Issue - meetings

Accountant David Hill presented the working estimates and actual revenue and capital expenditure to 31 March 2011 for Environmental Health Services.

It was noted that £183,912 was being returned to the General Fund, the main proportion of which had been saved via waste management. This was largely due to the new service overachieving its target by collecting approximately 700 tonnes over the first six months, as well as a £53,000 saving from sickness levels being reduced to 5%, and £10,000 saving from NI182, which was suspended by the DCLG. It was still being decided whether surveys would be pursued corporately, with the option of engaging in a shared service.

The Portfolio Holder received and noted the end of year Financial Monitoring Reports for 2010/11.

The Accountant presented this report, which summarised expenditure up to 30 September for this portfolio and compared this with a pre-determined budget profile covering the same period.

Savings to be identified

It was noted that £35,000 of funding that had been expected from the LPSA reward grants had not been forthcoming and £35,000 of savings to be identified had been carried over from the previous year. This equated to an overspend of £70,000, which was offset against a projected underspend of £41,000 for this portfolio, leaving approximately £30,000 of savings still to be identified.

Savings due to increased recycling

The withdrawal of LPSA funding has resulted in an unexpected overspend of £35,000 due to a commitment to a two year lease of a mechanical street sweeper and an extra cost of £25,000 for replacement green boxes and unforeseen insurance costs. However, it was expected that the new blue bin service would increase income through more recycling. It was also hoped that it would make the Council one of the top five local authority recyclers in the country. It was understood that other external factors, such as the thickness of newspapers, the price of recycled paper and the increase in the cost of diesel could all affect the costs and savings related to waste collection. It was noted that by purchasing its diesel in collaboration with Donarbon, the Council had the lowest cost per litre of all the district councils in the county.

The Leader NOTED the report.

The Environmental Services Portfolio Holder received a report comparing the actual revenue expenditure and capital expenditure for Environmental Services during the three-month period ending 30 June 2010 with a pre-determined profiled budget covering the same period.