To authorise the expenditure of up to £13,800 from the contingency
allocation for Sprinkler Tank works at Earl Mortimer College, to include a
contingency of up to £2,000.

To authorise the expenditure of up to the value of £200 from the
contingency allocation.

Responsibility for monitoring the project to be carried out by the Capital
Project Manager within the spend budget.

To add this emergency works scheme to the 2021/22 maintenance
programme.

To serve a Civil Penalty Notice - HMO Licence S.72 notice - U/003209

To serve a S20 Prohibition Order Cat 1 notice - U/003222

The Black & White House Museum has been closed in line with regulations enforcing the national lockdown in England.

Under the government’s proposed roadmap for moving out of Covid-19 restrictions, museums are listed as being eligible to reopen from 17 May. However, guidance for Step 2 activity for ‘Reopening businesses and venues’ which applies from 12 April states that, at this stage,

‘Permitted businesses operating in otherwise closed attractions (such as a gift shop or a takeaway kiosk at a museum) may only open where they are a self-contained unit and can be accessed directly from the street’

The government has confirmed that proposed changes for step 2 can take place from 12th April and a link to the current guidance is below

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reopening-businesses-and-venues-in-england/reopening-businesses-and-venues#step-2---no-earlier-than-12-april

The gift shop at the Black & White House fulfils the criteria of being ‘a self-contained unit accessed directly from the street’.

The hours of opening at this stage will be Tuesday to Saturday,
10.00 – 16.00.

Covid-19 secure certification for the delivery of the service in this manner is in place as is an appropriate system for test & trace.

The cabinet member report dated the 12th February 2021 authorises that the insurance settlement figure of £173k be granted to the sports club to undertake the reinstatement works.

The specification was approved in November by the councils building surveyor and mechanical engineer.

The sports club to date have been paid £122,243.70, this amount of £18,000 will make a total paid to date of £140,243.70

A copy of the invoices and valuation to date have been provided.

The above sites delivering a library service on behalf of Herefordshire Council have been closed since March 20th 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In recent months they have been offering a click and collect service in line with national regulations. In line with government guidance, libraries are allowed to open to the public again from 12th April. A link to the guidance is below

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do

The national professional body, Libraries Connected, has worked with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as well as Public Health England, to produce a library recovery toolkit. This has been adopted as best practice across England and recommends a phased reintroduction of library services.

At this stage, national guidance recommends library use is time limited and restricted to returning, browsing and borrowing items and for pre-booked sessions using the public access computers.

In addition, the libraries will be a collection point for green garden waste sacks that have been pre-ordered and paid for via the Herefordshire Council website.

At this stage the opening hours for the four sites will be as follows :

Hereford : Tuesday – Friday 10.00 – 12.00 and 14.00 – 16.00, Saturday 10.00 – 12.00

Leominster, Ledbury and Ross : Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00, Saturday 10.00 – 12.00

Hereford, Leominster and Ross will re-open the week beginning 12th April 2021. Ledbury library will re-open the week beginning 19 April 2021. This is because it is being used as a Lateral Flow Testing venue until Friday 9 April. The following week will be required to remove the infrastructure of the testing venue and prepare the library for re-opening.

The reintroduction of the service at these four sites will be extended as regulations allow and other library sites will be opened as soon as is safely possible.

Herefordshire Library Service has worked with the relevant other Council Departments to ensure due process is followed to provide the service in a manner that is safe for staff and customers.

To roll on the existing support and maintenance contract for the Civica Application for a further 12 months. The total cost of this extension will be £57,393.19

To serve a S11 Improvement Notice Cat 1 notice - U/003199

HARC and the museum sites have been closed in line with regulations enforcing the national lockdown in England.

Under the government’s proposed roadmap for moving out of Covid-19 restrictions, guidance for Step 2 activity for Reopening businesses and venues states that at this stage,

‘Public buildings, such as community halls and centres, and libraries, can reopen’.

The government has confirmed that proposed changes for step 2 can take place from 12 April and a link to the current guidance is below

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reopening-businesses-and-venues-in-england/reopening-businesses-and-venues#step-2---no-earlier-than-12-april

Confirmation has been received from the Department For Culture, Media and Sport that Archive search rooms can reopen from 12 April for public access with some initial restrictions. All sessions must be pre-booked, numbers on site should be managed, all items handled by the public should be quarantined for 72 hours after use and appropriate risk assessments should be in place.

Covid-19 secure certification for the delivery of the service in this manner is in place as is an appropriate system for test & trace.

Initially, from 12 April, HARC will operate on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 10.00 and 15.30. These hours will be reviewed with a view to extending them as the national relaxation of restrictions develops.

