Agenda item

To hear the Call-In of any decisions made at the Cabinet meeting prior to this meeting or made by Cabinet Members, other Council Committees or a delegated officer and published within five working days of this meeting.

Members should bring their Cabinet agenda to the meeting.

Members should consider any other decisions published in the five working days before this meeting.

The purpose of this meeting is to decide whether to refer back any decision to the decision maker.

Members gave consideration to the Cabinet reports of 15 July 2010 and after careful consideration Members decided not to call-in any decision made by the Cabinet at their meeting.

However Members sought clarification on the following items:

Cabinet Agenda Item 6 – Disabled People’s Plan 2009-2012 Update

Referring to paragraph 9 - whilst accepting that Transport was a matter for Transport for London (TfL) and accessibility issues were dealt with through the Local Implementation Plan, the Committee asked for more clarification as to why Transport issues were not included in the Disabled People's Plan, given

their importance to Disabled People.

 
The Committee also made a general comment about the action plan to better demonstrate the good work done. It wished for the 'progress comments' boxes (or the action plan itself) to provide more details of the outcome and effectiveness of what

had been achieved.

[Subsequent to the meeting, officers provided the following response:

“Transport issues are of great concern to disabled people and officers acknowledge this.  However, the decision not to include any specific transport targets reflects the reality that the council does not have the power to deliver itself the changes that disabled people would like to see and that resources should therefore be focussed on what can be done.  The Council's Mobility Forum, Transport Forum and Older People's and Disabled People's Assemblies continue to engage with Transport for London (TfL) to bring about improvements for disabled residents but this is an iterative process that often takes a time before changes can be seen on the ground.  It should be noted that the national financial picture will have a significant impact on the speed with which improvements are likely to be delivered, especially as TfL has experienced cuts in its budget.

The Committee's desire for more outcome and effectiveness information to be provided in future progress reports on the Disabled People's Plan is acknowledged. 

Cabinet Agenda Item 8 – Council Budget – 2009/10 Revenue and Capital Outturn  

The Committee asked for further clarification on a couple of matters:

a) The Committee would be interested to know where the £119k unspent earmarked reserve on the Leader's Initiative had been allocated to;
b) And the reasons for the revenue underspend of £263k in community safety and £36k in planning and transportation.

[Subsequent to the meeting, officers provided the following response:

a)  Leaders initiative (Underspend of £119k) - The underspend on the Leaders initiative budget has been carried forward as an earmarked balance into 2010/11.

b) Community Safety (underspend of £263k) –

Community Safety Fund budget (underspend of £162k) -  Not fully allocated due to the need to be prudent in the financial climate and a lack of urgent funding requirements.

The Community Safety staff budget (underspend of £41k) -This was due a combination of holding a part time vacancy, and not backfilling staff that were on maternity leave and sabbatical leave.

Police Team Anti- Social Behaviour (ASB) (underspend of £30k) –The budget was based on the anticipated cost of the 12 police officers. However the actual costs charged were based on staff in post so resulted in a slight underspend. The budget also allowed for an inflation pay rise during the year which did not materialise due to public sector pay freeze.

Non Refundable Metropolitan Police Grant (MPA) Grant (underspend of £20k) – unbudgeted grant applied to the service

Communication budget (underspend of £10k) - There had been a level one priority campaign expected to run in March 2010, this was ended early due to unexpected communication activity from Met Police centrally, which allowed the Council  to change strategy and reduce cost commitments to our own communications.

Planning and Transportation (underspend of £36k) -

S106/278 (underspend of £97k) -A change in the accounting treatment agreed with corporate finance in the way that S106 management fees are treated, has resulted in the transfer of the in year balances of S106 management fees previously held on the balance sheet, into the Group revenue position giving a one off benefit.

Staffing – (underspend of £89k)–This was due to slippage on the recruitment of number of posts across the planning teams, resulting from the changes arising in the whole service review.

Pre-applications fee income (pressure of £38k) –The actual income achieved was £106k against the budgeted target of £144k, the £38k unachieved income is due to adverse economic conditions that has also affected the main development control income streams.

Appeals and other Legal disbursements (overspend £110k) –The overspend is due to legal counsel costs and other disbursements incurred due to various planning appeals.

Resolved -    

1.      That the decisions made by Cabinet at their meeting on 15 July 2010 be endorsed and noted and no call-in be made of any decision. 

      2.   That officers be asked to provide responses to the issues outlined above.