Agenda item

Report of Head of Democratic Services

The Head of Democratic Services submitted a report to update Members regarding the Panel’s Work Programme.

In accordance with Members of Budget and Performance Panel being entitled to give notice to the Chief Executive that they wish an item relevant to the Panel’s Terms of Reference to be included on the agenda for the first available meeting, two requests had been received, as follows:

 (1)       Request from Councillor Heath regarding:

            Williamson Park

A report to include:

(a)        Current management arrangements;

(b)        Staff turnover and reasons for this;

(c)        Finances;

(d)        Current and future plans for improving the Park and its management;

(e)        To what extent different stakeholders (staff, park users, councillors, and so on) are involved in developing these plans.

It was reported that Cabinet had requested a report on Williamson Park and, in view of this, Councillor Heath asked that a briefing note be presented to the Panel following Cabinet’s consideration of the report.

(2)        Pension Liabilities

A briefing note from officers on pension liabilities and the impact of these liabilities on the budgets of the Council up to and including 2014-15, which includes:

(a)        The impact of pension liabilities on the revenue budget in each of these 5 years;

(b)        The breakdown of pension liabilities by service and department of the Council;

(c)        The relationship between voluntary redundancy on pension liabilities (whether it is financially beneficial to the Council to embark on voluntary severance/redundancy taking into account lump sums and pension enhancement of staff leaving Council service);

(d)        Blue sky thinking about how to reduce pension liabilities (taking into consideration how other local authorities have tackled this issue).

Members were advised that the Chief Executive had advised that he did not feel point (b) was relevant and that point (c) was a policy issue for Personnel Committee.  The Panel agreed that (b) should be excluded but that (c) be retained.

The Panel considered the matters for consideration in the Work Programme (Appendix B to the report).

Resolved:

(1)        That a briefing note be provided on the report to Cabinet regarding Williamson Park.

(2)        That a briefing note be provided on Pension Liabilities in relation to points (a) (c) and (d), to include details regarding the pension legislation.

(3)        That the report from the Climate Change Officer Working Group regarding consideration of sustainable staff travel plans as part of their remit be presented to the Panel’s meeting on 13^th July 2010.

(4)        That the presentation regarding the Community Engagement Service and the future management of Partnerships, Performance, Projects and Programmes be deferred and presented to the Panel’s meeting on 7^th September 2010.

(5)        That briefing notes on the outstanding items in the Panel’s Work Programme be presented to the Panel without delay, including the report on Invest to Save schemes that would provide a greater rate of return than Council investments.

(6)        That the Panel’s Work Programme include the presentation of a written report from the Head of Community Engagement to its meeting on 13^th July 2010, in conjunction with the attendance of the Chair and Vice-Chair of the LDLSP.

(7)        That the Panel’s Work Programme include a report to its meeting on
7^th September 2010 on Monitoring Delivery and Effectiveness of Service Level Agreement Targets.