Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15

Runnymede Borough Council
Annual Report 2014/15
www.runnymede.gov.uk
Foreword
Message from the Leader of the Council
The last year has been a year of preparation as we come to the culmination of celebrations to
mark the 800th year since the sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede. Our aim was not only to
make this special for our residents, but to showcase the Borough, to increase the visitors
numbers and to draw visitors back to Egham on future occasions.
There is a lot more going on than that however and I want to highlight some important milestones
we have achieved in 2014/5, which set out our intent for the future.
Cllr Patrick Roberts,
Leader of the Council
– Negotiations were completed on the Runnymede Roundabout and a package of cycle and
bus improvements in Egham, and work will start in 2015 following the Magna Carta
celebrations. We are working closely with Surrey County Council as the Highways
authority and this much needed improvement will make it much easier to access the M25
and the Causeway.
– The completion of a new Waitrose supermarket and Travelodge in Egham town centre brings economic vibrancy to
Egham. We are going to build on this and have approved a new development of the Council owned shops in Egham
Station North.
– Plans for Addlestone town centre came to fruition and work has now started on the exciting Addlestone One
Development which will bring about better retail opportunities, a cinema, a gym and residential flats. There may
be some inconvenience whilst construction takes place but by Autumn 2017 we expect to have transformed the town,
creating as many as 300 new jobs for local residents, including some apprenticeships.
– We have committed to funding the preliminary stages of the River Thames Flood Alleviation Scheme, working
alongside the Environment Agency and six other local authorities on this long term scheme which will eventually
bring flood defence to 15,000 homes and businesses; 6,000 of these are in Runnymede.
– We have continued to improve our services and facilities to you, but we are also conscious that this cannot be done
through a significant increase in the tax burden to you, the resident. We remain the Borough providing the sixth
lowest Council Tax of any district/borough in the country. We will continue to offer value for money whilst striving
to be more effective and efficient with our resources.
Message from the Chief Executive
After a few years of austerity and cost cutting, the Council has turned a corner. The priority has
been on regeneration as the Leader has explained and we are now developing exciting plans for
Egham, having acquired the necessary property assets to move forward.
We are investing wisely by acquiring assets which will help to improve our environment and
especially our town centres. All of our investments to date have been in our Borough and we
are fortunate that in this part of the country, it is sound judgement to invest in the economy of
North Surrey.
Paul Turrell,
Chief Executive
As well as regeneration, we are working hard to improve services. A new Customer Service
Centre has been established and we have introduced a new web site that enables residents to
ask for services or pay bills over the internet. Like all of these systems, they take time to settle
but we are committed to improve our system for our customers each year.
Despite having to make efficiencies, we have not cut any services and indeed we anticipate some will expand as resources
allow in the years to come. We are also committed to finding out more about your priorities and we are always interested
to hear how we can improve.
We are committed to value for money and Runnymede’s Council Tax remains one of the lowest in the country. Much of
our resource base will come from our investments and expansion of our services in the future and we will continue to
strive to improve our housing stock, our leisure offer and shopping facilities for the good of businesses and residents in
our historic Borough.
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
All images courtesy of www.photoeyes.biz except for
those on pages 3, 8, 11 and the last picture on page 6.
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Who we are:
Runnymede key
facts and figures
Originally created as Runnymede District Council, the Council was granted the status of a
Borough by Royal Charter in 1978. Although the Borough only has a population of 84,584
(ONS mid-year estimate, 2014), its name has a worldwide resonance because the Magna
Carta Charter was sealed here in 1215 on "the water meadows between Staines and
Windsor". The Borough's crest picks up the themes of the great charter - the Crown, the
Church represented through Chertsey Abbey, the Royal swans, the green of the meadows
and the blue of the River. They are brought together in the Borough's motto, "In Freedom,
We Serve".
In heraldic terms, the armorial bearings amalgamate the arms granted to the former
Chertsey and Egham UDC's, and the motto - "In freedom we serve" combines the ideas
from Egham's "Ut homines liberi sint" (That men might be free) and Chertsey's "Servire
contendimus" (We strive to serve).
Runnymede includes the towns and villages of Addlestone, Chertsey, Egham, Englefield
Green, Longcross, Lyne, New Haw, Ottershaw, Row Town, Thorpe, Virginia Water
and Woodham.
Census, 2011 information:
• Area: 7,804 hectares
• Green Belt: 6,078 hectares
• Households: 32,700
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
What we do:
Council services
and responsibilities
Runnymede Borough Council forms part of a two-tier local government system
with Surrey County Council.
