Apology was received from Councillor  EPJ Harvey (Vice-Chairman).

To receive details of Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee.

Councillor AJW Powers substituted for Councillor  EPJ Harvey.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

(There will be no discussion of the issue at the time when the matter is raised. Consideration will be given to whether it should form part of the Committee’s work programme when compared with other competing priorities.)

No suggestions for Scrutiny had been received.

To note questions received from the public and the items to which they relate.

(Questions are welcomed for consideration at a Scrutiny Committee meeting so long as the question is directly related to an item listed on the agenda.  If you have a question you would like to ask then please submit it no later than two working days before the meeting to the Committee Officer.  This will help to ensure that an answer can be provided at the meeting). 

No public questions had been received.

To receive a presentation on the Budget 2013/14 and the Medium Term Financial Strategy and to consider the report to Cabinet on 5 February 2013.

NOTE: At 9.00am the Health and Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee will receive a presentation on the budget from the Chief Officer Finance & Commercial.  As this information also concerns this Committee, Members of this General Overview & Scrutiny Committee are requested to attend at 9.00am.  This Committee will formally commence when the Health and Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee has concluded its consideration of the budget report.

All Members of the Committee had been invited to attend the Health and Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee held immediately prior to this Committee.  At that Committee all Members received a presentation by the Chief Officer Finance and Commercial (COFC) and heard the Committee’s debate on the report to Cabinet on 5 February 2013 entitled ‘Budget 2013/14 and the Medium Term Financial Strategy’.  

The Committee noted the debate and recommendations from the preceding Health & Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee were issued with the interim headline results from the consultation undertaken to 31 January 2013 referred to in paragraph 16.5 of the agenda report. A copy has been placed in the minute book.

Noting that the government trigger for a Council Tax referendum was set at 2% clarification was requested over why 1.9% and not 1.99% was being suggested.  The COFC responded that for a number of technical reasons concerning the council tax calculation the figure could slip slightly and 1.9% would ensure the trigger point was not reached.

Members questioned the potentially adverse implications arising from recent changes to both the Business Rate Retention and localisation of Council Tax (replacing Council tax benefit) systems.  The COFC confirmed the Council had very good recovery rates for both, however, the impact of the changes and any loss of income would need to be closely monitored. Members highlighted that with a large number of households on low incomes, there was the potential that the Council could end up spending more than it collected from the arrears.

Responding to questions concerning the benefits accruing from the Agresso and Frameworki IT systems, the Director of People’s Services reported that the IT systems had been installed. She acknowledged that the full benefits of the Frameworki system were not being achieved due to the need to ensure that staff across all the organisations e.g. Council, Wye Valley, Hoople, were trained and fully using the systems.  She reported that work had been done to address the issues and to streamline the system, however, this required management capacity to drive this forward.

Questioned on the use of this year’s £2m transition Fund (1 year Council Tax Grant) the COFC reported that £1m had been allocated to support contingencies, £1.2m had been allocated and was being used to support the transformation programme and further details could be provided.

Responding to questions on highway maintenance, the Cabinet Member (Education & Infrastructure) commented upon: the adverse effect of the flooding; road defect reports were more than double the rate of January 2012; that 5 claims totalling nearly £2m had been submitted to government under the Belwin Scheme; and that central government spending on highway maintenance had been reduced.  The Council would be receiving a specific government grant of £1.584m (announced in the chancellor’s autumn statement) to “improve and extend the life of the road network”. This would be utilised for preventative maintenance, capital works, and would be prioritised for expenditure on C and unclassified roads. Concerning the re-commissioning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.