Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Panel noted that there were no substitute members.

With the agreement of the Panel, Councillor K Angold-Stephens was appointed Vice Chairman for the duration of the meeting.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

No declarations of interest were made.

To consider and agree the notes of the meeting the Panel held on 27 March 2008.

The notes from the previous meeting held on 27 March 2008 were agreed.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of this Panel and associated Work Programme. This is attached. The Panel are asked at each meeting to review both documents.

The Panel noted the Terms of Reference and Work Programme and that they would be looking at the Essex Local Area Agreement (LAA2) this year as LAA1 had been reported on last year.

That the Chairman’s name on the terms of Reference needs to be corrected.

Under item 3 of the work programme, the date 11 November 2007 should be 2008 and that item 8 would be going to the 8 August meeting.

(Deputy Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Deputy Chief Executive introduced this report on the Council’s performance in relation to Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) and Local Performance Indicators (LPIs) for 2007/08. The Panel noted that this report had recently been considered by the Cabinet Finance Committee. If this Panel had any comments to make they could still do so and have it reported to the next Cabinet meeting if need be.

It was noted that at year end the KPIs for 2007/08 achieved as follows:

(a)          23 (53.5%) achieved the performance target for 2007/08;

(b)          6 (13.9%) did not achieve the performance target for 2007/08, although outturn performance was within 5% of the target for the year;

(c)          14 (32.5%) did not achieve the performance target for 2007/08, and outturn performance was not within 5% of the target for the year;

(d)          23 (53.5%) improved in performance compared with 2006/07, or maintained the level of performance achieved for 2006/07; and

(e)          20 (46.5%) worsened in performance compared with 2006/07.

The Panel noted that the new National Indicators (NI) set replaced all existing BVPIs from April 2008. The introduction of the new NI set provided an opportunity for a thorough review to be undertaken of the Council’s existing suite of statutory BVPIs and locally determined LPIs. On 10 March 2008, the Cabinet agreed the adoption of a range of existing BVPIs as LPIs from 2008/09 onwards, where these continued to reflect local priorities but had not been brought forward into the new NI set.

Although BVPIs 170a, b and c (‘visits to museums and galleries’) were not adopted as LPIs; upon review it was thought that these indicators helped reflect the diversity of leisure and cultural activity by the Council. The information was considered useful and it had now been recommended that these indicators be adopted as LPIs for 2008/09. Also BVPI 91a (‘households served by kerbside collection of recyclables’)  be adopted as an LPI. It was also recommended that BVPI 106 (‘new homes built on previously developed land’) be deleted as an LPI as it was considered meaningless.

It was noted by Councillor Angold-Stephens that the crime and disorder BVIs from page 17 onwards were being deleted but the police reported on some of these and collected some of the statistics. The Director of the Environment and Street Scene explained that these would be reported to the Safer Communities Panel and that was why they were deleted here.

Queried on why the indicator on tenants with more than seven weeks gross rent arrears (BV66b) was being deleted the Assistant Director of Housing replied that in reality rent arrears were the best they had ever been, the reason it was in the red, was that some tenants are under repayments arrangements (e.g. a court order) so are repaying over time. The indicator was out of the Council’s control if a court has given then time to pay. Councillor Mrs Collins added it was only down 0.36%, which was not much  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

(Director of Finance and ICT) To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director of Finance introduced the Capital Outturn 2007/08 and use of Transitional Relief in 2008/09 report. The report set out the Council’s capital programme for 2007/08, in terms of expenditure and financing, and compared the actual outturn figures with the revised estimates.

The report also identified the proposed use of the transitional capital receipts that remained unused as at 31 March 2008.

The Panel noted that the overall position in 2007/08 was that a total of £10,597,000 was spent on capital schemes, compared to a revised estimate of £12,324,000. This represents an underspend of £1,727,000 or 14% on the Council’s revised capital budget.  The underspend was greater on the General Fund schemes than the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) schemes. Expenditure on General Fund projects totalled £4,949,000, which was £1,236,000 or 20% less than anticipated, whilst expenditure on the HRA totalled £5,648,000, which was £491,000 or 8% less than anticipated.

