To approve up to £1,396,000.00 of expenditure required to complete procurement and implementation, and ongoing licencing and maintenance costs of a new replacement software system to support planning and regulatory services within Herefordshire Council.

That:

a) Expenditure of up to £1,396,000.00 from the allocated capital programme be approved to complete the procurement and implementation of a new software system to support the Council’s planning and regulatory services;

b) The Corporate Director for Economy and Environment be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary to deliver recommendation (a) and support implementation, including contract award and arrangements with the chosen supplier, within the approved budget;

1.    Do nothing. The current software will be unsupported in the future. This would lead to a rush to procure and implement; in the meantime the services would need to work with an inefficient system. This would mean statutory duties could not be undertaken by Herefordshire Council.

2.     Do minimum. By not having a full suite of software options teams and customers would be impacted. Further IT solutions would have to be procured, likely to increase overall costs of support and integration.