Agenda item

The Committee are asked to consider the latest MTFP Cabinet report in relation to issues within the remit of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Please note that the focus of this item is the impact of the budget on services within the operations directorate. The Leader of the Council and Service Directors have been invited to attend for discussions on this item.

Please note that this report contains an appendix with exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. If the Committee wish to discuss this information it may decide to exclude the press and public.

(Paragraph 3 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation, and the Chief Operating Officer introduced a report a copy of which appears as appendix A to these minutes in the Minute Book and a copy of which had been circulated to each member of the Committee. The Committee were reminded that the focus of this item was to consider the impact of budget issues on services within the remit of the Place Committee.  In the following discussion a number of points were raised by the Committee and were responded to by the Leader and Officers including:

·     The capitalisation direction and the impact of the change in Prime Minister and Cabinet. It was noted that the transformation programme of approximately £60m was originally intended to be funded through the SPV but the Council had now received a minded to letter which meant the capitalisation direction was approved in principle. There was also the option to utilise the flexibility of capital receipts.

·     Commercialisation of services – Whether there was any intention to charge for delivery of services which people were not charged for at present. It was confirmed that this was not the case, but for ‘charged for services’, there would need to be an increase due to current inflationary pressures.

·     How the consultation would be carried out and if it would ask about cuts to services or payment for services. The consultation would be asking about priorities and would be conducted in a wider way than normally, in order to ensure that the residents voice was at the heart of the choices to be made.

·     The lack of engagement and consultation around not providing a free carparking offer across the Christmas period in town centre car parks.

·     Service rationalisation – whether there was consideration given to cutting back services to the statutory minimum.  It was noted that consideration was being given to different ways of providing services.

·     The staff time spent working on transformation and the capitalisation of staff time. This was largely a percentage of officer time and was weighted towards more senior roles, rather than a dedicated transformation team. There had been lots of work in housing, environment and planning in terms of the place based services.

·     Transformation savings for 2023/24, assumed that a third of savings were not itemised and it was not known where these savings were coming from. It was noted that a back-office system would allow the tracking of every pound spent as an organisation.

·     Air Festival 2023, the cost to Council to put this on and what savings were being built into the budget for the next show. The Leader advised they were committed to this issue and discussion was underway on options for financially commercialising it. The Leader undertook to provide a written response on further details around this.

·     Commercialisation and providing services to the community. There was concern regarding the maximum increases in costs of services for residents.

·     Crematorium loss of income and increased service costs, along with increases in competition and whether the Council was in the right place in the market. It was noted that a paper was coming forward on this issue but it was still in early stages and would come back to Scrutiny in March. The team were working hard on this and there had been some positive responses to the new facilities in Poole.

·     Council activity on avoiding and capturing waste and sale of items from recycling centre. It was noted that the ‘New to You’ initiative was being monitored and was going well, with new opportunities and sites being considered.

·     Savings in street lighting despite the utility price increases. It was noted that much of the saving came through the use of new bulbs. In terms of the cost going forward all options were being looked at and mitigating the rising energy costs would need to be considered.

·     It was noted that the Leader had mentioned the aspect of benchmarking and it was suggested that the Council should look at other comparable authorities along the coastline. It would be useful if some clear indication on benchmarking could be provided in future.