Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4 - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Sara Goodwin, Interim Democratic Support Manager  01902 555043 or Email: sara.goodwin@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

            Apologies were received from Cllr John Reynolds and Cllr Paul Sweet.

2.

Declarations of interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

3.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 97 KB

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.]

Minutes:

Resolved:     

That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 June 2016 be agreed as a correct record.

4.

Matters arising

[To consider any matters arising from the minutes.]

Minutes:

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

5.

Income Generation Civic Halls pdf icon PDF 78 KB

[To approve the proposal to offer the Visitor Economy Box Office out to tender, in order to generate income in excess of £110,000.]

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cllr Andrew Johnson introduced a report summarising the case for procuring the Visitor Economy Box Office service. The service sought to optimise the commercial income of the newly refurbished concert halls, ensuring the venue had the box office and marketing system required for the improved venue and consolidating its new place in the market.


Resolved:     

That the proposal to offer the Visitor Economy Box Office out to tender, in order to generate income in excess of £110,000 be approved.

6.

Civic Halls Improvement Programme pdf icon PDF 91 KB

[This Report will be sent to Follow.]

Minutes:

Cllr Andrew Johnson introduced a report providing an update on the Civic Halls Improvement Project which had been approved by Cabinet in October 2014. The report sought approval from the Panel for the revised proposals, the capital funding profile and the revised commercial income targets.

 

Resolved:     

That the Cabinet (Resources) Panel:

 

1.    Approve the revisions to the proposals, the capital funding profile and the revised and improved commercial income targets for the Civic Halls Improvement Scheme.

 

2.    Approve additional capital resources of £2.6 million for the Civic Halls Improvement Scheme funded through additional borrowing that is fully funded from additional net income from the Civic Halls.

 

3.    Note that the capital requirements outlined in the report provided an update to the position reported to Cabinet on 29 June 2016 in the Capital budget outturn 2015/16 including quarter one capital budget monitoring 2016/17 and financial strategy report. As a result, the report of Cabinet to Council on 20 July 2016 would reflect these revised changes and provide a comprehensive update to the capital programme.

 

4.    Note that the procurement process and arrangements for contract award were considered in the procurement report elsewhere on the agenda.

 

5.    Note that the MTFS would be adjusted to reflect the additional net income to the Visitor Economy service required to meet the additional borrowing costs.

7.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Implementation Grant pdf icon PDF 77 KB

[To approve the expenditure of £437,000 in 2016/17 to be funded from the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Implementation Grant to fund the Implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 in relation to high needs disabled children and young people.]

 

Minutes:

Cllr Val Gibson introduced a report in relation to The Children and Families Bill 2013 which included proposals to reform provision for children and young people with special educational needs or with disabilities (SEND). 

 

The Department for Education had allocated funds to each local authority as part of the SEND Implementation Grant. The purpose of the grant was to provide support to local authorities in England towards expenditure lawfully incurred or to be incurred by them. Wolverhampton had been allocated a total of £237,000 in 2014/15, £157,000 in 2015/16 and £178,000 in 2016/17. 

 

Resolved:          

That the Panel approve the expenditure of £437,000 in 2016/17 to be   funded from the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Implementation Grant to fund the Implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 in relation to high needs disabled children and young people.

8.

Revenue Budget Monitoring 2016/2017 pdf icon PDF 213 KB

[To consider the likely revenue outturn position compared with the council’s approved revenue budgets for 2016/17 and related targets]

Minutes:

Cllr Andrew Johnson introduced a report is to providing the Panel with a projection of the likely revenue outturn position for the General Fund and Housing Revenue accounts, compared with the Council’s approved revenue budgets for 2016/17.

 

Resolved:     

That the Cabinet (Resources) Panel:

 

1.    Approve the use of £436,000 from the Transformation Reserve to fund various transformation priorities as detailed at section 4.3.2 of the report.

 

2.    Approve the use of £762,000 from the Efficiency Reserve to fund various efficiency priorities as detailed at section 4.3.3

 

3.    Approve the use of £256,000 from the Regeneration Reserve to fund various regeneration priorities as detailed at section 4.3.4

 

4.    Approve the write off of three sundry debts totalling £34,091.28 as detailed in Appendix F.

 

5.    Approve three virements totalling £184,000 detailed in Appendix G.

 

6.    That the projected outturn for the General Fund for 2016/17 was in line with the approved net budget requirement of £217.4 million.

 

7.    That projected redundancy costs; including the cost of pension strain totalling £3.0 million were included in the forecast outturn. The projected costs were subject to change dependent upon the actual redundancies approved by year end. It was anticipated that underspends against the central provision for auto-enrolment and pay award costs would offset the cost of redundancies at this stage, however the allocation of capital receipt flexibility to transformational projects in 2016/17 was currently under review with the potential for redundancy costs and the costs of other transformational projects to be met in this way. Cabinet and Council would be presented with an update on the use of capital receipts to transformational projects over the forthcoming months. In the event that the use of capital receipts replaced previously approved specific reserve drawdowns, an update would be provided to Cabinet and Council.

