Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting

Following a Joint meeting of the OSC’s where a budget presentation was given, the Finance and Resources OSC meeting began at 8.05pm.

The minutes of the Finance & Resources OSC meeting held on 13^th January 2016 were confirmed by the Members present and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor’s B Chapman and Fethney. Councillor E Collins was absent.

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]

Councillor Imarni declared that she was a trustee of Dacorum Sports Trust.

None.

None.

Having received a presentation from the Director of Finance & Operations, the committee were open to discuss the budgets in their remits.

The Vice - Chairman asked Members if they had any questions surrounding the Draft Budget proposals 2016/17.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources had nothing to announce.

The Director of Finance and Operations mentioned that all the changes that have been made to the report are highlighted in the attached appendices and urged Members to pick out any variances that they considered to be significant.

Councillor Barnes congratulated the officers on the current report and said that it was much easier to read and understand compared to the last.

Councillor Birnie referred to page 5 and the Elms Hostel income and asked the officers to explain what the income was as it was not included in the budget.

J Deane, Director of Finance and Operations explained that the income is generated from Dens for running the hostel. This should have been in the Budget in the December paper but it wasn’t. He added that they hadn’t started receiving an income at the time that the December papers were put together.

Councillor Birnie asked if as the first amount of income is the first year of operation do they anticipate it will increase in future years.

J Deane explained to Members that he was not aware of the full details. However he did  comment that he didn’t think it would increase by much if at all because it is based on a certain level of occupancy at The Elms  and it’s based on a certain level of benefit income that’s brought in on behalf of the occupants.

Councillor Douris said that he had heard that the occupancy rate was running at 100%.

Councillor Tindall referred to page 19, Supplies and Services and highlighted that the Supplies and Services section seemed to have the highest percentage of movement. He asked if this represented cuts or movements or if these items have been vired into other columns.

B Hosier, Group Manager – Commissioning, Procurement and Compliance replied that 72% reduction was a cut in the Budget but there are savings. He mentioned that they have reduced the budget from 15/16 to 16/17. In particular there was a budgetary amount of £6k for Consultancy to do with spend analysis. This money is no longer needed.

Councillor Tindall said that he was pleased that the savings are being achieved with the consultants.

Councillor Tindall referred to page 20 and 3^rd parties. He asked why there was an increase in £13k.

M Brookes, Group Manager, Legal Governance replied that it was a realignment of some of the budgets.

Councillor Taylor referred to the number of related transfers and the costs that are being incurred by other departments but are not being charged.

M Brookes confirmed that this related to a transfer from the planning team. He said that they are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs and potentially all outside costs to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

The Vice – Chairman requested that all Members have an up to date copy of the Work Programme as there had been some confusion over the next meeting date.