Apologies were received from Councillor Marsie Skeete.

Councillors Byers and Stringer attended remotely.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 September 2021 are agreed as an accurate record.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet noted the approach to rolling forward the MTFS for 2022-26.

2.    2 That Cabinet confirmed the latest position with regards to savings already in the MTFS

3.    That Cabinet agreed the approach to setting a balanced budget using the unmet balance of last year’s savings targets as the basis for the setting of targets for 2022-26.

4.    That Cabinet agreed the proposed savings targets.

5.    That Cabinet agreed the timetable for the Business Plan 2022-26 including the revenue budget 2022/23, the MTFS 2022-26 and the Capital Programme for 2022-26.

6.    That Cabinet noted the process for the Service Plan 2022-26 and the progress made so far.

The Chair announced that items 4, 8 and 9 would be presented together. For the purposes of the minutes they are minuted separately in agenda order.

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented the report, thanking officers for their work on the report which set out the current position on income and expenditure. It was noted that there would be a number of changes to the report in due course.

The Cabinet member gave an overview of the report, noting that the current MTFS showed a gap of £1.175m in 2022/23 increasing to £17m in 2023/24. The current assumption was for a 2% Council Tax increase but there had been no precept assumption at this point. Savings would need to be brought forward and a further paper would be presented to Cabinet in December prior to being considered by Scrutiny panels. The Cabinet Member thanked officers and all councillors on the scrutiny panels who would be considering the Business Plan.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet noted the approach to rolling forward the MTFS for 2022-26.

2.    2 That Cabinet confirmed the latest position with regards to savings already in the MTFS

3.    That Cabinet agreed the approach to setting a balanced budget using the unmet balance of last year’s savings targets as the basis for the setting of targets for 2022-26.

4.    That Cabinet agreed the proposed savings targets.

5.    That Cabinet agreed the timetable for the Business Plan 2022-26 including the revenue budget 2022/23, the MTFS 2022-26 and the Capital Programme for 2022-26.

6.    That Cabinet noted the process for the Service Plan 2022-26 and the progress made so far.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed to no longer proceed with the proposal to implement emissions based parking charges from October 2021.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor Anthony Fairclough spoke on the item, expressing his concerns that the report did not address the remaining two policies of the diesel levy and increased charges in Wimbledon and Raynes Park and requesting that further measures to tackle air pollution and the climate emergency be explored.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health thanked Councillor Fairclough for his contributions and presented the report, responding that a clean air pilot zone had been developed in Wimbledon and a strategy on electric vehicle charging was also being developed.

The Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and the Climate Emergency also spoke on the item.

The Director for Environment and Regeneration stated that the Air Quality action plan set out the Council’s actions on the issue and noted that the Council was awaiting the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure delivery plan from TfL to enable the council to make further progress on this issue.

The Chair thanked officers for their work and it was

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed to no longer proceed with the proposal to implement emissions based parking charges from October 2021.

RESOLVED:

A. Following the procurement process set out below, and subject to approvals through the relevant governance processes in LBs Croydon, Kingston ,and Sutton, that Cabinet approved the South London Waste Partnerships (SLWP) recommendations for the RB Kingston (procuring authority on behalf of SLWP) to award Lot 1 to Bio Collectors , Lot 3.1 to Country Style , Lot 3.2 to Olleco , and Lots 5.1 and 5.2 to SUEZ

B. As approved the contracts will be for an initial period of 4 years and 7 months commencing on 1 September 2022, with possible extensions up to 31 March 2030 for a total contract value of £16m for the full term.

C. That Cabinet delegated authority to the Director of Environment and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member to agree any future contract extension on behalf of LB Merton.

The Cabinet Member for Local Environment and Green Spaces presented the report which outline the procurement process for the contracts, noting that the current contracts were due to expire in August 2022.

The Cabinet Member thanked officers for their work on the report and it was

RESOLVED:

A. Following the procurement process set out below, and subject to approvals through the relevant governance processes in LBs Croydon, Kingston ,and Sutton, that Cabinet approved the South London Waste Partnerships (SLWP) recommendations for the RB Kingston (procuring authority on behalf of SLWP) to award Lot 1 to Bio Collectors , Lot 3.1 to Country Style , Lot 3.2 to Olleco , and Lots 5.1 and 5.2 to SUEZ

B. As approved the contracts will be for an initial period of 4 years and 7 months commencing on 1 September 2022, with possible extensions up to 31 March 2030 for a total contract value of £16m for the full term.