 

8.    That 2,070 sundry debt accounts totalling £679,754.52 had been approved for write off by the Director of Finance in accordance with the Council’s Financial Procedure Rules.

 

9.    That 413 council tax accounts totalling £135,981.75 had been approved for write off by the Director of Finance in accordance with the Council’s Financial Procedure Rules.

 

10. That 30 non domestic rates accounts totalling £94,149.12 had been approved for write off by the Director of Finance in accordance with the Council’s Financial Procedure Rules.

 

11. That 39 housing benefit accounts totalling £5,993.82 had been approved for write off by the Director of Finance in accordance with the Council’s Financial Procedure Rules.

 

12.  That a £15.5 million surplus on the Housing Revenue account (HRA) is projected compared with a budgeted surplus of £14.9 million as shown at table 7 and in detail at Appendix H to the report. The projected increased surplus of £594,000 would be used to redeem debt in line with the HRA Business Plan.

9.

Exclusion of press and public

[To pass the following resolution:

 

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information on the grounds shown below.]

Minutes:

Resolved:     

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

10.

Procurement - Award of Contracts for Works, Goods and Services

[To award contracts and delegate authority to execute the contracts in respect of the recommendations as required]

 

Minutes:

The recommendations for the award of contracts for works, goods and services were introduced by the relevant Cabinet Member.

 

Resolved: 

That the Cabinet (Resources) Panel authorise:

 

1.         Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for Housing and City Assets, in consultation with the Strategic Director for Place, to approve the award of a contract for Window Cleaning Services for up to four years from 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2020 for a total estimated contract value of £440,000 when the evaluation process is complete.

 

2.         Awarding the contract for Housing Revenue Account Capital Works Programme to Wolverhampton Homes Limited of Hickman Avenue, Chillington Fields, Wolverhampton, WV1 2BY for the year 2016/17 for a total contract value of approximately £5.3 million

 

3.         Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for City Environment, in consultation with the Strategic Director for Place, to approve the award of a contract for Pinfold Bridge Refurbishment for two months from November 2016 to December 2016 for a total estimated contract value of £800,000 when the evaluation process is complete.

 

4.         Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for City Environment, in consultation with the Strategic Director for Place, to approve the award of a contract for i54 to Science Park Cycleway Works for two months from November 2016 to December 2016 for a total estimated contract value of £500,000 when the evaluation process is complete.

 

5.         Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for City Environment, in consultation with the Strategic Director for Place, to approve the award of a contract for Repair and Maintenance of Cremators for four years from 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2021 for a total estimated contract value of £320,000 when the evaluation process is complete.

 

6.         Awarding the contract for Residential and Outreach Short Breaks provision for disabled children and young people to Progress Children’s Services of 127 Millfields Road, Bilston, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV4 6JG for a duration of five years from 1 August 2016 to 31 July 2021 for a total contract value up to £3.25 million.

 

7.         Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for City Economy, in consultation with the Strategic Director for Place, to approve the award of a contract for the Civic Halls Improvement Programme for up to two years from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019 for a total estimated contract value of £10.8 million when the evaluation process is complete.

 

8.         Delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for City Economy, in consultation with the Strategic Director for Place to approve the award of a contract for Box Office Services for up to eight years, subject to performance and termination clauses, from 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2024 for a total estimated contract value of £1.6 million dependent on ticket sales, when the evaluation process is complete.

 

9.         Delegated authority to the Director of Governance to execute contracts in respect of the above as required.

 

10.      That the Panel note the letter dated 29 June 2016 received from Cabinet Office, Department for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Heath Town Regeneration

[To make approvals and delegate authority in respect of the recommendations as required]

Minutes:

Cllr Peter Bilson introduced a report in relation to Heath Town regeneration. Members considered the report and welcomed the proposals.

 

Resolved:

That the Cabinet Panel (Resources):

 

1.    Approve the lease arrangements for the lower ground and ground floors of Ling House to the Hope Family Centre on concessionary rental terms.

 

2.    Approve, in principle, the proposed community self-build project with Black Country Make at land off Inkerman Street, subject to the submission of an acceptable Business Plan.

 

3.    Approve delegated authority to the Cabinet Member for City Housing and Assets, in consultation with the Strategic Director of Housing, to agree the granting of a lease to Black Country Make for the use of land off Inkerman Street.

 

4.    Delegate authority to the Cabinet Members for City Housing and Assets and Resources, in conjunction with the Strategic Director for Housing Services and the Director for Finance through an Individual Executive Decision Notice to approve the finally agreed terms for various transactions involving Heath Town Regeneration including any lease variations or licences.

 

5.    Note the relocation of the Hope Family Centre moving from Chervil Rise to Ling House once refurbishment works have been completed.

 

6.    Note the surrender of part of the existing area leased to Sanctuary Housing Association, removing a small area of walkway currently within the leased area, to permit its demolition as part of the Heath Town regeneration works. 

 

7.    Note the intention to terminate the lease with the GP Dr Christopher, Chervil Rise Surgery by December 2016, if the practice has not already moved to alternative premises, with support from NHS Property Services and NHS England.