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Agenda item

Financial, Council Priority and Service Performance Report - 2021/22 - Quarter Four

Purpose

To provide an update on progress on the Council’s priorities and service performance

To provide information on the Council’s financial position

 

Recommendation(s)

a)      That Cabinet reviews overall progress on the Council priorities, service delivery and financial performance for 2021-22 Q4.

b)    To approve the transfer of £90,000 from the New Burdens Fund Reserve to the Council’s Priorities Fund as set out in paragraph 4.41 of this report and to note the other movements in earmarked reserves set out in paragraph 4.43 of this report.

Minutes:

The purpose of the report was to provide an update on progress on the Council’s priorities and service performance and to provide information on the Council’s financial position.

 

In the absence of the Chief Executive, and the Deputy Chief Executive, the Director for Governance introduced the report and provided examples of the council’s priorities and performance including:

·         the success of the Flood Warden volunteers scheme that had been attracted 6 members from towns and parishes

·         parking enforcement that had been brought back ‘in house’ from 1st March

·         the success of the Town and Parish Forums held at Moreton and Cirencester that had attracted 29 and 14 participants respectively with further Forums taking place on 5th and 12th July.

·         the successful partnership working with ‘Electric Blue Charging’ who were supporting the Council’s application for partial Government funding for the installation of 20 charging connections (10 EVCPs) across Bourton-on-the-Water, Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh.

·         Crowdfund Cotswold being put forward for a number of awards.

·         securing £130,000 from Gloucestershire County Council to support vulnerable families with supermarket vouchers and help with energy and utility bills

·         although there had been concerns over the performance of theDevelopment Control & Planning (DC&P) department, the service had now stabilised and improved over the past few months, although the recruitment and retention of Planning Officers remained challenging for the Council, and all other Council’s across the country.

·         overall customer service satisfaction was high with 95% of customers responding positively to telephone services.

 

The Group Finance Director, Publica reiterated the improvements made in Q1 of the current year and added that Benefits processing had also improved.

 

The Cabinet noted that the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) data that compared CDC’s performance against other Councils of similar size and demographic did not always show like for like performance for exactly the same periods and was therefore of limited use.

 

The Cabinet noted that the Council’s key performance indicators were being reviewed through the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to ensure that they provided an appropriate, accurate and timely assessment of the performance of the Council.

 

The Committee noted that the Planning Advisory Service had undertaken an independent review of the DC&P service across the 3 Councils.  Their report indicated that increasing the Extension of Time Mechanism (used extensively by nearly all other councils), would significantly improve the Council’s DC&P service.

 

The Committee noted that the end-to-end planning application process was being assessed to identify parts of the process (e.g. early validation, communication with applicants) that could be handled by well-trained, qualified support officers.  This would leave more complex work requiring professional judgement to be handled by fully qualified, experienced Planning Officers.  This approach would also enable the Council to produce a ‘home-grown’ pool of future Planning Officers, rather than competing with the private sector.

 

The Cabinet noted that the Parking Enforcement service had been brought back in-house successfully and a less ‘authoritarian’ and more ‘ambassadorial’ approach would be taken with future management of parking.

 

Finance

In the absence of the Deputy Chief Executive, the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance introduced this part of the report, summarised the Council’s financial performance for 2021-2022 and drew the Cabinet’s attention to some key highlights including:

·         The Council had reported a net annual underspend against budget of £64,384

·         Income from car parking had reduced by 75% (£749,000) against budget (due to the effects of the pandemic), although this was partially offset by a Government grant of £245,225

·         Income from garden waste annual subscriptions had increased by £156,000 above budget and licensing income had increased and was £54,000 above budget

·         Recycling income had also increased and was £252,000 above budget and bulky waste income had also increased to £54,000 above budget.

·         The rental income from the Dyer Street property that had previously been paid to a repair and maintenance reserve, was now being recognised as income into the general fund of £119,000.

·         The Ubico contract that provides the Council’s Environmental Services had delivered an underspend of £401,000, however Ubico’s additional chargeable costs of £555,000 (due to the effects of the pandemic), had led to a net overspend of £154,000

·         The Publica contract, that included the majority of staffing costs, had also delivered an under-spend of £77,803.

·         Discretionary pension payments, paid to the Gloucestershire Local Government Pension Scheme, has also been £111,000 less than budgeted.

·         The Government had provided a grant of £377,000 (excluding the income compensation scheme) to cover additional costs incurred due to the pandemic.

·         Details of other finance, budget and reserve items were also presented

 

RESOLVED: The Cabinet reviewed overall progress on the Council priorities, service delivery and financial performance for 2021-22 Q4

·         approved the transfer of £90,000 from the New Burdens Fund Reserve to the Council’s Priorities Fund (as set out in paragraph 4.41 of the report)

·         noted the other movements in earmarked reserves set out in paragraph 4.43 of the report.

 

Voting Record – For 7, Against 0, Abstentions 0, Absent 1, 

 

Supporting documents:

 

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