Agenda item

Report of Director of Finance (enclosed).

The Executive Cabinet presented a report on the provisional outturn figures for the 2005/06 Capital Programme, indicating the measures the Council proposed to institute to rectify the identified overspends.

The report also put forward for consideration a revised Capital Programme for 2006/07, together with the recommendations of the Capital Programme Board on a number of new projects suggested for inclusion in the Programme as Category B or as reserve list Category ‘C’ schemes for consideration when resources became available.

In response to queries raised at the meeting concerning the projected overspend on the Town Hall disabled access and refurbishment scheme, the Executive Leader reported that Consultants had been engaged to examine both the reasons for the overspend and the feasibility of the Council being able to recover part of the excess costs.

Decisions made:

(1)    That the Council be recommended:

         (a)    to note the provisional outturn of the 2005/06 Capital Programme;

         (b)    to approve the reduced Capital Programme for 2006/07, totalling £12,160,320, as presented in Appendix 3 to the submitted report, and the financing arrangements therefor;

         (c)    to approve the reduction of the Housing Revenue Account budget for 2006/07 by £264,330, as a result of the overspend in 2005/06;

         (d)    to approve the following recommendations of the Capital Programme Board:

               New Capital Schemes and Projects

         (e)      That the following new schemes be placed on the reserve list (Category C) for future consideration when resources become available:

                  1.      Integration software.

                  2. Union Street/Market Street/St Thomas’ Road Mini Roundabouts and zebra crossings.

                  3. APP/Civica Housing Assessment Module.

         (f)      That the following new schemes be placed in Category B of the 2006/07 Capital Programme:

                  1.      Euxton Villa Football Club

                  2.      Music Café Project

                  3.      Gillibrand Street Site Assembly

                  4.      Affordable Housing Project

                  5.      Website Refresh

                  6.      Migration to OS Master Map

                  7.      eDevelopment and Building Control Project

                  8. Pedestrian improvements to Southport Road and St Thomas’s Road

                  9. Section 106 Funded – Various Highway Improvements linked to Gillibrand Estate and Southlands High School

                  10.       Various Traffic Calming/Local Road Safety Schemes

                  11.       Litter/Dog Waste/On-street recycling bins

(2)    That a report of the findings of the Consultants upon the conclusion of their inquiry into the overspend on the Town Hall refurbishment project be presented to a future Executive Cabinet meeting.

Reasons for decisions:

The financing of the 2005/06 Capital Programme, as presented, avoids the use of borrowing to finance General Fund schemes in part by maximising the use of external contributions such as Section 106 commuted sums.  Borrowing has been restricted to financing the HRA schemes to avoid an adverse impact on the General Fund reserve budget.

The Capital Programme for 2006/07 needs to be updated to take account of slippage and other changes.

The expansion of Category ‘C’ schemes brings forward new projects for consideration for inclusion in a future Capital Programme.

Alternative option(s) considered and rejected:

Prudential borrowing to finance HRA schemes in 2005/06 could be avoided by using restricted capital receipts.  This has been rejected because those receipts are required to finance the General Fund Housing Investment Programme from 2006/07 onwards.