S C Joseph Ltd have been identified as the bidder representing best value for money following a competitive tender via the SouthWest Portal and assessment process in accordance with Council procurement procedures. An open tender was published and two valid tenders were received for consideration. The work is to be awarded to S C Joseph Ltd with a tender value of £41,126.00.

The works will prevent further deterioration of the asset, improve insulation and reduce heat loss and enable business continuity and to facilitate the transfer of the freehold interest in the building to the Hope Family Centre.

To provide an update to the committee on progress against internal audit recommendations activities.

This quarter has seen the first four projects come forward for funding from the Fastershire Community Grant which was launched in December 2020.
The four communities are very different in size, remoteness and viability. The table below details the key information relating to each project.

Community Participating Other Selected
premises benefitting Supplier Total Cost Required
with premises £’000 Funding
<30Mbps with <30Mbps £’000
Birley, Upper Hill
& Aulden 28 17 Full Fibre Ltd 196,610 192,637.08
Nash & Knill 24 7 Airband 149,533 137,533
Cinderford 87 497 Full Fibre Ltd 3,112,006 28,675
Northwick Park
& Draycott 78 110 Gigaclear 231,104 94,603
Total 217 631 3,689,253 453,448.08

Cinderford, being a small town, is the clear outlier and the exercise has done more to bring the viability of the area to the attention of suppliers than plug any major funding gap. However, it is unlikely that many similar schemes to Cinderford will come through the grant and the other three are more representative of the type of projects that will come through in the future.

Despite the disparity in cost vs benefit, each project passed the Value for Money test detailed in the Fastershire Broadband Strategy and was therefore approved.

These early projects have successfully proved the concept of the Fastershire Community Grant, enabling the project to facilitate superfast connectivity to 848 hitherto STD (Still To Do) premises, nearly 10% of the residual premises that are left without a contracted solution.

Government advice was that the hospitality venues must close from 31 December 2020 unless operating as a takeaway/delivery operation.

The council suspended highways amenity and pavement licences on 31 December 2021, see Covid HAL/PL suspension decision 31.12.20

Businesses that remained open under that capacity did so without seating areas.

Those businesses that have either a highways amenity licence or a pavement licence for external seating areas will be permitted to reintroduce those areas from 12 April 2021.

To withdraw the Bromyard Depot from the Development Regeneration Partnership (DRP) as the council has not been able to secure vacant possession of the entire development site, and therefore current scheme cannot be taken forward at this time.

To prosecute the defendant for offences under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, Section 117

To issue the defendant a simple caution for offences under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, Section 117

The council via the Fastershire project has identified that Herefordshire residents would benefit from training to enable them to better understand the advantages of going online and to develop the skills to use the internet. Therefore the council is seeking to commission ICT training providers to deliver beginners’ internet and computer training workshops and support in Herefordshire for the period 1st May 2021 to 31st March 2023 to a maximum cost of £15,000 per annum. With potential extension of the contract a further 12 months.
An Invitation to Tender was published via the council’s e-tendering portal and, following compliance checks and the evaluation of the quality elements of the bids, the Evaluation Panel recommends that four providers are awarded contracts to admit them onto the approved list of providers to deliver beginners’ internet and computer training workshops for Fastershire.
It is anticipated that not all workshops will be allocated to the same provider, as this will be based on lowest price and provider availability for each workshop.

A decision was made in December 2020 to re-procure the CRM (customer relationship management) to log and track complaints and FOI (freedom on information requests). The current system is obsolete and ICT Services are decommissioning the application.
A tender process was conducted and concluded with contract award to Fivium to provide eCase the software.
The cost of implementation is £4,800 and annual support costs for the next 3 years are £15,750 per annum.
Logging and tracking of complaints and information requests is necessary to ensure that compliance with statutory deadlines is met.
Better reporting functions are required to be able to identify trends, issues and volumes which can be used for learning within the council to improve services and transparency.
There is no current provision or capacity in the system to provide a disclosure log of information provided in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

The Herefordshire visitor economy has been severely impacted by Covid 19 and the resulting lockdown. Tourism accommodation and attractions, cultural venues, hospitality businesses, non-essential retailers were instructed by government to close for circa 3 months during the start of their usual peak season period. Many of these businesses have then faced a second period of lockdown in November 2020 This has significantly threatened the viability of these businesses, and put at risk of redundancy the large numbers of people they employ.

In May the Marches LEP allocated £444,220 to Herefordshire to support Covid 19 economic recovery, subject to the development of a business case. Herefordshire Council in partnership with the Herefordshire Business Board established and submitted a business case focussed on supporting the soonest possible recovery of the visitor economy. Shropshire Council (as the accountable body) on behalf of the Marches LEP issued a funding offer letter to Herefordshire Council on the 17th June, and the Cabinet Member for Environment Economy and Skills took a decision to accept the grant and implement the project on the 20th June.

