Meeting documents
Cabinet
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
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To Members of the Cabinet Notice of a Meeting of the CabinetTuesday 18 April 2006 at 2.00 pm County Hall, Oxford
Contact officer: Matt Bayliss (Tel: 01865 815384; E-mail)
Membership
Decisions taken at the meeting will become effective at the end of the working day on 26 April 2006 unless called in by that date for review by the appropriate Scrutiny Committee. Copies of this Notice, Agenda and supporting papers are circulated to all Members of the County Council.
AGENDAAddenda
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2006 (CA3) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.
Cabinet
Member: Finance Report
by Head of Finance & Procurement (CA5). This report covers the period up to the end of February 2006 for both revenue and capital. The consolidated forecast to date shows a balance of £12.925m. This is an increase of £0.080m since the previous report and is made up of a net increase in general balances of £0.222m offset by an increase of £0.142m in the forecast Directorate overspend. The overall Directorate position is now forecast to be an overspend of £0.087m. For the remainder of the financial year the budgets of the two realigned Directorates will continue to be treated for financial reporting purposes as if the realignment had not taken place, although from 1 January management responsibility for some areas of those budgets has changed. In this report, therefore, the ‘Learning & Culture’ and ‘Social & Health Care’ groupings are retained. However, a summary of the position for the realigned directorates is included at Annex 5 for information. This is the last Financial Monitoring report before the Outturn position is reported in June. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Finance Report by Director for Resources (CA6). The Council on 14 February 2006 approved a Capital Programme, subject to further report on the utilisation of surplus identified in the Programme to 2008/09. The Capital Steering Group has considered the outstanding capital needs identified in the Asset Management Plan and Capital Strategy agreed by the Council, and other capital issues, and are making a number of recommendations for projects to be added to the Programme. These include Phase II of the Time to Change project, refurbishment of Maltfield House Children’s Home, development of libraries at Watlington and Bicester and some highways depot improvements. The proposals leave an unallocated balance of around £1m. In addition, Cabinet on 7 February 2006 requested a report back on the implications of continuing to maximise its borrowing allocations in the light of the removal of government funding for Oxfordshire’s supported borrowing under the changed revenue support grant arrangements. These mean that additional borrowing costs in effective fall on the Council Tax and create a pressure on the Medium Term Financial Plan. Reducing the take up of supported borrowing will however require reductions to the Council’s Capital Programme. The implications of this situation are set out in the report, which suggests that the Cabinet should consider whether the Council should to continue to take the full supported borrowing or to reduce it, in the context of the budget preparation process for the next financial year. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Sustainable Development Report by Head of Sustainable Development (CA7). The Executive agreed the Future First Action Plan 2005-2006 in April 2005, with the rider that a progress report and action plan for the following year would be submitted annually to Cabinet. This report includes a preliminary review of progress in 2005-2006 and proposes priorities and actions for 2006/07. The Draft Future First Action Plan for 2006-2007 has been developed around the following:
Board members recognize the importance of the increased operational efficiency and financial savings that can be achieved as the result of environmental good practice. In particular, rising energy prices mean that action to reduce energy consumption across the Council will result in significant financial savings. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve the proposals for the Future First Action Plan 2006-2007 set out in the report and Annex 2.
Cabinet
Member: Sustainable Development Report by Head of Sustainable Development (CA8) (download as .doc file). The Area Programme has been established to bring agencies together to work on issues of urban deprivation in Oxfordshire. This work is being funded primarily by SEEDA, who have asked Oxfordshire County Council to act as accountable body for this programme. The role of "accountable body" is to administer the programme on behalf of the partnership. This involves receiving and managing the funds according to a performance plan that is negotiated with SEEDA annually and in conformity with its complex administrative procedures. Oxfordshire will receive income to cover fully the direct costs of this role. The Area Programme aims to address employment, adult skills and enterprise development in urban areas of the county by making grants to organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to undertake work on these issues. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to: (a) agree to the County Council fulfilling the role of accountable body for the Area Programme on the basis outlined in the report; (b) authorise the Head of Sustainable Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, to finalise details of the contract with SEEDA.
Cabinet
Member: Schools Improvement The Director for Children, Young People & Families reports as follows: This project will address the need to improve the specialist Art and Design & Technology accommodation at Chipping Norton School to address suitability problems and provide sufficient specialist accommodation for projected pupil numbers. A project appraisal for the scheme is attached at (CA9) (download as .doc file) The cost of the project is being met from the County Council Capital Programme and S.106 contributions from developers of land within the town. The school are also contributing Devolved Formula Capital to upgrade and replace specialist Design & Technology equipment. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve the detailed project appraisal ED 637
Cabinet Member:
All The Cabinet Procedure Rules provide that the business of each meeting at the Cabinet is to include "updating of the Forward Plan and proposals for business to be conducted at the following meeting". Items from the Forward Plan for the immediately forthcoming meetings of the Cabinet appear in the Schedule at CA10. This includes any updated information relating to the business for those meetings that has already been identified for inclusion in the next Forward Plan update. The Schedule is for noting, but Cabinet Members may also wish to take this opportunity to identify any further changes they would wish to be incorporated in the next Forward Plan update. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings.
April 2006 |
