Agenda item

The joint report of the Executive Director of Place (Croydon) and Executive Director, Resources & Regeneration (Lewisham) is attached.

John Algar, PFI Manager LB Croydon (LBC), introduced the report which advised the Committee of the overall performance of the service provider during the period September 2019 - August 2020.

He stated there was an action from the previous meeting to circulate a paper detailing the differences of LED versus the current lighting. There had been work between both authorities speaking to Skanska and they were currently in the stage of finalising technical and financial details. Both authorities did not deem the payback periods appropriate, nine years for LBC and 14 years for LB Lewisham (LBL), and further discussions would be going ahead. Once received, an update would be forwarded to the Committee.

In response to Councillor McGeevor asking if this was detailed in the business case in the appendices to the report, John Algar, PFI Contract Manager (LBC), confirmed it was, however stated there was now an update to that with a better understanding and greater technical and financial detail. The updated business case, which included the financial updates, would be shared with the Committee.

Councillor McGeevor stated that LEDs increasingly made sense, in the climate of decreasing carbon emissions over the years and including the de-carbonisation of the National Grid, and asked how that was taken into account in this assessment. John Algar, PFI Contract Manager (LBC), responded that the decarbonisation agenda was an initiative of the power generation companies and not the council. He added that choosing to deliver additional dimming regimes would provide some carbon reduction benefit. At the moment, both Councils had the capability of dimming without moving to LED. If adopted then further financial savings would be made in conjunction with reduced carbon emissions. The team continued to discuss dimming options with Skanska.

Mark Averill, Authorised Person and Head of Highways (LBC), said that they already had an energy efficient lighting specification, Cosmopolitan lamps and Central Management System, so gaining savings for swapping efficient lanterns for slightly more efficient was not comparable to the substantial upgrade you would have seen when the contract was initially let. Councillor McGeevor agreed that this was a sensible approach and neither authority wanted to make costly changes for insignificant benefits of carbon emission reduction.

Councillor Ali said that Base had announced a £1 million funding offer for energy reduction and that Salix Finance provided an interest free loan related to street lighting. He asked if this could potentially reduce the funding gap and payback period and suggested this could be explored in a new business case. John Algar, PFI Contract Manager (LBC), confirmed they were aware of Salix funding opportunities.

John Algar, PFI Contract Manager (LBC), summarised the main points of the Operational Performance Standards Overview:

PS1 - Core Investment Programme (CIP)

The CIP was completed on 31 October 2016.

PS2 - Planned Maintenance, Inspection and Testing

The report detailed areas in both boroughs, covered by Skanska, and performance was on track. The tables showed the overall performance over the last 12 months for lights “in light”. The provider had achieved the required level of 99% every month, which was a good performance. As a client, the council still carried out their own checks alongside.

PS3 - Operational Responsiveness and Reactive Maintenance

This performance standard detailed non-routine emergency call-outs. Last year all emergency call-outs were attended in the one-hour timeframe. A few emergency faults were missed, which was picked up by the client team reporting and they were financially adjusted accordingly. In terms of lights “in light”, they were performing very well.

PS4 - Contract Management and Customer Interface

The report showed an overall good performance and this year had been better than previous years. In February 2020, they performed below the 95%, which was financially adjusted. The council worked closely with Skanska and the contact centre in regards to call-outs and complaints.

Councillor McGeevor referred to paragraph 3.11 and asked the reason for the delay in response time. John Algar, PFI Contract Manager (LBC), responded that any calls that came in to Skanska must be answered within 25 seconds, the council was provided with a log report from Skanska for unanswered calls. If they did not hit the 95% in a month, the financial adjustments would be applied in line with the payment mechanism within the Contract. The Client Monitoring team carried out random test calls to the provider to monitor the quality of the service, which had improved in the past few years.

PS5 - Strategic Assistance and Reporting

The Strategic Assistance Reporting was on track.

PS6 - Working Practices

The working practice performance was good. There were many financial adjustments on this performance standard during the Core Investment Programme, however there had been a vast improvement since completion. Financial adjustments were applied where Routine service failures rose above 25 points, which in February 2020 there were 30 due to permitting issues at the time.

PS7 - Reporting to the Authority

The reports were received on time.

PS9 - Central Management System (CMS)

The CMS provided a great way of reducing light levels to the desired level and was deemed to be a good system. All faults street lights were picked up by CMS, saving workers having to carry out physical checks. Reports were generated on a daily basis and these were monitored by council staff.

Environmental Considerations

Councillor McGeevor asked why the environmental section only considered Croydon and if they would be able to produce figures from Lewisham in future reports. Katherine Nidd, Strategic Procurement and Commercial Services Manager (LBL), confirmed the data was available, now of interest and relevant. She explained this was not included previously due to work being highly focussed on other areas during the Core Investment Programme and agreed it should be included in future.

The Chair stated that these reports reflected the pattern of reporting in previous years and environmental consideration had now become more important to public bodies and politicians in the recent years, which should now be reflected in the reporting.

The Committee RESOLVED to:

·         NOTE the performance of Service Provider in respect of the street lighting PFI for September 2019 - August 2020

·         APPROVE the proposed unitary charges for 2020/21 of £2.817m for Croydon and £1.584m for Lewisham (based on a 64% to 36% split)