Report to follow

Doug Napier, Greenspaces Manager, introduced the report. Councillor Nick Draper, Cabinet Member for Community and Culture, and James McGinlay, Head of Sustainable Communities, were present to answer questions.

Doug Napier drew the task group’s attention to the overspends of more than £200k relating to staff costs and service income in each of the last two financial years. He emphasised the seasonal and unpredictable nature of the work and the high proportion of the budget spent on staff. He said that total income from events was substantial and that cemeteries income, which had dipped last year, was increasing this year.

Members asked a number of questions about the benchmarking information  that had been provided. Doug Napier said that no two boroughs have directly comparable services and that although he had done his best to adjust the data it was still an imperfect measurement. James McGinlay added that some of the additional expenditure in Merton compared to Sutton reflects income generation work in relation to sports and other events.

Members said that even though the benchmarking does not provide an exact comparison it raises questions about whether the service is providing value for money and whether some of the activities currently provided should continue. Councillor Nick Draper said that he genuinely believed that the service is value for money and that he would ask officers to work on the benchmarking data to provide more robust comparisons.

Members expressed concerns at differences between the 2016/17 budget and budget forecasts in the quarter 1 financial monitoring report. James McGinlay said that the overspend on overtime payments reflects unexpected additional work (for example that caused by rapidly growing grass verges following higher than average rainfall) that had not been included in the baseline budget. In relation to the underachievement of income, James McGinlay said that income fluctuates from year to year and that the council is in competition with other providers. In response to a question, Doug Napier said that the report captures the main income streams but that there are many others.

James McGinlay said that the Classics in the Park event had made a loss last year and that ticket sales were being monitored against costs for this year’s Live at Wimbledon Park event and would be reviewed so that the event would not go forward unless it would break even. Councillor Nick Draper said that he had taken a decision this week to not proceed with the event as he was not confident that it would break even. He said that it was right to be entrepreneurial and that he would be looking for alternative proposals.

Doug Napier said that there has been a decline in overall demand for provision of football pitches and other sport activities nationally as well as locally. He added that the Phase C procurement would enable assets to be sweated. Councillor Nick Draper said that the contract with Greenwich Leisure Limited was an example of what could be achieved.

Task group members discussed concerns that the data in this report and in the quarterly monitoring report do not support the assertion that the service is efficiently run and that, if there were efficiency savings to be made, this should ideally be done prior to outsourcing. In response, James McGinlay said that officers had received external expert support on pricing during the competitive dialogue phase to ensure that the council would get a good commercial deal; that safeguards in relation to profit share had been built into the contract; and that finetuning would take place before the final award of contract. Caroline Holland added that there may be further opportunity for savings when Kingston and Croydon join the contract.

AGREED to receive further report on Greenspaces budget at task group meeting on 10 November so that a clear understanding of the cost base and the benchmarking information could be achieved. The task group requested more detail of the service’s revenue and commercialisation strategy.