Issue - meetings
Recommendations from the Executive Cabinet
Meeting: 27/03/2019 - Council (Item 97)
97 Recommendations from the Cabinet 
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To consider the recommendations from the meeting(s) of the Cabinet held on 13th March and 27th March 2019.
Any recommendations in respect of 27th March will be tabled at the meeting.
Minutes:
Cabinet Recommendations 13th March 2019
Finance Monitoring Quarter 3 Report
The recommendations from Cabinet in respect of the Finance Monitoring Quarter 3 Report were proposed by Councillor B. Cooper and seconded by Councillor G. Denaro.
In proposing the recommendations Councillor Cooper advised this report outlined the Council’s financial position at the end of quarter 3 in December 2018. He commented that the Council was well on target to achieve a comfortable underspend for the full year. There were four financial matters relating to this report which needed Council’s approval.
The first matter was in respect of £120k which had been earmarked for replacement parking machines, and which currently sat in the vehicle replacement programme budget. Council was asked to approve a virement of this into its own budget in 2018/19. This was an accounting exercise to aid clarity.
Councillor K. May confirmed that the current machines were due to be replaced and that a review was being undertaken of all machines, which included their location and how residents paid for car parking.
The second was in respect of increased grant funding received from the government for Disabled Facilities Grants, following the Budget announcement in Dec 2018. Council was asked to approve an increase in the 2018/19 capital budget of £102k for the Disabled Facilities Grant budget.
Councillor C. Hotham raised concerns that the funds for Disabled Facilities Grants seemed to be increasing and there was an urgent need for these funds to be spent.
The third asked Council to approve an increase of £390k in the 2018/19 capital budget for Bromsgrove combined footpath and cycleway network. The money had come from a grant from Worcestershire County Council.
The final recommendation was in respect of the existing sports hall, which was closed last month as it was no longer usable due to health and safety issues. The background to this was detailed in para 6.4 of the report. Members were reminded that they had agreed last July to release £734k for its demolition. The work had been put out to tender and the successful tender in terms of price and quality was for £1.05m, which was £346k more than was allocated in the budget. The reasons for the higher costs were outlined in para 6.4.2 of the report. Council is asked to approve an increase in the 2019/20 capital budget of £346k for the demolition of the Dolphin Centre including the sports hall and carrying out of associated car park work. It was confirmed that of the £346k, £202k was to be funded from capital receipts and £144k from balances.
Councillor M. Thompson asked if the recommendations could be taken individually rather than en bloc, which was agreed. He further suggested that the figures in respect of the demolition of the Sports Hall simply confirmed what had been discussed at previous meetings in that the option of either building a new Sports Hall or refurbishing the current one should have been the preferred option. He also questioned why this increased ... view the full minutes text for item 97