Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Community Development

RESOLVED

1. That the contents of the report including the key projected variances to the original 2011/12 budget which have enabled the council to deliver a balanced revised budget be noted.

2. That the current freeze on spending against supplies and service expenditure budgets, is continued, where possible, until further notice. This has been factored into the revised 2011/12 budget.

The Director Resources introduced the report which had been circulated with the agenda. He stated that the previous budget monitoring report in August 2011 had projected an overspend of £476 000. Since then SLT had focussed on mitigating this with a freeze on supplies and services and recruitment decisions were made only where there was a concrete business case. As a result of this it was now anticipated that a balanced budget would be delivered.

The Cabinet Member Finance and Community Development highlighted that budget monitoring was a crucial part of the bridging the gap work. The budget was examined on a weekly basis enabling any glitches to be detected and for early remedial action to be taken. He reported that council tax collection rates had improved although the number of businesses had decreased which reflected on how the town was performing.

The Cabinet Member Sustainability highlighted the net over recovery of income on recycling activities of £158 000 in 2011/12 due to the higher than anticipated tonnages processed (due to the success of the alternate weekly collection) and higher than anticipated recyclate prices.

The Leader of the Council stated that there were some 92 different Bridging the Gap projects underway and whilst not all would be achievable it was important that as soon as they were showing signs of going off course remedial action was taken. He complimented the senior management team and the relevant officers for their valuable contributions to this work.

RESOLVED

1. That the contents of the report including the key projected variances to the original 2011/12 budget which have enabled the council to deliver a balanced revised budget be noted.

2. That the current freeze on spending against supplies and service expenditure budgets, is continued, where possible, until further notice. This has been factored into the revised 2011/12 budget.