Agenda item

A report of the Chamberlain and the Director of Open Spaces (copy attached).

The Chairman introduced the Outturn report to the Committee, noting that Members of the Committee had been sent a copy of Alderman Hall's e-mail of 14 July 2013 (raising concerns with respect to an apparent significant underspend in the Additional Works Programme in 2012/13) and of the reply of the City Surveyor dated 17 July 2013 (which explained, inter alia, that over half the apparent underspend was at the reporting date committed spend which will feature in the 2013/14 report to the Committee).

The City Surveyor assured the Committee, further to his note with additional details on the AWP, that internal controls existed to ensure the appropriate use of funds, and that regular meetings took place between the City Surveyor’s Department and the Open Spaces Directorate to ensure that projects were timely and appropriate. The Deputy Chairman thanked the City Surveyor for providing the additional information requested by him on the AWP and welcomed the fact that the format of subsequent reports on the AWP will include more detail.

In response to a remark from the Chairman, the Director of Open Spaces confirmed that some areas of the Open Spaces Directorate had effectively subsidised the overspend at Epping Forest to its current level of £39,000.

In response to questions from a Member, the Chamberlain confirmed that the Nursery was not operating at a loss and that its surplus had been allocated to the West Ham Park reserve, which would be used to fund repairs and enhancement works within the Park. The Director of Open Spaces noted that the current year was the first in which the current arrangement was in place for surplus from the Nursery to be allocated to the reserve.

NOTED