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Minute of Meeting
of 22 June 2006
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1
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The Minute of
Meeting of 22 June 2006 was approved.
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Declaration of Interest
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2
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The Chairman
and declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of item 53
The Vice
Chairman declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
items 16 and 53.
Mr Alex A
Macdonald declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
item 30
Mr Norman L
Macdonald declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
items 9 and 53.
Mr Norman M
Macleod declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
item 53.
Mr George
Lonie declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of item
3.
Mr Alex
Mackintosh declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
item 3.
Mr Neil
Campbell declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
item 3, and the third additional item.
Mr Archie K
Campbell declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
items 3, and 12
Mr Donald
Manford declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
item 3.
Mr Angus
Nicolson declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
items 16, 19, and 49 and the third additional item.
Mrs Annie
Macsween declared an interest in item 38.
Mr John Mackay
declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of item 12
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Mr Martin C
Taylor declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of item
12.
Mr Ronald J
Mackinnon declared an interest and left the meeting during consideration of
item 12.
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Minute of Meeting of Housing Stock
Transfer Sub-Committee of 16 August 2006
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3
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The Minute of
Meeting of Housing Stock Transfer Sub-Committee of 16 August 2006 was approved.
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Minute of Meeting of Human Resources
Sub-Committee of 21 August 2006
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4
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The Minute of
Meeting of Human Resources Sub-Committee of 21 August 2006 was noted and the
recommendations on page 3 were approved.
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FINANCE
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General Fund Capital Monitoring
PR100.03
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5
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A Report was
submitted by the Director of Finance to provide Members with an update on the
progress of the 2006/07 Capital Programme at 30 June 2006.
The Report stated that Forecast Capital Expenditure in 2006/07 was
expected to be £31.6m. This compared with £30m achieved in 2005/06. If this level of expenditure was achieved
it would require the acceleration of resources from 2007/08, as it was £3.8m
above available resources.
At 30 June 2006 19.46% of the forecast expenditure for the year
had been achieved. The summary of expenditure was shown in Appendix 2, to the
Report and the Report stated that the detail per Committee is available in
the August Information Bulletin and on the Comhairle’s intranet.
It was agreed to recommend that, in so far as the
Committee’s interests were concerned the Comhairle approve the Forecast
Out-turn as the Revised Approved Programme for 2006/07 and specifically
approve:
(1) in the Education Capital Programme,
slippage of £837k, including:
£209k in the Boiler
Plant Replacement Programme
£50k in the Schools
Accessibility Programme
£100k in the Water
Services Improvement Programme
£53k in the Window
Replacement Programme
£83k in the Toilet
Improvement Programme
£67k for Energy
Improvements in Sir
E Scott
School
£100k for Structural
Improvements to Schools
£50k for Traffic
Management
£60k for HORSA
Replacement
£65k for Safer School
Playgrounds;
(2) in
the Environmental Services Capital Programme, acceleration of £22k in the ACE
grant scheme;
(3) in
the Transportation Capital Programme, acceleration of £263k in the Spinal Route
project and £3k for Amenity lighting; slippage of £529k for work on the North
Ford Causeway and £110k on Alternative Energy Projects;
(4) in
the Arts and Leisure Capital Programme, slippage of £87k for work at Lews Castle
and £60k for work to play areas;
(5) in the Policy and Resources Capital
Programme, slippage of £61k in work to the Comhairle Offices.
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Arising
out of consideration of this item it was agreed to recommend that Finance
Working Party meet with Chairmen and Directors in relation to pressures on
the Capital Programme and the viability of achieving all projects on the
2004-08 Capital Programme and that a Report on these matters would be
submitted to the next series of meetings.
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6
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A Report was submitted by the Director of
Finance providing Members with a report
on the Comhairle’s treasury activities for 2005/06.
The Report stated that CIPFA’s
Code of Practice for Treasury Management required a report on the activities
of the preceding year’s treasury operation, that included annual measurements
of performance. Borrowing operations
of local authorities were governed by the Local Government in Scotland Act
2003.
The actual results for 2005/06 showed a
total saving in Loan Charges of £512,105 compared to budget. The savings resulted from:
(a)
the effect of converting £10.65m of variable rate loan debt to fixed
rate;
(b)
the receipt in December 2005 of a BCCI dividend of £1.595m;
(c)
slippage in the 2004/05 Capital Programme; and
(d)
the judicious investment of surplus cash balances.
