Local democracy

Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - City Hall, Bradford

Contact: Asad Shah - 01274 432280 

Items
No. Item

1.

DISCLOSURES OF INTEREST

(Members Code of Conduct - Part 4A of the Constitution)

 

To receive disclosures of interests from members and co-opted members on matters to be considered at the meeting. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

 

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

 

Notes:

 

(1)       Members may remain in the meeting and take part fully in discussion and voting unless the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an interest which the Member feels would call into question their compliance with the wider principles set out in the Code of Conduct.  Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member concerned or their spouse/partner.

 

(2)       Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction applies to them.  A failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. 

 

(3)       Members are also welcome to disclose interests which are not disclosable pecuniary interests but which they consider should be made in the interest of clarity.

 

(4)       Officers must disclose interests in accordance with Council Standing Order 44.

 

 

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interests

2.

INSPECTION OF REPORTS AND BACKGROUND PAPERS

(Access to Information Procedure Rules – Part 3B of the Constitution)

 

Reports and background papers for agenda items may be inspected by contacting the person shown after each agenda item.  Certain reports and background papers may be restricted. 

 

Any request to remove the restriction on a report or background paper should be made to the relevant Strategic Director or Assistant Director whose name is shown on the front page of the report. 

 

If that request is refused, there is a right of appeal to this meeting. 

 

Please contact the officer shown below in advance of the meeting if you wish to appeal. 

 

(Asad Shah - 01274 432280)

 

Minutes:

There were no appeals submitted by the public to review decisions to restrict documents.

 

 

3.

REFERRALS TO THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

Any referrals that have been made to this Committee up to and including the date of publication of this agenda will be reported at the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no referrals to the Committee.

 

 

4.

ENERGY CONTRACTS PROCUREMENT pdf icon PDF 90 KB

The report of the Assistant Director, Estates and Property (Document “D”) gives an explanation of the compliant method of procurement that City of Bradford MDC uses to buy energy contracts and a request from the committee that they are content that this method of procurement offers best value to the council. 

 

Recommended –

 

That councillors note the strategy of procuring energy through the YPO contract and that the performance of the contract should continue to be assessed against the market.  A review of this arrangement to be put before this committee whenever new contracts are required or should a periodic review of performance indicate that the arrangement may be able to obtain better value through alternative means.

 

(Neill Morrison – 01274 434003)

 

 

Minutes:

The report of the Assistant Director, Estates and Property (Document “D”) gave an explanation of the compliant method of procurement that City of Bradford MDC used to buy energy contracts and a request from the committee that they were content that this method of procurement offered best value to the Council. 

 

At the invitation of the Chair, the Energy Projects Manager gave a synopsis of the report.

 

Following presentation of the report, the following question and answer session ensued -

·         What were the anticipated costs to be incurred that would be set out in the financial resources appraisal support?

o   First it would be for the authority to carry out its own energy procurement through accessing market for a European luxury combined process. This would take some time. Then followed by a contract risk assessment, somewhere in the region of two months’ work.

o   In addition, factors such as scrutiny and scoring with potential barriers to legal challenges to the contractual arrangements that the authority would have to play a part in which would require a significant resource of officers’ time. Now those elements would also be eliminated if we if we use a similar framework it's available say through chrome commercial services, or one of the other profile organisations and government organisations. However, because we're a founding member of YPO there are financial benefits to basic is large contractual settings right here;

·         Did the 5 West Yorkshire authorities participate in this purchase?

o   We take it the right care will take any public sector organisation so it's not just local authorities, there were some health service trusts and police services. Ambulance alike as well, a significant number. It was an extremely logical folio that YPO was managing. The 5 West Yorkshire authorities were all energy contracted;

·         What governance arrangements had been put in place to oversee the transparency?

o   It involves a democratic process with elected Councillors serving as board members; and,

·         Why was gas and electricity not in line with to date?

o   This involved procurement for YPO, which would take around two years to run the procurement exercise, and then award the contracts before putting everything into place. So, it would double the amount of work. However, those providers had split it in two, in two years, hence able to focus entirely on one utility element.

 

Resolved –

 

This Committee requests that the comments and views raised by members be considered by officers as part of the procurement exercise.

 

ACTION: Assistant Director, Estates and Property

 

 

5.

USE OF THE CROWN COMMERCIAL SERVICES (CCS) FRAMEWORK: CONSTRUCTION WORKS AND ASSOCIATED SERVICES PROCUREMENT FOR THE TRANSFORMING CITIES PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 134 KB

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “E”) The purpose of this report is to advise Members of the intention to use the Crown Commercial Services’ Construction Works and Associated Services Framework for a procurement in excess of £2m to provide technical support, scheme development and delivery of the Transforming Cities Programme (TCF) in accordance with the requirements of Contract Standing Order 4.7.4.

 

Recommended –

 

That the Committee note the contents of this report and the proposed use of the Crown Commercial Services Framework.

 

(Richard Gelder – 01274 437603)

 

 

Minutes:

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “E”) advised Members of the Council’s intention to use the Crown Commercial Services’ Construction Works and Associated Services Framework for a procurement in excess of £2m to provide technical support, scheme development and delivery of the Transforming Cities Programme (TCF) in accordance with the requirements of Contract Standing Order 4.7.4.

 

The Highways Services Manager attended the meeting and with the invitation of the Chair, introduced the report to the committee.

 

Following a synopsis of the report, committee sought clarification on the business case for the proposal. In response, officers were moving into outlining the business case as the next step. This process allowed a period where officers could look into finalising the designs. The business case would be presented to the committee on completion at a future date. Furthermore, in order to bring the construction programme in and have enough time to construct to meet the deadline, officers would have to be at the end of the outline business case and a full business case by March in the following year.

 

A Councillor of Bradford South Constituency was in attendance and wished to express preferred sentiments on the subject item. With the invitation of the Chair, he proceeded with his statement. Many community representatives had been pushing for such a development programme for many years. It was paramount that the Council had to progress and there was a strong sense of a business case for this purpose. A report had been presented to the Investment Committee at the Combined Authority this morning which substantiated the economic benefit of the Transforming Cities Programme.

 

The Highways Services Manager confirmed that the committee would be kept updated with all developments and a further report would be presented to the committee giving details on the direction the service would be taking towards progression.

 

Resolved –

 

This Committee requests that the comments and views raised by members be considered by officers as part of the procurement exercise.

 

ACTION: Strategic Director, Place