Agreed to reimburse schools who fund £15 per week for children eligible for free school meals. Numbers identified are c.3,200 but this may increase as more families identify themselves.

To approve additional in-year expenditure within the Dedicated Schools Grant for 2020/21 for (a) revenue pupil growth funding for 33 pupils from September 2020 for Fairfield High School, £77,731.50 and (b) the commissioning of 15 additional places for the Pupil Referral Unit from September 2020 to provide secondary intervention places, £87,5000.

To accept the offer of £750,000 of government Towns Fund programme accelerated funding and approve expenditure on the projects contained within the bid submission.

This is a historical restrictive covenant that was applied as standard practice on domestic properties either when council houses were sold under right to buy or residential land was made available for private development as part of a larger housing scheme.

Whilst the council retains open space in the locality, in this case it is considered that there is no reasonable practical benefit in retaining this restrictive covenant.

Planning permission has already recently been granted for residential development.

As there is a significant uplift in value by releasing the covenant, a commercial fee has been agreed for its release.

To recommend the 2021 pay policy statement to full council for approval and publication.

To direct award works to onsite contractors, who are currently carrying out flood remediation works at the site

To consider the introduction of a new speed limit order at Mordiford Village the effect of which will be to extend the existing 30 mph speed limit on B4224, C1292 and C1297. This proposal is depicted on Drawing 3409-50 in Appendix A.

To update members on the progress of internal audit work and to bring to their attention any key internal control issues arising from work recently completed. To enable the committee to monitor performance of the internal audit team against the approved plan.
To assure the committee that action is being taken on risk related issues identified by internal audit. This is monitored by acceptance by management of audit recommendations and progress updates in implementing the agreed action plans. In addition, audit recommendations not accepted by management are reviewed and progress to an appropriate recommendation to cabinet if it is considered that the course of action proposed by management presents a risk in terms of the effectiveness of or compliance with the council’s control environment.

A decision was taken 9 August 2019 by Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Highways to pause all work on the South Wye Transport Package and Hereford bypass and a review of the projects be undertaken to determine next steps. This decision was called in and a General Scrutiny meeting was held 9th September in which recommendations were made.

The Cabinet Member took a further decision 22 October 2019 which took into consideration the recommendations made by General Scrutiny Committee and confirmed a review of the South Wye Transport Package and the bypass project to determine next steps.

On 24 January 2020 the Cabinet Member took a decision to approve the scope, outline programme and timescale for undertaking the review of the Hereford and South Wye Transport Packages.
The report outlined that the review is essential to ensure that the council’s decision making is fully informed by the latest information and best practice.

On 2 March 2020 the Acting Assistant Director Highways & Transport took a decision to approve the commencement of the procurement of a consultant to undertake an independent peer assessment of the Hereford Transport Package (HTP) and South Wye Transport Package (SWTP).
The procurement was undertaken directly by the council through an open market tendering process in accordance with the council’s procurement rules using the south west portal and concluded 18 March 2020. Eight bidders returned tenders, with all eight being compliant with the requirements of the Invitation to Tender (ITT).

The tender returns were independently evaluated by a panel of three officers on the basis of the requirements and scoring laid out in the ITT. Subsequently a joint moderation was undertaken in conjunction with two members of the corporate services team to reach a moderated final score.
Mott MacDonald Ltd achieved an overall score of 88.15%.

A number of the tender returns identified the potential need to consider further background technical data or seek clarifications from the previous consultant in order to effectively deliver the peer assessment. BBLP and their sub consultant WSP have provided professional services since 2013 for the HTP and SWTP. To ensure the programme of the assessment is maintained BBLP will be commissioned through the public realm contract to enable them to provide data or clarifications if they become necessary in a timely manner. This will be a supplementary activity to the BBLP annual plan.

On 2 March 2020 2020 the Acting Assistant Director Highways & Transport took a decision to award a contract to Mott MacDonald Ltd to undertake an independent peer assessment of the Hereford Transport Package (HTP) and South Wye Transport Package (SWTP), as outlined in the 24 January 2020 cabinet member transport and infrastructure report and commission Balfour Beatty Living Places, as the provider of professional services for the HTP and SWTP since 2013, under the public realm contract to provide additional technical information or clarifications for the peer assessment if required during the peer assessment process.

As part of the peer assessment work Mott MacDonald have reviewed previous technical documents and as anticipated have raised technical clarifications for officers and BBLP / WSP to respond to. In this review additional technical documents have been provided and as a result the magnitude of assessment and clarifications increased. This resulted in an extension to the programme of one month and additional costs from BBLP / WSP to provide these clarifications. This programme extension remained within the timeline indicated in the 24 January 2020 cabinet member report and was discussed and agreed with the cabinet member.

