Agenda item

Purpose: To receive an update on actions following the previous Committee meeting. 

The Committee considered a report providing the information requested at the last meeting (Agenda Item 4).

Section 106 Contributions

Stephen Chard informed the Committee that all 16 S106 agreements which dated back to Berkshire County Council had been spent in their entirety. 

Newbury Cinema subsidy

Andy Walker advised that an update was awaited on the cinema budget from supporting accounts.

No payment had to date been made by the Council to the cinema operator, although a provision had been made for potential liability costs.  Payments for 2010/11 would be made in quarterly instalments of £25k.  Andy Walker agreed to provide information on whether the £16k saving, identified from the 2010/11 budget, would contribute to the cost. 

Chief Executive Directorate budget

It was noted that the delay in procuring the new CCTV contract had created additional underspend.   

Mike Sullivan provided some background to the work on the CCTV contract.  This was advertised as a Part B service under the category of security and monitoring services.  Part B also covered services including hotel and restaurant services, legal services, education, health and social services.  This meant there was greater flexibility with advertising and the process could be brought to a more timely finish.  However, the process had to be restarted in line with the requirements of the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).  A concern was therefore raised that repeating the procurement process would create an additional cost.

Mike Sullivan added for information that Part A services included, amongst others, those services relating to advertising, consultancy, IT and publishing.  A full list of Category A and B services could be obtained from the Corporate Contracts and Procurement Unit.  It was agreed that this discussion would continue as part of the procurement agenda item. 

The reduced overspend within Legal and Electoral Services as a result of an increased income in the second half of the financial year was noted and it was queried whether this would be reflected in the forecasted budget for 2010/11.  Councillor Keith Chopping assured Members that the trends of previous years would be observed to assist forecasting of budgets, although this had to be guarded when considering additional income. 

Leigh Hogan advised that the one remaining vacancy in Legal and Electoral Services had recently been recruited to.

Concerns were raised regarding the increased underspend within the Chief Executive’s Directorate in the second half of the financial year, particularly as this was felt to be a reoccurring issue.  It was therefore agreed that the Chief Executive would be invited to attend the next meeting to discuss this further, data would also be requested on whether this was an issue in previous years and the reasons why. 

Andy Walker pointed out that at month 6 there was agreement corporately to restrain in year expenditure and savings targets were set to try and contain the significant overspend in Adult Social Care. 

RESOLVED that:

(1)       The item to discuss Property contracts and contractors in schools would be returned to at the next meeting. 

(2)       Andy Walker would provide information on whether the £16k saving would contribute to the cost of the cinema. 

(3)       The Chief Executive would be invited to the next meeting to discuss the underspend in that Directorate in recent financial years.