Agenda item

Members:- please note that a appendix containing exempt information is at item 8.1.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

CouncillorKiddie declared an interest in the subject matter contained within the following article by virtue of his position as member of the Pensions Panel.

Councillors Allan, Cormack, McCaig and John West also declared interests by virtue of their membership of the Gomel Trust.  Councillor John West declared an additional interest by virtue of being a board member of Aberdeen Citizens’ Advice Aberdeen.  None of the Councillors felt it was necessary to withdraw from the meeting during consideration of this item.

With reference to article 5 of the minute of meeting of the Council of 11 February, 2010, the Committee had before it a report by the City Chamberlain which presented the draft Common Good Budget for 2010/2011, along with indicative budgets for 2011/12 and 2012/13.

The report before members indicated that in preparing the draft Common Good Budget, (1)  the strategy approved by the Finance Monitoring Sub Committee of 24 August, 2004, had been applied; (2)  that the calculation of an indicative cash balance using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), as part of the budget setting process, has been adopted as an underlying principle;  (3)  that included in the Common Good Budget for 2008/09 was a sum of £450,000 in respect of the Greenfern Development Site which would, although the fund has adequate monies to meet that expenditure, put pressure on the maintenance of the recommended minimum cash balances pending the recouping of that expenditure at the completion of the project;  and (4)  that for the purposes of the budget process, the CPI figure had been taken as 1.1% for 2010/11, 0.1% for 2011/12 and 0% for 2012/13 in accordance with forecast figures supplied by financial analysts.  The report contained estimates of the cash balances that would be required to maintain the value of the fund over the period 2011-2013.  Also referred to in the report were (a)  the criteria set down in 1976, following consideration at that time of a report on the origin, history and purposes to which the Common Good Fund may be used;  (b)  the fact that the prime purpose of the Council was to ensure that the Common Good was prudently conserved;  and (c)  the acceptance that any activity for which Aberdeen City Council or another public body had a statutory duty to support was excluded from receiving assistance from the Common Good Fund.

The report proceeded to present the draft budget for 2010/11 – 2012/13, in respect of which regard was had to input provided by external bodies supported by Common Good and the various officers responsible for the different expenditure and income lines.  It was also indicated that, in the calculation of staff costs, no increase had been included; projections for interest rates had been received taking account of forecasts prepared by external financial analysts; and a number of broad assumptions, as listed in the report, had been made.

The report went on to confirm that the appendices annexed provided the following information:-

• Common Good Draft Revenue Budget 2010/11 (appendix 1);
• Analysis of Miscellaneous and General Income and Expenditure Headings (appendix 2);
• Donations, Grants, Contributions, Etc. (Line 4) (appendix 3);
• Other Projects (Line 17) (appendix 4);
• Variances 2009/10 Budget to Outturn – Recurring Items (appendix 5);
• Variances 2010/11 Budget to 2009/10 Budget – Recurring Items (appendix 6);
• Items to be referred to the Budget Process (appendix 7);
• Draft Common Good Revenue Budgets – 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 (appendix 8);
• Aberdeen Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) Pension Fund Deficit Funding Request (appendix 9);
• Aberdeen Safer Community Trust Funding Cut Impact Letter (appendix 10);
• St. Nicholas Carillion Report (contained within the exempt papers) (appendix 11); and
• Gomel Trust Balances and Committed Expenditure (appendix 12).

The report further confirmed that some of the information contained within the appendices had been made available in the members’ library.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee:-

(a)       consider the detailed Common Good Budget for 2010/11, set out at appendix 1 and the forecast Cash Balances position;

(b)       approves a Common Good Budget taking into consideration:-  (1)  any proposals to amend the draft budget; (2) any decisions arising out of consideration of items referred to the budget process; (3)  Council’s approval of the General Fund Budget; and (4)  the impact of the above on Cash Balances.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to approve the Common Good budget as set out within appendix 1 to the report subject to (1)  the provision of £10,000 toward the Battle of Harlaw project; (2)  the provision of £7,800 for the Gomel Trust (to be reviewed in future years); and (3)  the provision of £15,000 toward refurbishment of the charity shop;

(ii)        to not approve the request from the CAB for additional monies in respect of pension contributions;

(iii)       to take no action as regards the proposal to reduce the CAB funding by five per cent;

(iv)       to retain the Carillion;

(v)        to take no action to reduce the level of funding for the Aberdeen Safer Community Trust;

(vi)       to seek a review of Council funding for all trusts, supported by the Common Good,  in order to assess Best Value; and

(vii)      to request a report back in the near future, on the pension liabilities of the CAB and other organisations.