Contingency funds will be used to pay for county and district split

A report detailing how the councils will begin their divorce has been agreed

The first hints have been given as to how finances will be affected by ending the partnership agreement between Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council. Since September 2018 the arrangement between the two councils has seen a number of services and functions operated by one team across both councils.

The Joint Shared Services and Personnel Committee met this lunchtime to discuss a report which had been drawn up to initiate the process of separating out the functions that are currently shared.

The cost of the Chief Executive is currently split, with 61 per cent paid by the county council and 39 per cent by the district council. Cherwell will pick up the entire costs once the split is complete with the post noted in a Pay Policy Statement from 2021 as attracting a salary of £199,910, meaning Cherwell will need to find an additional £122,000 each year.

A number of other senior roles are also jointly funded.

Councillors were told that the total costs for the separation would not be known for some time, but would be defined as those for undertaking the split and also the on-going costs at each council for their new structures.

The Committee were told the separation did not need to affect each councils’ 2022-23 budget setting process, which is currently underway, with costs to be covered through money held in contingency funds.

Councillor Ian Middleton sought clarification: “Given that we don’t know what the costs are, are we certain that contingency budgets are sufficient to cover this?”

Chief Executive Yvonne Rees responded: “I think we could say that reasonable provision has been made within both councils’ budgets in 2022-23. Obviously we can’t quantify what they are, but given the scale of the arrangement my feeling is – in terms of coming up with contingency figures – is that they should be in a reasonable size of proportion to deal with costs.”

The Committee approved the report, which will now be taken to meetings at both Councils next week.

At the end of last week it was announced by Cherwell District Council that £2.9m of additional grant funding had been received from central government. £200,000 of this used to continue to fund the town centre CCTV system and delay the increase to car parking charges. The remaining £2.7m had been allocated to contingencies.

Published: 01/02/2022 04:21pm by Banbury FM Newsteam

Edward Horton On 01/02/2022 at 7:18 pm

Does the chief executive of Cherwell District Council really earn just short of £200,000 a year?
It’s nearly £40,000 more than the prime minister gets. How can it be justified and is it typical of CEO salaries of local councils?
And is she any good? From what I’ve read about the OCC/CDC link-up, for the past three years she’s been running a total shambles.