Regeneration and Environment

Pre Planning Advice

£10,000

Members indicated their general agreement to the option to introduce a fee, to cover staff time, for all pre-planning advice, in line with most of the local authorities in the Merseyside area.

Apprentice Programme

£500,000 or £420,000

Members commented upon the value of the Apprenticeship Scheme and expressed a view that consultation should be undertaken to ascertain whether the scheme would remain viable with reduced wage incentives. Members were also pleased that an option remained for the Cabinet to retain the scheme in part, by way of the development of a scheme for the Liverpool City Region.

Handy Person Service

£209,400

Members noted that the Council would explore ways in which the service might be available, for example, through the establishment of a social enterprise or through links to the Wirral Traders Scheme. Members noted also that a reduced number of staff would still facilitate the fast track hospital discharge service through DCLG funding, which would continue until 2015, and that options would be explored to continue the service beyond 2015.

Restructure of Regeneration,

Housing and Planning Department

£338,900

In response to a comment from a Member that the stage one questionnaire did not provide sufficient detail in relation to the proposed saving, the Director indicated that more detail had been included in both the summary paper and detailed paper. He outlined the rationale for the proposed savings and commented that the proposal included the deletion of seven posts, of which two were currently vacant.

Members indicated that with duties being shared amongst reduced teams, increased staff workloads would have to be considered. Members also noted the comments of the Director in relation to the availability of funding and, specifically, that the proposal would continue to allow sufficient resource to deal with deliverable projects seeking some form of external resource.

Home Insulation Scheme

£985,600 or £925,600

Members considered two options in relation to the future of Council-funded home energy efficiency activity in Wirral; either to remove the budget for the programme, or to reduce the budget and still allow some work related to energy efficiency and fuel poverty. The Director indicated that at the end of March 2013, the Insulation Programme would have reached 59% of the target at year 3 of the seven year programme. He set out the impact of the two options and referred also to the common approach being developed in the Liverpool City Region to deliver the Green Deal, which would provide a mechanism for households to obtain insulation either at no up front cost or through subsidies.

Members indicated that their preferred option was to reduce the budget to ensure the continuation of work related to energy efficiency and fuel poverty, but not to fund insulation works.

BME Support Programme

£100,000

Members noted the proposed option to cease delivery of the Council’s Black, Minority and Ethnic (BME) support service in the light of other community based organisations now providing this type of service.

Supporting People Service

£2,000,000

Members noted that the proposed option would involve a reduction of the Supporting People budget, from 2014/2015, through the renegotiation of contracts, tendering services, remodelling services and closing services. The Director outlined the wide-ranging services delivered by the Supporting People programme and commented that the impact of the proposal would be mitigated by the remaining resources being more closely focused on the most vulnerable.

Invest Wirral

£352,000

In response to questions from Members, the Director of Regeneration, Housing and Planning commented that the North West was doing very well and bucking the national trend in relation to investment. He was pleased to report that Wirral had the highest rate of business growth in the UK and, in the light of new opportunities expected to come on stream as a result of the new European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Business Support programme in the new year, proposed to restructure the Council’s business support offer.

Members noted that the proposals would impact on the Council’s ability to invest to support new businesses but would be mitigated by working closely with regional and national organisations to secure the provision of replacement funding.

Transformation and Resources

Marketing and Public Relations

£52,000

Members considered a proposed reduction by 50% in the core marketing budget, which would result in fewer resources being invested in the promotion of the Council’s services and key messages.  Members noted that although its use had been very successful, the remaining resources would be focused on a smaller set of key priorities.

Destination Marketing

£95,000

Members noted that the proposed option was to take the entire Core and Supported Events Budget as a budget saving, which would result in a new process to support both local and national event organisers, by the provision of more detailed information for event delivery and helping to secure private sector sponsorship and other funding streams.

The value of tourism to Wirral currently stood at £289m and Members noted that the economic impact of significant numbers of visitors attracted to events in Wirral would be affected if the budget was withdrawn. Members referred to some of the excellent schemes that had benefited from Council support and questioned whether some funding could be retained to be focused upon key schemes; and/or whether it would be feasible to seek matched funding.

Tranmere Rovers Sponsorship

£135,000

Members referred to the promotion of Wirral on a national basis and to the significant local community benefit associated with the Council’s sponsorship of Tranmere Rovers Football Club, which was now proposed to cease, leaving the Club to seek an alternative sponsor. However, other local football clubs were also involved in Wirral and Members expected that Tranmere would continue to connect with the local community without the Council’s sponsorship.