Bath & North East Somerset Council
MEETING:	Bath Recreation Ground Trust
MEETING DATE:	5th OCTOBER 2007	AGENDA ITEM NUMBER		10
TITLE:	BATH RECREATION GROUND - 2006/07 OUTTURN AND BUDGET 2007/08	EXECUTIVE FORWARD PLAN REFERENCE:
		E	1703
AN OPEN PUBLIC ITEM
List of attachments to this report: Appendix 1 - 2006/07 Outturn Appendix 2 - Strategic Review Loans Position Appendix 3 - 2007/08 Budget Requirement

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report gives details of the financial outturn for 2006/07, the 2007/08 budget including the draw down of loans granted by the Council in respect of the Strategic review and Turnstiles.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Bath Recreation Ground Trust is asked to:

2.1 Note the forecast outturn position for 2006/07.

2.2 Note the current spend on the Strategic Review and drawdown of loans.

2.3 Approve the budget for 2007/08.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Included in the report.

4 REPORT

4.1 2006/07 Outturn

(1) The outturn position for 2006/07 shows a surplus of £5,226 compared to the forecast deficit of £2,284. Income was higher than estimated and expenditure less than budgeted for, mainly because of reduced expenditure on rates, however final costs paid to the receiver reduced the surplus to marginally higher than forecast. The issue of whether the Trust is entitled to charitable rate relief has now been settled and rate relief granted. Details of the outturn position are given in Appendix 1.

(2) The Receiver Manager has now been discharged by the Charity Commission and the final account has been paid. The total cost amounted to £141,390. Further information has been requested from the Receiver due to unreconciled differences with amounts reported as spent by the Charity Commission.

4.2 Strategic Review

(1) The legal advice received by the Trust forming part of the Strategic Review recognised the Leisure Centre as an asset of the Trust and this has been recognised in principle by the Council. The impact of this position is that the net operating surplus or deficit of the Leisure Centre belongs to the Trust and should be recorded in the Trusts accounts. As the Leisure centre has been operating at a net deficit for many years and funded by Council, discussions are taking place with the Council to secure funding of any ongoing deficit. Outline heads of terms for such agreement are elsewhere on the agenda. Until such agreement is reached the financial statements exclude any such Council deficit funding.

4.3 Budget 2007/08

(1) Details of the budget estimate for 2007/08 are shown in Appendix 3. This includes increased fees negotiated with the renewal of the temporary stand lease and provision for the repayment of loans provided by the Council. The budget does not include any further sums for taking forward the Strategic Review.

(2) Loans from the Council of £158,000 have been approved to fund the Strategic Review. Spend to date is £130,469 leaving a balance of £27,531. Details of spend to date are shown in Appendix 2. Any costs over and above this balance required to progress the Strategic Review will require further Council funding and a further report to the Trust Board will consider this in due course

(3) Conservation work on the turnstiles at the Recreation Ground is under way and scheduled for completion during October. The cost to carry out the work is £61,500. A further loan of £62,000 from the Council was approved in March 2007.

(4) All loans from the Council are repayable over a 10 year period or sooner at the Councils cost of borrowing.

5 RISK MANAGEMENT

5.1 The key risk remains ability of the Trust to deliver the preferred outcome of the Strategic Review, and in particular the future of the Rugby Club and the Leisure Centre, upon the financial position of the Trust.

6 RATIONALE

6.1 The 2006/07 outturn and Strategic Review spend are for information only. Approval of the budget for 2007/08 is required.

7 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

7.1 None

8 CONSULTATION

8.1 Deputy Section 151 Finance Officer

9 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

9.1 Other legal considerations.

10 ADVICE SOUGHT

10.1The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.

Contact person	Irene Draper (01225) 477325
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