Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting and explained the emergency evacuation procedure.

Apologies for absence had been received as follows:

Cllr Bradshaw, Resources Scrutiny Commission

Cllr Quartley, Growth and Regeneration Scrutiny Commission

Tim O’Gara, Director: Legal and Democratic Services

To note any declarations of interest from councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.  Any declaration of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Resources Scrutiny Commission held on 8 December 2023 (part 1 of the meeting) and 15 December 2023 (part 2 of the meeting) were confirmed as a correct record.

The Chair suggested, and it was agreed that an additional meeting of the Finance Task Group would be arranged for early-mid March.  The purpose of this meeting would be to draw up comments on/flag financial processes/issues that it was suggested should be the subject of early consideration by the new policy committees to be established under the Council’s committee governance model that would take effect from May 2024.

Up to 30 minutes is allocated for public forum items. This public forum session will cover both Part 1 and Part 2 of this meeting of the Resources Scrutiny Commission, i.e. there will not be a separate public forum session for Part 2 of this meeting which is being held on 1 February.

Please note that over the course of these two sessions being held on 30 January and 1 February, the Resources Scrutiny Commission will be scrutinising the Mayor’s 2024/25 budget proposals, as submitted to the Cabinet on 23 January and in advance of the Full Council budget meeting to be held on 20 February. The Resources Scrutiny Commission has no decision-making powers in relation to the Budget but will scrutinise and comment on the proposals.

Any member of the public or councillor may participate in Public Forum. The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda. Public Forum items should be emailed to scrutiny@bristol.gov.uk and

please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:

Questions: Written questions must be received at least 3 clear working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in

this office at the latest by 5.00 pm on Wednesday 24 January 2024

Petitions and Statements: Petitions or written statements must be received at latest

by 12.00 noon on the working day prior to the meeting. For this meeting, this means

that petitions or statements must be received in this office at the latest by

12.00 noon on Monday 29 January 2024

Please also note:

Questions, petitions and statements must relate to the remit of the Resources Scrutiny Commission.

Members of the press and public who plan to attend a public meeting at City Hall are advised that you will be required to sign in when you arrive.  Please note that you will be issued with a visitor pass which you will need to display at all times.

The Chair advised that two public statements had been received for this meeting; no public forum questions had been submitted.

With reference also to a pre-notified member question (see page 9 below), the Chair commented that the level of public forum business and public responses to the 2024/25 budget consultation and subsequent budget proposals was disappointingly low compared to previous years.  It was noted that this might be explained in part by the fact that there were proportionally fewer changes than usual included in the Mayor’s budget proposals this year.

In discussion, the Chair stressed the ongoing desirability of engaging the public more comprehensively and effectively as the Council’s budget proposals are developed.  He suggested that one issue that could usefully be flagged by the Commission/Finance Task Group, in advance of the new committee governance model taking effect, was that the new Strategy and Resources Committee should consider carefully how budget consultations/ proposals/reports are produced in future, in terms of content, narrative and the display of financial detail, with a view to making the content as public friendly as possible.

The Commission then received public forum statements as follows:

1. Gordon Richardson, David Redgewell and Ian Beckey: transport budgets, including transport levy to the West of England Combined Authority.

David Redgewell was in attendance at the meeting and presented this statement.

2. Ian Quaife on behalf of Bristol Older People’s Forum: Clean Air Zone funds/bus service funding.

David Redgewell was in attendance at the meeting and presented this statement on behalf of Bristol Older People’s Forum.

Explanatory note:

This meeting is being held over two sessions (30 January and 1 February) to scrutinise the Mayor’s 2024/25 budget proposals, as submitted to the Cabinet on 23 January and in advance of the Full Council budget meeting on 20 February.

During this ‘Part 1’ session on 30 January, members will scrutinise the sections of the budget relating to the:

- Growth and Regeneration directorate, including the Housing Revenue Account, from approx. 4.30 – 6.00 pm (members of the Growth and Regeneration and Communities Scrutiny Commissions have also been invited to attend this section of the meeting).

- Capital Programme (approx. 6.00 – 6.30 pm)

- Resources directorate (approx. 6.30 – 7.00 pm).

Members’ comments will be reported to the Full Council budget meeting.

During this session, Scrutiny members will focus on the information in the following reports that have been published for the Cabinet meeting on 23 January:

2024/25 budget recommendations and Treasury Management Strategy

(Public Pack)2024/25 Budget Recommendations & Treasury Management Strategy Agenda Supplement for Cabinet, 23/01/2024 16:00 (bristol.gov.uk)

Housing Revenue Account budget proposals 2024/25

(Public Pack)Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget Proposals 2024/25 Agenda Supplement for Cabinet, 23/01/2024 16:00 (bristol.gov.uk)

Barton House emergency evacuation (report on emergency key decision spend)

(Public Pack)Barton House Emergency Evacuation Agenda Supplement for Cabinet, 23/01/2024 16:00 (bristol.gov.uk)

Finance Outturn report (period 8, quarter 3)

Decision Pathway Report P08.pdf (bristol.gov.uk)

At the conclusion of this Part 1 session, the meeting will be adjourned and will reconvene at 4.00 pm on Thursday 1 February.

The Commission considered the following aspects of the 2024/25 budget proposals as approved at the Cabinet meeting held on 23 January 2024:

1. Growth and Regeneration directorate - proposed budget

2. Housing Revenue Account - proposed budget

3. Capital Programme - proposed budget

4. Resources Directorate - proposed budget

1. GROWTH AND REGENERATION DIRECTORATE - PROPOSED BUDGET

a. Commission members had submitted a number of pre-notified questions in advance of the meeting.  The responses to these questions were noted as follows:

1. Waste: How much loss is it anticipated Bristol Waste will make in 2024/25? Will this be covered by anticipated reserves?

Response: Bristol Waste Company (BWC) is in the process of finalising the 2024/25 Business Plan which is due to be published in mid-February. You will note from the council’s budget report (Appendix 9) that £3.9m of growth has been allocated for 2024/25 to meet inflation and additional service costs. More generally, in relation to any further gains/losses that may materialise: planned gains/losses above the agreed uplift will be addressed via BWC movement to/from reserves; unplanned gains/losses in year attributed to the waste area of the business are managed through the contract pay mechanism with a proportional share between BWC and the council.

2. Transport: Under the Growth and Regeneration budget, there is reference to the scooter money as an income. I thought that income belonged to WECA, not to Bristol. Can you clarify please?

Response: The contract for Tier has been procured by the Combined Authority on behalf of the three (unitary authority) highway authorities. There is an in-principle agreement between the Combined Authority and the highway authorities that some of the revenue derived from the contract can be allocated for the purposes of maintenance.

3. Clean Air Zone (CAZ):

a. The Cabinet report indicates a £26m income generation. Can we see a balance sheet for the CAZ?

Response: A balance sheet is not currently available for this programme of activity, however the net forecasted income and proposed areas of spend is outlined in the table provided separately (to Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and Resources Scrutiny Commission members).

b. How much cash has been received, how much is outstanding debt and how has bad debt provision been made against that?

Response: From October 2022 to the end of November 2023, the Council collected £31,248,000. At the end of each financial year, we will analyse the outstanding debt in each month and apply an expected percentage collection rate to each month. We collect a very high percentage of the most recently issued debt and a very low percentage of the oldest debt. This is the methodology we have used for many years for various Penalty Charge Notices with percentages constantly being revised as a result of experience. As the Clean Air Zone is a new scheme, we were particularly prudent at the end of 2022-23 and assumed that our collection rate would be half that of other schemes.

c. There is nowhere that summarises  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.