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 Deputy Chairman thanked the City Surveyor for his additional note on the AWP and welcomed the fact that the format of subsequent reports on the AWP will include more detail. The Committee proceeded to discuss the £39,000 overspend, and the following questions, comments and remarks were made:

·         In response to concerns raised by a Member over the finances of the Chingford Golf Course the Director assured the Committee that their colleagues on the Epping Forest Committee were aware of these issues and that the matter had been referred to the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

·         The Chairman noted that the issue in question was not of the subsidising of the Chingford Golf Course by the City of London Corporation, but the budget overspend itself.

·         The Director of Open Spaces noted that the overspend represented 0.2% of the overall budget of the Open Spaces Directorate, but that nevertheless due to financial pressures it would be increasingly difficult to meet budgets over the next couple of years.

RECEIVED