Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

To note that:

1.   As at 31 May 2018, the Council’s overall revenue budget position was as follows:

·      £2.8m forecast year end underspend (Annex, paragraph 1),

·      £65.3m forecast planned savings, against £66.0m target (Annex, paragraph 3),

·      £15m risk of increased service pressures in SEND,

·      Target of £15m additional in year savings in 2018/19.

That the following be approved:

2.   Agreed in principle to continue to use the Waste Sinking Fund to smooth Eco Park construction cost variations across years (Annex, paragraph 34).

3.   Highways & Transport requested to draw down £0.155m from three revenue carry forwards made in 2017/18 to fund committed and in-progress projects including:

·      £85,000 Members’ allocations for bursaries and a school and recycling project;

·      £45,000 for committed bridge assessments; and

·      £25,000 for traffic signals maintenance delayed due to bad weather.

4.   Highways & Transport requested a £0.9m increase to the capital budget to reflect additional pothole grant announced by the Department for Transport on 26 March 2018.

5.   Highways & Transport requested to draw down £4.67m capital carry forwards to fund committed and in-progress projects, including:

·      National Productivity Investment Fund grant-funded Farnham Bridge and A24 Epsom Resilience schemes, plus match funded A23 Local Growth Deal scheme;

·      Highways major maintenance and bridge strengthening schemes.

Reasons for decisions:

This report was presented to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval and action as necessary.

 [The decisions on this item can be called in by the Corporate Overview Select Committee]

The Leader of the Council introduced the monthly budget monitoring report that had been previously circulated as well as tabled annexes to the report.  He highlighted some key points:

·         that the Council were on track to save £63.5m,

·         there was a small underspend of £2.8m,

·         there were increased service pressures in SEND, and

·         there were now only two red areas in the savings forecast in Annex 2 to the report.

He further explained that £21m of reserves were to be used which left £60m earmarked reserves and £20m normal reserves.  Also that there were some tough decisions ahead for the Council and that transformation was needed and being worked on.

Other Cabinet Members were given the opportunity to highlight key points and issues from their portfolios.

RESOLVED:

To note that:

1.   As at 31 May 2018, the Council’s overall revenue budget position was as follows:

·         £2.8m forecast year end underspend,

·         £65.3m forecast planned savings, against £66.0m target,

·         £15m risk of increased service pressures in SEND,

·         Target of £15m additional in year savings in 2018/19.

That the following be approved:

2.    Agreed in principle to continue to use the Waste Sinking Fund to smooth Eco Park construction cost variations across years.

3.    Highways & Transport requested to draw down £0.155m from three revenue carry forwards made in 2017/18 to fund committed and in-progress projects including:

·         £85,000 Members’ allocations for bursaries and a school and recycling project;

·         £45,000 for committed bridge assessments; and

·         £25,000 for traffic signals maintenance delayed due to bad weather.

4.    Highways & Transport requested a £0.9m increase to the capital budget to reflect additional pothole grant announced by the Department for Transport on 26 March 2018.

5.    Highways & Transport requested to draw down £4.67m capital carry forwards to fund committed and in-progress projects, including:

·         National Productivity Investment Fund grant-funded Farnham Bridge and A24 Epsom Resilience schemes, plus match funded A23 Local Growth Deal scheme;

·         Highways major maintenance and bridge strengthening schemes.

Reason for decisions:

This report was presented to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval and action as necessary.