Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Corporate Director, Resources which presented the Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2017 (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Finance Manager - Strategic Finance reported that the statutory deadlines had changed and the two stage process certified the accounts on 31 May 2018 and the final accounts would come back to Committee on 31 July 2018. She advised that general reserves had increased to £24.5m and earmarked reserves to £224m

Councillor Shuttleworth requested a list of all reserves held by the Council as at 30 June 2018.  The Corporate Director of Resources explained that the full list of reserves was included in every outturn report to Cabinet, which was publically available information.

With reference to business rates Councillor Temple if the reduction was due to the collection of them or the number available to collect.  The Corporate Director would report back to him on the reasons for this but assured him that it was not due to the collection rates.

For clarity Councillor Temple advised that the payment made to the YMCA at Consett should be to Delta North Limited.

Mr Robinson asked how the valuation on Durham County Cricket Club was presented in the accounts.  The Finance Manager - Strategic Finance explained that they would show as preference shares, based on the loan outstanding of £3.74m.  She added that an independent valuation of all shareholdings would be undertaken next year.  Mr Kirkham, Mazars said that the materiality level applied to the account was not a significant risk.  The Corporate Director of Resources explained that as the section 151 officer, decisions had been made on the cash flows and he confirmed that funds would come back to the Council.

Mr Rudd was impressed at the amount of work that had been undertaken and asked if the reduction in unusable reserves would become a potential problem for the Council if the went into a deficit.  The The Finance Manager - Strategic Finance explained that this was part of the technical accounting and pension fund liabilities, which the Council could not use to balance its budget. 

Mr Rudd asked if the reference made to property, plant and equipment on pages 107 and 122 of the pack could be made clearer in term of accounting.

The Corporate Director of Resources thanked all staff involved in producing the accounts on what was a difficult job to carry out.

Resolved:

That the statement of accounts for the County Council for the financial year ended 31 March 2017 be approved.