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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Town Hall, Queen's Square, Priory Meadow, Hastings TN34 1QR
Contact: Michael Courts on 01424 451764 Email: mcourts@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Additional documents:
Minutes:
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held12 June 2014 and the minutes of the Annual Joint meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees held on 19 June 2014 be approved as a correct record.
Quarter One Performance and Financial Monitoring Report PDF 75 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Head of Corporate Services presented a report to advise Members of the performance against the 2014/15 targets and performance indicators in Part II of the corporate plan. The report included a summary of financial information.
Members welcomed progress in maintaining high occupancy of the council’s industrial units. The Head of Finance advised that the 3 factory units identified as vacant in the report were now under offer. The council had been informed that 3 further units would be returned in March 2015, at the end of their current lease, and efforts would be made to ensure that these are prepared to be marketed as soon as possible.
The committee noted that collection rates for council tax were currently below target. The Head of Finance explained that a new system had been introduced for recovering council tax payments. Under the new system, the council intervened after a court summons had been issued with the intention of exploring repayment options, rather than referring the case directly to a bailiff. The Head of Finance commented that the council would continue to take a necessarily firm approach, in cases where the council tax payer refused to engage with the council after a court summons had been issued. It was anticipated that the collection rates for council tax would meet their year-end target. Members welcomed this new approach and commented that the quality of advice on housing and council tax matters had also improved significantly.
Members were mindful that businesses now had the opportunity to pay non-domestic rates in 12 monthly instalments throughout the year, rather than 10 instalments. It had also been necessary to adjust the profiling on non-domestic rates following the outcome of some historic appeals. The Head of Finance advised that he anticipated the council would reach its target of a 97.5% collection of non-domestic rates by the end of the financial year.
Discussion took place regarding the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER). The Head of Corporate Services commented that the council had been required to introduce IER as a result of changes to legislation. When the system went live in June 2014, the council had achieved an 86% data match, which was higher than projected given the demographic of the area. Due to software issues, staff had been required to carry out more manual processes to administer the later stages of IER and this had resulted in the transition becoming more resource intensive than first expected. However, efforts continued to ensure that the changes did not adversely affect the number of people eligible to vote in the town.
The committee asked for an update on the work of the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). Councillor Birch responded that the next meeting of the board would focus on efforts to improve educational attainment in the town; the meeting would include presentations by the Director of Children’s Services at East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and the Head of the Ark William Parker Academy. The board also considered other issues of local concern, ... view the full minutes text for item 10.
Update on the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2014/15
Minutes:
The Senior Corporate and Democratic Services Officer gave a spoken update on the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2014/15. Members had begun two of the three pieces of work they had identified as a high priority at the Annual Joint Meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees. The Scrutiny review of engaging with academies was due to begin later in the year.
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