Venue: Council Chamber - Port Talbot Civic Centre. View directions
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Declarations of Interests Minutes: The
following Member made declarations of interest:- Cllr.M.Harvey Re: Agenda Item
No 12 of the Cabinet Agenda on the Revenue Budget Monitoring as it relates to
CCTV as he is employed by South Wales Police. Cllr.M.Harvey Re: Agenda
Item No 5 of the Cabinet (Finance) Sub Committee on Miscellaneous Grant
Applications as it refers to Skewen R.F.C. as he is a Season Ticket Holder. |
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Cllr.A.Thomas Minutes: The
Committee congratulated Cllr. Alex Thomas on recently being called to the bar. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 75 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: Noted. |
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Task and Finish Group on the Welsh Language Promotion Strategy in Neath Port Talbot PDF 72 KB Report
of the Chair of the Welsh Language Promotion Strategy Task and Finish Group Additional documents:
Minutes: Committee
considered the report of the Task and Finish Group on the Welsh Language
Promotion Strategy in Neath Port Talbot.
The Task and Finish Group also thanked the Officers for their
contribution. The
Members of the Task and Finish Group stressed that none of the recommendations
contained in the report would require additional funding. Members
asked that alternative ways of promoting the Welsh Language be considered going
forward. Following
scrutiny, the Committee commended the report to Cabinet for approval, and
requested that Cabinet commend the same to Council for adoption. |
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Cabinet Agenda For Pre-Decision Scrutiny Minutes: The Committee chose to
scrutinise the following Cabinet items: Cabinet Proposals 5.1 Treasury Management
Monitoring 2018-2019 Committee
noted that going forward the above report would be presented to Committee at the
same time as both the Revenue and Capital Monitoring reports. Members
noted that the Authority had taken advantage of a dip in interest rates on long
term borrowing and had borrowed £10m. Following
scrutiny the report was noted. 5.2 Capital Budget Monitoring 2018-2019 Committee received the above
report and noted that the figures within the report fluctuated throughout the
year due to grants received etc. It
was noted that the report was also monitored by the Capital Programme Steering
Group. Following
scrutiny, the Committee was supportive of the proposals to be considered by
Cabinet. 5.3 Revenue Budget Monitoring Report 2018-2019 Members
expressed concern at the current projected overspend of £1.658m and were
advised that work would continue throughout the remainder of the financial year
to reduce the projected overspend.
Directorate budgets were monitored closely on a monthly basis by
management teams, which looked particularly at any projected overspends. Virements or
reserve movements may be needed in some cases to off-set any projected
overspends. Members
then raised the following:- Children
Residential Care – The average cost of a residential package was £190k. Members asked whether these packages could be
provided in house and were advised that due to the complexity of the child’s
needs in these cases it would not be possible, although some Local Authorities
were exploring the possibility. The
projected overspends in Social Services would be discussed by the relevant
Scrutiny Committee on 2 August, however the impact of the decision
by ABMu to cut the number of hospital beds would have
a detrimental effect on the service provided as service users were sometimes already
waiting for packages of care before hospital discharge. While the demand for care packages was
increasing, Officers would be reviewing each care package to ensure that the
correct level of support was being provided, this may increase or decrease,
depending on each service user’s needs.
Members asked that this be further discussed at the relevant Scrutiny
Committee. Concern
was expressed at the £2.5m projected savings in relation to Domiciliary Care,
which was at present showing £1.267m overspend.
How would this impact on next year’s budget? It
was noted that the Social Care, Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee had
responded to the ABMu’s consultation on cutting the
number of beds and that ABMu would be invited to a
meeting of Council to further discuss its proposals. Members
asked why virements were being considered so early in
the financial year and were advised that it was Officers’ recommendation to
deal with over/under spends at an early stage. In relation to the projected overspends on recycling, Members were reminded that decisions had recently been taken on changes to the Waste Strategy to mitigate some of the costs. As part of these changes out of county waste would be looked at and operatives given the authority to ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Forward Work Programme 18/19 PDF 35 KB Minutes: Members
agreed to look in more depth at the amber budget areas. |
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Urgent Items Any
urgent items (whether public or exempt) at the discretion of the Chairman
pursuant to Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972 Minutes: Committee
referred to the retirement of the Head of Finance, David Rees, and noted that
this was the last meeting he would be attending. Committee thanked Mr Rees for the help and
assistance he had provided to Members both during Committee meetings and
outside of meetings and wished him a long and happy retirement. |