As a Borough Council
we are responsible for:
Abandoned vehicles
Building Control and dangerous
buildings or structures
Business Rate collections
Cemeteries
We also provide the following additional
services to help improve the lives of our
residents and communities:
Administrative support for the Runnymede
Business Partnership
Allotments
American-style Yellow school bus
transportation scheme
Arboriculture
Council Tax collections
Centres for older people
Environmental Health and inspection
of food premises
Community Alarms
Housing
Community Halls
Land Charges
Community Meals (Meals on Wheels)
Licensing
Community Safety and CCTV open
space surveillance
Local Elections
Planning applications and Planning
Enforcement and Planning Policy
Community Transport
Garden waste collection (chargeable)
Graffiti removal
Off-street car parks
and parking enforcement
Leisure Development
Recycling
Museum
Rubbish collection
Parks and Open Spaces
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
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On behalf of Surrey County Council we cut grass on highway verges, maintain highway
shrubs and also carry out on-street parking enforcement.
Surrey County Council is responsible for/to be:
• Education
• Fire and public safety
• Lead Local Flood Risk Authority
• Libraries
• Social care
• Trading Standards
• Traffic and Highways (including highways maintenance and improvement, street lighting,
trees and shrubbery overhanging highways, and winter maintenance)
• Transport
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
Our priority themes
A voice for Runnymede
To enhance engagement and dialogue
with our community, to enable
communities to develop themselves,
and to speak up for Runnymede on a
county, regional and national basis.
An environment to be proud of
To make real environmental
improvements to our towns and
villages, helping to create communities
that our citizens can have pride in,
and to ensure that they have the tools
to live sustainable lives in the future.
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2013/14
Revitalisation
To create a better place to live, with the
local services that our citizens need
and expect, in a borough that is fit for
the 21st century.
Healthy and vibrant communities
To work together with partners in the
public, private and voluntary sectors
to address the barriers and problems
faced by less well-off communities
and individuals in the Borough.
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2014/15
A voice for Runnymede
achievements
• Agreement was reached with the Environment Agency to undertake preliminary work on the
River Thames Flood Alleviation Scheme. Runnymede will commit £84,000 per annum for the
next five years to prepare for the building of new flood channels and improvements to locks
which will benefit 6,000 homes and businesses in the Borough.
• Plans for a programme of local projects to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing
of Magna Carta in Runnymede were finalised and a number of activities delivered with a range
of partners.
• Created a mobile version of our website and provided additional functionality to the website to
support people who wish to self-serve.
• A Customer Services team was created to support those who do not/cannot self-serve online.
• The Council, as the co-ordinator of the Runnymede Business Partnership, has:
– continued to support local businesses as well as worked with local schools, colleges and Surrey
Police (it has done this for the last 17 years);
– maintained an on-line business directory with over 1300 Runnymede businesses listed;
– produced and disseminated a business newsletter three times a year to all the listed businesses
in the directory;
– arranged free networking forum meetings (which over 300 business delegates have attended
this year);
– helped to reduce peak hour congestion by providing 81,000 Yellow School Bus places to and
from school this year;
– continued to administer free loyalty cards giving discounts with local businesses (issued almost
8000 to date);
– maintained iRunnymede (our business app) and www.runnymedebusinesspartnership.org.uk
(our business website) to give free support to our businesses.
• Established a Community Resilience Network to support the co-ordination of emergency
incidents in the future.
• Spotted an opportunity to deliver our Emergency Planning and Business Continuity services as
a mutual so that it becomes a more commercial and resilient model.
• Collected over £311,800 from developers building in the Borough as contributions to improve
local infrastructure.
• Paid £3.8 million through our own bespoke means tested Council Tax Support Scheme to
support residents.
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
2014/15
An environment to be
proud of achievements
• Collected over 117,000 tonnes of recyclable material; including green waste from
6,000 customers.
• Collected 180,030 tonnes of non-recyclable waste from homes and businesses.
• Dealt with 2,228 planning applications in the year, including granting planning
permission for 629 new homes, of which 138 were affordable houses.
• Successfully bid for a grant of £250,000 from central government to help flood
victims protect their homes in the future.
• Managed insurance claims on council owned flooded properties worth £2m.
• Our Environmental Health and Licensing Team inspected and visited 405 commercial
premises in the year.
• Our Environmental Health and Licensing Team issued 243 formal notices in the year,
including closing two illegal tattoo operators, ‘scratchers’, without the appropriate licence.
• Work started on the refurbishment of St Jude’s Cottages in Englefield Green, a key
building of architectural merit in the village which will be converted into six flats.
• The second phase of a new accessible footpath at Frank Muir Memorial Field in
Thorpe was completed in partnership with a local business, Gavin Jones.
• A new £80,000 play area was constructed on Pooley Green Recreation Ground
in Egham Hythe.