C. That Cabinet delegated authority to the Director of Environment and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member to agree any future contract extension on behalf of LB Merton.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet approved the award of a contract for CCTV and ANPR upgrade including maintenance to the successful bidder identified in Appendix 1 for a term of four years with the option to extend for a further 12 or 24 months.

B. That Cabinet delegated authority to exercise the option to extend this contract to the Director of Environment and Regeneration.

The Cabinet Member for Partnerships, Public Safety and Tackling Crime thanked officers for their work and presented the report which sought to agree a full upgrade of the CCTV equipment.

The Director of Environment and Regeneration spoke on the item to advise that the report sought approval to appoint the contractor for the maintenance of the network and the capital programme held the funds necessary to upgrade the equipment.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet approved the award of a contract for CCTV and ANPR upgrade including maintenance to the successful bidder identified in Appendix 1 for a term of four years with the option to extend for a further 12 or 24 months.

B. That Cabinet delegated authority to exercise the option to extend this contract to the Director of Environment and Regeneration.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet noted the financial reporting data for month 4, July 2021, relating to revenue budgetary control, showing a forecast net adverse variance at year end on net service expenditure of £5.095m, increasing to £8.027m when corporate and funding items are included.

B. That CMT noted the contents of Section 5 and approve the adjustments to the Capital Programme contained in Appendix 5b

That Cabinet noted the contents of Section 5 and Appendix 5b of the report and approve the adjustments to the Capital Programme in the Table below:

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented the reports for items 8 & 9 covering periods 5&6. The Cabinet Member thanked officers for their work monitoring and handling budgets across the Council and noted the continuing impact of the pandemic on income and expenditure.

The Director of Corporate Services advised that the current proposed pay award had been rejected and therefore the Council were awaiting further updates from Unions as to whether staff would be balloted for strike action.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet noted the financial reporting data for month 4, July 2021, relating to revenue budgetary control, showing a forecast net adverse variance at year end on net service expenditure of £5.095m, increasing to £8.027m when corporate and funding items are included.

B. That CMT noted the contents of Section 5 and approve the adjustments to the Capital Programme contained in Appendix 5b

That Cabinet noted the contents of Section 5 and Appendix 5b of the report and approve the adjustments to the Capital Programme in the Table below:

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet noted the financial reporting data for month 5, August 2021, relating to revenue budgetary control, showing a forecast net adverse variance at year end on net service expenditure of £4.825m, increasing to £6.461m when corporate and funding items are included. And Cabinet note the change in reporting treatment for covid related business rate losses as outlined in section 3.

B. That Cabinet approved the transfer of £750k revenue budget from the corporate contingency to E&R relating to the unachieved emissions based charging saving target for the current financial year (saving reference ENV2021-04). This transfer and resulting forecast impact has been reflected within this report.

C. That Cabinet noted the contents of Section 5 and Appendix 5b of the report and approve the adjustments to the Capital Programme in the Table below:

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented the report as minuted within Item 8.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet noted the financial reporting data for month 5, August 2021, relating to revenue budgetary control, showing a forecast net adverse variance at year end on net service expenditure of £4.825m, increasing to £6.461m when corporate and funding items are included. And Cabinet note the change in reporting treatment for covid related business rate losses as outlined in section 3.

B. That Cabinet approved the transfer of £750k revenue budget from the corporate contingency to E&R relating to the unachieved emissions based charging saving target for the current financial year (saving reference ENV2021-04). This transfer and resulting forecast impact has been reflected within this report.

C. That Cabinet noted the contents of Section 5 and Appendix 5b of the report and approve the adjustments to the Capital Programme in the Table below:

To RESOLVE that the public are excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following report(s) on the grounds that it is (they are) exempt from disclosure for the reasons stated in the report(s).

The Cabinet agreed not to refer to the exempt information contained in item 7 during consideration of the items and therefore the meeting remained in public.