The Bolsover District Council Executive met to discuss the first quarter budget monitoring report, performance against council plan targets, and the annual reports from the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman. Councillors also approved the write-off of some corporate debt. A decision on an application relating to 8 Cotton Street, Bolsover was deferred.

Budget Monitoring Report Quarter 1

The Executive approved the Budget Monitoring Report Quarter 1, which detailed the financial position of the council after the first quarter of the financial year. The report highlighted a net favourable variance of £0.903m against the profiled budget for the General Fund, as detailed in Appendix 1 GF Summary Q1. The report also noted the positions of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the Capital Programme, and Treasury Management, as detailed in Appendix 2 GF detail Q1, Appendix 3 HRA summary Q1, Appendix 4 HRA detail Q1, Appendix 5 Capital 2025 Q1 and Appendix 6 TM 2025 Q1.

The report provided an update on government funding, in light of the Fair Funding Review 2.0 consultation. The Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer, Theresa Fletcher, reported that Bolsover District Council was one of a small number of councils that may need to manage larger losses, despite the government's intention to protect the vast majority of councils' income through a flat cash or 0% funding floor. Theresa Fletcher stated that the council had been making provision for these losses for a number of years and had accumulated a reserve worth £14.210m to mitigate the losses over the next four years.

Council Plan Targets Performance Report - Apr 2025 - Jun 2025 (Q1)

The Executive approved noting the quarterly outturns against the Council Plan 2024-2028 targets. The report Executive Report Q1 summarised performance against targets, noting that of the 33 targets:

• 25 (76%) targets are on track
• 1 (3%) extended
• 3 (9%) not on track
• 3 (9%) achieved
• 1 (3%) Q1 update yet to be received

It also noted that of the 58 key performance indicators:

• 37 (64%) indicators have a positive outturn
• 10 (17%) indicators have a negative outturn
• 7 (12%) indicators are within target
• 4 (7%) are to be withdrawn/no longer valid

The report included summaries of performance against the council's key ambitions: Our Customers (Q1 Our Customers_Appendix 1), Our Environment (Q1 Our Environment_Appendix 2), Our Economy (Q1 Our Economy_ Appenix 3) and Our Housing (Q1 - Our Housing_Appendix 4). A KPI summary for Dragonfly was also included (Dragonfly KPIs).

One target, ENV.05 - Carry out 155 targeted proactive littering dog fouling patrols per year, was noted as not on track. The report stated that 26 out of the targeted 39 proactive patrols were carried out, slightly less than the anticipated target. The report stated that work had concentrated on prosecutions and issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices¹ (FPNs) and the team continues to prioritise investigating incidents where offences have been witnessed and evidenced.

Annual Letter from the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman 2024/25

The Executive noted the Annual Letter from the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman 2024/25, which provided a summary of statistics on complaints made against the council for the financial year ending 31 March 2025 (LGO Annual Letter report 2024-25 Executive 02.09.25 docx). The report noted that the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) received 9 enquiries and complaints during 2024/25, of which 7 were closed after initial enquiries and 2 were not for the LGSCO to investigate. The report also included benchmarking information from similar authorities.

The annual statistics from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman are available on their website.

Annual Housing Ombudsman Report including Self Assessment 2024/25

The Executive approved the Annual Housing Ombudsman Report and Self Assessment 2024/25 (Exec HO Annual Report 24-25). The report provided information to the Housing Ombudsman on the performance of the council's complaint handling, in terms of volume and timeliness of responses. The report also identified themes and lessons learnt to drive improvements. The Self Assessment (Self Assessment) ensured that the council's Complaints and Standards department had reviewed and aligned its Policy and Procedures to meet the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code requirements for 2024/25.

The Annual Complaint Handling and Service Improvement Report 2024-2025 included an analysis of complaints performance for 2024/25, including types of complaints, volume of complaints, and themes and trends in complaints received.

Management of Corporate Debt - Write off of outstanding amounts

The Executive approved the write-off of £22,662.68 of outstanding corporate debt, as detailed in Appendix1 of the Debt Write Off Report. The report stated that the amount related to the same business which has gone into administration and is no longer trading. The report stated that in all cases where the council has cause to write debt off, every attempt has been made by the council and agencies working with the council, to collect the outstanding debt before write-off is proposed.

8 Cotton Street, Bolsover

Consideration of an application relating to 8 Cotton Street, Bolsover was deferred.