Agenda item

N Howcutt introduced the report and highlighted that there was a general fund pressure of £121k, the HRA has a surplus of £391k and there was a small capital slippage of £1.5m.

Councillor Tindall referred to paragraph 3.2 and noted £90k additional income for the Leisure Management Contract identified as a reduction in business rates. He asked if that meant the income from business rates will be impacted by this. N Howcutt advised as part of the contract with SLM we agreed that if they met the criteria for charitable status they would have a reduced business rates bill and if that happened we would reduce the management fee we pay to them or increase the management fee they pay to us. They met that criteria and therefore they made that payment to us.   He explained that in terms of the way that business rates work, they make the payment to us and 100% of the reduction they get in business rates is beneficial for us so this is a far better way for the council to operate.

Councillor Tindall referred to paragraph 3.3 relating to the additional £50k income from the HRA. He sought clarification on whether it saved us money to use our own staff and if so how do we justify the contract. N Howcutt advised it related to small elements of work that Clean, Safe and Green carry out such as clearing gardens or storage spaces which is outside of the usual service agreement.

The Chairman referred to the previous question and asked if other areas were being neglected due to Clean, Safe and Green working elsewhere. N Howcutt replied their core business comes first and this was additional work if they had the capacity.

Councillor Townsend referred to 7.2 regarding the capital variance of £400k on Bunkers Farm and asked how that was signed off in terms of governance. N Howcutt explained that we had no option but to do the works that were required to pass the planning consent so they had a Portfolio Holder update and assessed all options. He said these things don’t happen very often but they reported to Cabinet at the first available point to get the approval.

Councillor Stevens referred to 3.3 and asked if there was scope for using Sunnyside Rural Trust instead of Clean, Safe and Green. N Howcutt advised we can procure for any works and look for alternative providers but this happened to be ad-hoc and only lots of small pieces of work.

Councillor Barrett referred to 4.3 and the £90k pressure on commercial waste. He asked when the findings of the review would be reported. N Howcutt explained that Plan B had built the review of the service and fed back some initial findings and options that the service needs to take forward to the Portfolio Holder and agree some decisions on the way ahead for that service. Councillor Barrett asked what the £90k was as a percentage of the total income. N Howcutt said he would have to come back to him on that.                                                         Action: N Howcutt

Councillor Barrett referred to 4.2. He asked if all the new vehicles would be coming at once or if it would be phased. N Howcutt advised it would be phased over a 2-3 year period starting in November.

The Chairman asked if the new vehicles were coming from the UK or Europe. B Hosier replied they’re typically made in Europe. He said we would have entered into contract and those contracts are fixed price.

Councillor Adeleke sought clarification if it was more expensive to use agency staff. N Howcutt advised it varied significantly depending on the role but on the whole it was more expensive, particularly highly skilled roles. Councillor Adeleke said it had been discussed before about the training of graduates and paying more to attract people to work here. He asked what we were doing to resolve the issue of recruitment once and for all. L Roberts said this issue had been raised on a number of occasions and they were making a concerted effort to look at how to improve recruitment. She said they had carried out some detailed analysis of data to understand which of the roles they found problematic, benchmarked ourselves against other authorities to see if there is an issue with pay and adjusted some of the ways of recruiting. She added that they’re using agencies to help recruit some specialist roles which has proved more effective, and they were in the process of developing a micro site which gives a better view of how it feels to work for Dacorum. She summarised by saying there is a lot of activity around this and there is also a new HR system being implemented in February 2020 which will help with the collection of data and ongoing monitoring.

Councillor Tindall asked if the new fleet would be multi-purpose and could reduce cost for commercial waste. N Howcutt said the fleet would definitely be more efficient but he would need to speak to staff at Cupid Green about more detailed information.

Councillor Chapman referred to 4.3 regarding loss of customers. He asked if we had looked at the charging structures and what the charges were elsewhere so we can be more competitive. N Howcutt advised we would understand more once the final reports come back.

The Chairman asked if there was any update on garages. Councillor Elliot advised there was a report on garages coming in the autumn.

Outcome: