Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 14/11/2024

The minutes of the meeting held on 14th November 2024 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to Antony.nash@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk   by 8.30am on 14/01/2025

When submitting your question or statement please note that:

•         You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

•         a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

•         It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

•         Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

•         when submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder)

•         Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.

•         questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

•         all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

There were no questions from the public on this occasion.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

The submissions must be emailed in full to Antony.Nash@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk  by 8.30am on 14/01/2025 

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no questions from Councillors

To consider a report by the Corporate Director – Finance and Commercial

The committee received a report, and the Chair introduced the item and noted the informal budget sessions that had taken place prior to the meeting. There was an introductory discussion which covered.

·       An initial comparison between the budgeted figures and actual spend for the past 3 financial years.

·       Differences between budget and actual spending including the impacts of the pandemic on budgets.

·       Assets and property budget in relation to the compliance activities that were undertaken in the recent years to update and maintain its estate.

·       The wider context was described and the removal of funding from central government to rural counties and the impact on this and future budgets.

Appendix 1d

Appendix 1e

No discussion or recommendations

Appendix 1f

When looking at this appendix the discussions covered the following areas.

·       Staffing costs and the impacts of holding vacancies on service provision, including the extension of the holding time given to vacancies to increase savings.

·       Technology, automation and AI’s role in delivering efficiencies and the availability of tools that can have impacts with low implementation and use costs and the example of AI in the consultation process was given.

·       Dorset Travel and the ongoing pressure on that service in terms of ongoing and increasing demand. The renegotiation of the contracts had a positive impact on spend and there was a discussion around the merits of alternative provision to further reduce and manage costs.

·       The impact of the parking charge changes including the addition of nighttime charging

·       Changes and the addition to out of county charging for the use of Household Recycling Centres and the nuances that could be considered in any changes adopted.

·       Moors Valley and the services there which have had contract negotiations and changes to offerings had realised benefits for the 25/26 budget

·       The approach being taken with greenspace services including collaboration with town and parish councils in service delivery

·       The impact of changes around Department for Education funding removing the funding from sites not providing national curriculum education and the decisions around the future provision of built leisure facilities.

·       Changes to garden and food waste contract changes and renegotiation impact on the budget.

·       How the interest accrued was dealt with and attributed in the budget which was clarified by the overall financial operation of the council is held centrally