Issue - meetings

Matter for Decision

 

The report presented, for the Planning Policy & Transport Portfolio:

 

     i.        A summary of actual income and expenditure compared to the final budget for 2018/19 (outturn position)

 

    ii.        Revenue and capital budget variances with explanations

 

   iii.        Specific requests to carry forward funding available from budget underspends into 2019/20.

 

The report was for the 2018/19 outturn the services that were included in the Planning Policy & Transport Portfolio prior to the current year committee restructure was detailed.

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for Planning Policy and Open Spaces

 

Resolved: To agree to request that the Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources, at the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 1 July 2019, approved the following:

 

     i.        Carry forward requests of £995k capital resources from 2018/19 to 2019/20 to fund rephased net capital spending, as detailed in Appendix D of the Officers report.

 

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Caroline Ryba, Head of Finance.

 

In response to the report Councillors commented that the figures provided did not allow members to judge how the Parking Service was performing. Variances appeared to be high against the forecast. The Strategic Director undertook to address this outside the meeting.

 

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

     i.        Suggested that the Taxi Card Scheme and other transport subsidies should be promoted more widely.

    ii.        Stated that the Planning Service was under stress which in turn placed additional stress on the scrutiny and decision process.

 

The Strategic Director, the Head of Finance and the Greater Cambridge Planning Service Planning Policy Manager responded to Members’ questions as follows:

     i.        Agreed that it was disappointing that little progress had been made on the Cycleways projects (100019-PV007). Delivery of the project was dependent on the County Council delivering element of the scheme. Noted Members support for this budget item and its retention in the budget.

    ii.        Confirmed that only half the Taxi Card budget had been allocated and suggested that as a demand led service, accurate forecasting was difficult. The service was under review and caution was needed with any additional promotion.

   iii.        Confirmed that work was on-going to improve the income shortfall, income pattern and the shared service profile.

  iv.        Suggested that recruitment difficulties were a national problem and confirmed that a range of options were under consideration, such as, development of existing staff and apprentices.

   v.        Agreed that losing staff to the private sector was an on-going problem for the service.

 

Councillor Bick stated that it was regrettable that the Executive Councillor for Transport and Community Safety had not been in attendance to hear the debate on transport related issues.

 

The Committee resolved by 8 votes to 0 and 1 abstention to endorse the recommendations.

 

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

 

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.