Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Finance and Support

The report and the forecast under spend of £295k net of management action are noted.

Councillor Mildren addressed Cabinet congratulating them on managing the Council’s finances during a difficult year.  He referred to the emotive issue of public toilets, set out on page 7 of the report and asked if there were plans to close them now that the budget allocation had run out.  He also mentioned the expected saving on concessionary fares, which would be reversed depending on how tough the budget round was.

Councillor Clarke addressed cabinet drawing attention to potential confusion in the General Fund summary because of the numerous variations set out in the table at paragraph 3.2.3 of the report.  He denied that he was dogmatic about the retention of all services in-house and claimed that he was simply looking for the best value for money.  He then cited an example of poor staff management where temporary workers queued up at Westbridge Depot on a daily basis to find work and many were turned away.  He doubted the efficiency of this practice.

Councillor Perkins presented the report, which he saw as good news.  He announced an underspend of £295,000 congratulating the management for their action to achieve this.  He reminded Cabinet that savings had been made without cuts to services or quality.  In reference to the use of low paid workers, Councillor Perkins felt that council taxpayers would not want to pay more for a service than was necessary and that the forthcoming pay and grading review may address this. 

Coucnillor Crake commented that in order to save £8 million without front line services suffering, everyone had to work very hard.  She congratulated staff and welcomed the Value for Money review and market testing to ensure that taxpayers’ money was not wasted.

Councillor Church reiterated that strategic business reviews would continue if this was the best way to deliver services offering the best value for taxpayers.

Councillor B Hoare noted the report as a demonstration of good management throughout the year and thanked all the officers involved.

RESOLVED

That the report and the forecast under spend of £295k net of management action be noted.