16 February - Talking intelligently?
The
Finance Overview and Scrutiny meeting met last week Chaired by Councillor Ahmet
Dourmoush. He alone seems able to start a webcast at exactly the right moment
(his clerk?) but then reads out the warning about members of the public taking
photos when none are present, but I am nitpicking again. He is an OK Chairman.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella asked what the Director of Finance meant by ‘prudent level’ in her
Minimum Revenue Provision Policy Statement. She said “we have set aside
sufficient and then we have set aside an additional amount”.
Councillor Andrew Curtois (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) thought it was brave to assess the interest rate while “the
venerable Rachel Reeves” is in charge. Cabinet Member Leaf agreed that “it was a
calamitous budget”. He has read all the Bank of England and Treasury reports and
making decisions is a fine judgment call on interest rates etc. The Council has
recently borrowed an additional £10 million. The Finance Director added that the
loan was at 4·89% over five years.
Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) referred to Rachel Reeves “fixing the foundations - or
whatever the briefing note tells me to say at this point”. Chris queried
BexleyCo’s finances and the Cabinet Member told him that “borrowing might be higher than the
limit but the profile of the borrowing and the way it is paid back may
mean that we never get to that £125 million limit for 25/26. It is regularly reviewed.”
The Committee then looked at Information and Communication Technology and
Artificial Intelligence. Once again Councillor Borella was first off the starting block.
He was concerned about the application of AI to personal issues.
He was told that there were proposals to apply AI to all
EHCPs so that “every
single one could be reviewed and identify which needed the most work allowing
staff to prioritise work. At the moment we have not got the capacity to quality assure every single one.ְ”
“Minute taking is another area where AI could be applied. Not yet a replacement for the minute taker
but it can produce a draft from the transcript. Some authorities have got rid of
the minute taker and Bexley could follow if it can get the rules right. This
will allow staff to concentrate on meeting interactions rather than the note taking.”
Several Councillors asked about data security but not all systems use cloud
storage.
Its network security software should detect any unusual activity which might
indicate a cyber-attack. Bexley will be cautious and
will not lead with AI, preferring to learn from experiences elsewhere.
Maybe when Bexley Council has found some AI software which is good enough for
them I will be able to find something that summarises webcasts. I have already
spent nearly three hours listening to this meeting and I am not yet half way through it.
Probably you have read enough anyway.
To be continued, the subject being Council Tax and Financial Plans.