To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from the following cabinet members: Cllr Pauline Crockett, Cllr John Harrington.

To receive declarations of interests in respect of Schedule 1, Schedule 2 or Other Interests from members of the committee in respect of items on the agenda.

None.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2022.

Resolved:       That the minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2022 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairperson.

To receive questions from members of the public.

Questions received and responses given are attached as appendix 1 to the minutes.

To receive questions from councillors.

Questions received and responses given are attached as appendix 2 to the minutes.

To approve, in principle, the acceptance of the Department for Education (DfE) funding offer and re-profiled expenditure on The Brookfield Special School project pending a decision by full council.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report. She highlighted that it had taken some time to get to this stage and thanked officers for their work in negotiating with the Department for Education (DfE). If approved by the cabinet, the Council would be asked to agree the necessary adjustments to the capital programme at its forthcoming meeting.

The service director, education, skills and learning summarised the background to the decision and the current issues with the school building. Work continued to transfer the running of the school to a new Multi Academy Trust and officers reported that assurances had been received that all places at the school would remain available for Herefordshire pupils. The transfer to the new MAT was expected to complete in January 2023 but building work could commence ahead of completion of the formal transfer. The council was also in discussion with the school about increasing the number of places in the future, but this did not form part of the decision before cabinet members.

Cabinet members welcomed the additional contribution from the DfE and recognised the importance of addressing the issues at the school to support pupils

Group leaders and representatives presented comments and queries from their respective groups. There was wide support for the recommendations and the following points were noted:

·       The new buildings would meet appropriate energy efficiency standards and where buildings were being refurbished this would be done with efficiency in mind as far as possible;

·       Recent weather conditions showed the importance of being able to manage excess heat, as well as being efficient to keep warm in cooler weather.

It was unanimously resolved that:

a)    On approval of Full Council of an in-year adjustment to the capital programme, the council accepts the Department for Education funding offer towards the programme of capital improvements to The Brookfield Special School as agreed by Cabinet on 28 April 2020 to be completed within a re-profiled budget of £5m;

b)    Authority is delegated for procurement and award of contracts for the lifecycle of the project, informed by methodology advised by the council’s Commercial Services, to the Corporate Director Children and Young People;

c)    Cabinet recommends to full Council that an in-year adjustment is made to the capital programme;

d)    Authority is delegated to the Corporate Director Children and Young People and the S151 officer to agree the final terms of the grant from the Department for Education; and

e)    When negotiations have been concluded and terms agreed, authority is delegated to the Service Director Education, Skills & Learning to take all operational decisions necessary to implement the above.

This report seeks to agree the new service specification and approval to procure the new waste collection service. This follows the adoption of the council’s new Waste Management Strategy in July 2021 and the subsequent Cabinet decision to adopt a new waste collection model in November 2021.

The cabinet member commissioning, procurement and assets introduced the report. She thanked officers for their work on this and previous reports and also thanked the current waste contractor and their operatives for their work, particularly during the pandemic. The cabinet member summarised the proposals in the report and drew attention to the planned changes from the current collection system.

The interim delivery director waste transformation & wetland project explained the background to the report including the consultation process that had taken place and how the council had responded to the concerns raised on collection from flats, dealing with nappies, promoting re-use and repair of items and educating residents on recycling.

An extension to the current contract was proposed to allow sufficient time for vehicle procurement timelines and to ensure an effective mobilisation of the new contract. Officers were recommending that the contractor be expected to procure the vehicles and were confident the procurement would attract a number of bidders.

The deputy monitoring officer explained that the appendix to the report, containing the latest draft of the council’s requirements for the contract, was exempt from publication as these details needed to remain confidential until the procurement commenced.

Cabinet members discussed the report and it was noted that:

·       The extension of the current contract would allow appropriate time to finalise the specification with the bidders and ensure the council was getting the best possible contract, the council would be open to innovative proposals from bidders and would need time to work through these;

·       The provision of finance for the contractor to procure vehicles had been carefully considered and the Section 151 officer was satisfied this would be part of the evaluation and conversation with the successful contractor to find a mutually beneficial approach, it was intended that the contractor would own the vehicles it procured;

·       Funding for the ‘getting it right’ campaign had been identified in previous decisions and this would pay for itself in improved recycling income;

·       Alternative fuels for vehicles would be considered in discussion with the bidders, taking account of the size and rurality of the county and emerging technologies;

·       It was important the contract was flexible to adapt to future changes;

·       Assumptions on the financing of the contract were being built into the update of the medium term financial strategy and the council would undertake due diligence checks to ensure that the projected model would work.

Group leaders and representatives gave the views and comments of their respective groups. In response to queries it was noted that:

·       It was important to communicate the changes and ways of reusing and recycling to residents and also the benefits of increased recycling;

·       Methods of communication would be clear and simple, and an equality impact assessment would identify groups needing different approaches;

·       There would be an impact on the volume of waste going to the energy from waste plant. Officers confirmed this had been considered, was priced in to the figures for the waste disposal contract and would be offset by increased income  ...  view the full minutes text for item 136.