There were some underspends experienced in 2007/08 which have been identified as savings. This was primarily on private sector housing grants where there were underspends of £186,000 and £154,000 on Disabled Facilities Grants and other private sector grants respectively.

There were also two schemes within the non-housing programme on which savings were identified. These include £20,000 relating to the creation of a second computer suite at the Civic Offices which is now complete; and £15,000 set aside to finance the costs associated with the sale of land at Merlin Road. Cabinet had agreed to put this on hold for the time being. The report proposed that the £20,000 saving from the computer suite be returned to the General IT budget from which a top up was vired last year and the £15,000 Merlin Road allocation be returned to the Capital Contingency.

These savings were counterbalanced to a small extent by an overspend of £5,000 on the car park upgrade at Queen’s Road, Buckhurst Hill. The report suggested that this sum be taken from the Capital Contingency. Together with the savings identified above, this would generate a net saving of £350,000.

It was noted that authorities which were debt-free on 31 March 2004, were granted transitional relief on a reducing percentage of capital receipts which were deemed “poolable” to a Central Government Pool since the scheme was introduced. This period of transitional relief had now come to an end. However, the Council still has a sum of £500,000 of transitional relief which has not been used to finance capital expenditure to date.

Councillor Watts queried the £124,000 underspend on Springfield, Waltham Abbey. He was told that it was not really an underspend, but a matter of timing as it would be taken up in time.

Councillor Philip noted that the Parking & Traffic Schemes was 100% overspent; would there be anything to spend in 2008/09?  The answer was because County Council colleagues were doing reviews that were coming in slowly and a lot of these were coming to fruition at the same time so the Council had to bring  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

(Director of Finance and ICT) To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director of Finance introduced the report on the provisional revenue outturn 2007/08.

It was noted that the Continuing Services Budget (CSB) expenditure was £1,022,000 below the original estimate and £585,000 lower than the revised. The variances have arisen on both the opening CSB, £526,000 lower than the revised estimate and the in year figures, £59,000 lower than the revised estimate.

Of the savings on the opening CSB over half related to staff savings due to vacancies. Actual salary spending for the authority in total, including agency costs, was some £18.544 million compared against an original estimate of £18.926 million. Although the saving of £382,000 was rather lower than in recent years it was still substantial and much of this saving had fallen on the General Fund as opposed to the Housing Revenue Account and the Housing Repairs Fund as was the case in 2006/07. Of the remaining savings of £280,000, £82,000 relates to Housing Benefits with a further four areas seeing savings of £20,000 plus, these are Abandoned Vehicles, Electoral Registration, Grounds Maintenance and Environmental Co-ordination.

The panel noted that two portfolios had seen variations in excess of £100,000 on their DDF when compared to the revised estimate. Finance, Performance Management and Corporate Support Services saw an underspend of £244,000. The three main elements of this related to unspent Local Housing Allowance set up grant, being able to contain increased costs as a result of maternity cover in Housing Benefits within the existing salaries budget and slippage on the implementation of the new Revenues and Benefits system. Environmental Protection saw an overspend of £186,000, which was made up of a £216,000 overspend on Waste Management. This was offset slightly by additional licensing income.

Councillor Philip asked why building control was ring fenced. He was told that the government has asked that it be kept that way, in a rolling programme for four years.

Councillor Philip also asked that the sub-totals be totalled up in the future as it was difficult to follow the tables.

            RESOLVED:

(1)        That the overall 2007/08 revenue out-turn for the General Fund and Housing Revenue Accounts (HRA) be noted; and

(2)        That as detailed in Appendix B of the report, the carry forward of £469,000 District Development Fund expenditure be noted.

To consider which reports are ready to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

To report back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that this Panel had considered the Key Performance Indicators and target setting for the coming year.

To note the forward programme of meeting dates for the Panel. They are:

19^th August 2008;

11^th November 2008;

13^th January 2009;

10^th February 2009; and

31^st March 2009.

The schedule for future meetings were noted.