To provide the Strategic Monitoring Committee with an update on the status of the Herefordshire Strategic Service Delivery Partnership including the annual report on the partnership.

The Committee received an update on the status of the Herefordshire Strategic Service Delivery Partnership and the annual report on the partnership between Herefordshire Jarvis Services (now Amey Wye Valley Limited), Owen Williams and Herefordshire Council.

The report to Cabinet on 11 October 2007 was appended to the report.  This commented on performance of the partnership as a whole with further sections on Herefordshire Jarvis Services (HJS) and Owen Williams Ltd.  It also reported on the purchase of the major part of Herefordshire Jarvis Services by Amey PLC, with the successor company to HJS named Amey Wye Valley Ltd.

The Environment Support Manager presented the report.  This identified performance for the partnership as a whole as mixed with encouraging performance in some areas but with scope for improvement in others.  He drew attention to the development of a new performance indicator framework. 

In terms of HJS he noted that the biggest single challenge for HJS and the most significant issue had been the payment of creditors.  The local management team was to be congratulated for maintaining service delivery given the limited cash allocations it had received from the Jarvis Group Treasury to pay creditors. 

He identified that with Amey Wye Valley Ltd and Owen Williams Ltd under the common ownership of Amey PLC there was scope to explore closer integration and achieve efficiencies especially on highways works.

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·         The Chairman reiterated his wish for a baseline on standards of service provision to be produced against which future performance could be assessed.

·         It was asked who checked that work had been carried out to the required standard, some feeling being expressed that Local Members were having to bear some of this burden.  The Environment Support Manager explained that this was the responsibility of the client officer who ordered the work.  If the work was not to the required standard the client officer should get the contractor to rectify the matter.  He himself would also pursue matters if they were not resolved.  

·         Some concern was expressed that the fact that Amey Wye Valley Ltd and Owen Williams Ltd were under common ownership had the potential to lead to too close a future relationship with implications for control of costs in the medium to long term.

·         Clarification was sought about the debt of some £5 million owed by HJS to its parent company.  The Chief Executive said that Amey PLC had purchased the debt and whilst the debt would be held within the Amey Group he was unaware whether it was currently within the books of Amey Wye Valley Ltd.  In response to a further question he said that the Council would not have to service the debt through higher prices paid to Amey Wye Valley Ltd for services.  The Company would not, however, generate any profits in which the Council as shareholder would share until the debt was discharged.

·         It was proposed that in addition to being provided with a baseline on standards of service provision against which future performance could be assessed the Committee should also receive a report on transitional arrangements following the transfer to Amey PLC, commenting on the maintenance of continuity of services during the transition and including Amey PLC’s assessment of the programme of works for the remainder of 2007/08, its view of the commitments it contained and whether resources were in place to meet those commitments and deliver the programme.

·         It was also proposed that representatives of both Amey PLC’s local and national management should be invited to the next meeting together with representatives of Owen Williams Ltd.

RESOLVED: 

That    (a)        a report be submitted to the next meeting on transitional arrangements following the purchase of the major part of Herefordshire Jarvis Services by Amey PLC, commenting on the maintenance of continuity of services during the transition and including Amey PLC’s assessment of the programme of works for the remainder of 2007/08, its view of the commitments it contains and whether resources are in place to meet those commitments and deliver the programme, and providing a baseline on standards of service provision against which future performance can be assessed;

                        and

(b)       representatives of local and national management of Amey PLC be invited to attend the next meeting together with representatives of Owen Williams Ltd.