Recognising the need to engage with visitor economy businesses to co-ordinate delivery and to seek relevant expertise, a project steering group was formed in June 2020.

The business case for the Visitor Economy project identified the need for research and evaluation of the project that will benchmark and show the impact of the Visitor Economy project, in particular of the impact of the marketing and PR campaigns, to evidence return on investment and to inform future activity.

To endorse and sign the new AONB MoUs for the period 2021-2024

Detailed technical discussions have taken place between the EZ’s procured drainage engineers (One Ltd) and DCWW to agree a suitable drainage design to serve the North Magazine. Given the multiple potential connections, this needs to be a public sewer owned by DCWW.

A Section 104 (sewerage adoption) agreement and Grant of Deed of Easement is required with DCWW to enable them to adopt this proposed new sewer on the North Magazine. These legal agreements need to be in place before the installation can start.

Summarise why the decision is being taken and what matters are being taken into account. You can use bullet points. If there are relevant documents (eg a tender evaluation report) you can attach them but remember they will be published with this record so the usual care should be taken that they are suitable for publication.

If the decision impacts the council’s priorities summarise how. In particular if the decision affects the lives of looked after children or care leavers you should explain how.

The Leisure Centre remains closed due to water damage. Both insured and uninsured re-instatement works are well underway however to ensure the Centre can be re-opened the uninsured elements of the regulatory electrical, emergency lighting and fire alarm installations need to be improved and made compliant.

To ensure the service provides full cost recovery for the benefit of Herefordshire residents. The removal of the exemption category ensures the service is being funded by the applicant. In addition, the statutory planning application fees were raised by 20% in January 2018 whereas the council only increased pre-app fees by 10% in April 2019. Therefore this additional increase ensures consistency with the uplift in the national planning fees as well as achieve full cost recovery.

To consider the status of the council's Corporate Risk Register in order to monitor the effectiveness of risk management within the Performance Management Framework.

Compliance with approved council policy.

Help to further the establishment of NMITE in Hereford, and in particular the specialist facilities it needs to engage and work with local businesses.

Following the award of enterprise zone status in August 2011 approximately 45 hectares (110 acres) of council owned land was included, along with other privately owned land, in the designated EZ. The EZ status has resulted in the council and occupiers within the EZ benefiting from a number of government incentives such as significantly increased awareness and profile of the location and opportunity, business rates relief and retention, improved access to broadband etc. These factors have resulted in an increase in interest from local, national and international businesses in active and advanced negotiations with the council to acquire land within the EZ.

This area of land is located next to the Shell Store at the North Magazine. We anticipate a good deal of beneficial interaction between the Shell Store and the new NMITE facilities. The Shell Store will be a natural location for business start ups generated by students graduating from NMITE.

The sale of the land is on a freehold basis. The purchaser will not accept or proceed with the purchase on any other basis.

Granting an option for the 1.6 acres immediately adjoining the site will give NMITE the certainty they need to help realise their next stage ambitions which is to build another specialist facility, subject to funding being available. This option is specific to NMITE and not transferable, any extension will be at the discretion of the Council. The sale will be based on market value at the time the option is exercised.

All the EZ land is being actively marketed, and is being sold according to independent land valuations and the EZ Land Disposal Policy which was approved by cabinet member on 7 January 2016. The agreed purchase price meets the market valuation. Valuation document attached.

This sale has the full endorsement of the EZ executive board.

The purchaser and their proposal have been assessed by the Hereford Enterprise Zone Board and deemed to meet the Placement Strategy, the Board’s set of criteria which each oncoming organization must achieve in order to progress onto the Enterprise Zone.

The decision to sell this plot supports council policy to use capital receipts from sale of land within the Enterprise Zone to fund the capital expenditure on installing necessary infrastructure across the site. The latest council decision to incur this expenditure is available via this link: http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=6182

The refresh of this document is required by Public Health regional convenors as soon as possible.
This plan was originally adopted on 30.06.2020 http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=6981
The council’s response to the pandemic has evolved and will continue to do so due to changes in circumstances. Nationally it was felt that all Local Authority Outbreak Management Plans needed to be reviewed due to a stronger focus on Enhanced contact tracing and variants of concern. The aim of the plan is to:
Reduce the spread of infection in Herefordshire, minimise the number of cases, protect our health and care system, and save lives;
Support settings experiencing a new localised outbreak or complex single cases to mitigate the consequences of and help to keep as many services and businesses going as possible in a way that is safe and releases our economy; and
Give the public confidence that we are able to respond appropriately to outbreaks of Covid-1 in order to minimise anxiety.