• Installed a second outdoor gym at Hythe Park in Egham.
• Installed an outdoor table tennis table at Chertsey Recreation Ground.
• Initial improvement designs were produced for Runnymede Pleasure Ground.
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
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2014/15
Healthy and vibrant
communities achievements
• As a statutory partner in the Runnymede Community Safety Partnership, we have assisted an
overall reduction in crime in the Borough by 1.4% and assisted an increase in detections by
31%. Surrey Police is now the second lowest in the national table of crime per 1000 population
and leads the national tables for having the least number of serious sexual crimes and violence
with injury. Also, as reported in the Daily Telegraph, research carried out by StuRents.com
found Egham is the safest area for students to live in. The analysis of 535,468 crimes in the 64
towns and cities across England and Wales where students live for university, shows which
students were most likely to be exposed to high levels of crime over the last year. Students
studying at Royal Holloway, University of London were exposed to the least crime with only 57
recorded crimes per thousand residents in the last year.
• Enabled all council tenant victims of the floods of February, 2014 to return to their homes.
• Continued to efficiently manage a housing stock of 2,890 properties let at social rents with very
low rent arrears whilst recording high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Completed almost 6,800 requests for housing maintenance and repairs from our tenants
and spent £6.4m keeping our housing stock up to the Decent Homes Standard.
• Completed the modernisation of the Beomonds Independent Retirement Living Scheme.
• Introduced a new voids process to speed up the time taken to re-let Council homes.
• Supported 46 families to downsize which then enabled council housing units to be released for
larger families.
• Refurbished a privately owned house that had been empty for 20 years to provide six new
housing units.
• Closed a temporary homes hostel in Englefield Green as it was no longer fit for purpose and
replaced this accommodation with a number of other housing units of various types and sizes
much more suited to the needs of our clients.
• Acquired nomination rights for 190 new homes at Franklands Park, Rowtown.
• Created 177 new tenancies.
• Completed 37 mutual exchanges.
• Set up a GPS tracking system through Safer Runnymede (department within the Council) to
keep vulnerable people safe by monitoring any movements outside a pre-set area. There have
already been examples of where the system has helped to locate individuals.
• Rolled out the Carecall service. This new service was introduced which is a daily call to
vulnerable adults by staff in Safer Runnymede.
• Continued to offer advice to help people access benefits where they are eligible.
• Averaged 4.5 days to process/amend new benefit claims when the Government requirement
is ten days.
• Microchipped 100 dogs as part of four events across the Borough.
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
2014/15
• Co-ordinated 542 young people taking part in the Surrey Youth Games training, with 211
participating in the games themselves.
• Four week summer holiday programme for young people delivered.
• Funding has been allocated for a number of Community First projects including family support work,
voluntary support north surrey IT update, catering equipment and boiler replacement at the Hub.
• Further development of the Englefield Green Hub, job clubs, speech and language pilots and
high energy drink initiative.
• The Family Support Programme has continued to produce good results and proposals to move
into phase two from next May are being progressed. As of December 2014, 38 families were
receiving intensive support through the programme.
• The Runnymede Remembered exhibition opened at Chertsey Museum in the summer of 2014
and was preceded by a short ceremony at Chertsey War Memorial. A re-enactment took place at
Abbeyfields in September 2014. In January 2015 the Freedom Under the Law exhibition opened.
• A Junior Citizen event was run over two weeks in October, once again in partnership with the
Police. It was well received by the schools and over 700 pupils attended. The focus of the event
is keeping young people safe and the age targeted was Year 6 pupils who were due to go to
secondary school in 2015.
• Two Young People’s Mental Health pilot events were delivered in partnership with Public Health
Services and Youth Services.
• A mental health resource directory and leaflet has been produced for parents/young people and
professionals to access services.
• School homelink worker training was delivered to support identified children who may be dealing
with parents who have alcohol issues at home. This also provided practical advice on emotional
management for children with anger management issues/low self-esteem as access to
counselling is restricted.
• Personalisation and prevention partnership funding saw the introduction of a number of new
initiatives. This has included the community projects fund where grants of up to £1,000 can be
applied for by local groups, dementia training and sports activities for older people e.g.
walking basketball.
• Three older peoples’ safety events were held targeting professionals and local residents.
These were funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.
• We expanded our Community Transport service outside of the Borough.
• For a second year we put on an outdoor theatre event at Homewood Park in Chertsey. This year
the matinee was Alice Through the Looking Glass followed by Shakespeare’s the Tempest in
the evening.
