Members considered the latest financial update. The Lead Member highlighted that £330,000 had been added to the Home to School Transport budget this year but significant pressures were expected and the anticipated overspend at this stage was predicted to be £220,000.

He commented that the Maidenhead Advertiser earlier that day had reported that the council was to spend £840,000 to keep bus services running in the area. It was confirmed that the additional cost was actually £153,000; the rest was in the base budget.

The Lead Member then took Cabinet through a number of capital items that had required recommendations in the report:

·         An allocation of £483,000 as discussed earlier for road resurfacing. This was at no cost to residents.

·         £200,000 of funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency for the vacant possession of a site at Braywick Court. This was at no cost to residents.

·         Accommodation for the benefit of Braywick Court School at the Riverside Primary site. £130,000 would come from the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the remaining £60,000 from SEN grant funding.

·         Bisham School would soon become part of the Ashley Hill Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) which already ran two successful primary schools in the borough. It was appropriate for the borough to ensure the fabric of the school was in a fit state for the transfer and further maintenance costs. An agreement had been made with the MAT therefore £200,000 needed to be earmarked for 2019/2020 and 2020/21.

The Lead Member for Children’s Services requested an additional recommendation following the decision at Full Council earlier this week, to conditionally gift a piece of land to Lowbrook Academy so the school had the best chance of securing external funding for their expansion proposals. The gift would be conditioned for expansion purposes only and until 2022.

The Chairman requested the insertion of the words ‘for Forest Bridge School’ into recommendation iii).

Members noted that recommendation v) should refer to £200,000 rather than £200,00.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUALY: That Cabinet:

i)             Notes the Council’s projected outturn position for 2017-18.

ii)            Approves the addition of a £483,000 grant funded budget to the capital programme for further investment in the planned maintenance of the highway asset and improvements to transport infrastructure (details in paragraph 4.14).

iii)           Approves the addition of a £200,000 budget to the capital programme to cover enabling costs in achieving vacant possession of a site in Braywick Park for Forest Bridge School. The budget will be funded by a contribution from the Education Funding Agency (details in paragraph 4.15).

iv)          Approves the addition of a £190,000 grant funded budget to the capital programme to cover costs of an additional double classroom for Riverside school (details in paragraph 4.16).

v)            Approves the addition of a £200,000 budget to the capital programme in 2019-20 and £200,000 in 2020-21 for the maintenance of the school buildings at Bisham Primary School. Further details in paragraph 4.17.

vi)          Delegates the Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Director of Children’s Services to agree the contractual terms of the transfer of Bisham Primary School to the Ashley Hill Trust in relation to the maintenance of the school buildings. Further details in paragraph 4.17.

vii)         That Cabinet gives approval to proceed to invite tenders for phase one and phase two of the shared building services contracts (details in paragraph 4.22).

viii)        Delegates the Lead Member for Children's Services, Director of Children's Services and Head of Law and Governance to complete the transfer of land secured from Cox Green to the Lowbrook Academy at nil cost under a covenant that secures the space for future school expansion

The Chairman thanked riverside for hosting the meeting. He commented that he had spent the day meeting staff across the council offices and thanked them for their hard work in delivering services for residents.