The purpose of this report is for Cabinet to approve the contents of the Council’s Asset Management Plan (AMP) for 2008/09 and endorse the ongoing process of managing land and property assets on a corporate basis.

Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Asset Management and Property Services to which was appended the Council’s Asset Management Plan (AMP) for 2008/09.  The Cabinet Member for Resources advised Members that the Asset Management Plan set out the focus of activity for the Asset Management and Property Services team over the next 12 months and demonstrated how those activities supported the authority’s corporate priorities.

The AMP outlined the following aspects:

(i)                  team roles and responsibilities (although Members were made aware that it had been difficult to attract suitable candidates for key appointments to the revised officer structure agreed almost two years ago and that critical gaps had been covered through the use of interim support).

(ii)                working with stakeholders

(iii)               data and performance management arrangements

(iv)              planning and delivery of property related programmes

(v)                reviewed last 12 months activity against targets

The Head of Asset Management and Property Services introduced Russell Cheasley, who had recently been appointed Property Review and Contracts Commissioning Manager and was one of the first appointments secured to the new structure. 

Members attention was specifically drawn to the following points within the report:

• As there was a need to respond to the requirements of the Comprehensive Area Assessments and Local Area Assessments (paragraph 1.1, page 7), the AMP would form part of the compliance documentation submitted to Government, in support of the authority’s appropriate use of resources.
• The authority currently used property data derived from four legacy systems (pages 11-13).  As maintaining these systems currently required duplication of information, discussions had been held with the authority’s ICT team to outline specification for a corporate property database which would provide high quality information across the council.
• Paragraph 5.1.3 ‘Capital Programme’ had not been included in the draft AMP as it had been necessary to await the decision of the Cabinet on the Draft Capital Programme 2008/09 report, which would be considered on the meeting’s agenda.  Should approval be given to the Capital Programme report this paragraph would be finalised.
• Action Plans to support the progress of the AMP were outlined on pages 27-31 (appendices 5-12).

In discussion the following comments were made by Members;

• The action plans were welcomed as a means by which development and monitoring were clearly outlined.
• Consideration should be given to the asset management requirements across public bodies in the County and a culture developed within public partners of jointly achieving best use of property assets in relevant locations to allow for appropriate accessibility of public services to residents.  Such an approach would reflect the recommendations outlined in the Audit Commission’s 2000 report, Hot Property which considered how to achieve the best out of local authority assets.
• A request was made that the presentation of the data be reconsidered prior to final publication as a public document (e.g pages 11-13).
• In response to a comment on the apparent suspension of recording value for money information it was stated that it was unfortunate that the authority was unable to continue  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61