Agenda item

This report covers this Committees financial position over the medium term (2023 – 2026) as at Period 6 (end of September).

Recommendation

That Members note and comment on the contents of the report.

Members of the Committee requested an update on staffing and the number of vacancies; in particular the Senior Transport Planner post.

Kimberley Rowley, Head of Regulatory Services, advised that successive rounds of recruitment were unsuccessful in 2023, therefore, in 2024, the service area have committed to a different way of providing an officer with remit for the services. The roles and responsibilities of the job profile will be reviewed again in the coming weeks, and  recruitment is anticipated in February.

Sally Riley, Finance Business Partner, reported that the Senior Planning Officer role, currently filled by an internal post, has recently been filled,  the Community Infrastructure Levy Officer post has been filled, the Housing Supplier Officer post has also been filled, and the Associate Director - Economy Infrastructure & Planning post is subject to a report that is going to Policy & Resources Committee on 29 January.

Furthermore; the Grounds Maintenance Trainee Operative post and HGV Driver post have both been filled.

Jason Hagland, Strategic Housing Manager advised that the Housing Enforcement Officer post is currently being covered by an interim officer.

Members also requested an update on Garden Waste income and the kerb side collection. The Officer advised that currently there is no update on the Garden Waste income and kerb side collection as these are not presented in the period 8 budget monitoring. The next comprehensive budget monitoring report will be available in March.

Members pointed out that it is regrettable that the budget monitoring (period 6) report was received only now at this committee meeting. The Officer reminded the committee that the decision to reduce the number of committees was made 18 months ago, therefore this is the first opportunity for this report to be presented to this committee.

Concerns were raised around the cost of waste and recycling vehicles. The Officer clarified that as at 30 September 2023, the Council spent £210,099 out of a £1,070,413 budget. The original budget was approved at Full Council in February 2023. Officers did not know at that time how much needed to be rephased until they did the out turn position in April. Officers were then able to rephase  the amount of capital budget that wasn’t spent in 2022/23 into 2023/24. This would have been brought to and approved at the July 2023 Full Council meeting. The Officer confirmed that the budget had not been increased because of procurement costs.

Members raised concerns regarding the notable increase of private trade waste companies being used by retailers in Rickmansworth and requested further information for the reasons behind this. The Officer advised that the number of users are not constant throughout the year, and financially, there is no impact.

The Chair proposed that it would be useful to have the figures on the Council’s rates and how that compares to comparable commercial sectors, included in the final out turn report for the committee. In addition; the number of traders  each month should also be included in the presentation in future. The Officer confirmed that this will be added from period 10 onwards.

Further questions were raised regarding the cost of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points and car park restoration. The Officer clarified that this was CIL money identified through Policy & Resources Committee and Full Council to utilise for EV charging points. This has not been spent yet.

The car park restoration is on the capital programme. It includes work that improves the car parks across the district. So far, there has been no spend as a lot of the spend previously has been revenue, not capital.

RESOLVED:

That Members note and comment on the contents of the report.