Agenda item

To consider the outstanding recommendations from the meetings of the Cabinet held on 10^th September 2025.

The outstanding recommendations from the Cabinet meeting held on 10^th September 2025 were due to the deferment of the following reports at the Council meeting held on 8^th October 2025:

·       Quarter 1 2025/26 Finance and Performance Monitoring Report

·       Expansion of Commercial Waste Collection Service

In addition, any recommendations arising in respect of the Business Rates Retention (BRR) Pool 2026-2027 report, which is due to be considered at the Cabinet meeting on 19th November 2025, will be published in a supplementary pack for this Extraordinary meeting of the Council and tabled at the meeting. 

Any further recommendations arising from the Cabinet meeting due to take place on 19th November 2025 will be considered at the next Ordinary meeting of the Council on 3^rd December 2025.

Quarter 1 2025/26 Finance and Performance Monitoring

The Quarter 1 Finance and Performance Report was previously brought to the Council meeting on 8^th October 2025.

At that meeting, Members requested that Officers double checked the figures in respect of the projected deficit and the report be rescheduled for consideration at this meeting.  A revised report had therefore been brought back to this meeting.

Members were asked to note the following points:

• The Full Year Variance of £173,361 on the ‘Totals Line’ remained the same as the report brought to Council previously.

• The Full Year Projected Forecast has been amended from £587,360 to £173,361 on the ‘Totals Line’.

•  The Narrative within the report had been reviewed and improved, with a view to ensuring that full explanations were given for all variances.

• There were two areas within the report where the narrative had been materially adjusted:

Members were reminded that there was also a query at the previous Council meeting in respect of rent revenue relating to Nailers Yard.  For information, GJS Dillon had received several enquiries for office space and two enquiries for the GF food and beverage unit. The service charge schedules had also been prepared for the commercial building. Heads of terms were due to be issued to an incoming tenant that wished to let one and a half floors. The next stage was to instruct Bruton Knowles to undertake the property management role of the commercial building.

Following the presentation of the report, Members queried some areas further. These included the following:

• The costs of Bed and Breakfast (B&B) Accommodation – Members highlighted that there were differing spends included in the report on the costs for B&B accommodation. The Interim Section 151 undertook to provide Members with the correct amount following the meeting.

Members were reassured that the errors contained within the report were one off and that the finer details were being looked at by the Finance Team to ensure that the reports such as these were accurate going forward. Some Members requested that Internal Audit be involved in looking at the areas where errors had been identified within this report previously in order to ensure that this did not happen in the future. The Chairman of Audit, Standards and Governance Committee suggested that this be an area looked at by this Committee.

It was noted that should Members wish to be involved in these areas in the future they could volunteer to sit on the Finance and Budget Working Group when reports such as these were pre-scrutinised prior to being considered by Cabinet and / or Council. There were currently three vacancies available on this Working Group.

Some Members raised that there were a number of items that had not been included in the Quarter One report, nor had any commentary been provided including Play Area investment across the whole District and ‘legacy’ projects for the Council prior to Local Government Reorganisation. This had been an area that Members had been asked to provide suggestions on previously. However, to date, no further information had been provided. It was noted that in terms of the Play Area Investment the Strategy was to be implemented as planned and that a new Cabinet Member would be appointed to this portfolio in the near future.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor K. May and seconded by Councillor P. Whittaker.

RESOLVEDthat

1)    the Balance Sheet monitoring position for Quarter One be noted; 

2)    the Treasury performance for Quarter One for the financial year 2025/26 be noted;

3)    the position in relation to the Council’s Prudential Indicators be noted.

Expansion of Commercial Waste Collection Service

The Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Community Safety presented the Expansion of Commercial Waste Collection Service for Members’ consideration.

Members were informed that the existing commercial waste service had been successful in growing its customer base and delivered a sustainable income for the Council. The service had delivered and exceeded the returns forecast since the service was previously expanded with additional investment in 2019.

However, the existing service now had no capacity to take on additional customers and required full availability of staff and vehicles to operate each week as there was no surplus staffing to give resilience to the service. The service faced both opportunities such as increased demand following Dudley Council's exit from the market and further legislation that required businesses to ensure they were recycling all of their waste. Alongside this, pressures had arisen from vehicle shortages, staffing constraints, and limited capacity to accept new business.

The report outlined the need to expand the commercial waste collection service to support generation of further income with investment required to fund three key elements.

Firstly, capital funding of £489,760 was required in order to purchase two additional waste collection vehicles to expand and secure the service. Secondly, two ongoing capital funding amounts of £35,000 annually to procure waste containers to support new customers and deliver the service. Thirdly, revenue funding of £334,342 for the recruitment of staff and associated costs of operating the expanded service was needed.

This investment was forecast to generate a related net surplus from 2026-2027 onwards allowing the Council to support more businesses to meet their statutory obligations, whilst also strengthening the resilience

of the existing service.

In essence, these proposals were concerned with securing compliance, protecting income, and ensuring the Council’s commercial waste service was able to continue to provide the high standards of service that has attracted over two hundred local businesses to trust the Council with their waste management arrangements to date.

Following the presentation of the reports, Members requested further clarification on several areas. These were as follows:

• Staffing Levels – Members queried the number of extra staff required to operate the two additional waste collection vehicles and whether the correct amount of revenue funding had been allocated. Members were informed that the revenue funding did include the appropriate amount of funding to provide two new crews for the additional waste collection vehicles along with a coordinator role in order to provide greater resilience for the service.
• Biofuel and Electric Fleet Vehicles – Members queried whether the Council was close to replacing its fleet with Biofuel or Electric vehicles. It was noted that electric vehicles were not suited for use with the heavy vehicles for commercial and domestic waste. Currently the Council used Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) in thirty per cent of its fleet. When smaller new vehicles were purchased for the fleet electric vehicles were to be considered.
• Members expressed that this service had been a success since its introduction and the commercial nature of this service should be a model used in the new structure of local government.
• The VAT treatment of anticipated revenues from the expanded commercial waste service and clarification of what VAT should be charged. It was noted that VAT was not applicable for commercial waste collections within Bromsgrove but was for collections outside the District.
• The presentation of the risk contained within the report was clear and concise.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor P. Whittaker and seconded by Councillor K. May.

RESOLVEDthat

1)              Capital Funding of £489,760 be added to the Capital Programme for 2026/27 to purchase two Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCVs)

2)              The Council allocates Capital funding of £35,000 annually in the Medium-Term Financial Plan from the 2025/26 financial year to fund wheeled bins for Commercial Services.

3)              The Council allocate £334,342 Revenue Funding in the Medium-Term Financial Plan to fund operational costs of providing the expanded service from 2025/26.

4)              The Council allocate £100,000 Revenue Funding in the Medium-Term Financial Plan across 2025/26 and 2026/27 for interim vehicle hire.

Business Rates Retention (BRR) Pool 2026-2027

The Chairman informed Council that this report had been withdrawn and would therefore not be considered at this meeting.