No apologies were received.

No pecuniary declarations were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2015 were agreed as a correct record.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet agrees the Heritage Strategy 2015 – 2020 and its associated work plan.

The Cabinet Member for Community and Culture presented the report which detailed the proposed new Heritage strategy 2015-2020. It was emphasised to the Cabinet that the strategy had been set around four principles: namely increasing the profile and public access to the borough’s unique and diverse cultural heritage; safeguarding the borough’s varied heritage sites and resources; making Merton’s heritage provision more inclusive and working collaboratively to widen public engagement and participation; and finally increasing funding and investment in Merton’s heritage through partnership work, external funding and sponsorship.

It was noted that the strategy had been subject to pre decision scrutiny and the report strategy was amendment accordingly to reflect the view expressed.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet agrees the Heritage Strategy 2015 – 2020 and its associated work plan.

RESOLVED

1).    That Cabinet agree the draft protocol which will be amended to reflect the partners safeguarding responsibilities with any changes being delegated to the Directors of CSF and E&R in consultation with the relevant cabinet members.

2).    That, in reviewing the draft protocol, Cabinet noted the discussion and recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Commission at its meeting on 24 November 2015, set out in section 3 of this report.

The Cabinet Member for Environmental Sustainability and Regeneration presented the report which detailed the proposed revised Travellers Protocol to replace the existing one, which had been in place since May 2010. It was emphasised to the Cabinet that the new protocol was based on the previous incarnation, but sought to speed up a number of the processes, as detailed within section 2.4 of the report.

It was noted that the protocol had been subject to pre decision scrutiny and their views were detailed in section 3 of the report, which states that the reports was well received.

RESOLVED

1).    That Cabinet agree the draft protocol which will be amended to reflect the partners safeguarding responsibilities with any changes being delegated to the Directors of Children, Schools, and Families and Environment and Regeneration in consultation with the relevant Cabinet members.

2).    That, in reviewing the draft protocol, Cabinet noted the discussion and recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Commission at its meeting on 24 November 2015, set out in section 3 of this report.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet:

1).    notes the update of the work to establish a new model for the council’s HR service

2).    supports the long term ambition to establish a shared HR service with London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (LBRuT) and Wandsworth Borough Council (WBC) and also support the setting up of an internal interim HR service and support the delegation of further decision making about its establishment to the Director of Corporate Services

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented the report which provided an update on the future of the Council’s HR services following the Council giving notice to leave the current shared HR function with the London Borough of Sutton in 2016. The report set out the proposed approach moving forward that in the long term the Council’s ambition would be to establish a shared HR service with London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth Borough Council. However it was noted it would not be possible to start this joint service for between 2-3 years due to a number of technical issues that would need to be addressed before the new shared HR service could be established. Therefore in the interim, it was proposed to create an internal ‘interim’ HR service and those officers would be TUPEd over from the staff currently working for the joint HR function with London Borough of Sutton.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet:

1).    notes the update of the work to establish a new model for the council’s HR service

2).    supports the long term ambition to establish a shared HR service with London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (LBRuT) and Wandsworth Borough Council (WBC) and also support the setting up of an internal interim HR service and support the delegation of further decision making about its establishment to the Director of Corporate Services

RESOLVED

That Cabinet

1).    agrees the draft savings/income proposals (Appendix 1) and associated draft equalities analyses (Appendix 5) put forward by officers to go to Cabinet and refers them to the Overview and Scrutiny panels and Commission in January 2016 for consideration and comment.

2).    agrees the latest amendments to the draft Capital Programme 2016-2020 which was considered by Cabinet on 19 October 2015 and by scrutiny in November 2015.(Appendix 4)

3).    considers the proposed amendments to savings previously agreed. (Appendix 2)

4).    consider the draft service plans. (Appendix 6)

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented the report which provided an update on the Business Planning process for 2016-20 and in particular on the progress made so far towards setting a balanced revenue budget for 2016/17 and over the MTFS period as a whole. It was noted that one of the noticeable difference from the previous version of the Business Plan considered by Cabinet was the addition of equality impact assessments for the savings previously identified.

It was noted that the report had been before the Scrutiny Panels in advance of the Cabinet and though there was no formal report back from scrutiny, they had not recommended any changes to the saving identified in the first round of the budgetary process. Scrutiny would be receiving a further version of the Business Plan in early 2016 for further considered, with their comments being put before the Cabinet at its February 2016 meeting.

The Cabinet was also informed that the proposals contained within the Business Plan would have to be considered in light of the Autumn Statement recently announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Once further details surrounding the Autumn Statement were published the Business Plan would likely be amended accordingly.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet

1).    agrees the draft savings/income proposals (Appendix 1) and associated draft equalities analyses (Appendix 5) put forward by officers to go to Cabinet and refers them to the Overview and Scrutiny panels and Commission in January 2016 for consideration and comment.

2).    agrees the latest amendments to the draft Capital Programme 2016-2020 which was considered by Cabinet on 19 October 2015 and by scrutiny in November 2015.(Appendix 4)

3).    considers the proposed amendments to savings previously agreed. (Appendix 2)

4).    consider the draft service plans. (Appendix 6)

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1).    notes the financial reporting data relating to revenue budgetary control, showing a forecast net overspend at year end of £3.2million, 0.59% of the gross budget.

2).    approves the virement of £306,720 from the OCPB reserve for the Mapping and Data Improvement (MADI) project. This is for the procurement of services to survey and map electronically the location and condition of the authority’s environmental assets, such as street lighting, gullies, bins, tress etc. so as to improve the management of these assets as well as support an electronic user friendly approach for residents to report defects to the service areas.

3).    approves the virement of £182,120 from the OCPB reserve for the Planweb/Stratus replacement project which will replace two mapping solutions with a single modern solution that will allow for both the service areas to manage their assets and information graphically as well as allow residents to view location based information in a graphical manner.

4).    notes the adjustments to the capital programme detailed in appendix 5b and approve the following adjustments to the Capital Programme

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented the report which provided the regular monthly financial monitoring update for October 2015, in respect of the 2015/2016 financial year. It was noted that the net overspend expected at the year-end was £3.2million, 0.59% of the gross budget, which had decreased since the previous month’s report.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1).    notes the financial reporting data relating to revenue budgetary control, showing a forecast net overspend at year end of £3.2million, 0.59% of the gross budget.

2).    approves the virement of £306,720 from the OCPB reserve for the Mapping and Data Improvement (MADI) project. This is for the procurement of services to survey and map electronically the location and condition of the authority’s environmental assets, such as street lighting, gullies, bins, tress etc. so as to improve the management of these assets as well as support an electronic user friendly approach for residents to report defects to the service areas.

3).    approves the virement of £182,120 from the OCPB reserve for the Planweb/Stratus replacement project which will replace two mapping solutions with a single modern solution that will allow for both the service areas to manage their assets and information graphically as well as allow residents to view location based information in a graphical manner.

4).    notes the adjustments to the capital programme detailed in appendix 5b and approve the following adjustments to the Capital Programme