To note and review the reserves held by the council.

Earmarked reserves are established to fund future year commitments over and above the annual budget requirement. They generally arise where funding allocations exceeds annual expenditure, usually due to the timing of receipts being ahead of incurring expenditure. As a matter of good practice a review is undertaken each year to establish the continued need for reserves held for earmarked purposes to ensure resources can be used to best effect whilst maintaining a prudent level of reserves to meet future anticipated commitments.

That:

(a)        The reserves position, detailed in appendix A, be noted.

1.          There is no alternative to reviewing the position. Alternative use of earmarked funds could be proposed, this is open for Cabinet to determine. However should that mean that funds required for an earmarked purpose are no longer available an alternative method of funding would need to be secured.Not all earmarked funds may be redirected for use – for example funding received from external sources for a specified purpose may not be able to be redirected if doing so would amount to a breach of funding conditions.