The leisure pool remains closed due to flood damage. Insurance re-instatement works are well underway however to ensure the leisure pool can be re-opened the following capital works must be procured:-

Site area Regulatory works £
Plant room lighting 15,830
Electrical upgrade 169,802
Lightening protection 23,817
Fire alarm replacement 172,697
Plant room flat roof 14,736
Roof anti climb measures 8,358
Concrete repairs 77,000
Roof mounted pipework 22,000
Totals 504,239

The actual cost detail continues to be assessed and reviewed however the above is a good indication of the expected costs

The flood alleviation scheme was included in the 2020/21 Public Realm Annual Plan which was approved by the cabinet member for Infrastructure and Transport on 29 April 2020.

This record of office decision report confirms the commencement of the scheme based on subcontract tender costs, and the allocation of the existing S106 and EA grant funding to the capital programme.

The scheme design and development are complete and the works are ready to mobilise. All legal easements have been negotiated with affected landowners where access to their property is required for construction purposes and future maintenance.

S106 developer contribution of £510,530 was paid towards the scheme. Spend to date of this funding is £248,506 which has enabled the development and detailed design of the scheme to reach the point of construction. This figure also includes the budget value associated with completing the legal easements. In addition further funding of £298,864 has been received in the form of grant from the Environment Agency. The S106 contribution and Grant in Aid and Local Levy funding are to be added to the council’s capital programmes.

£380,000 was paid towards the scheme from the council’s capital programmes following the decision taken on 6 August 2020 to approve £2m of capital investment in infrastructure 2020/21 to be delivered through the public realm annual plan. This confirms an overall scheme budget for construction of £940,888.

The costs associated with this decision to commission the construction works through the public realm contract are £854,083. This leaves an allocation for risk and contingency of £86,805.

A planning application for the scheme alongside a Listed Building Consent application was submitted to the Local Planning Authority in January 2020, with permission granted for both applications 30 June 2020.

A separate decision is to be taken by the Acting Assistant Director Highways and Transport to enter into Deeds of Easement and a licence for temporary occupation with the landowners to enable the construction, use and future maintenance of the works comprising the Lea Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS). It also approves the payment of reasonable compensation, licence fee and professional fees incurred by the landowners and the council in the preparation of the agreements.

To consider the comments and objections received from multiple consultees, in relation to the advertisement of the council’s proposal to introduce the following Traffic Regulation Order: THE COUNTY OF HEREFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL HEREFORD RESIDENTS PARKING ORDER 2019 (AMENDMENT NO.1) ORDER 2020.
This report regards the proposals for Lichfield Avenue and the surrounding junctions only. The extents of the proposed restrictions, as advertised, are shown in drawing 3409-69 as Appendix A.

To tender for the provision of Family mentoring and Befriending services. It is intended that the new contracts will commence on 1st April 2021 for a period of 1 year, with the potential to extend for up to one further year at a total maximum estimated cost of £332,000 for the maximum 2 year period.

To agree a new procurement process through a Dynamic Purchasing System (Adaptation, Repair, Maintenance and Improvement - ARMI) operated by Independence CIC, to fulfil the requirements for supplies and services associated with the provision of Disabled Facilities Grants.

To continue to reinforce the Covid 19 social distance messaging across the county.
Signs will be deployed in heavily trafficked footways including area of Hereford City centre and the high streets of Leominster, Ross, Bromyard, Ledbury and Kington.
Messages will be updated as necessary in consultation with public health and the communications team.

To approve the updated Finance Procedure Rules to reflect changes since January 2020.

As a category 1 responder in an emergency and based on the work of the Outbreak Control Group working to the Outbreak Control Plan the council have made spend decisions in relation to the containment of the Covid-19 outbreak at Rook Row Farm.

The outbreak control plan follows three specific objectives:
• Reduce the spread of infection in Herefordshire, minimise the number of cases, protect our health and care system, and save lives
• Support settings which experience an outbreak or complex single cases to mitigate the consequences 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-19 in order to minimise anxiety.
The outbreak of Covid-19 was among the workforce on the farm (designated key workers) and the council worked with Public Health England (PHE) to support the farm and take appropriate action to manage the outbreak. Therefore urgent interventions were needed by the council to support people to stay on site in an attempt to contain 223 workers on site. This included catering for 21 additional people joining the workforce who needed accommodation (the accommodation for the new arrivals would have been provided for by people due to finish their period of employment at the site). Another important factor was to support the owners in sustaining their business through the emergency situation as important to the local economy.

