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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Simon Trevaskis
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Items
No. Item

58/21

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 213 KB

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on the following dates as an accurate record:

·         4 February 2021

·         9 February 2021

·         16 February 2021

·         23 March 2021

·         30 March 2021

·         20 May 2021

·         27 May 2021

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the previous meetings held on 4 February, 16 February, 23 March, 30 March, 20 May and 27 May 2021 were agreed as a correct record.

Agreement of the minutes for the meeting held on 9 February was deferred until the next meeting of the Committee to allow the information provided to be double checked.

 

59/21

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

 

Minutes:

There were no disclosure of interest made at the meeting.

60/21

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business for consideration by the Scrutiny & Overview Committee at this meeting.

61/21

CALL-IN: Novation of building works and profession services contracts from Brick by Brick for Fairfield Halls pdf icon PDF 171 KB

To consider and respond to the Call-In in accordance with the procedure set out in the Council’s Constitution.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee considered a call-in request of the key decisions set out in the ‘Novation of building works and professional services contracts from Brick by Brick for Fairfield Halls’ Cabinet report. The decisions taken in this report were made by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 26 July 2021.

The Chair of the Committee explained the process for considering a call-in, confirming that the Committee needed to agree whether to review the decision or not and if it was decided to proceed, to confirm how much time it wished to allocate for the discussion of the item. The Committee agreed that it would review the decision and allocated two hours minutes for its consideration.

The Chair went on to explain that there were three outcomes the Committee could reach as a result of its review. These were:-

  1. That no further action was necessary and the decision could be implemented as originally intended.
  2. To refer the decision back to the Cabinet for reconsideration, outlining the nature of the Committee’s concerns
  3. To refer the decision to Council, if the Committee considered that the decision taken was outside of the Budget and Policy Framework.

At the outset of the item an opportunity was given to the Committee lead on the call-in, Councillor Robert Ward, to outline the grounds for its submission. It was highlighted that both Brick by Brick and Fairfield Halls were of significant importance to the Council and as such before the decision on contract novation was made, it was important for the Scrutiny & Overview Committee to seek reassurance on a number of areas of concern.

Given there had been a significant cost increase over the lifespan of the refurbishment project, reassurance was sought that potential future costs arising from novation were both understood and under control. It was noted that an alternative option was to keep the contract with Brick by Brick, as such further explanation was sought on why this option had been rejected. As the contractual arrangements with Brick by Brick had previously been described as unusual and with the outcome from the Grant Thornton value for money review still awaited, reassurance was sought that there would not be an increased risk by proceeding with novation at this stage. Finally assurance was sought that the Council had the requisite skills in place to manage the closure of the Vinci contract going forward.

Due to the complexities of novation, it was debated whether the Committee should be asking the Cabinet to delay the implementation of its decision until after the external auditor had delivered its value for money review. The Chair of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee highlighted that as it was not yet clear when the value for money review would be finalised, it was difficult to recommend delaying the decision. Due to the potential sums involved in the novation it was important for the Committee to review the decision taken by the Cabinet in order to gain reassurance that it would deliver the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61/21

62/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

 

Minutes:

The following motion was moved by Committee Chair to exclude the press and public:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

The motion was put and it was agreed by the Committee to exclude the press and public for the remainder of the meeting.

 

63/21

CALL-IN: Novation of building works and profession services contracts from Brick by Brick for Fairfield Halls

To consider and respond to the Call-In in accordance with the procedure set out in the Council’s constitution.

 

This item provides for the Committee’s consideration Appendix D of the CALL-IN: Novation of building works and profession services contracts from Brick by Brick for Fairfield Halls report. This is the confidential part of the Cabinet report considered on 26 July 2021.

Minutes:

The held a private session to discuss the confidential information set out in the Part B section of the agenda.