Agenda item

The minutes of the last meeting, held on 19 November, 2009, were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising - 

In response to a query from the Chair, the Assistant Director, Transformational Change, advised that the report on ‘L35/N18 – Pricing policy and Take up campaigns’, due to be submitted to the current meeting, would be presented at the next meeting of the Committee on 4^th February, 2010. This was to accommodate Officers’ time commitments. Members requested that the Commissioner for Community and Leisure and a representative from Slough Community Leisure be invited to attend this meeting with regard to this item.

With reference to Minute 49, the Chair enquired as to whether Officers were aware of any further information in relation to the reduction of the Mayor’s budget. The Assistant Director informed the Committee that a written response had been received from the Mayor’s Office. The deletion of the permanent Mayor’s driver post and the subsequent use of contract drivers as necessary had led to a significant saving of £8,100. This would be a long-term budget saving and would be carried forward to the following year.

A Member raised a query, with regard to minute 51, about the way in which grants were allocated / used. The Committee was advised that the Members Voluntary Panel dealt with grants made to small voluntary groups and that, in future, the minutes of the meetings of this panel,  including the outcome of any grants awarded, would be circulated to all Members. Larger grants, such as area based grants, would form part of the budget building process and would be approved via Cabinet. Following this a Member enquired as to the number of ringfenced grants received. The Assistant Director reported that Settlement grants from central government formed part of the budget build; however others may arise throughout the year as a result of new policy initiatives. Should any grants be awarded to other bodies, this would occur via the Members Voluntary Panel. Currently, government policy was moving away from the ring-fencing of grants and subsequently, a large proportion of these would be rolled into area based grants. Members of the Committee emphasised the need to ensure that the process of grant allocation was transparent.