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
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2014/15
Revitalisation achievements
• We completed the agreement for the regeneration of Addlestone town centre Phases
1 and 2 with Bouygues PLC which will provide a hotel, a small supermarket,
213 apartments (of which 35 will be affordable and 18 will be shared ownership),
a gymnasium, a multiplex cinema, restaurants and new shops by Autumn 2017.
• A Travelodge hotel was completed in Chertsey.
• A Waitrose store and Travelodge Hotel were opened in Egham town centre.
• Initial plans were developed for a further phase of redevelopment of Egham town
centre (the Egham Gateway project).
Other achievements
• We managed to avoid the use of our financial reserves whilst still maintaining
front-line services, despite further cuts.
• We completed four successful prosecutions for benefit fraud.
• We paid 96% of suppliers within 28 days.
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
Our 2014/15 accounts in summary
Each year Runnymede Borough Council publishes a set of accounts. The accounts are an
important element in demonstrating how we manage our finances. They show the resources
available to the Council and how they are used in providing services to the community.
The document that contains our full accounts for 2014/15 is called the Statement of
Accounts and has to comply with accounting rules which dictate how the accounts should
look and what information they should contain. A full copy of the Statement of Accounts
can be seen on the council’s website at www.runnymede.gov.uk/finance
The following paragraphs are simplified versions of the figures contained within our accounts.
Our spending
Our spending is classified into capital and revenue. In general terms, our capital spending
pays for the acquisition/creation of a new asset or the enhancement of an existing asset,
and our revenue spending pays for day-to-day services and operations.
Revenue spending 2014/15
During the year, the Council spent its money on a wide range of services. This spending is
split between General Fund services (funded by the Council Tax) and a Housing Revenue
Account which is funded entirely by housing rental income. Excluding costs associated
with Housing Benefits, the Council’s money was spent in the following areas:
This expenditure was financed as follows:
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
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Our 2014/15 accounts in summary
Capital spending 2014/15
Spending money on buying and improving our land, property and other assets so that we
can provide services to the community over the longer term is classed as capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure incurred in 2014-15 was £15.227 million, and was spent as follows:
Investment Properties
Investment in Housing
Other property related expenditure
Grants and other assistance to third parties
Community Services
Vehicle replacements
Investment in Information Technology
Other schemes
Capital expenditure in 2011-12
This expenditure was paid for from the following sources of income:
New borrowing
Capital receipts from the sale of assets and investments
Revenue and revenue reserves
Grants and contributions
£’000
7,174
5,544
992
553
365
303
166
130
15,227
5,000
4,419
4,696
1,112
15,227
Collecting local taxes in 2014/15
Runnymede Borough Council collects all the Council Tax. We pay Surrey County Council
and Surrey Police Authority their share of the Council Tax that they set each year.
Runnymede Borough Council has the smallest share of your Council Tax bill. The Band D
Council Tax and how this was shared during 2014-15 is as follows:
Council Tax
Surrey County Council
Surrey Police Authority
Runnymede Borough Council
£
1,195.83
211.68
141.84
1,549.35
The Council also collects Business Rates from all businesses in the Borough. Of all the
money collected Runnymede keeps 40% and the remainder is divided between Central
Government (50%) and Surrey County Council (10%).
In 2014/15 we collected 99% of Council Tax due, totaling £50.0 million and 99% of the
Business Rates due, totaling £43.9 million.
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
The next year (2015/16)
Key objectives for 2015/16 include:
• Represent Runnymede’s interests as part of any new local government
devolution developments.
• Finalise the delivery of Council funded Magna Carta commemoration projects.
• Progress the next phase of Egham town centre regeneration.
• Progress the Addlestone town centre regeneration project.
• Review town centre management options.
• Finalise improvement plans for Runnymede Pleasure Ground.
• Review and enhance collaborative environmental enforcement and consultation work
with Environmental Health, Licensing , Planning Development Management, and Surrey
Law Enforcement.
• Support the River Thames Scheme and develop the Chilsey Green Flood Alleviation Project.
• Support the delivery of Runnymede Roundabout and Egham Sustainability Package.
• Complete the Strategic Housing Market Assessment.
• Move towards adopting an updated Local Plan in accordance with the Local
Development Scheme.
• Make progress towards adopting a Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule.
• Complete an Economic Development Assessment (EDA) and subsequently write
an Economic Development Strategy (EDS).
• Continue supporting and developing the Community Resilience Network which
can assist an emergency response.
• Celebrate Chertsey Museums 50th anniversary.
• Re-launch the Community Meals service with additional options.
• Review online customer account options.
• Seek to maintain high customer satisfaction levels.
Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
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Runnymede Borough Council Annual Report 2014/15
Runnymede Borough Council
Station Road
Addlestone
Surrey
KT15 2AH
www.runnymede.gov.uk