Agenda item

Worcestershire Regulatory Services Revenue Monitoring Quarter 1 - 3

Meeting of Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board, Thursday 14th February 2019 4.30 p.m. (Item 30/18)

Minutes:

The Financial Services Manager, Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) introduced the report and drew Members attention to a number of areas, including:

· The detailed revenue report at Appendix 1 to the report, which showed a projected outturn 2018/2019 surplus of £2k.

· Vacant posts within the services and projected savings in salaries, which had been offset by the costs associated with additional agency staff being used to cover vacancies, sickness and to support the service where staff were working on additional income generation projects.

· The salary figure included the cost of three Technical Officer’s. A Technical Officer was recruited in July 2018, on a fixed two year contract, to support delivery of additional income generation via Primary Authority. It was agreed that this officer would be funded by partner authorities on the current partner percentage basis.

· A Technical Officer to carry out additional work on Gull Control for Worcester City Council. The projected recruitment would be mid-February 2019 for a two year fixed contract, to be recharged to Worcester City Council only.

· A Technical Officer to work on the new licensing laws for animal activities had now been successfully recruited. This officer would be funded by partner authorities based on the number of animal licences within each council, the income for animal activity licensing would be realised in the councils general licensing income.

· The detailed explanations within the report were highlighted, in respect of an overspend of £9K on Pest Control. Actual bereavements costs for April to December 2018 to be funded by each partner authority.

· The total income achieved by WRS as detailed at Appendix 2 to the report.

Following a brief discussion, the Head of Regulatory Services, informed the Board that WRS had infilled some of the vacancies and were in the process of filling all vacancies by Quarter 3.

In response to questions from Members, the Head of Regulatory Services explained that the ‘Percentage saving from original budget (Excl County) £5,057 in 2010-11)’, as detailed on page 14 of the main agenda pack; had been shown in order to remind the Board how far WRS had progressed and to remind Members of how different the financial position was now compared to when the service came together. He was happy to remove the information should the Board agree. Members were of the view that the information could be detailed in the Annual Report and therefore should be removed from future revenue monitoring reports.

The Head of Regulatory Services, provided further detail on the ‘Remaining Reserve Balance’ of £272k; which some Members of the Board felt was a substantial amount to keep and agreed that if Members felt this was too substantial he would discuss this with the section 151 officers from the partners. He reminded Members that they had previously agreed that that any potential future overspend would be covered by the ‘Remaining Reserve Balance’, which, if required, would provide a short term buffer for partners so they would not suffer the shock of having to find additional funds at short notice at the end of a financial year. Members agreed that changing the name used to describe the reserve was sufficient as long as it demonstrated that it was clearly earmarked as a protective measure for the 6 local authorities.

The Head of Regulatory Services further informed Members that the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership had provided financial support to allow WRS to deliver the Worcestershire Food and Drink project. The next financial year would see the residual amount going into the new organisation to continue to support its development.

With regard to Pest Control, the Technical Services Manager, WRS, informed Members that wasps were secondary pollinators and therefore their nests could be removed safely or destroyed, if deemed a danger to health. The decision on how wasp nests were dealt with was decided by each partner authority, within their individual pest control policy.

RESOLVED:

(a) that the final financial position for the period April – December 2018 be noted;

(b) that partner councils be informed of their liabilities for 2018-19 in relation to Bereavements / Pest Control, as follows:

Council	Apr–Dec 2018 Actual for Bereavements £000	Estimated 2018/19 for Pest Control £000
Redditch	6	5
Malvern	4
Worcs City	9
Bromsgrove	1
Wychavon		2
Wyre Forest		1
Total	20	7

and

(c) that partner councils be informed of their liabilities for 2018-19 in relation to three additional Technical Officers, as follows:

Council	Estimated 2018/19 Tech Officer Primary Authority £000	Estimated 2018/19 Tech Officer Animal Activity £000	Estimated 2018/19 Tech Officer Gull Control £000
Redditch	3	1
Malvern	3	2
Worcs City	3	1	3
Bromsgrove	3	1
Wychavon	4	2
Wyre Forest	3	1
Total	19	8	3

Supporting documents: