Venue: Committee Room 1/2 - Port Talbot Civic Centre. View directions
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To scrutinise information and monitoring issues being reported by: |
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Consultation on Environment Directorate's Budget And Draft Savings For 2018/19 PDF 240 KB Minutes: Officers provided
Members with the context for the Environment Directorate’s draft budget
proposals. Officers reported that the provisional Local Government settlement
for 2018/19 for the authority was £20m less than the previous year. Officers
stated that the Environment Directorate’s budget was £32.710m at present and
was currently 11.9% of the local authority’s overall budget. Officers continued
by stating that since 2009/10 the Directorate had contributed £18m towards the
authority’s deficit and was expected to contribute an additional £2m in the
current financial year. Officers added that over 400 members of staff had left
the Directorate within the last seven years, with 200 leaving under the Early
Retirement/Voluntary Redundancy (ER/VR) scheme during financial years 2013/14
and 2014/15. Officers referred to
proposal ENV706 regarding the generation of income through asset sponsorship.
Officers informed Members that the additional £75k target identified in the current
Financial Forward Plan had been deferred, but was likely to be achieved during
the next financial year now that the contract with Immediate Solutions had been
extended. Officers elaborated on
proposal ENV804 regarding staff redundancies and the deletion of posts across
the directorate. Officers stated that these savings would be achieved by
considering ER/VR applications and by utilising existing staff in different
ways. Officers updated Members
on proposal ENV805 regarding the reduction of staff within the Planning
Department. Officers reported that a couple of enquiries had been received from
staff with regard to the ER/VR scheme. Officers continued by stating that
losing experienced staff through the ER/VR scheme would put pressure on the
service area, and a re-structure may help to alleviate the problem. Officers referred to
proposal ENV806 regarding the increase to the rent for workshops, industrial
units and business centres. Officers acknowledged that some businesses may
already be facing financial difficulty and a rent increase may affect some
businesses more than others. Officers assured Members that the authority would
try to work with businesses where possible. Officers continued by stating that
due to the financial pressures placed on the authority a slight rent increase
was necessary. Officers conceded that the list of proposals brought forward for the
next financial year were not as extensive as in previous years as it was
becoming increasingly difficult each year to identify savings. Despite this,
officers informed Members that other items and proposals would be brought to
future scrutiny committee meetings such as the cleaning review, public
conveniences review and a joint review with the Social Services Health and
Housing Directorate to look at aspects of commissioning. Members queried how much interest had been expressed so far in relation to asset sponsorship (proposal ENV706). Officers informed Members that the authority worked with an external provider called Immediate Solutions in order to attract businesses who would be interested in asset sponsorship. Officers continued by stating that Immediate Solutions received a percentage fee for every sponsorship deal that they gained for the authority. Officers conceded that sponsorship had tailed off towards the end of this year. Officers explained that the company received a ... view the full minutes text for item 1a |