Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber. View directions

Media

Items
No. Item

SRC.010

Apologies

To receive apologies of absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Housden and Pearson. Councillor Hurst also provided apologies but joined the meeting during Item 10.

SRC.011

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of interest.

Minutes:

There were none.

SRC.012

Minutes pdf icon PDF 289 KB

To approve the Minutes of the meetings held on 10 June 2021 as a correct record.

Minutes:

RESOLVED  That the Minutes of the meetings held on 10 June 2021 are approved as a correct record.

SRC.013

Public Question Time

The Chair of the Committee will answer questions from members of the public submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

 

deadline for receipt of questions

noon on Monday, 19 July 2021

 

Questions must be submitted to the Chief Executive, Democratic Services,

Ebley Mill, Ebley Wharf, Stroud and can be sent by email to Democratic.services@stroud.gov.uk

 

 

Minutes:

There were none.

SRC.014

Procurement Update Report pdf icon PDF 373 KB

To update the Committee on procurement activity across the Council in line with the aims of the Council’s Procurement Strategy.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Senior Policy and Governance Officer introduced the report and explained that the procurement strategy was adopted in 2019 with 3 main aims which had been set out in the report. An update was also provided on the following:

·       A new Contract Management Framework had been formed which set out a standardised approach to managing contracts, included within were the roles and responsibilities of officers and reporting guidelines.

·       The Spend Analysis. Last year out of a £29million spend, £12million of that was spent with local suppliers (those with a GL postcode). There was a slight decrease from the previous year due to the Housing Repairs contracts being brought in-house.

·       Audit and Risk Assurance (ARA) colleagues had carried out a procurement consultancy review which concluded with 5 recommendations each of which were put into an action plan. Those recommendations included ensuring induction training was taking place, amending the way contracts were managed and published on the Council website and the creation of a register for contracts which had been let or extended under the Covid guidelines.

·       New regulations would be coming into effect, following Brexit the Government has agreed to review public contract regulations. Once the new regulations were in place an information sheet would be published to advise the Committee of the main changes.

 

In response to questions from Councillor Davies the Senior Policy and Governance Officer explained there was a thorough training programme for procurement 5 years ago which was very successful and they had recently asked all managers what they felt training requirements now were. Councillor Davies asked for the full list of recommendations raised by ARA. The Strategic Director of Resources pointed out that the report they were looking at was an action plan of what they were going to do to improve the recommendations which were included in the report to Audit and Standards Committee. The Strategic Director of Resources confirmed he would be happy to share the report that went to Audit and Standards Committee with Members.

 

Councillor Brine asked if spend within the local area was growing year on year and what the council would be doing to support local spending. The Senior Policy and Governance Officer noted that the local spend fell this year compared to the previous years due to the Housing Repairs being brought in-house. She stated that one of the aims for 2022 was to increase local spending and to do  this they needed to understand who the local supplies were. In response to a further question from Councillor Brine she stated that she hoped that the revised regulations, which were due imminently, would make the process simpler for local suppliers to apply for council contracts.

 

Councillor Braun raised a question regarding the monitoring dashboard and whether it would be available for members to review on a quarterly basis. The Senior Policy and Governance Officer confirmed that local spend information could be made available in briefing notes to Councillors.

 

Councillor Pearcy raised two points, the first regarded maximising the  ...  view the full minutes text for item SRC.014

SRC.015

Parliamentary Boundary Review pdf icon PDF 310 KB

To ensure that the Council responds to the consultation on 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies being undertaken by the Boundary Commission for England.

Minutes:

The Strategic Director of Resources introduced the report to the committee explaining that there was no requirement for the Council to respond to the consultation however they had encouraged all Town and Parish Councils to respond. He drew the Members attention to Section 3.2 which included the proposal for the Stroud District and Sections 4.2 and 4.3 which set out the proposed response.

 

Councillor Turner Proposed and Councillor Robinson Seconded.

 

Councillor Davies stated that this was a difficult issue and that the proposed response had summarised well the Councils position.

 

On being put to the vote, the motion was carried unanimously.

 

RESOLVED

a)      Note the initial proposals from the Boundary Commission for England; and

b)      Approve the draft Council response to the consultation.

 

SRC.016

General Fund and Housing Revenue Account Outturn Report 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 410 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Strategic Director of Resources introduced the report and confirmed that the draft accounts had already been published a month ahead of schedule. The report covered the General Fund Outturn, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Outturn, Reserves and Capital Project. The Strategic Director of Resources highlighted two of the decisions the Committee was being asked to make which were regards the business rates pool and the Capital Programme budget. He drew Committees attention to the Summary of the General Fund Outturn position in table 2, and confirmed that there was an overall underspend of £786,000 and listed the main reasons for the underspend.

