Issue - meetings

The Chairman on behalf of the Committee has invited Councillor Frank Keegan, Portfolio Holder for Resources, to address the meeting on current financial issues.

Councillor Keegan, Portfolio Holder for Resources, briefed the Committee on the Council’s budget.  He explained that the budget had been discussed at Cabinet on 17 February and would be submitted to full Council for approval on 24 February.

The budget book was not detailed this year but would contain a greater level of detail in future years with budget proposals issued at an earlier stage to enable consultation to take place.

The budget at this stage maintained current grant levels and budget allocations.  The budget was balanced with some pump priming from reserves with no income generation schemes included.  For the future the budget would be based on a lean systems approach enabling greater efficiencies and would include income generation targets set in the region of £30 million by the end of 2011.

Councillor Keegan outlined a number of future initiatives that may be of interest to the Scrutiny Committee:

Domiciliary Day Care;

Health and Well –Being- how and where services were provided;

Transport – across Cheshire East.

There would also be a number of pilot projects involving Town and Parish Councils relating to devolved service delivery and local leadership.

Members of the Committee were then given the opportunity to ask questions or raise issues as follows:

      The possibility of commenting more fully on the budget in future years when detailed proposals would be available;

      The division of assets between Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West and Chester Council, including the situation regarding Tatton Park;

      It was noted that the budget would not be at risk if future income generation targets were not met;

      The potential impact on Town and Parish Councils in future years if budget allocations changed as they often provided match funding;

      The future role of voluntary organisations which would be reviewed by Scrutiny.

RESOLVED: that the presentation on the budget be noted.