Agenda item

Councillor A.W. Jones declared an interest In that he is a custodian of land leased to the Authority for car parking and receives income as a trustee of Ammanford Miners Welfare.

The Committee considered the monitoring report that outlined the budgetary position for the 2015/16 financial year as at the 30^th June 2015. The report included:

·       Corporate Revenue Budget (Appendix A);

·       The Chief Executive’s and Corporate Services Revenue budget (Appendix B);

·       Corporate Capital Programme 2015/16 (Appendix C) and

·       The Chief Executive’s and Resources Capital Programme 2015/16 (Appendix D).

The following issues were raised during consideration of the report:

In response to a general question about the reasons for the size of the forecast end of year overspend as well as a specific one about the recent decision to delay the increase in car parking charges and introduction of evening charges, the Corporate Director advised that the main reason for the former related to time delays in delivering PBB savings.  The non-implementation of the increase in parking charges and introduction of evening charges had been accommodated in this year’s budget. The impact of the pilot scheme of free parking in Llanelli had however not been accommodated. He noted that departmental reserves were helping to reduce the overspend corporately.

It was asked why the cost of building care homes was so much higher in the public sector than the private sector. The Corporate Director advised that he was not privy to the cost of private sector care homes however the extra care scheme in Ammanford comprised self-contained units with additional communal facilities rather than a traditional residential care setting. It was tendered by Family Housing with contributions from WG grants and CCC funding, with costs in line with the Argel provision in Carmarthen.

Reference was made to the new map of local government in Wales and the possibility of WG preventing capital projects going ahead. The Corporate Director stated that WG would not freeze and spend before the elections next year however orders would state that the Minister would have to grant permission for any proposals

Concerns were expressed at budget pressures caused by school based EVR and redundancy costs, which were outside the Authority’s control. The Corporate Director agreed that the legislation did not help the Authority and he was discussing the issue with the departmental Director. He was hopeful that schools and Governing Bodies would be willing to work with the Authority in light of the budget situation going forward however he acknowledged that school specific budgets benefited where schools employed newly qualified teachers. The focus needed to be on school staff who were not of retirement age being made redundant.

In response to a question about the timing of the budget setting for next year, the Corporate Director advised that they were waiting for the WG provisional settlement however were building up the budget profile, linking with reserves and the capital programme with consultation during November and December 2015. The Committee was urged to participate in the budget seminars for Members, the first one arranged for the afternoon after the next Council meeting.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED to endorse the report.