1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report informs the Council Executive of the current position of the 2002/2003 Capital Programme and available resources.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 That the Executive:

a) notes the current position of the 2002/2003 capital programme;

b) approves the incorporation of additional funding to the 2002/2003 programme as detailed in paragraph 4.1;

c) notes the current position of available resources;

d) notes items which may need to be included in the programme in the near future as detailed in paragraph 5.3.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Included in the report.

4 2002/2003 CAPITAL PROGRAMME

4.1 A capital programme of £20.7million, was approved by Council in February 2002. This, together with carry forward funds from the 2001/02 programme of £8.5million totals £29.2million. The following revisions have now been incorporated into the programme giving a latest revised total of £31.02 million:

· Social Services have been allocated government grant of £19,000 towards IT equipment for looked after children. Also a supplementary credit approval of £100,000 to convert the Stable at Entry Hill Park into a base for a new mental health community rehabilitation team.

· The authority has been allocated £200,000 grant towards E-Government implementation.

· Additional grant funding of £1,255,933 has been made available to the Education Committee. £1,062,000 of this is for school condition surveys and £467,000 of this has been allocated to Property Services to undertake work in this area. The remaining grant is to be devolved to schools. A supplementary credit approval of £242,400 has also been allocated for Access Initiative works.

4.2 Details of the current programme are given in Appendix 1.

4.3 Expenditure to 30th June totalled £3.5 million. This includes expenditure of £405,000 on the Stone Mines project, which will be grant funded.

4.4 Expenditure on the capital programme does not occur evenly throughout the year. Due to lead in times for scheme design, planning etc, generally, most spend occurs within the latter part of the financial year, and some will be expected to carry over to the following financial year. Financial Managers have been asked to produce a quarterly expenditure profile for 2002/03 and to advise of the expenditure anticipated to carry forward to future years. Details will be included in the next monitoring report.

5 RESOURCES

5.1 Details of revised resources are as follows:

5.2 The table shows overprogramming of £2,171,000 in the 2002/2003 programme. This is mainly due to over-programming carried forward from the 2001/2002 budget, plus the net effect of the inclusion of the additional items detailed in paragraph 4.1.

5.3 Members are asked to note the following items which may impact on the authority's available capital resources in the near future:

_ Following a report indicating structural problems at Pulteney Weir, the Resources Director has approved an urgent report on the integrity of the weir. It is thought that if works are required as a result of the report findings, costs may be in the region of £300,000 - £500,000. A full report will be submitted to the Executive as soon as the report is available. The estimated cost of the investigation and appraisal is around £20,000, which can be met within this year's capital programme from minor slippage.

_ Due to a recent fire in Council owned premises, the Social Services Family Team requires new premises. Property Services has been asked to look for suitable premises to either rent or purchase. Rental costs are likely to be in the region of £50,000 per annum and purchasing a property could cost £600,000. Insurance monies available have in the main been spent to enable temporary accommodation to be made available. The Executive will need to consider the financial consequences of this when a suitable property has been identified.

_ The Revenues & Benefits Electronic Document Management system was approved subject to the system being enabled as a 'corporate' system for use by other Council Services. As a result of this requirement, the funding made available to purchase and install this system is overspent. Investigations are ongoing to establish the precise reasons for this, but the Executive are advised that it is possible that as a result, additional funding (of up to £80,000 ) to complete the implementation may be requested. Further information will be presented in due course.

APPENDIX 1 2002/2003 CAPITAL PROGRAMME

** Stone Mines - In addition to the above Council funded budget, £405,000 has been spent which is grant funded.