Issue - meetings

Reporting Person: Eugene Walker

Eugene Walker introduced the item, noting that there was an overspend of £7.6 million for the year.  £6.5 million of the overspend was due to legacy issues which would require structural solutions.  The remainder of the overspend was from service variance.  Managers were undertaking mitigation activity to address the £1.1 million overspend.  It would not be possible to address the whole overspend in the current financial year and some would be incorporated into the budget setting for the following year.

The Council had continued to operate the Financial Control Panel (FCP) that had been instituted on service of the Section 114 Notice.  Any expenditure above £500 was required to be submitted to the FCP for consideration for approval.

The Committee discussed the £148,000 overspend on electricity for Red Car Park.  Electricity consumption had not been budgeted for.  It was known that the electric vehicle charging stations had not been linked to the Council’s car park charging system due to compatibility issues and it was surmised that at least a portion of the overspend was due to this.  Members registered their concern that this issue remained as it had been discussed in previous Council meetings over the past two years.  It was suggested that the Council should disable the charging points across car parks until payments could be taken.  It was suggested that a breakdown of the costs could be provided.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

Reporting Person – Eugene Walker

The Executive received a Financial Monitoring Report which set out the material financial issues identified since the 2023/24 budget was set, based on the income and expenditure as at end of September 2023 (Quarter 2).  The Executive was advised that the September (Q2) outturn projected an overspend of £7.5m for the year, compared with a £6.2m projected overspend reported for June (Q1).  Service managers would continue to seek opportunities to identify further savings opportunities to mitigate overspends.

RESOLVEd

That  (i)    the Council’s forecast General Fund outturn position for 2023/24 be noted; and

          (ii)   it be noted that the Corporate Leadership Team will continue to identify mitigations to enable the net expenditure for 2023/24 to be contained within budget approved by Council on 23 February 2023.

Reason:   Controlling the outturn within budget is essential to maintain financial control.