The Chairman will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. This is particularly important for visitors and members of the public who will be unfamiliar with the building and procedures.

The Chairman will inform the meeting whether there is a planned evacuation drill due to take place, what the alarm sounds like (i.e. ringing bells), where the closest emergency exit route is, and where the second closest emergency exit route is, in the event that the closest exit or route is blocked.

The Chairman will inform the meeting that:

(a) in the event of the alarm sounding, everybody must leave the building via the nearest safe available exit and gather at the Assembly points at the far side of the Car Park; and

(b) the lifts must not be used in the event of an evacuation.

Any officers present at the meeting will aid with the evacuation.

It is important that the Chairman is informed of any person attending who is disabled or unable to use the stairs, so that suitable arrangements may be made in the event of an emergency.

The Chairman drew attention to the fire evacuation procedure.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 January 2017 (Minute Nos. TBC) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 January 2018 (Minute Nos. 429 - 437 ) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

(c)          Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the room while that item is considered.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

No interests were declared.

The Committee is asked to consider the Financial Management Report (April to September 2017).

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance and the Chief Financial Officer will be attending the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed Members and officers to the meeting.  The report set out the revenue and capital projected outturn activity for 2017/18 as at the end of September 2017, which had been compiled from monitoring returns from budget managers. 

The Chairman invited the Scrutiny Committee to ask questions, and went through the report page-by-page. The following summarises the responses given to questions.

Page 2:

Property Management: the Chief Financial Officer explained that the £60k variance for rental income was a forecasted year-end position.

Refuse and Street Cleansing: The Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact explained the variances for special collections and refuse sales, which was due to a combination of ad-hoc clearance of bin stores, work for housing associations in cleaning, and refuse sales either to replace existing bins that had become broken or purchased by developers for new housing.

Beach Huts: The Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact confirmed that the variance was due to the beach huts at Leysdown.

Page 3:

Refuse Collection: The Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact explained that the purchase of wheeled bins comprised of replacing existing refuse bins and the cost of providing new brown bins (for which the Council received income).  The Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs further clarified that the bulk of the variance was due to the growth in purchase of brown bins (from garden waste subscriptions).

Leisure, Sports, Open Spaces, Parks, Countryside and Allotments: The Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact explained that Central House was a building attached to the Swallows Leisure Centre which shared facilities with the Leisure Centre, such as heating, and so a recharge was made to the range of tenants.

Planning, Audit Shared Service, Land Charges, IT Shared Service, Environmental Health Service: The Chief Financial Officer advised that there were small variations around the cost of services bought in from Mid Kent Services, and agreed to provide further detail.

Leisure Services: In response to a comment regarding whether the variance would increase further next year, the Chairman considered that this was possible.

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Housing Options: the Cabinet Member for Housing and Wellbeing agreed to provide further information about the costs of providing temporary accommodation at the Premier Inn, and the average length of stay.

Page 8:

Commissioning and Customer Contact, Client and Amenity Services, Customer Services Centre and Technical Services: the Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact explained that the majority of net staff costs savings were due to secondments/short term vacancies and that the savings in the Gateway Contract were due to an increased number of hirings which reduced the amount payable to Kent County Council (KCC).

Development Control: in response to a question regarding the need for specialists to deal with planning appeals, the Head of Planning Services advised that this was difficult to predict but it was likely to reduce now that the Local Plan had been adopted.

Cemeteries and Closed Churchyards: the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs explained that additional expenditure on pest control  ...  view the full minutes text for item 460.

To review the draft Medium Term Financial Plan and Draft Budget 2018/19 and make the necessary recommendations to the Cabinet on 7 February 2018. 

Cabinet Members, Strategic Management Team and Heads of Service have been invited to attend, as have all Members.  The Business Rate Pilot Proposal, Medium Term Financial Plan and Budget Variations have been attached as appendices to the report.

The Chairman invited the Committee to consider the proposals for the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and the draft 2018/19 revenue budget.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance thanked the Chief Financial Officer, the Financial Services Manager and their team for their work.  He introduced the report, referring to the difficulties faced with the reducing Revenue Support Grant (RSG) and the positive impact of the Business Rate Pilot in Kent.

The Chief Financial Officer advised that the draft budget had been considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 7 December 2017.  Since that time, the Local Government Finance Settlement had been announced, and work had been focussed on how to close the budget gap.  This would be considered by the Cabinet at its next meeting on 7 February 2018. 

The Chief Financial Officer referred to the update report that had been circulated to all Members in advance of the meeting, and drew attention to the paper copies at the meeting.  He apologised that it had not been possible to produce a draft budget book at this stage due to the sequencing, but that this would be available for the February Cabinet meeting.  He drew attention to the table in paragraph 3.2 of the update report, and explained that the Cabinet was being asked to use £316k of the £677k previously set aside, to balance the budget for 2018/19.  In 2019/20, there was a forecasted gap of £550k.

The Chairman congratulated the Chief Financial Officer and his team for their work on the draft budget, and confirmed with Members that they had read the update report that had been circulated.

In response to a question as to whether the Cabinet would be recommending a balanced budget without an increase in the Council Tax, the Chief Financial Officer advised that this would be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 7 February 2018; there was an assumption that there would be an increase in Council Tax but no decision had been made.

Members were then invited to consider the report page by page.

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Capital Programme: in response to a question as to whether there would be additional projects included in the programme for 2018/19, the Chief Financial Officer advised that this would be considered at the Cabinet meeting on 7 February 2018.  In response to a further question, the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs confirmed that they were proposing to include £500k in the programme for a project to renovate children’s play areas, and this would be referred to in the Open Spaces Strategy report that would be considered by the Policy Development and Review Committee on 13 February 2018.

Transformation Scheme – A Member commented that the Transformation Project Team was costing £100k per year but no information had been given as to what savings they had made as a result of their work. 

Councillor Mike Henderson proposed that the Cabinet be requested to look at the Transformation Project and include commentary  ...  view the full minutes text for item 461.