Establishment of a Councillor empowerment fund
Proposal:
Establishment of a Councillor empowerment fund of £135,000 per year over the next three years
Background:
• Establishing a fund to give each councillor £3,000 each per year to spend in their ward
• The scheme would be funded by the Government’s New Homes Bonus, funding given to Northampton Borough Council to support infrastructure when new homes are built in the town
• This would support the councillor’s role of community leadership and allow them to invest in innovative and creative scheme for the benefit of their community
• Overview and Scrutiny Committee carried out a review and subsequently recommended the establishment of a fund to allow Councillors to give direct support to schemes in their community
• The fund would allow small-scale initiatives that directly benefit local neighbourhoods to go ahead when they might otherwise struggle for funding
Budget if approved: £135,000
Creation of a hardship fund to assist people defray costs of rat control
Proposal:
Creation of a hardship fund of around £40,000 to assist people with the costs of rat control
Background:
• Northampton Borough Council ended the pest control service from June 2009
• In the last year in which the service operated, the borough council carried out more than 800 treatments to control rats
• The borough council retained powers to deal with serious problems in the town and has taken enforcement action on seven occasions (giving advice or informal action on many more occasions) in the past year but has not carried pest control on behalf of individuals
• This proposal has come as a result of the council listening to the views of people who are in hardship and say they are unable to pay for this service through a private contractor
• If approved, the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be asked to review and develop a scheme to ensure that the funding was used as effectively as possible and met the needs of local people
Standardisation of car park charges
Proposal: To standardise car park charges across the town
Background:
• Northampton Borough Council car parks are currently designated as either ‘premier’ or ‘standard’. Whilst the majority of car parks are designated ‘premier’, seven car parks – Chalk Lane, Doddridge Street, Marefair, Horsemarket, Market Street, Melbourne Street & Midsummer Meadow are designated ‘standard’.
• Standard car parks (599 spaces) account for 11.8% per cent of the total parking 5,070 spaces in the town. They are located very close to the town centre but have the same facilities and benefits as our premier car parks, but for historic reasons they are around 25 per cent cheaper than other town centre car parks.
• The purpose of this proposal is to achieve greater fairness in car park charging. It is also intended to remove the incentive to park on the fringes of the town centre and to encourage people into the heart of the town to support the town’s retail offer.
• This proposal would bring all council car park charges into line in a bid to standardise prices, making them more straightforward and fairer for customers.
• It will also mean that the reduced parking charges that were introduced in October will now apply. They already benefit from free Sunday parking which applies across all Borough Council car parks.
Budget generated if approved: £160,000
Withdrawal of funding of Police Community Support Officers
Proposal:
Reduction in funding for PCSOs of £100,000
Background:
• Northampton Borough Council has given Northamptonshire Police funding of £100,000 per year
• The funding paid for the provision of four PCSOs in Northampton Borough
• Every other authority in Northamptonshire has already cut funding for PCSOs and Northamptonshire County Council is also proposing to do so
• Northampton Borough Council strongly supports the work of PCSOs but in its current financial position, cannot continue this financial contribution
• The Borough Council has neighbourhood co-ordinators, who work on community safety issues in partnership with other agencies. They will continue to do that, with a new emphasis and focus
• Some of the impact of a reduction in PCSOs will be offset by the work of the relaunched neighbourhood wardens and the newly-established park rangers. Both of these roles provide a lower cost and more flexible resource to address local issues in the town
Review of CCTV operations
Proposal:
A review of how we could make savings by working smarter in how we use CCTV
Background:
• We have identified times where the number of operators could be reduced due to low levels of activity
• We have over 500 cameras at the moment and it is impossible to actively monitor them all, even when an operator isn’t directly monitoring a camera it is recording footage that can be reviewed by Northamptonshire Police at a later date
• In future years we will look at focusing the network on those areas where it is most needed. There are areas of the town where cameras are no longer needed or are the most effective tool, cameras in these areas could be turned off
• We will also start exploring where external funding could help to support the service and retain cameras in the future.
Budget saving if approved: £39,000 in 2012/13 and £68,600 in future years.
