Issue - meetings

***The report and appendices for this item are to follow as they are currently being reviewed and finalised***

Resolved

(1)      That the contents of the report be noted.

The Director of Finance submitted a report which summarised Cherwell District Council’s forecast revenue and capital outturn position for 2021/22 as at September 2021 for the Committee to consider the financial aspects of the report.

The Chairman advised the Committee that prior to the meeting, he  had raised a number of queries on the report with the Assistant Director of Finance.  The Chairman accepted that there had not been enough time to answer all the questions and requested that responses be circulated to all Members of the Committee outside of the meeting.

In introducing the report, the Assistant Director of Finance explained that the improvement of the presentation of the Performance, Finance and Risk Monitoring report was ongoing.  Some changes could be made relatively quickly but others took a bit longer as they needed to be reworked and presented in a different way.

In response to Members’ comments about the potential delays in the Food and Garden Waste Project roll out, the Chief Executive explained that there was currently a problem with supplies, but it was anticipated that there would not be a delay in roll out of this project.

In response to Members’ questions regarding the forecast reduction in care park income, the Assistant Director of Finance undertook to provide further information to the Committee.  The Assistant Director of Finance explained that Finance Business Partners met with Service Managers monthly to review financial forecasts, which inform the following years budget.

In response to questions from the Committee regarding aged debt, the Assistant Director of Finance explained that the monitoring of aged debt and virements was a new aspect of the monitoring report and had been added as it was required by the Financial Management Code. In terms of reporting write offs, the Assistant Director of Finance agreed that this should be added to the monitoring report.

The Director for Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer advised the Committee that the Finance Procedure Rules were being reviewed as part of the Constitution Review and undertook to review the governance of the aged debt write off with the Assistant Director of Finance and report back to the Committee.

Resolved

(1)      That the contents of the report be noted.