Issue - meetings

The Head of Finance introduced the financial update and highlighted the £124k current projected overspend. This would likely increase due to the ongoing legal claim from Serco, with the £500k reported at the first quarter to remain as a provisional cost. The majority of the Committee’s adverse variances arose from the closure of facilities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Government had recently announced funding to support Councils as leisure providers, with an application to be submitted to attempt to offset the Council’s overspend. The first instalment of funding from the Sales, Fees and Charges scheme would be received by the end of the November 2020.

In response to questions, the Head of Finance confirmed that there was an average of 252 stalls at the Market between mid-June to early November 2019. For the same period this year there had been 616, which would have been further increased if not for the essential goods sales requirement currently in force. The Head of Finance would provide information on the feedback received from stallholders to the Committee via email.

The Equalities and Corporate Policy Officer introduced the performance monitoring information for quarter two and noted that two of the five targeted indicators had met the target set, with the remaining three indicators achieving within 10% of their target. The Museum had re-opened with social distancing measures, with online learning resources created by the learning team for use across social media platforms. By September 2020, 5275 views were achieved across Facebook and Twitter. A correction was made to the number of visitors to the museum from quarter four, which was 15,417 instead of 35,702.

The Committee expressed thanks to the Officers involved for the work undertaken. 

RESOLVED: That

1.  The Revenue position as at the end of Quarter 2 for 2020/21, including the actions being taken or proposed to improve the position, where significant variances have been identified, be noted;

2.  The Capital position at the end of Quarter 2, be noted: and

3.  The Performance position as at Quarter 2 for 2020/21, including the actions being taken or proposed to improve the position, where significant issues have been identified, be noted.