Issue - meetings

That:

1)        the budget monitoring position for the month ending 30 April 2017 be noted;

2)         the operational update for the period to 31 May 3017 be noted;

3)        the changes to the senior leadership structure of Optalis Limited be noted.

(Councillors Norman Jorgensen, David Lee, Stuart Munro and Simon Weeks declared personal interests in this item)

The Executive considered a report setting out the budget monitoring position for the month ending 30 April 2017; the operational update for the period to 31 May 2017 of the Council Owned Companies and the changes to the senior leadership structure of Optalis Limited.

The Executive Member for Finance went through the report and provided background to the structure of the companies and the membership of the various Boards.  Members were reminded that the Optalis Group was split out from WBC Holdings on 1 April 2017 following the formation of a partnership with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.  It was noted that the Managing Director of Optalis had since resigned and a recruitment campaign for a successor would start in July.  It was expected that this would provide a great opportunity to move the company forward and explore opportunities for new contracts and potentially find more clients.

Councillor Whittle advised the meeting that the financial information contained in the report only covered the first month of the financial year and no variations from budget were showing.

Councillor Lee highlighted that one of the ventures that both the Housing Company and Optalis were involved in was Fosters, the new extra care housing development at Woodley.  Members were pleased to note that a number of houses at Phoenix Avenue had recently been handed over and the people who had moved into these were very pleased with their new homes. The scheme would also be generating substantial income to the Council.

RESOLVED that:

1)        the budget monitoring position for the month ending 30 April 2017 be noted;

2)         the operational update for the period to 31 May 3017 be noted;

3)        the changes to the senior leadership structure of Optalis Limited be noted.