Restructure of Community Safety and Licensing administrative functions
Proposal:
To review the council’s community safety and licensing services
Background:
• The demands on our licensing team continue to increase
• By freeing up the time spent on administration, officers will be able to focus their time on the enforcement element of the service
• The council’s newly developed Neighbourhood management teams are also beginning to undertake a number of community safety projects
• The Community Safety and Licensing teams are now both located in the Fish Street office which will also enable closer working together and with the development of staff competencies across the teams it will afford greater flexibility and efficiency as well as the integration of administration functions
• This will review the back office team with the aim of putting a new focus on the front line service
Budget saving if approved: £35,000
Funding the cost of the delivery of the Northampton Waterside Enterprise Zone
Proposal:
Funding of £430,000 next year to support the delivery of the Northampton Waterside Enterprise Zone
Background:
• Northampton Borough Council successfully mounted a bid, as part of the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) for national status as an enterprise zone for Northampton Waterside
• Enterprise Zone status was granted in August 2011 and the Borough Council is now planning, along with partners, how the zone can be created
• It is vital to invest the right skills and resources in getting the Enterprise Zone off the ground so that we attract good quality businesses to invest in Northampton and bring with them job and other opportunities
• The funding for this investment would come initially from the New Homes Bonus reserve, funding given to Northampton Borough Council to support infrastructure when new homes are built in the town
• It is anticipated that this would eventually be repaid through additional revenue from business rates
Restructuring of Northampton Borough Council departments and management
Proposal:
To save more than £640,000 by restructuring Northampton Borough Council departments and services. The Chief Executive is currently conducting a review of senior management structure and consulting affected staff. Proposals arising from this review will be presented in the New Year and will release more savings
Background:
• We want Northampton Borough Council to be a well-run and efficient council so that council tax payers get the best value for their money
• It is proposed to restructure a number of departments such as Finance and look at the way some services are delivered, such as IT, to ensure that we make savings on back office costs and achieve efficiencies
• We are also looking to reduce senior management posts to ensure we remain fit for purpose and can focus on funding frontline service delivery
• We are constantly looking at ways to reduce the cost of our support services and will need to continue to do so for the foreseeable future
Shared legal services
Proposal: The Council is currently running a pilot scheme, Shared Legal Service with East Northamptonshire Council
Background:
• The pilot is designed to generate key data in a business case that will propose the shared legal services between both councils in 2012
• The aim of this proposal is an attempt to achieve cost savings through efficiency and to reduce duplication of services between the Councils
Budget saving if approved: £10,000 each year
Review of Concessionary National Non Domestic Rates Scheme
Proposal:
From April 2013 changes will come in to make Business Rates a localised process rather than being centrally determined. To prepare for these changes we must give notice of intention to make changes to Northampton-based groups before April 2012. In the next year, we will be consulting with local charities and similar organisations on the level of National Non Domestic Rate (NNDR) relief that is applied in Northampton
Background:
• We will be working with partners including the charity sector to develop a relief scheme to help charities through NNDR relief
• This is in preparation for changes in the way National Non Domestic Rate (NNDR) relief will be calculated in the future when powers will be given to local authorities
• We are looking at working with neighbouring authorities to make sure Northamptonshire continues to be supportive of these important and valuable organisations.
Budget saving if approved: There would be no saving in 2012/13. Any future savings would be subject to consultation
Decent Homes
Proposal: Northampton Borough Council is looking to continue its Decent Homes Capital programme for 2012-2013.
This would mean an investment of £85 million over three years in our Decent Homes programme.
Background:
• Two contractors (Lovell's and Frank Haslam Milan) are currently delivering the three-year £22million pound contract (£11 million each)
• 2012 - 2013 will be the second year of this programme
• This years proposed budget is £10 million, of this we have £4.5 million Decent Homes backlog funding from the Government
• This Decent Homes Budget is part of a long term programme to make all NBC properties decent by 2015
• Funding of £18 million 2013-2014 and £35 million 2014-2015 is to be confirmed by the Government
Supporting the town’s voluntary and community organisations
Proposal: Supporting the work of Northampton’s voluntary and community groups through the Borough Council’s Partnership Fund Grant Scheme.
Background:
• The Borough Council recognises the excellent work being done by the voluntary and community sector for the people of Northampton.
• In 2011/12, the Borough Council’s Partnership Fund grant scheme supported 26 local voluntary and community organizations
• Successful applicants for 2011/12 provide a range of valuable services, these included provision of information, advice and advocacy; supporting people with disabilities; helping tackle domestic violence; supporting homeless people and helping victims of crime.
• The council proposes to continue this valuable support through the Partnership Fund grant scheme in 2012/13, maintaining its core funding of £550,000
Increased borrowing costs to fund Disabled Facilities Grants
Proposal: It is proposed the Council invest £1 million of capital to enable further investment
Background:
• DFGs are mandatory for all Council’s for disabled people who qualify for them following an assessment of their housing needs and their financial circumstances.
• As part of the DFG tenants receive walk in showers, stair lifts and improvements to homes to help them live independently in their own homes.
• This will potentially enable more people to benefit from grants