(1)

Councillor Martin Leaves is included under apologies;

(2)

the terms of reference are amended to reflect the amendment to B5 ‘the Director for Environment, Planning and Economy in Cornwall in consultation with the Director for Community Services in Plymouth’. 

(a)

a deficit of £246,000 was forecast for 2010/11;

(b)

proposed savings had been identified and included within the action plan; if the following proposals were implemented, then a saving of £71,000 would be achieved –

?

winter closure including the Barrow Complex with effect from 3 October and Cremyll Shop/Orangery with effect from 31 October;

?

amendment of winter weekend staffing arrangements;

?

reduction of 100 hours overtime per month;

?

closure of plant sales on Fridays (already implemented);

?

ten per cent price increase (actual impact 5 – 8 per cent);

(c)

whilst it was acknowledged that these immediate savings were achievable there would remain a large deficit which would need to be addressed by significant changes in the future operation of the park;

(d)

no assumptions had been made in addressing the additional £100,000 funding requirement for 2009/10;

(e)

work was continuing to investigate further savings options, which included –

?

closure of the Barrow shop, with the most popular and profitable stock lines transferred to the Cremyll shop; the space could be used to generate revenue income through catering or chargeable meeting space;

?

introduction of refreshment sales around the park (bicycle sales);

?

introduction of increased car parking charges and the implementation of car park charges at Barrow Park (plant sales);

?

additional management information which would assist in driving down the cost of sales;

(f)

any capital receipts generated could be used to repay the current borrowing costs which would save a maximum of £30,000 per annum for 10 years, and set aside a capital reserve for future invest to save projects within the estate, with the revenue savings being used to replenish reserves;

(g)

at the previous meeting held on 25 June 2010, the Joint Committee raised concerns relating to the annual governance statement; as a result of the delay, the statement of accounts and the annual governance statement had not been submitted by the deadline of 30 June 2010;

(h)

a letter had been received from the Audit Commission on 13 July 2010 advising that an additional fee would be charged if the return was not received within 10 working days;

(i)

it was hoped that the additional information provided would address the concerns and permit the Joint Committee to approve the annual statement.

(j)

assurances were given that the process relating to the annual statement of accounts and governance statement had been improved which would prevent a similar situation arising in future years;

(k)

if targets had not been achieved within the action plan, then an explanation would be provided detailing the reasons for this;

(l)

a response would be provided to the next Joint Committee on whether any penalties had been incurred in previous years, for the late submission of accounts;

(m)

under the Countryside Act, 1968 admission fees to the park were not permitted;

(n)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.