Agenda item

The draft Place Medium Term Service & Resource Plan (MTSRP) update is presented for consideration by the Panel to ensure all members of the Panel are aware of the context and enabled to comment.

The Strategic Director for Place introduced this item to the Panel, she highlighted some key points from within the report.

·  The Core Strategy has now been adopted. This provides a platform to progress the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and complete the Placemaking Plan.

·  The adoption of the Bath City Riverside Enterprise Area masterplan and its incorporation within the Placemaking process will ensure that grants and other forms of external funding can be effectively targeted as well as provide developer confidence.

·  The production of the Getting Around Bath and Keynsham Transport Strategies is an important aspect of the growth agenda identified within both the Core Strategy and the Bath City Riverside Enterprise Area masterplan.

·  Rail electrification and the proposed Metrowest project will have a positive impact on Bath and North East Somerset in terms of future connectivity opportunities. The Place Directorate will continue to work with key partners including Network Rail and First Great Western to ensure that these opportunities are built upon.

She explained that the Place Directorate had gone through a fundamental restructuring process and that the implementation of the new senior management structure had enabled the Directorate to:

·  Meet the challenging management savings target as set out in the MTSRP for 2013/14 and 2014/15 (£600k);

·  Review values and priorities through the development of a Directorate Business Plan;

·  Ensure that key services are linked together to provide value for money and a One Council/One Place approach; 

She stated that the Place Directorate had made good progress on the £2.4m 2014/15 savings target.

·  Management savings for 14/15 are on track as well as service level efficiencies through restructuring.

·  Heritage Service and Destination Management have successfully achieved their targets with additional income and reductions in expenditure.

·  Improvements in parking management, enabled by significant investment in systems and technologies have resulted in increased deployment of staff on the ground, increasing parking availability and resulting in more income being recovered.

She stated that the Place Directorate had been instrumental in implementing the Council’s significant Capital Programme allocation, with a forecast spend of c£45m in 2014/15, in order to meet the Councils’ priorities such as increased capital maintenance to the highways infrastructure including surfacing work to the 683 miles of road network that BANES maintains, implementing Rossiter Road and Radstock regeneration schemes, Bath Transportation Package and Bath Western Riverside. She added that other elements of the 2014/15 programme would also bring improvements to public transport infrastructure, open spaces and walking/cycling schemes.

She spoke of the significant efficiency targets in the plan and those arising from the changes in management and service restructures. She said that the need to increase income opportunities was very challenging to achieve, especially when the call on many services is increasing.

She explained that future financial plans include an aspiration to provide further management savings whilst also delivering a large programme of capital projects, the impact of this and emerging new priorities will have to be considered as part of the restructuring process.

She stated that the majority of the Place Directorate plans remain on track with efficiency in some areas helping to offset expenditure in other areas which will result in the overall budget for the Place Directorate for 2014/15 being met.

She said that it would not be possible to achieve the £300,000 saving in Management Structure Changes through further reductions in the management team and that the Directorate will continue to consider how this saving can be achieved.

She explained that the £100,000 reduction in level of spending in Planning Policy and Environment would be challenging because of the increasing level of work, however, it is anticipated that this saving will be achieved across the broader Development services.

The Chair recalled that in Year 1 of this MTSRP the budget for Environmental Services was reduced substantially and asked if they were at further risk this year.

The Divisional Director for Environmental Services replied that no sudden shifts were planned in this area for Year 3. The approach to food hygiene inspections has been completely revised in order to better use available resources although there is a balance of cost savings and risk.

Councillor David Martin asked if through the rail electrification work Network Rail could be approached to financially assist with repairs to bridges etc. even though Section 106 funding is not available.

The Strategic Director for Place replied that the Council has a positive relationship with Network Rail and that Section 106 funding was now available on matters of Listed Building Consent.

Councillor Liz Richardson asked how much of the Planning budget was spent on consultants.

The Strategic Director for Place replied that she would source a response on that matter from the Divisional Director for Development. She added that further income was hoped to be gained by engaging in the Pre-Planning Application process and they constantly monitor and balance the need for consultants with the need to increase the staff resource.

She said that regarding the earlier comments made by Councillor Hartley that he needed to engage in the Placemaking Plan.

The Chair asked the Panel to note the comments made by Councillor Hartley.

The Panel RESOLVED to note the report.