Agenda item

To receive the report of The Chamberlain, Deputy Town Clerk, and Executive Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Committee received the report of The Chamberlain, Deputy Town Clerk, and Executive Director of Community and Children’s Services comparing the revenue outturn for the services overseen by the Committee in 2024-25 with the final budget for the year alongside details of carry forward requests yet to be approved.

Members noted that overall total net expenditure during the year was £23.611m whereas the budget was £23.362m, representing an overspend of £0.249mon all risks. The local risk overspend was £0.047m – noting in particular the overall adverse variance to the final budget of £0.249m and the carry forward requests yet to be agreed of local risk budgets of £0.057m to 2025/26 relating to Destination City within the Deputy Town Clerk. 

A Member commented that the Committee is unable to sponsor any specific event due to no allocation being available to the Committee itself. The Board heard that Committees themselves do not hold budgets, as these are the responsibility of chief officers – noting also that the Committee is working with officers to ensure that a budget is available to undertake specific actions.

A Member commented that scope exists to request funds from the Policy & Resources Committee Policy Initiatives Fund for special events, noting also that sustainable funding is critical to the delivery of cultural programmes noting also that part of the cultural strategy focusses on developing other funding sources.

The Committee discussed the creation of a cultural funding model that involves City businesses.