Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Council Chamber, Brockington, 35 Hafod Road, Hereford

Contact: Sally Cole, Governance Services 

Items
No. Item

23.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor RJ Phillips, Cabinet Member Enterprise and Culture.

24.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made.

25.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 91 KB

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2012.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:   That the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2012 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

 

 

The Monitoring Officer informed Cabinet that the Broadband Contract Agenda item would be dealt with under special urgency as there was a need to finalise the contract negotiations and there had been an unavoidable delay in publishing the agenda within the statutory deadline. Therefore as required by the Council’s Constitution the report was being dealt with as an urgent agenda item.

26.

BORDERS BROADBAND CONTRACT AWARD AND PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT pdf icon PDF 134 KB

To seek agreement to conduct final negotiations for the delivery of improved Broadband infrastructure; and in so doing authorise Herefordshire Council’s financial contribution to the project and to progress the terms of a Partnership Agreement between Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council to oversee the delivery of the Borders Broadband project.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member Education and Infrastructure presented the report of the Project Director to Cabinet and made the following points:

 

·         Approximately 24% of residents in Herefordshire still did not have access to a broadband service of 2Mb/s, which is the Universal Service Commitment (USC).

·         There is currently no superfast broadband in Herefordshire, which if this continues will severely impact on economic development for the county.

·         For the next generation of access to broadband, speeds of 30Mb/s will be expected and therefore a future proofed network needs to be built.

·         It was announced by the government in October 2010 that South Herefordshire would be one of four national pilot areas for Next Generation Access (NGA) and that Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) would provide funding for those rural areas unable to receive the service through commercial deployment, or cover those areas where USC is not available.

·         To provide broadband access for all commercial investment should be completed by 2014 and the Borders Broadband Contract, to cover those areas that the commercial deployment will not reach, should be completed by 2016. 

·         By 2016 Herefordshire will have 100% coverage at USC level and 88% coverage at NGA level.

·         For future technology and for communities/businesses that do not have NGA at the end of 2016, there will be a bursary scheme to provide additional funding and it is expected that this will be completed by 2018.

·         Cabinet was advised that the broadband contract procurement process commenced in June 2011.  Eight companies were involved at the pre-qualification questionnaire stage, which has now reduced to a single bidder.

·         Cabinet has approved the allocation of £6m to the project, which matches the initial allocation by BDUK.  Cabinet is asked to approve an increase to the capital allocation of a further £4.1m (overall total of £10.1m), which matches the revised total allocation of BDUK of £3.75m and a sum of £350k for the bursary scheme.

·         Cabinet was advised that the bidder’s completion date was 2016, a year later than the government’s target of 2015.  There was concern that the hardest to reach areas would be left to the end of the project and that the commercial deployment would not achieve the planned coverage, which would reduce the overall coverage in the county. 

·         Cabinet was reminded that the details of the contract were included in the confidential papers before them, which could not be discussed in open debate in respect to the agreed bidder and any negotiations they might carry out.

·         As the lead authority Herefordshire is authorised to conclude contract negotiations.

 

The Leader of the Council congratulated officers on their work on the project to date.

RESOLVED

              THAT:

 

(a)                Herefordshire Council’s capital contribution to the project be increased to £10,100,000 (from current allocation of £6m) to match fund BDUK’s contribution to the deployment of broadband to Herefordshire premises through the proposed contract with the Bidder and via a bursary scheme to the value of £350,000 as part of the match funding required by BDUK;

(b)                Cabinet note the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

27.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC AND PRESS

In the opinion of the Proper Officer, the following item will not be, or is likely not to be, open to the public and press at the time it is considered.

 

RECOMMENDATION:          that under section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12(A) of the Act, as indicated below and it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

1          Information relating to any individual.

 

2          Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

 

3          Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person

 

4          Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the authority.

 

5          Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

 

6          Information which reveals that the authority proposes-.

(a) to give under any enactment a notice under or by virtue of which requirements are imposed on a person; or.

(b) to make an order or direction under any enactment.

 

7          Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.

 

STANDARDS BOARD ONLY

 

7A        Information which is subject to an obligation of confidentiality;

 

7B       Information which relates in any way to matters concerning national security;

 

7C       The deliberations of a Standards Committee or a sub-committee of a Standards Committee established under the provisions of Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 in reaching any finding on a matter referred under the provisions of section 60(2) or (3), 64(2), 70(4) or (5) or 71(2) of that Act.

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 2 of Schedule 12(A) of the Act, and it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

28.

BORDERS BROADBAND CONTRACT AWARD AND PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

This report accompanies the open report of the same name.

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the confidential report outlining the financial and legal aspects of the proposed contract with the bidder. 

RESOLVED:  That the contents of the report be noted.