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Agenda item

Annual Report and Accounts for 2017/18 (00:16:49)

To receive a report from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) presenting the final version of the annual report and accounts to Members, highlighting any areas which have been amended since the draft accounts were presented to the Audit Committee in May.

Minutes:

The Committee had before it a report * from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) presenting the final version of the annual report and accounts to Members, highlighting any areas which had been amended since the accounts had been presented to the Audit Committee in May.

 

The Group Manager for Financial Services explained that the accounts had been subjected to a robust audit and only 2 amendments had been identified:

 

a)    Upon review, Grant Thornton had identified that due to the complexity of the Council’s Fixed Assets computations, there had been an omission to depreciate seven assets, therefore understating depreciation by £52k. This error had been amended in the accounts. There was no impact on the Balance Sheet or the overall value of the Council’s assets as this depreciation was negated by the end of year revaluation exercise.

 

b)    The Accounts team had also amended the classification of the land owned by 3 Rivers Ltd from Assets under Construction to Work in Progress (WIP). This could be seen in the Group Accounts section. Again this had had no impact on the “bottom line”.

 

In response to the questions raised in Public Question Time, the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) stated that the amount borrowed had been £750k. The commercial rate of interest was 4.5% above base rate. The maturity date hadn’t been agreed yet but was expected to be around 18 months to 2 years, however, until the properties had been built and sold it was difficult to be exact on timescales.

 

In terms of the date of the loan the Deputy Chief Executive (151) requested that he come back to Mr Quinn by email as he did not have the information with him for the meeting. Cllr R M Deed requested that he receive a copy of the loan agreement. Cllr F W Letch requested that he receive a list of the proposed residential developments referred to in the narrative report from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) on page 45 of the report. It was reiterated that these and other questions could be addressed in an all Member briefing on 3 Rivers Development Ltd. The Deputy Chief Executive (151) requested that he receive questions in advance from Members.

 

Discussion followed with regard to:

 

·         Whether consideration was being given to the acquisition of property in towns or parishes outside of Tiverton. The Deputy Chief Executive (S151) confirmed that recent acquisitions had come about as a result of circumstance, the capital programme moved forward based upon the best business case at the time.

·         A question that had been asked at the Environment Policy Development Group regarding the properties bought three years ago in Tiverton. The question asked was what was the capital value compared with the purchase price of these properties? The Deputy Chief Executive (151) assured the Member asking the question that he would receive a response. 

 

RESOLVED that the annual report and accounts for 2017/18 be approved (subject to the recommendations made by the external auditor) and that the letter of representation also be approved and signed.

 

(Proposed by the Chairman)

 

Note: * Report previously circulated; copy attached to the signed minutes.

Supporting documents: