The Environment and Community Services PDS Committee were scheduled to meet on Tuesday 10 June 2025. The main item for discussion was the Environment and Community Services Portfolio Outturn Report for the financial year 2024/25. The report detailed the financial performance of various service areas within the portfolio, highlighting areas of overspend and underspend against the approved budget.

ECS Provisional Outturn Report

The Environment and Community Services (ECS) Provisional Outturn Report for 2024/25 was prepared by Murad Khan, Head of Finance (Environment and Community Services) and scheduled for discussion. The report provided the revenue outturn position for the Environment & Community Services Portfolio.

The report noted that the final outturn for the controllable element of the Environment and Community Services budget in 2024/25 was a net overspend of £290k, which was a reduction of £1m from the last reported position at the end of December 2024.

The report broke down the projected spend for each division within the Portfolio compared to the latest approved budget, with further detail and commentary on each of the projected variations within each service.

The departmental budgetary pressures were reported to be within Parking Services, Arboriculture Services and Business Supports and Markets.

The report stated that the quantity of municipal waste collected in Bromley over the last couple of years has been stable with comparatively minor fluctuations. It noted that waste minimisation and increased participation in the recycling services is required to restrain any increases in residual waste and associated costs, with the processing costs for residual waste higher than recyclates. The income received through the sale of recycled material is forecasted to be less than in 2024/25, which reflects the volatility in the market with prices varying each year and income not always guaranteed.

The report noted a downward trend in numbers of vehicles parking in Bromley's car parks, reflecting national trends. It stated that officers will continue to monitor and analyse the data trends to ensure the correct tariffs are in place to help with demand per location, but that the longer-term trend means that income is unlikely to return to budgeted levels and future budget setting should take account of this.

The report also noted greater compliance on moving traffic contraventions¹ and bus lanes, which is the main reason for parking income being down this year. It stated that the council will look to review this in the current year and look to relocate cameras where possible to other areas of non-compliance.

The Transport for London (TfL) Local Implementation Plan (LIP) grant has settled to a consistent level, but at about 40% less than it was pre-2020. This means fewer highway improvement schemes can be undertaken, along with less road safety education, and several posts are held vacant accordingly.

The report also noted the risk of external factors such as the weather conditions, that could see the council spend more money on highways, arboriculture, and parks maintenance services due to emergency repairs or health and safety related works to ensure the highways and tree stock are not endangering residents.

The report included a summary of the Environment & Community Portfolio Budget Monitoring:

• Arboriculture Management: Overspend of £308k due to the quantity of work commissioned to manage risk in compliance with the Tree Management Strategy exceeding the available budget.
• Business Support and Markets: Overspend of £83k. Market income is underachieving by £52k due to a continued tough retail environment and poor weather. The reduced number of skip applications has continued and there is a £31k overspend in Technical Support.
• Parks and Green Spaces: Underspend of £312k. Repair works to infrastructure have been restricted to only those which are essential to meet the council's health and safety responsibilities. Additionally, there was a significant underspend on electricity costs.
• Carbon Management: Underspend of £46k due to a vacant post.
• Waste Services: Underspend of £273k, predominantly relating to underspends on waste disposal contract costs and the landfill tax budgets.
• Neighbourhood: Underspend of £129k due to an overachievement of income generated by fixed penalty notices (FPNs), and underspends on the PROW, transport costs and employee budgets.
• Transport Operation and Depot: Underspend of £162k on employee costs where officers have moved to part time, freeing up some budget. There are also underspends on premises related budgets (security, electricity, gas, cleaning services).
• Traffic and Road Safety: Underspend of £100k due to new increased fees and charges to utilities companies for temporary road closures.
• Parking: Overspend of £1,017k.
  • Parking fees underachieving by £27k due to a steady decrease in the number of vehicles being parked in car parks and on street.
  • Parking Enforcement underachieving by £1,396k. The trend for moving traffic contravention (MTC) enforcement has shown that driver compliance with regulations has improved since the cameras first went live, therefore fewer PCNs are being issued on a monthly basis.
  • Parking Permits underspend of £81k. There has been a small decrease in the number of resident permits sold, however there has been a small increase in business permits and visitor vouchers sold.
  • Parking Administration underspend of £325k due to vacant posts.
• Highways, including London Permit Scheme: Slight underspend of £58k due to electricity costs in the street lighting service coming in significantly below the projected budget and the receipt of additional funding from the Department for Transport (DFT) for highways works.

The report also noted that since the last report to the Executive, no waivers over £50k have been actioned regarding the Council's Contract Procedure Rules, which state that where the value of a contract exceeds £50k and is to be exempt from the normal requirement to obtain competitive quotations the Chief Officer has to obtain the agreement of the Director of Corporate Services, the Director of Finance and the Director of Commissioning and (where over £100,000) approval of the Portfolio Holder and report use of this exemption to Audit Subcommittee bi-annually.

The report also noted that since the last report to Executive, no virements² have been actioned.