To receive the above report.

Mark Lampard, Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations gave the Panel a presentation on the 2018/19 Budget. The main points of the presentation were as follows:

Ø  Key messages:

o   Lowest council tax outside of London

o   Resident parking remain free in contrast to neighbouring authorities

o   Keeping all 14 libraries open, some with increased opening hours

o   86% of schools in the Borough were good or outstanding

o   Maintained £330k grant funding to community organisations and increased support for the Citizens Advice Bureau

o   Inflation of RPI 3.9%

o   Indicative fees and charges increased by up to 3.9% or more where justified market benchmarks were higher

o   Increase in core council tax of 1.95%

o   Adult social care precept of 3% applied for the final year

o   Major Capital investment of £65m – due to the regeneration in Maidenhead

o   Ongoing programme of £5.4m savings and additional income

Ø  Indicative fees and charges

o   Parking charges:        

§  Benchmarking to relevant towns and cities showed the Royal Borough to be low

§  Intention to reach benchmark over a period of years

§  No change to all discounted rates for resident Advantage Card holders

§  General parking charge increases towards the benchmarks

§  Season ticket increases depending on the location

§  Resulting in savings of £1.5m

§  Advantage Card holders won’t be impacted by price increases

Ø  Efficiencies and income: £5.4m

o   Outcome based care commissioning efficiency £220k

o   Project management of homecare £200k

o   ICT optimization £320k

o   Bringing revenues and benefits enforcement in-house £300k

o   Parking income growth £325k

o   CCTV upgrade and optimization £202k

Ø  Annual Capital programme £7m net

o   Replacement parking card equipment £775k

o   Commercial and operational estate repairs and maintenance £1.045m

o   Replacement equipment at Windsor Leisure Centre £540k

o   Dedworth Road £350k

o   New London Road roundabout £250k

o   Voluntary organisations grants maintained £200k

Ø  Capital investment net £65m net

o   Braywick Leisure Centre £15.8m

o   Temporary parking facilities £10m

o   Schools expansions £4.9m

The Chairman stated borrow to invest was a good thing. He asked about the fair funding review and if there was any information on that. The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations said he would get back to him with the answer to the fair funding review.

Councillor Da Costa stated the Highways budget made savings, he wanted more in depth detail on that and also the capital budget for projects in the next couple of weeks. The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations confirmed all the information was in the full report in the agenda pack.

The Head of Commissioning/Communities stated the resurfacing budget was £1.65m worth of investment. The specific roads that were to be resurfaced would be announced later. He added with the money has been saved in the highways budget, it was because a lot of the functions had been outsourced so that meant there was a reduction in the rate. Councillor Da Costa asked if he could sit with officers and go through the budget in more detail.

Councillor Hunt asked about replacement parking card equipment and what it was. The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations confirmed it was for pay machines at car parks to accept cards including Advantage Cards.

Councillor Bicknell stated when one goes into partnership mode, the Borough was expecting to make savings without cutting quality or reducing vital services. Volkers were first class, diligent and on the front foot in ability to respond. He was always happy to listen to any problems as was the Head of Commissioning/Communities and his team. He added parking charges were not increasing for residents if they had an Advantage Card.

The Chairman stated the £7m in annual capital programme showed good governance of the Council. He endorsed the recommendations as the budget was for people, growth and investment; he congratulated officers on the work they had done.

Councillor Shelim stated that pothole repairing was much better under the new regime. The Head of Commissioning/Communities confirmed that it was a different contractor carrying out the works and quality standards had been written into the contract. They had provided good performance.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Highways, Transport & Environment Overview & Scrutiny Panel endorsed the recommendations to Cabinet.