 

The Strategic Director of Resources explained that as the Section 151 Officer it was his responsibility to allocate any under or overspend and was asking Members to consider his recommendations listed in Table 3. The Strategic Director of Resources also directed the Committee to table 4 in section 5.9. He explained the collection fund smoothing to the Committee stating that the government funding for business rates discounts arrived in the last financial year however the collection fund balance wouldn’t unwind until the current financial year, so there is a timing difference.

 

The Accountancy Manager ran through the HRA report and directed members towards table 7 which set out the underspend of the HRA of £373,000. The committee was advised that the proposal for the underspend included £234,000 to be placed in the transformation fund and for £139,000 to be placed in the retrofit reserve as shown in table 8 and paragraph 8.3. The Accountancy Manager also brought the Committees attention to the HRA Earmarked reserves in Section 9 and the HRA general reserves in Section 10.

 

The Accountancy Manager introduced the Capital Programme and confirmed that there was a £12.7million spend against a budget of 22.7 million, this was largely due to timing differences as out of the £10million not spent in year £8.7million was linked to the slippage requested to roll forward into 2021/22.

 

In response to questions from Councillor Davies the Strategic Director of Resources explained that the Brexit funding had not been used and that there had been 3 grant allocations from Government to support the cost of Brexit and it would need to be decided where to put this funding. The Strategic Director of Resources also acknowledged the Council had received substantial support from the Central Government but noted that there was still no information regarding funding after March 2022.

 

Councillor Pearcy asked whether the dispersal of the money shown in Appendix H was spread equally distributed across the district including the more rural areas. The Strategic Director of Resources explained that expenditure was not looked at on a ward by ward basis. If there was something specific within the rural areas that needed to be targeted, then that could be done however, it would have needed to be addressed during the planning stage.

 

Councillor Turner asked where the green homes LADS funding had come from, the Accountancy Manager confirmed it had been received  ...  view the full minutes text for item SRC.016

SRC.017

Leadership Gloucestershire Update pdf icon PDF 441 KB

Minutes:

The Chief Executive provided a brief update to advise that Gloucester City Council were canvassing support for the UK City of Culture bid however, due to tight deadlines they withdrew their Expression of Interest.

SRC.018

Performance Monitoring pdf icon PDF 260 KB

Minutes:

The Chair advised that they were looking to ensure that a youth council representative was able to participate in the Performance Monitoring Meetings going forward.

SRC.019

Regeneration and Investment Board pdf icon PDF 349 KB

Minutes:

The Chair of the Committee stated that the economic development strategy was due at the Committee in September however, that wouldn’t provide enough time to carry out a full consultation and that therefore more time was needed before it would be reported on at Committee. 

SRC.020

Support of the Leisure Contract Provider in Stroud (Sport and Leisure Management) to Recover from the Impact of COvid-19 Update

Minutes:

The Strategic Director of Resources stated they were continuing to support SLM and that they were using the National Leisure Recovery Fund to support them with reopening costs. It was also confirmed that there was £82k left from the initial agreed funding of £150k.

SRC.021

Brimscombe Port Update

Minutes:

The Strategic Director of Place advised that work was ongoing with Grace Network and Rush to find suitable accommodation, he confirmed that Rush was currently progressing opportunities themselves but the offer of support from the Council was still available. The Council was also still assisting Grace Network to explore opportunities. The pre-demolition surveys and contract works were ongoing. There was a community zoom meeting scheduled for the 4 August 2021 for resident to ask questions and find out more information about the project. He stated there was a long term development proposal with the Parish Council to help keep residents informed and involved in the project as it progresses.

Councillor Davies suggested there should be follow up sessions for those that couldn’t attend the meeting as it was being held in the summer holidays. The Chair agreed and echoed the proposal in place with the Parish Council to come up with an ongoing plan in order to keep residents updated.

Councillor Ross paid a tribute to the fantastic work completed by Dave Marshall, the previous Canal Manager, and stated the current success of the project was a great testimony to him.

 

SRC.022

Members' Questions

See Agenda Item 4 for deadlines for submission.

Minutes:

There were none.

SRC.023

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 226 KB

To consider the work programme for Civic year 2021/22.

Minutes:

The Strategic Director of Resources advised that the Committee may need to consider holding an additional meeting in January to consider the Budgets. He proposed an additional Strategy and Resources Committee meeting on 27 January 2022. Councillor Davies asked if they could make the decision imminently so that Members could ensure they were available.

 

The Chair expressed her thanks to the Interim Monitoring Officer who was would be departing the council shortly. She added that he had been a huge support to members and wished him all the best in his new role. The Interim Monitoring Officer thanked the Chair and added that he had really enjoyed working for Stroud District Council. Councillor Davies echoed the chairs comments and added that it was a shame that he did not take a permanent positon at the Council.

 

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