Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain.

To Follow.

To note – this Report was listed incorrectly under the non-public section (Item 22 in the Agenda Pack), during the meeting it was taken in the public section of the meeting after item 14.

Members received a Report of the Chamberlain regarding the proposed 2018/19 Revenue Budgets for Operational Services.

Members were concerned that the Report presented two budgets for 2017/18 – the “Original Budget” and the “Latest Budget”; it made the overall position unclear as the “goalposts had been moved during the year”.

The Chairman was of the view that departments should have a starting point and stick to it. A Member stressed that the budget was misleading and queried whether in future officers could bring two reports, one with the revised projection and another that compared “original to original”, essentially if departments have spent more than allocated in their original budget this should not be obscured, and as a result, the current report “didn’t quite work”. In response, officers emphasised that different departments had their own requirements, and in terms of reporting, the Chamberlain could present the budget either way.