It was further stated that Treasury
Management in local government was regulated by the 2001 revision of the
CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management in Local Authorities (the
Code). The Comhairle had adopted the
Code and fully complied with the requirements. The Code required that the Director of
Finance report annually on the loans fund results of the previous year.
It was agreed to
recommend that the Comhairle note the report
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PR43.06
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7
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A Report was
submitted by the Director of Finance advising Members of the actual
Prudential Indicators for 2005/06 and the estimated Indicators for 2006-2009.
The Report stated that CIPFA had prepared the Prudential Code in
order to underpin the new system of capital finance for local
authorities. The framework in the Code
included a set of Prudential Indicators which had to be set at the beginning
of the financial year for the forthcoming financial year and subsequent two
years.
It was further stated that Prudential Indicators for 2006-2009 had
been approved by the Comhairle on 9 February 2006. The actual Indicators for 2005/06 based on
the unaudited accounts to 31 March 2006 had been calculated and were detailed
in paragraphs 4.1 – 12.6 of the Report.
Based on the actual results for 2005/06, the estimated indicators for
2006-2009 had been revised.
It
was agreed to recommend that the Comhairle that the actual Prudential
Indicators for 2005-07 be noted and the revised Prudential Indicators
detailed in the Report be approved.
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8
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A Report was
submitted by the Director of Finance informing Members of the Comhairle's
forecast revenue out-turn for 2006/07
The Report
stated that at the end of 2005/06 the Comhairle was showing uncommitted
balances of £4,067K, whixh were detailed in Appendix B to the Report. However, with budgeted deficits in the
current and next financial years, forecast free balances at the end of
2007/08 would be reduced to £920K, which was significantly below the
Comhairle’s target of £1,800k. It was recommended that the Directors of
Social Work and Corporate Services reported back to the next series of
meetings on options to bring their budgets back into balance within this
financial year. Failure to achieve this would further reduce balances to
£529K. A seminar, to consider the
efficiency savings the Comhairle needed to make to address its budget
deficit, had taken place on 29 August.
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It was agreed to recommend that the Comhairle
(1)
note the report; and
(2)
require the Directors of Social Work and Corporate Services, in
consultation with the Director of Finance, to report to the October series of
meetings on options to bring their budgets back into balance during this
financial year.
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It was agreed
that the public including the press be excluded from the meeting during
consideration of the following item on the grounds that exempt information as
defined in Paragraph 3 & 5 namely Information relating to any particular
applicant for, or recipient or former recipient of, any service provided by
the Comhairle and relating to the adoption, care, fostering or education of
any particular child or relating to the supervision or residence of any
particular child in accordance with a supervision requirement made in respect
of that child under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.
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Social Work – Specialist Mainland
Placements 2006/07
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9*
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A Report was
submitted by the Director of Social Work outlining details of the continuing
pressures placed on the Social Work revenue budget by the cost of specialist
mainland placements and advising of the current budgetary position relating
to the specialist mainland placements for adults and children.
The Report
stated that in 2006/07 the Social Work Department received additional funding
of £749k from the Comhairle for specialist placements due to the continual
budgetary pressures. The Appendix to
the Report detailed the current specialist placements within the Social Work
Department. There was a potential
overspend of £178,1k in 2006/07 based on current placement activity, bringing
social work forecasted expenditure in this area to £1,056.3k this financial
year.
It was agreed to recommend that the Comhairle note
the forecasted Social Work costs for specialist mainland placements, as
detailed in Appendix 1 as follows:
(i) £623.3k
for Adult Community Care; and
(ii) £433k
for Child Care.
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Write-Off of Non Domestic Rates
PR100.03.01
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10
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A Report was submitted by
the Director of Finance recommending that an irrecoverable Non‑Domestic
Rates debt be written off.
The Report suggested
that a debt of £3,053.14 in respect of Non-Domestic Rates for 2004/05 be
written off. The Report stated the
debtor had gone into liquidation and the Director of Finance had been advised
that there would be no dividend to ordinary unsecured creditors.
It
was agreed to recommend that the Comhairle write off the Non-Domestic Rate debt, reference 30159245.
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11
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The Clerk
sought and obtained the Chairman’s permission to withdraw this item.
