Agenda and minutes

Councillor W Livesley (Substitute Member)

Councillor AR Thwaite (Substitute Member and Chairman Corporate Scrutiny Committee)

Councillor S Davies (Substitute Member)

John Weeks Strategic Director – People

Fintan Bradley – Service Manager Improvement and Achievement

Paul Mossman – Services Manager Integrated Delivery

Dominic Oakeshott – Peoples Finance Manager

Mark Nedderman – Senior Scrutiny Officer

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests and for members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations made.

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note:  In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.

There were no Members of the Public present who wished to address the Committee

To consider a report of the Borough Treasurer.

Please note that due to the very tight schedule that the Cabinet and Officers have been working to in order to put together the final budget proposals for 2010/2011, it has not been possible to complete the report within the normal timescales and therefore the report will be circulated to all Members on the 8 February 2010.

The Committee considered a report of the Borough Treasurer relating to the formal consultation by Cabinet of the Budget for 2010/2011.

The report set out in detail the spending plans and income targets for the Council for the financial year starting on 1 April 2010.

The Chairman of Corporate Scrutiny Committee informed members that a Budget Consultation Group had been set up in December 2009 to oversee the consultation process for 2010/2011 budget. The group had met two times during January 2010, during which details of the officer/portfolio budget challenge sessions held in the run up to the consultation process had been discussed. In addition, dates for the budget cycle of Scrutiny meetings had been agreed. The group had been given an opportunity to question some key officers within the Council to seek clarity on critical aspects of the budget, and as a result, there were no outstanding matters that required action by the Committee.

The group had concluded that it needed to reconvene in April to make early preparations for the 2011/2012 budget consultation process to ensure that a clear timetable existed for all internal stakeholders to ensure that Overview and Scrutiny members played an active part in the budget formulation and consultation processes during 2010/2011.

In view of the limited time between the series of budget Scrutiny meetings to be held over the 11 and 12 February and the Cabinet meeting on 16 February, the Chairman sought authority to allow the Chairman of Corporate Scrutiny to formally respond to the consultation after conferring with the Scrutiny Chairs group at its meeting prior to Cabinet on the 16 February with a composite response encompassing the comments of all five Committees.

Members questioned the Strategic Director People to seek clarification on a number of detailed points contained within the Budget Consultation document.

RESOLVED – That the budget consultation 2010/2011 be noted

To consider a report of the Head of Policy and Performance.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Policy and Performance containing an overview of the 2009-2010 quarter 3 performance, which summarised performance against all National Indicators and key corporate performance measures that fell within the remit of the Council.

• Of the 50 national Indicators reported in the Committee’s area of responsibility, 19 (38%) were green, 23 (46%) amber and 8(16%) were red.

Fourth Quarter performance data would be produced after 31 March for consideration and review by Scrutiny committee

RESOLVED - That the report be received