Contact: Bevis Ingram, (01962) 847508, Stuart Dorward (01962 846110),
email: [email protected], [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report proposes the capital programme for 2007/08 to 2010/11 (shown as Appendix 1).

1.2 Decisions on the capital programme will support the County Council's corporate priorities, as indicated in the detailed capital programme attached at Appendix 1.

1 Locally resourced capital programme

1.1 The following guideline limits were confirmed by Cabinet at its meeting on 18 December 2006 for the locally resourced programme for Recreation and Heritage:

1.2 The guidelines include an addition of 2.5% for inflation, in line with the non-pay inflation assumption for the revenue budget.

1.3 Executive members may vary the guidelines between years provided their total four-year guideline is not exceeded and bunching of payments in any one year or front-loading is avoided.

1.4 Executive members may propose supplementing their capital guidelines under the `prudential framework' agreed by Cabinet at its meeting on 24 November 2003, thereby integrating more closely decisions on revenue and capital spending in support of corporate priorities. The additions may include:

· virement from the executive member's revenue budget

· temporary unsupported borrowing, to provide bridging finance in advance of capital receipts or other contributions, with the cost of servicing the unsupported borrowing in the interim being met from the executive member's revenue budget or existing capital resources in the years in which cost is incurred.

1.5 In addition, executive members may propose additional schemes funded from:

· use of executive member's share of capital receipts obtained in 2005/06 as allocated by the Cabinet in June 2006 (if not already used for the 2005/06 programme)

· anticipating their share of capital receipts obtained in 2006/07 provided the receipt has actually been received.

1.6 The Executive Member for Policy and Resources has approved the retention of a £50,000 capital receipt in 2007/08 to part-fund the cost of the repair works at the Chapel, Royal Victoria County Park.

1.7 It is proposed that £100,000 be brought forward to 2007/08 from 2010/11 as the urgent need for works at Royal Victoria Country Park Chapel would mean that there would otherwise be insufficient resources in 2007/08 to fund the key priorities outlined in section 3 of this report. In order to achieve this Recreation and Heritage would need to request Cabinet approval for unsupported borrowing, which would in effect be a bridging loan. The average additional cost of interest and principal payments to be borne by the revenue budget would be approximately £8,000 per annum. The revenue repayments will include principal repayments totalling £11,000, so the actual reduction of the capital programme in 2010/11 will be £89,000 not £100,000.

2 Proposed capital programme 2007/08 to 2010/11 - locally resourced schemes

2.1 Recreation and Heritage has benefited from recent major investment in the Gosport and Winchester Discovery Centres. However the annual capital programme is £620,000 which is required to support the County Council's corporate priorities by:

· improving the condition of building and property, aimed at maximising their use

· making facilities more attractive to users and better able to cater for their needs

· investing in new and improved ways of working, principally through ICT

· supporting and encouraging the voluntary sector, mainly through support for community buildings and village halls

· complying with health and safety and disability discrimination legislation.

2.2 In order to support the above aims, it is proposed to make allocations to the following in 2008/09 and beyond:

· countryside and rights of way improvements

· community buildings and village halls

· ICT developments

· Disability Discrimination Act and health and safety schemes

· Minor works - this provision can be used either to enhance the programme of improvements to Recreation and Heritage facilities or to respond to unforeseen circumstances that may arise.

2.3 At this stage, it is not proposed to allocate the total capital programme provision from 2008/09 onwards. The balance to remain unallocated at this stage is £20,000 in 2008/09, £220,000 in the following year and £131,000 in 2010/11. This will partly enable schemes to be ranked in priority order once the service planning process is complete. However, it is also prudent to reserve an unallocated amount until the final costs of constructing and fitting out the Winchester Discovery Centre are known. The minor works provision in 2007/08 has been enhanced partly to support this latter issue.

3 Capital programme summary

3.1 On the basis of the position outlined above, the total value of the capital programmes submitted for consideration for the four years to 2010/11 are:

The revenue repayments will include principle requirements totalling £11,000, so the actual reduction of the capital programme in 2010/11 will be £89,000 not £100,000.

Note: The above figures are net of developers' contributions and exclude the costs of land for programme schemes which are dealt with outside the guidelines.

4 Revenue implications

4.1 The revenue implications of the proposed capital programme are as follows:

	Full year cost
	Revenue expenditure	Capital charges
	£'000	£'000
Schemes within the guidelines
2007/08	30	36
2008/09	30	49
2009/10	30	44
2010/11	30	37
Total	120	166

4.2 The total revenue implications for the four years of the starts programme, including capital charges, represent a real term increase of 0.8% over the 2006/07 original budget of this service. This excludes the cost of the bridging loan.

5 Impact assessment

5.1 The proposals in this report are derived from the departmental service priorities and are in accordance with the budget strategy and the County Council's financial management policy. An impact assessment of the departmental service priorities and the financial management policy has been carried out and the proposals in this report are not considered to be discriminatory.

Recommendations

1 The recommendations are contained in the summary decision sheet.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have 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.