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It was agreed
that the public including the press be excluded from the meeting during
consideration of the following item on the grounds that exempt information as
defined in Paragraph 8 namely Information relating to the amount of any
expenditure proposed to be incurred by the Comhairle under any particular
contract for the acquisition of property or the supply of goods or services
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12*
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A Report
was submitted by the Director of Finance outlining the failure of the Bus
Operation to meet its statutory target and to recommend how this could be
managed.
The Report stated that discussions with the Scottish Executive had
indicated that their main concern was that the Comhairle could demonstrate
Best Value in any solution that had been adopted in respect of the future
operation of the service and that it was for the Comhairle to manage. Section 7 of the Report considered the
potential options available to the Comhairle in relation to the delivery of
the routes PB1, PB2 and Hushinish.
The Report further stated that it would be more cost effective that
the Comhairle’s COU retain the bus contract until the conclusion of the
contract period, provided that it continued to break even. Following the award of the previous
contract, Audit Scotland
had recommended that a Best Value review be undertaken. It was considered
appropriate to commence the review in the year ahead.
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It was agreed to recommend that the Comhairle agree
that
(1)
in light of the analysis provided in the report, it was not
necessary to take any steps to retender Bus Contracts PB1 and PB2 and
Hushinish at this time and note that the Director of Finance will submit a
further report to Committee in the event that he has any concerns in relation
to the financial performance of this STO; and
(2)
the Best Value review of the Bus Operation be commenced as quickly
as possible.
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CAPITAL PROGRAMME
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13
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A Report was
submitted by the Director for Sustainable Communities seeking approval for
the release of £104k currently included on the provisional capital programme,
to the capital programme to enable necessary adjustments to be made to the
Francis Street Museum in order to comply with the requirements of the
Disability Discrimination Act which had come into force on 1 October 2004.
The Report stated that detailed works required to
be carried out on the Stornoway
Museum to ensure
compliance with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995,
which had come into force on October 1 2004.
These measures follow from audits carried out by Technical Services
and the Adapt Trust and consultations with the Lewis Access Panel.
It
was agreed to recommend that the Comhairle approve the release of £104k from the
provisional capital programme to the capital programme for the purposes of
the works detailed in this report to enable the Museum to meet the
requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
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Dun Berisay: Project Evaluation Report on Dementia Unit
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14
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A Report was
submitted by the Director of Social Work seeking the approval of the Project
Evaluation Reports, recommending that work proceed to redevelop a section
within Dun Berisay, with a view to that area becoming operational as a
specialist dementia unit at a later stage.
The Report stated that the redesignation of the planned
phase 1 of the redevelopment of Dun Berisay to a dementia unit had been
approved in September 2005. The Report recommended proceeding to tender,
since the development would represent part of a general improvement required
to meet national care standards, although the designation of the redeveloped
section as a dementia unit would require to be deferred until the necessary
revenue resources would be available.
It was agreed to
recommend that the Comhairle
(1)
approve the Project for the development of a new dementia unit
within Dun Berisay should proceed to tendering, on the basis set out in the
Project Evaluation Report appended to the Report; and
(2)
note that the development would present an enhancement of care
facilities, helping to secure building standards that meet Care Commission
registration requirements, but that the staffing addition required to bring
it into operation as a dementia unit would be dependent on resources being
identified in the future to meet the costs, matched by revenue from NHS
Western Isles.
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MODERNISING GOVERNMENT AND BEST VALUE
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Comhairle Procurement
PR10
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15
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A Report was
submitted by the Director of Corporate Services providied an update on the
work which had been undertaken to develop the Comhairle’s Procurement
Strategy, specifically the work that had been undertaken to implement
e-Procurement within the Comhairle.
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The Report detailed
the output of a Scope and Readiness Assessment
(SRA) carried out by eProcurement Scotl@nd for the Comhairle between mid June
and the end of July 2006. Through a structured process of interviews,
workshops, analysis of financial data and a technology assessment, the
readiness and suitability of the Comhairle for the eProcurement Scotl@nd
service had been tested. The assessment
stated that from the work undertaken during the assessment there were no
apparent constraints which would prevent the Comhairle from implementing the
system in a phased manner. Funding for the purchase of the system, which was
promoted as the ‘number one’ eGovernment initiative in Scotland was
being provided by the Scottish Executive. It was also hoped that the
first year’s funding for the rental charge would be provided by them. In the
event that this was not the case, it was proposed that the initial first year
costs would be funded from the Internal Efficiency Fund.
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