Issue - meetings

This report combines performance and financial information for the Resources Directorate for 2006/07. The performance element covers key and Council Plan indicators and projects, and the financial aspect deals with capital, revenue and Treasury Management variances.

(i)           That the year end financial situation be noted;

(ii)     That the improvement in performance achievements and comments on these be noted;

(iii)    That the carry forward request be agreed to go forward to the Executive for approval;

(iv)    That the accounting approach of using revenue reserves for dealing with the Property Trading account be recommended to the Executive for approval.

Members received a report which combined performance and financial information for the Resources Directorate for 2006/07. The performance element covered key and Council Plan indicators and projects, and the financial aspect dealt with capital, revenue and Treasury Management variances.

The Director of Resources reported that improvements had been made in almost all performance indicators, including key staff indicators relating to sickness and appraisals. 

The net expenditure for the Directorate was £3,053k compared to a budget of £4,922k, which represented a total underspend of £1,869k.  This was a variance of 3.1% compared to the gross budget of £60,122k.  Paragraph 88 of the report set out a number of requests for carry forwards due to slippage in projects primarily within Information Technology & Telecommunications (IT&T) and Financial Services.

The Director of Resources advised Members that the key challenges for the future involved the delivery of major projects, such as easy@york, the administrative accommodation project and job evaluation, and addressing areas where there were still performance problems.

The Assistant Director (Property Services) provided an update on progress with the administrative accommodation project and answered Members’ questions.  He advised that a programme of consultation with Members and officers for the next 6 months was currently being developed.

With regards to the Customer First statistics for telephone calls, Members highlighted the need for improved indicators of the customer experience when contacting the Council and the Assistant Director (Public Services) confirmed that this was under consideration.  In relation to the COLI68 indicator, Members suggested that the indicator should be split to separate urgent and outstanding repairs.  The Assistant Director (Property Services) advised that the indicator had now been changed by the government and would be reported in more detail in future.

Members suggested that a report regarding the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) and the Council’s relationship with it should be brought to a future meeting and the Director of Resources confirmed that this would be scheduled for September.

Advice of the Advisory Panel

That the Executive Member be advised:

(i)           That the year end financial situation be noted;

(ii)     That the improvement in performance achievements and comments on these be noted;

(iii)    That the carry forward request be agreed to go forward to the Executive for approval;

(iv)    That the accounting approach of using revenue reserves for dealing with the Property Trading account be recommended to the Executive for approval.

Decision of the Executive Member

RESOLVED:That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:In accordance with budgetary and performance monitoring procedures.