The spend was based on dealing with immediate impact of the emergency and follows weeks (based on isolation rules). The provision by the council covered the following items:
Washing and Toilet provision. The council also organised the provision of additional wash facilities based on 2 x male urinal units; 4 standard portable toilet units; 2 toilet/wash hand basin trailer units; and 2 x 4-Bay Transhower portable shower blocks. The provision by Andyloos at a cost of £5k.
Welfare and Office facilities. To support the new people arriving on site and in order to isolate people with the infection, provision was made to cover 2 sleeper pods, 2 welfare units and 1 canteen unit. For the council one welfare unit was provided that included office space, kitchenette and WC.
The cost was £18k. The service was provided by Balfour Beatty Living Places.
Emergency food and supplies. To ensure people in isolation had the food and supplies needed initially based on their requests so they would not go hungry as well as mitigation against leaving the site (therefore included cigarettes and medical items). There was also supplies of bedding particularly for the new arrivals, and delivery made by Balfour Beatty Living Places. The cost spent was £9.2k.
Internet connection – wifi was installed to help retain people on site over an extended period and to enable contact with friends and relatives. The owner had previously ordered a full fibre service to the farm from Gigaclear, but a strong wifi connection was needed to cover the worker accommodation. This cost £6k and was provided by SWS (Secure Web Services) working with Gigaclear.
Translation costs: The council needed to provide translation in several languages so important information was relayed. This cost £11k.
Site supervision: Though most site supervision was via the council teams, Balfour Beatty Living Places also supported this at a cost of £1.5k.
Contingency – A small number of additional items were required – mainly stationary, posters, etc. This was in the region of £1k.

The council is also made PPE available to people needing to visit the site and this is from the council’s existing provision for which there was a previous decision.

The council has needed to procure goods and services in an extremely urgent situation. Direct purchasing is permitted using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (Government guidance). The purchase of items is below the EU thresholds and relate to one-off costs.

To improve the access roads that at present do not form part of the Public Realm Highways responsibility to bring them up to an acceptable standard for future adoption.

To approve the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) high needs budget for 2021/22 as recommended by Schools Forum

To approve school forum’s recommended budget proposals for school budgets, central school services and early years within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for 2021/22

Connexus Housing Limited, the established contract provider of the 24 hr call monitoring service, took the decision to sell the ‘Careline’, the call monitoring element of their business earlier in 2020. This sale has been undertaken but the council has been subject to a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and therefore very limited information was available prior to the sale.

The service contract remains exactly the same and will remain in place for the remainder of the contract period to 31st March 2022.

The service was officially transfer on Wednesday 14th October 2020 and the restrictions in the NDA were lifted on Thursday 15th October 2020. Therefore the council can now confirm the new provider of the service

The Essex Arms site was acquired as part of the link road compulsory purchase order and associated side roads order (14 March 2013) and the construction of Station Approach city link road (CLR) along the northern boundary of the site. The land underneath the footprint of the road was needed for the scheme – it is the remainder of the land that was subject to this investigation.

Cabinet have been in discussion with environmental groups who are keen to maintain the site as green space and are considering this as an option for the site.

The investigations carried out so far have demonstrated that the cost and timescales for raising the ground are unlikely to support economic development of the site. These investigations now estimate that the overall cost of raising the ground is unlikely to be recouped from its value as a development site.

The site was identified as possible green space during Cabinet’s master planning exercise for Hereford which included a review of the Station Approach sites. There was broad agreement amongst Cabinet to explore green space as an option for the site.

To present to the committee the external audit findings report following the conclusion of the 2019/20 external audit work

For the committee to approve the councils 2019/20 statement of accounts following conclusion of the external audit work.

• We have plans to ‘grow our own’ social workers in both Adults and Children’s directorates to address issue related to recruitment and retention.
• The contract value, £200k, required an open tender process to procure a suitably qualified provide of an approved scheme leading to a degree level qualification in social work

To approve Herefordshire Council’s continued participation in the west midlands supported accommodation framework (16/17 year olds) during the extension period from 8 January 2021 up to 11 July 2021.

That Herefordshire Council joins the sub-regional contract, led by Staffordshire County Council, to be awarded to Fostering Network to deliver an Independent Fostering Advice and Mediation service at a total cost of £129,993 (inclusive of VAT) from 1st October 2020 to 30th September 2023.

Herefordshire Councils contribution to the contract is £ 18,627.99 over the same period.

Approval of the playing field drainage works at Colwall CE Primary School, to be undertaken via Balfour Beatty Living Places, at an initial cost of £15,247 plus associated contingency, statutory and professional fees. A total cost up to the value of £20,000.

Fund the £20k from the existing healthy schools capital budget.

To agree the annual governance statement 2019/20.
The council is required to publish a statement annually which explains to the community, service users, tax payers and other stakeholders our governance arrangements and how the controls we have in place manage risks of failure in delivering our outcomes and reflecting our particular features and challenges. In July 2020, Audit and Governance Committee approved the draft statement for publication with the draft statement of accounts.
The draft statement has been reviewed having regard to the external auditor’s findings and the internal auditor’s annual report and opinion, and includes a summary of progress made against actions agreed in response to the previous year’s statement.

To provide the committee with an update of the councils Corporate Risk Register