Issue - meetings

Report by the Chief Executive.

23.1     The Lead Member for Resources introduced report. The report provides the Committee with the opportunity to explore any savings that have not been considered, and to identify any further information it requires on the RPPR process. The savings outlined in Appendix 3 of the report have been in the medium term financial plan (MTFP) for three years now, and are required to achieve a balanced budget. The savings put forward are those that officers consider will have least impact on services, but that is not to say they will not have an impact.

23.2     The Chief Executive highlighted the State of County report that was presented to Cabinet in June, which set out the Council’s overall financial position. The Scrutiny Committee RPPR report seeks to focus attention on the services which are within the remit of the Committee. There is information on the revenue and capital budgets for those services; the more detailed service plans contained in the Portfolio Plans and; the agreed savings programme. The Chief Executive asked if the Committee required any more information, and whether there were any further areas for savings which it wished to examine.

23.3     The Committee Members commented that there was a lot of information and it was difficult to get to the detail in terms of the performance indicators, service plans and the impact on services. The Chief Executive explained that the Portfolio Plans were intended to provide information on individual service plans and the Council Plan targets that applied to those services. The Council Plan itself brings together all the performance targets and has very detailed plans which underpin it.

23.4     The Lead Member for Resources acknowledged that many of the Committee members are joining the savings process towards the end of the three year MTFP programme. The Council is in the really difficult position managing a reduction in budget, whilst the pressure on services is increasing. The Council has been doing this quite well for the last six or seven years, but will struggle to continue to do this without there being an impact on services. There are examples of innovative approaches to this situation, such as Orbis, which is one of the biggest shared business service partnerships providing better value for money for each of the partners.

23.5     The Committee commented that it would be helpful to have information on the likely revenue budget framework going forward, and an indication of where the Council was now in terms of the operational financial position.

23.6     The Chief Executive responded that the likely future budget framework is outlined in the State of the County report. The Council has a 3-5 year MTFP, but there is a note of significant caution on what the final figures will be due to the uncertainty of future funding. This will be updated as more precise information is known, including an update that will be presented to Cabinet in October. The Council’s current operational financial position is reported through the quarterly monitoring reports which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23

Report by the Chief Executive.

18.1     The Director of CET introduced report, which is the beginning of the Scrutiny Committee’s involvement in the of RPPR process for 2018/19. Scrutiny has an important role in shaping the budget savings proposals and examining their impact. The Director of CET highlighted that finding further savings is becoming increasingly difficult.

18.2     The Committee discussed the items in the savings plan for 2018/19 and noted that the Committee had established a Review Board to examine the savings proposals for the Waste Contract, and had agreed to consider the proposals for savings to grass cutting via a Task and Finish Scrutiny Board. The Committee is aware of the savings proposals for Libraries and noted their contribution to the overall departmental savings plan.

18.3     The Committee considered the services within the departmental revenue budget to see whether there were opportunities for savings in addition to those planned for waste and grass cutting.

Archives & Records

18.4     The budget under this heading pays for the ESCC contribution to the running costs of The Keep and the modern records storage facility at Ropemaker Park. The remainder of the running costs of The Keep are paid for by contributions from Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) and the University of Sussex.

18.5     The Committee asked if the modern records storage facility could be offered to other Councils and organisations. The Assistant Director, Communities explained that this service has implemented a new system to improve document storage and retrieval. It is looking to offer this service to other organisations, but cannot guarantee any additional income at this stage.

Registration Service

18.6     The Registration Service is a net contributor to the departmental budget, but there are constraints on what the income generated can be spent on. It is anticipated that the opening of the newly refurbished Southover Grange will increase income, but this is variable depending on the number of wedding and other services. The Registration Service is currently working with Adult Social Care to refurbish Hookstead in Crowborough to provide improved facilities in this part of the county.

Road Safety

18.7     The Committee asked if expenditure on road safety could be reduced. The Director of CET responded that he did not believe this team could be reduced further. It currently deals with over 5,000 items of correspondence each year. The Committee is aware of the project work that is underway to examine better ways of reducing road accidents. The Committee commented that there was a perception that road accidents were due to road conditions, when most are caused by driver behaviour. The Director of CET suggested that the time to tackle this perception is when project has been completed.

Trading Standards

18.8     The Assistant Director Communities outlined that the department has reduced this service as far as possible and would not want to reduce it further. There may be small opportunities for additional income generation, but this service has already undertaken structural reviews and reduced staff.

Travellers Sites and Emergency Planning

18.9     The Director of CET explained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18