Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2018 were agreed and then signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Adeleke, Banks and McLean. 

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

None.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation

None.

None.

N Howcutt introduced the report and highlighted a couple of minor changes within the budget since the last meeting of this committee. He welcomed any questions on the report.

Councillor Tindall referred to appendix c1 on page 22 relating to supplies and services. He said the original was up £200k, there was a reduction in the next year but there was still a variance between this last years and this year’s estimates. He queried what the third parties variance was. N Howcutt drew attention to appendix b1. He said this was discussed at the previous meeting - it related to the increase in the service management costs at the forum year on year which was £75k.

Councillor Tindall referred to page 54 relating to grants and contributions and queried the variance of 1474%. N Howcutt said he would have to come back to him.  N Howcutt returned to Cllr Tindall and informed him that this was the change in the income expected from the new leisure contract.

Councillor Tindall referred to appendix c2 on page 54 and queried the property management and office accommodation variance of 51% in third party expenditure. N Howcutt advised it was the growth in the Forum budget.

Councillor Barrett referred to page 10 on the increased waste collection service and queried if we would benefit from extra income on that. N Howcutt explained they had increased the amount of waste going to recycling rather than going in to general waste which we pay significantly more for at landfill. We also gain benefit from improving our recycling rates which drives certain income from the Hertfordshire Alternative Funding model. Most importantly it also allows residents to do increased recycling.

Councillor Barrett referred to the additional CIL income and queried how much we collected altogether. N Howcutt advised it varied drastically year on year in terms of the actual CIL received but we are entitled to retain5% of the total CIL fee collected to cover the administrative costs of setting these arrangements up and collecting the funds. The remainder goes on to future developments.

Councillor Douris congratulated the officers on a well presented budget with a great level of care and attention. This was echoed by the other members of the committee.

Outcome:

There were no outstanding action points.

Councillor Douris highlighted the importance of continuing with action points as it worked so well and said he wouldn’t want to see it lost going forward.

B Hosier made the following changes to the work programme:

Ø  Performance of the Leisure Contract - June 2019, January 2020 and June 2020.

Ø  Performance of the Parking Enforcement Contract - September 2019, March 2020 and September 2020.