Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were submitted from Chris Clowes and Councillors M R Alexander and A P Jackson.  It was noted that Councillors L O Haysey and J O Ranger were substituting for Councillors A P Jackson and Councillor M R Alexander respectively.  It was also noted that Paul Stevens was substituting for Chris Clowes.

The Chairman, on behalf of the Panel, welcomed back Emma Freeman and congratulated her on the birth of her daughter.

          RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the     meeting held on 16 September 2010 be           approved and signed by the Chairman as        a correct record.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 7 October 2010.

          RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the     meeting held on 7 October 2010 be           received.

To follow

The Secretary to the Staff Side submitted detailed comments in response to the Budget Proposals and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2011/12 to 2014/15.  The Director of Internal Services on behalf of the Secretary to the Employer’s Side, submitted his response to those comments. 

The Staff Side expressed concern that the MTFP report was confusing and was difficult to understand and track what was going on in terms of staffing implications.  She commented on the sometimes conflicting figures which had been made available on the intranet and of the overuse of jargon and the differing estimates contained in related papers which made it difficult for a lay person to understand.   The Staff Side said that it was good news that the Council was saving so much money which was in the main as a result of the refuse contract with Veolia.

The Staff Side Secretary queried whether the contractors could fulfil all their contractual obligations to achieve the savings and queried whether staff would be paid minimum wage.  She stated that the absence of benchmarking had made it impossible to compare tenders.   The Director of Internal Services gave assurances that the tender process had been competitive. Councillor Rutland-Barsby stated that she had played a role in evaluating tenders and the tender had not been awarded to the cheapest tenderer as there was a quality objective to be achieved.

Reserves:

The Staff Side referred to the substantial level of reserves the Council had and that the Council should draw on that level of reserves to make savings.   The Director of Internal Services sought clarification on the reference to “specialist advisor” mentioned by the Staff Side.  The Staff Side clarified this statement.   The Director concurred that the budget papers and the process was complicated but that Members and Staff had had an opportunity to ask questions about the process and proposals since the process had begun in July 2010.  Information had also been made available on the Council’s website and the process had been submitted to scrutiny for comment. 

The Director of Internal Services confirmed that the Council had healthy reserves and that more were being put into earmarked reserves which had been supported by Audit Committee.  He explained the variances within the reports and refuted the suggestion put forward by UNISON that the  budget was “smoke and mirrors”.  In terms of typographical errors, the Director referred to the difficulty in co-ordinating six separate reports at a time.

Outturn:

The Staff Side referred to a number of variances within the report and the projected overspend which had later turned out to be a large underspend (e.g. the refuse contract).  The Director of Internal Services confirmed that the £82,000 net positive variance was correct.  He provided updates in relation to budget monitoring and on the latest estimates.

The Staff Side referred to the impact of cuts on back office functions as well as front line functions and services and referred to home workers’ heavy reliance on the services of IT staff.

Redundancies: 

The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.