Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Henry Colthurst, Christopher Hayward, and Deputy Catherine McGuinness.

There were none.

To agree the public minutes of the Sub-Committee meeting held on 17 January 2019.

The public minutes of the meeting of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee held on 17 January 2019 were approved.

To note the public minutes of the Joint Meeting of the Resource Allocation and Efficiency and Performance Sub-Committees held on 17 January 2019.

The public minutes of the meeting of the Joint Meeting of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee and the Efficiency & Performance Sub-Committee held on 17 January 2019 were noted.

Joint report of the Town Clerk and the Chamberlain.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Town Clerk and the Chamberlain which proposed a set of design principles for the forthcoming fundamental review process.

It was noted that the Policy & Resources Committee had already agreed to exclude from the scope of the fundamental review those major projects that had already been approved by the Court. The design principles would, therefore, need to be amended to reflect this.

Members stressed the importance of a framework being developed to help guide decisions, thereby ensuring that choices made were repeatable and consistent. It would be of particular importance to ensure that recommendations made to Members were explained fully, so that Members had clear options to choose from, a framework to guide both objective and subjective decision-making, and could determine allocations accordingly.

Clear prioritisation criteria would also be essential.

It was also suggested that it might be helpful to include something on how the non-major capital projects would be approved, so that there was a differentiation between those which were to be funded by loans, those which were income-generating or had allocated funding, or those which fell into neither category.

The question of Member involvement was discussed, with it noted that openness and transparency would be crucial in order to ensure buy-in across the Court and satisfy Members that a consistent and fair approach was being adopted. The Town Clerk suggested that a series of Workshops with Members, outside of the formal meeting process, might be the most effective way to achieve this, as many items would be cross-cutting in nature and highly detailed, so associated discussions might not fit well within the usual meeting structure.

Following discussion, it was agreed that authority should be delegated to the Town Clerk (in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman) to revise the principles

Joint report of the Town Clerk and the Chamberlain.

The Sub-Committee considered a joint report of the Town Clerk and Chamberlain setting out recommended bids to the Priorities Investment Pot (PIP). It was noted that this would be the last PIP report, as the Pot was not being renewed for the coming year.

RESOLVED: That approval be given to the following bids:

·                Markets & Consumer Protection – Responsible Business Strategy – Air Quality – £110,000  

·                Town Clerk’s - Artwork Acquisition (income protection/generation) – £14,000

·                Guildhall School – Online Digital Instrumental Teaching - £195,000

·                Community and Children Services -

1.)    Dragon Café (Mental Health Group) – £80,000

2.)    Social Worker and Systemic Practitioner – £15,000

3.)    Education Services Company – £55,000

4.)    Pilot Summer School Enrichment Programme - Social Mobility – £100,000

There were no questions.

There was one urgent item:

2019/20 Revenue Resource Budget Requests

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain concerning the prioritisation of requests for revenue budget funding for 2019/20 for City Fund and City’s Cash.

Members considered the various unavoidable contract costs set out, noting that there was little choice but to accept them at this point in time. In particular, some specific extenuating and explanatory factors involving the street cleansing contract were discussed. However, it was observed that there would be an opportunity on a regular basis to review service levels associated with this and other contracts, which would allow for the ability to adjust costs if required.

The Sub-Committee proceeded to review the various budget requests set out in Appendix 1. During a wide-ranging discussion, Members noted that a sizeable proportion of the bids had already been approved by the Policy and Resources Committee and, in some cases, associated activities had already taken place. Following discussion, it was agreed that it would be inadvisable to seek to unpick the individual approvals at this point in time. Further, it was noted that the forthcoming fundamental review would provide an opportunity to review all allocations for future years; approvals at this point would, therefore, constitute only a one-year commitment with an opportunity to review. However, it was noted that some decisions would need to be taken in the context of any political commitments already made in respect of longer-term funding.

A Member also commented on the Policy & Resources Committee’s Contingency Fund, asking that consideration be given to increasing the size of that fund moving forwards to allow the Committee greater flexibility in responding to emerging need.

RESOLVED: That Members:-

1.      Accept bids of £5.2m for unavoidable contract costs as set out in the report, subject to evaluation as part of

MOTION – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

Part 2 – Non-Public Agenda

RESOLVED – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2019 were approved.

To agree the non-public minutes of the Sub-Committee meeting held on 17 January 2019.

The non-public minutes of the meeting of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee held on 17 January 2019 were approved.

To note the non-public minutes of the Joint Meeting of the Resource Allocation and Efficiency and Performance Sub-Committees held on 17 January 2019.

The non-public minutes of the joint meeting of the Resource Allocation and Efficiency and Performance Sub-Committees held on 17 January 2019 were noted.

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.

The confidential minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2019 were approved.