (majority falling in 2013/14) of £0.621m.

It was reported that the in-year costs had been dealt with in 2 ways.  Firstly, an amount of £0.245m had been drawn down from the Winter Maintenance reserve and secondly it was recommended that the remainder be met from contingency reserves.  Consideration would need to be given on whether to reinstate the Winter Maintenance reserves in full or in part when the final outturn was known.  Costs relating to the recovery period would be approved for the next financial year and officers were exploring the possibility of Welsh Government (WG) support via the Emergency Financial Assistance Scheme (EFAS), however a threshold of £487K would apply to Flintshire for 2012/13.

Whilst costs had been reported for the operational phase of dealing with the impact of severe weather, the Chief Executive spoke of plans for the recovery phase which principally involved repairs to roads.  An application had been made for discretionary support under EFAS and in view of the severity of the weather conditions and arising impact, it was hoped that there would be a positive outcome with costs reinstated into the budget.

On the request for carry forward in Corporate Services to fund improved electronic communications with Members, Councillor C.S. Carver asked if an outcome had already been agreed as a specific figure of £80K was mentioned.  The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance said that the amount quoted related to the business case which would provide savings to the Council and that this had been shared with Group Leaders.  Responses to questions raised would be brought back to the next meeting with Group Leaders on 6 June 2013 where full support would be required on the business case in order to move forward.  The Head of ICT & Customer Services said that the £80K represented advance investment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4