Minutes:
The Chief Executive, Mr Doug Patterson, attended the meeting to respond to questions from the Committee. Mr Patterson gave a very brief introduction highlighting the following issues –
· The financial pressures facing the Council continued.
· The Voter ID pilot was moving forward and the Cabinet Officer had allocated further resources to the Council to support the pilot.
· Discussions would continue with the Metropolitan Police concerning the restructure that was taking place.
· Discussions would also take place with health concerning the regionalisation of CCGs.
Mr Patterson then responded to questions, making the following comments –
· It was anticipated that the additional funding received would provide a 66% increase in staff with each Polling Station having five members of staff on Polling Day. The Chief Executive anticipated that there may be challenges recruiting the volume of staff required.
· The Count would be held on the Friday 4th May during the day.
· The new requirement for Voter ID would need to be well publicised in order make processes on Polling Day as smooth as possible. There would need to be good management of known peak times and every Poll Card would carry information on Voter ID.
· The Chief Executive was not aware of any pilots where Poll Cards were the only required ID but would check. It was the belief of the Chief Executive that Bromley had the most comprehensive list of ID options.
· The pilot was likely to cost in excess of £100k but these additional costs would be picked up by the Cabinet Office.
· The Cabinet Office was undertaking a separate review of postal voting and was considering how to strengthen postal vote ID.
· The Chief Executive stressed to the Committee that he was bound by the Order that had been issued and therefore there was no flexibility in the rules being implemented.
· The Chief Executive had discussed concerns that had been raised following the recent meeting of the Renewal and Recreation Committee surrounding the greater political awareness of Officers with his Corporate Leadership Team.
· The Chief Executive also provided the Committee with a detailed update on a planning issue.
· All Council services were market tested to ensure value for money for tax payers. Where companies with multiple public sector contracts were getting into financial difficulty the Council was reviewing the issues and any common themes to learning lessons enabling a more robust tests as contracts were awarded.
· There was a link to Companies House on the Council’s Contracts Register and scenario planning was undertaken but it was unlikely that there would be a serious in-house bid for either the Exchequer or Waste Contract due to issues with pension liabilities.
· In seeking to set a balance budget in the future, Officers were working through a range of options to present to Members. However, there was not much scope to cut services and there were now few options other than to raise Council Tax. Future financial challenges were likely to necessitate ever closer collaboration with the Health Sector in delivering much needed efficiencies around the care of older people.