Venue: Council Chamber - Port Talbot Civic Centre. View directions
No. | Item |
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Declarations of Interests Minutes: Councillor
L.C.Jones - Agenda Item 2 - Report of the Director
of Finance and Corporate Services, Consultation on Corporate Services Budget
and Draft Savings 2019/20 – as she is employed by DANSA. Councillor Jones has a
dispensation to speak and vote on the matter. Councillor
M.Harvey - Agenda Item 2 - Report of the Director
of Finance and Corporate Services, Consultation on Corporate Services Budget
and Draft Savings 2019/20 – as he is employed by South Wales Police. Councillor
S.Miller - Agenda Item 2 - Report of the Director
of Finance and Corporate Services, Consultation on Corporate Services Budget
and Draft Savings 2019/20 – as her niece is employed by the Local Authority.
Councillor Miller has a dispensation to speak and vote on the matter. Councillor
A.N.Woolcock - Agenda Item 2 - Report of the Director of Finance and
Corporate Services, Consultation on Corporate Services Budget and Draft Savings
2019/20 – as his niece is employed as a Training and Development Support
Manager within the Local Authority. Councillor Woolcock has a dispensation to
speak and vote on the matter. Councillor
S.Rahaman - Agenda Item 2 - Report of the Director
of Finance and Corporate Services, Consultation on Corporate Services Budget
and Draft Savings 2019/20 – as he is a Local Authority representative and
secretary for the Neath Port Talbot Black and Minority Ethnic Community
Association. Councillor Rahaman has a dispensation to speak and vote on the
matter. |
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Consultation on Corporate Services Budget and Draft Savings 2019/2020 PDF 325 KB Report of the Director of
Finance and Corporate Services Minutes: As
part of the public consultation on the 2019/20 budget proposals, Committee
considered the report of the Director of Finance and Corporate Services, as it
related to the Corporate Services budget.
The
Chief Executive gave an overview of the background of the report, and advised
that since the circulated report had been written, Welsh Government had
confirmed that on 19 December, an extra £13 million would be allocated to Local
Authorities within Wales, which could equate to approximately £750,000 for this
Authority. Details of this would be reported to Members after Christmas. It was
noted that this would not solve the budget deficit or negate the need for the
proposed savings within the circulated report. It was highlighted that a lot of
small services budgets (such as Human Resources, Legal Services and so on) were
now made up almost entirely of staffing costs. ICT
Division The
ICT Service Manager (who would be taking over responsibility for the ICT
Service in 2019 following the retirement of the current Head of Service)
advised Members that the ICT budget savings proposals for 2019/20 were
predominantly made up of staffing costs. Some longstanding members of staff
were retiring, to be replaced by staff starting lower down on the pay scale.
Members queried if there were any plans to reduce the amount of staff working
within the IT Service Desk, and noted that currently managers were looking at
how they could do things differently, such as analysing data and identifying
peaks periods. Members
queried whether staffing reductions within the ICT Division could have an
effect on digital services; learning within schools and so on. Officers
explained that succession planning was in place as well as extra training being
rolled out. It was confirmed that the IT Service Desk supports schools as well
as Civic and other Council buildings. Members felt that the out of hours IT
help team provided valued support when Members had issues with their computer
equipment, and were pleased to note that there were currently no plans to
reduce this service. It was noted that a voice recognition system was currently
being trialled. Corporate
Strategy and Democratic Services Division The Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Digital Officer gave an overview of the Corporate Strategy and Democratic Services Division section of the circulated report. It was noted that although the CCTV service was not statutory, Officers were trying to identify new ways to sustain the service on a different footing, such as diversifying the use of the control room. Members queried whether the CCTV cameras could be left in place, should the system need to be decommissioned, and Officers explained that although it would not be possible to leave dummy cameras in place, an option would be to have the cameras recording, without anyone monitoring them in the control room. Members were concerned that the valuable work done around community safety and partnership should not be undone, and discussed the provision of CCTV in valley areas, as well as the possibility of working ... view the full minutes text for item 2. |