Present:

Members	Present	Apologies	Reason
Chair: Cllr M Horwood	Present
Deputy Chair: Cllr V Letchford	Present
Cllr C Barnes		Apologies	Personal Circumstances
Cllr J Barnes	Present
Cllr G Darrington	Present
Cllr J Domigan	Present
Cllr C Lee	Present
Cllr J Tuckfield		Apologies	Holiday

Also Present:
Cllr L Ball
Cllr P Darrington
Cllr J Griffiths
Cllr T Searles

Officers:
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Ryan Hayman via Zoom
Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) – Steve Innes
Executive Assistant – Tracey Bayliss

Public: – None

11551 – APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Cllr C Barnes
Cllr J Tuckfield

11552 – MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
To approve as correct the Minutes of the Meetings held on Wednesday 4th May 2022.
APPROVED & SIGNED

11553 – DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None

11554 – TO RECEIVE THE MONTHLY FINANCES

Civic Centre: RFO commented on the report structure that due to the start of new year figures on the left-hand side of the report will show the first six months for 2021 and the right-hand side of the report will show the first six months for 2022 for comparison purposes.

Alexandra Suite: Chair of Policy & Finance commented on the fantastic start to the year and the fact that the venue is fully booked over the coming months.

Olympic: 7000 Salaries – it was noted that the salary bill was higher than normal. RFO confirmed that this was due to two additional members of staff working for security reasons but is being monitored.

It was noted that for transparency purposes that there will be an emergency spend for pumps and drains for the sewage system showing in next month’s income and expenditure.

This emergency spend was approved by the Chair of Policy & Finance due to the urgent need.

Swanley Park: Chair of Policy & Finance commented on April’s income that we managed to more or less break even.

It was mentioned that the new Pedalos seemed to have almost paid for themselves already within one moth which was quite impressive.

There was a slight reduction because the normal Pedalos did not make as much.

Housing Stock: Chair of Policy & Finance noted that there was a slight error in the formatting of the report and the income budget is incorrect and the expenditure is showing £312,000 but this is due to the error and that will be corrected.

There was not very much expenditure at all and most of the rent payments were received as normal.

A query was raised regarding one of the rental properties that there seemed to be payments missing for April 2022, how many payments the tenant had actually missed and why were they missing them.

RFO confirmed that there were no payments missing, the payment date was rescheduled to assist with the tenant’s salary date.

The payment in March 2022 reflected that revision in the payment date and recently in May the next instalment has already been received.

It was noted for the actual 2021/2022 budget that although the payments were irregular it was in line with what was expected for the overall budget.

It will be closely monitored to ensure the tenant is keeping up with the expected payments.

Estates: RFO commented that 4212 Service Recharge – Urban Maintenance we would be invoicing for the annual contract maintenance which covers hedge and grass cutting for KCC very shortly.

The purchase order has been received and the new amounts will be invoiced towards the end of this month and show in next month’s reports.

Bank Reconciliation: Chair of Policy & Finance noted that there was an underspend in last year’s budget of around £150,000.

This has been moved into the CCLA account, the reserve account, which is why that has gone up from £280,000 at the end of last financial year to £428,663.

The intention of that is for around £100,000 will be proposed to be a ‘Health Hub stabilisation fund’.

As we hopefully purchase the land to make the Health Hub viable and to get the Public Works Loan Board to have the funds available for the build, there will be a period of time, possibly one to two years, where we will be paying the interest on the Public Works Loan Board.

That will equate to around £50,000 per year so it will be reserved to help us cover that period. This will come to Full Council. The reminder of £50,000 is earmarked for projects that have been agreed to improve the Alexandra Suite.

RFO commented that there are a number of projects that the budget has allowed for and will be covered by the main bank account and were covered in the budget figures.

Last year surplus funds were transferred into the reserve account so will sit there until such times as it needs to be used.

£121,000 that was from CIL in the Civic is shown on the bank statement. Of that £121,000 plus the £24,000 that was left over from last year’s finances, some have already been agreed be earmarked for the Rugby club premises at the Olympic, the contribution towards the Skatepark and contribution to the next stage of the paths at Swanley Park.

That gives around £71,000 left over that is remaining for the next stage of projects – Swanley Park drainage, potential for solar panels at Swanley Park and the further upgrades of the paths.

CEO added that with regards to the underspend from last year there are some other things to take into consideration.

The toilets were not renewed at the Alexandra Suite which was included in last year’s budget. However due to some supply chain issues the project has been transferred into this year’s budget, so this will show an additional £20,000 on the project which was agreed from last year’s budget but not this year’s budget.

There is also a new additional £20,000 spend on windows and doors which we had not agreed in the projects and that is down to be on the agenda at the next Full Council meeting.

It was asked if the Health Hub contracts had been exchanged on the purchase of the car park land and are we in receipt of the Public Loan Works Board money as yet.

CEO confirmed that we are not in receipt of the funds as yet and we have not exchanged.

Public Loan Works Board have apologised for the delay as they are massively understaffed and they are not able to approve applications as quickly as normal.

They have said that it has gone through the first stage of evaluation and is now onto the person who will sign it off and because it is over £500,000 it needs to go through two stages, we have passed the first so there is no reason to think that we would not pass the second stage.

It was asked what the situation regarding the sellers of the land was and if they were happy with to sit and wait until the money comes through.

CEO confirmed that he spoke to them two weeks ago and advised them that he hoped to have conversations with them at the end of May with regards to the exchange and they confirmed that they were happy to wait.

Payments Out: It was asked if the bore hole had been completed in Swanley Park. CEO confirmed they had completed the 70 meter deep bore hole.

They have fitted the pump although it has not yet been switched on but it is effectively completed and this is what the cost is associated to – the installation of the bore hole.

It was noted that OT Drilling was the payment for the bore hole work.

Creditors/Debtors: RFO confirmed that everything was pretty much up to date. The creditors have all been paid.

The debtors highlighted in green have all been paid and some further have been paid since the reports were printed.

Only one currently outstanding but is being monitored to ensure payment is received.

It was asked that when payments received on the report in green, will they already be shown in the accounts payment sheets or are they going to appear on next month’s. RFO confirmed that they will show in May.

It was commented what an improvement the creditors/debtors reports were and that there are not any outstanding older debtors.

RFO commented that on the Creditors report there was Machine Games Duty which shows outstanding,

however it is not, this is the duty that we have to pay on gaming machines and it is collected every three months by HMRC so it will always show three months in arrears.

RESOLVED – accepted reports A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J

Date of next meeting – Wednesday 22nd June 2022

MEETING CLOSED AT 20:19

SIGNED: 22/06/2022
Cllr M Horwood
Chair of Policy and Finance