Agenda item

The Commission considered a report of the Director of Corporate Resources which provided members with an update on the 2017/18 revenue budget and capital programme monitoring position and provided details of proposed investment in two Environment and Transport projects using funding from the central inflation contingency, to be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 15 September 2017.  A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 8’ is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

(i)          The overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) High Needs Block was currently funded from the DSG earmarked fund.  However, this fund was low and not likely to be topped up.  There were also other demands on the earmarked fund.  Although the Department for Education allowed overspends to be carried forward, the risk of doing so was felt to be too high.

(ii)         In July the Government had announced an increase in school funding and proposed the introduction of a new national funding formula.  It was currently processing feedback from the consultation and an announcement was expected later in the month.  It was noted that the biggest risk to the County Council of the new funding formula was that the ability to transfer funds from the schools block into the High Needs Block would be most.

(iii)       Concern was expressed that there was an overspend in the Children and Families Service directorate budget due to the number of interim positions.  The Commission was advised that the delay in recruitment had been largely caused by the need to finalise the Ofsted action plan and related staffing requirements, rather than any issues relating to the Council’s HR function.

(iv)       The County Council had a long term aim to reduce the number of people in residential and nursing care.  A reduction of 25 people had been achieved during the previous year.  It was confirmed that, when the Help to Live at Home domiciliary care service had been introduced, the capacity in the home care market had reduced and caused a temporary increase in the use of residential care.  However, the position had since stabilised.  The tenders for the three vacant lots had recently been awarded and the service would go live in November for those areas.  A detailed report on the matter would be submitted to the next meeting of the Adults and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

(v)        The additional funding for repairing potholes would enable a pilot scheme to be rolled out across the county, whereby a team would be dispatched to repair a pothole within 14 days of it being reported, instead of a Highways Inspector being sent out to assess and prioritise it.  The benefit of this approach was that it was more responsive; the risk was that the asset management approach to the area taken by Highways Inspectors would be lost.  The new approach to potholes would be evaluated to ensure that the risks did not outweigh the benefits.

(vi)       It was suggested that the ‘report it’ app needed further development, particularly as it only allowed the service user to upload a single photo of the issues.  Officers undertook to feed this issue back to the Department.

(vii)     Concern was expressed that some pothole repairs were of poor quality.  Members were advised that supervisors signed off work once it was completed and that spot checks of repairs were also undertaken.  In addition, periodic inspections of a whole area were undertaken.  Some repairs were only temporary and would be followed up later with a permanent solution.

(viii)    At the Local Government Association conference, £2.3 billion of funding for roads maintained by local authorities was announced.  The Commission was advised that the County Council had already been successful in bidding for funding for the Melton Relief Road and had developed a number of other bids for various funding streams.  The County Council had a good track record in this area as it had invested in advance design and had well developed business cases prepared.  However, with the continuation of austerity it would become difficult for the County Council to continue to provide match funding for bids.

(ix)       The Commission welcomed the additional funding to enable the Council to manage school parking issues and noted that this was to enable the Council to assess sites and develop proposals for improvements, for example to make a site compliant with a Traffic Regulation Order so that it could then be enforced.  It was agreed that enforcement was key issue and members were pleased to note that enforcement options, such as roving enforcement officers, were being considered.  A report on school parking issues, including the establishment of parking or safety champions in schools, would be submitted to the Environment and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November.

(x)        With regard to capital schemes and projects, members requested that local members be kept informed of any developments in their electoral division.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the 2017/18 Revenue Budget and Capital Programme monitoring position and proposed investment in projects be noted;

(b)  That the comments now made be submitted to the meeting of the Cabinet on 15 September 2017;

(c)  That the report on school parking issues to the Environment and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting in November be circulated to all members of the County Council for information.