Contact: Ian Howell, ext 7540

1 Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

· That the capital schemes not started by 31 March 2003, listed in the Appendix to the accompanying report, be carried forward to 2003/04.

2 Reason

2.1 A number of capital schemes originally expected to start in 2002/03 were not committed by 31 March 2003 for various reasons as explained in the accompanying report. Approval is required for those to be carried forward and started in 2003/04.

3 Other options considered and rejected:

3.1 Not applicable

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or a member or officer consulted

4.1 Not applicable.

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

5.1 Not applicable.

6 Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent

6.1 Not applicable.

Approved by: ................................... ... Date: .........................

Councillor T K Thornber

Contact: Ian Howell, ext 7540

1 Introduction

1.1 Approval is required to carry forward those capital schemes which were planned to start by 31 March 2003 but which, for the reasons set out in the Appendix to this report, will not now start until the current financial year.

2 Schemes to be carried forward

2.1 The total value of schemes to be carried forward for a start in 2003/04 is £22.4m. In addition, during the year a further £5.6m of Education schemes and a net £1.3m of Environment schemes (as detailed in paragraph 2.2 below) have been approved for carry forward to 2003/04.

2.2 The Environment local transport programme is managed to take full advantage of Government borrowing approvals - and to make sure that those borrowing approvals are not exceeded so that there are no unplanned calls on local capital resources. In the early part of 2002/03 it looked as though payments would fall short of the available borrowing approvals and schemes totalling £6.780m were advanced in May and September 2002 to the 2002/03 starts programme from later years of the approved programme. Subsequent progress in implementing schemes proved better than expected and in January 2003 it was necessary to defer starts on schemes costing £8.103m to 2003/04 and later years, to avoid payments in 2002/03 exceeding the available borrowing approvals. These deferred schemes were included in the programme for 2003/04 to 2006/07 approved by Council in February 2003. In effect, schemes to a net £1.323m within the original programme have not been started in 2002/03.

2.3 After allowing for these deferred Education and Environment schemes (on a net basis), 79.1% of the 2002/03 programme has been started in 2002/03, as the table on the following page shows. This is similar to the level in 2001/02 when 84.8% was started during the year, and much better than in 1999/00 and 2000/01 when the proportion was 60.0% and 67.4%. The steps taken during 2001 to improve the delivery of the programme have continued to be successful. Early indications are that actual capital payments in 2002/03 are very close to the level estimated earlier in the year and this also supports the view that delivery of the capital programme is progressing in line with expectations.

3 Reasons for schemes not starting by 31 March 2003

3.1 The Appendix includes the reasons for not starting each scheme during the year. Some are dependent upon specific negotiations and arrangements being made with third parties. The Government's support for the New Deal for Schools (NDS) block allocation for 2002/03 is available until the summer of 2003, so starts on NDS schemes will span two financial years.

3.2 The largest projects not started by 31 March 2003 were:

3.3 The total value of these eight large schemes is £14.7m which represents 65.8% of the total value of schemes for which approval to carry forward is now sought. About 55 smaller schemes and an unallocated provision make up the remaining £7.7m. All the schemes are listed in the Appendix.

3.4 It is recommended that approval be given to carry forward the schemes listed in the Appendix to 2003/04 subject to the latest estimated costs of the schemes being accommodated within the overall starts limits for 2003/04.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

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