Agenda item

To receive and consider the report of the Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) with an update on the current year’s work programme relating to Capital and Special Revenue Projects; as well as projects identified during the course of the year for inclusion as Revenue Growth Items or Special Revenue Projects in the Council’s Revenue Budget or Capital Projects for 2025/26 and beyond.

The Committee received and considered the report of the Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) along with a verbal explanation of its content which indicated the need for a £67,000 - £76,000 increase in support of Community projects.

Many of the proposals discussed at this point of the meeting were featured in the reports to the Committee later in the meeting.

Members were pleased to see the inclusion of improvements to the services provided to the community and discussed the impact of each of these. They were conscious that the budget needed to remain within sensible bounds as any increases would be met by the taxpayer.

A Member advised that in a report of the Institute of Fiscal Studies that every £1 saved by Councils in budget setting led to £8.25 in criminal justice costs and therefore careful consideration was necessary if decisions were made to reduce the proposed budget recommendations for youth services.

Members were in agreement that the payments to support both Home Sstart and The Station should be retained. In light of this, the Committee discussed the amount to be attributed to the Youth Services Grant budget line, a discussion was held as to the current budget of £40,000 and if that could be reduced however, Members were all in agreement that it remain and that the APCAM budget line be removed and that should an application from APCAM be received then it could be considered under the Youth Services Grant budget.

It was proposed by Councillor R Smith and seconded by Councillor J Aitman that the detached youth service be asked to budget for the provision of the Youth Café from their existing grant payment.

Recommended:

1.      That, the report be noted and,

2.      That, the Station Detached Youth Project be asked to provide a Youth Café and,

3.      That, the existing £40,000 Youth Service Grant budget remains unchanged, and

4.      That, that the Revenue Growth and new Capital items be agreed by the Policy, Governance & Finance Committee.