Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and notices of appointment of substitute Members (if any).

Apologies were received from Cllr Mrs R Berry who was substituted by Cllr Mrs J B Binks.

To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.

Note:   A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

There were no members of the public in attendance.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the last meeting of the Group (attached).

The Minutes of the last meeting were approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any announcements that the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman had no announcements to make.

The Chairman indicated that he intended to take item 5 on the agenda before item 6.

To receive an update from the Head of Finance requesting that Members consider options available in order for the Council to move towards a balanced budget for 2016/17.

The Group had before it and NOTED a report * from the Head of Finance detailing options available in order for the Council to move towards a balanced budget for 2016/17.

The Officer explained that in December 2015 the Council received formal confirmation of its Formula Grant Settlement. The provisional formula grant award for 2016/17 amounted to £3.04m. This was unlikely to change significantly and was approximately £130k lower than what had first been estimated. This had increased the draft 2016/17 General Fund budget deficit but other savings proposals had helped to reduce it to circa £405k.

The Head of Finance explained that the formula grant announcement gave provisional figures for the three years up to 2019/20: As predicted the Revenue Support Grant, which currently stood at £1.7m, would completely disappear by 2019/20. The current and provisional future formula grant amounts were:

                                                    15/16      16/17      17/18     18/19      19/20

                                                     £m         £m          £m        £m          £m

Revenue Support Grant          1.7       1.02           0.5       0.18        0.00

Business Rates                       2.0        2.02          2.06     2.13        2.19

Total Formula Grant                3.7        3.04          2.56     2.31        2.19

Using the provisional Business Rate Retention and Revenue Support Grant figures in the Medium Term Financial Plan showed that by 2019/20 the authority would need to find approximately £1.1m of savings, close to the amount previously forecast. At this point there were no details on the proposed changes allowing Councils’ to retain more of the business rate income.

Since the budget had first been discussed at the Policy Development Groups and at Cabinet meetings the Finance team and service managers had revisited budgets to strive to deliver more savings or increase income levels.

This process had improved the General Fund budget by circa £422k and now left a budget gap of £405k.

The Officer informed the Group that to date this authority had used the New Homes Bonus Grant to fund economic development projects, help fund the capital programme and to fund certain “one off” revenue projects. It was a possibility that some of these funds could be used to off-set the budget gap but that it should be noted that there was uncertainty regarding the future of the New Homes Bonus and that it could not be guaranteed for future years.

Discussion took place regarding:

·         Changes to the car parking tariff;

·         Profit from Market Walk

·         The need to change car parking vending machines when the new £1 coin was introduced;

·         The Locality budget which would allow each Member £500 to spend within their ward.

Note: - Report previously circulated and attached to Minutes.

To consider a report from the Head of Finance outlining a redesign of the Clinical Waste Collection Service.

The Group had before it a report * from the Waste and Transport Manager asking for approval for the redesign of the clinical waste collection service.

The Officer explained that if the recommendations within the report were implemented fully it would enable the authority to reduce costs by approximately £16,200 per annum and would also ensure that all relevant legislation was complied with.

The Waste and Transport Manager explained that the authority currently provided a clinical waste collection to approximately 250 households.  This service was delivered by a contractor and the budgeted spending on this service was £27k for 2015/16.  The service comprised of the collection of needles from a secure sharps box on a ‘on demand’ basis and the collection of offensive and infectious wastes on a weekly scheduled basis, with some ‘on demand’ collections.

The officer explained that throughout Devon it had been customary to collect all of these materials as part of a separate clinical waste collection.  However many of the collections made were for waste which was categorised as offensive, such as incontinence pads, and did not legally require a separate collection.  These items could be collected as part of normal general waste collections and did not require the more expensive separate collection and disposal as Clinical waste.

It was therefore proposed that the following take place:

·         The Waste Service to contact all current customers by letter to ensure they were classifying their clinical waste correctly through a generic form being used across Devon;

·         To follow up contact for those that did not reply to letter. This would involve telephone contact and offers to visit householders;

·         For those that were identified as putting out offensive waste to receive a 240 litre wheeled bin for storage, to be collected with fortnightly residual waste;

·         That a risk assessment be carried out for the collection of offensive waste as part of the general waste stream.  This would consider the needs of customers and collection crews.  Likely impacts on collection crews were the additional manual handling and handling of offensive wastes.  These could be mitigated by the provision of wheeled bins where practicable.  The waste scheme introduced in 2015 had created capacity to absorb this very small increase in workload on residual waste rounds.

Discussion took place regarding:

·         The need to supply wheeled bins to customers to prevent problems with wildlife and smells when the waste had to be stored for two weeks;

·         The need to ensure that staff were fully trained;

·         The waste classifications set out in legislation;

·         The need for clear instructions advising customers how to store the waste;

·         The suggestion that the bins be identified via a sticker inside the lid to avoid publicising the fact that the bin contained offensive waste.

It was RECOMMENDED to the Cabinet that:

a)    That a separate clinical waste collection be offered only for hazardous or infectious clinical waste.  This meant that offensive waste, such as sanitary protection products, would be collected and disposed of via ordinary residual waste collections;

b)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

Note: This item is limited to 10 minutes.  There should be no discussion on the items raised.

Play Area Inspection Policy

Review of the new waste collection scheme

Performance and Risk

Air Quality

Financial Monitoring

Play Area Inspection Policy

Review of the new waste collection scheme

Performance and Risk

Air Quality

Financial Monitoring