Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare, at this point in the meeting, any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda. No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 20 June 2007.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting held on 20^th June 2007 be approved and signed as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is 5pm on Friday 24^th August 2007.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation scheme.

This report presents to Members a table of events in relation to Highways Maintenance Procurement and the PFI Process.

Members considered the Interim report for Highways Maintenance Procurement and PFI Review.

The Assistant Director of City Development and Transport updated Members regarding the Expression of Interest (EOI) and Private Finance Initiative (PFI). He reported that £1.2 billion of PFI contract were on hold at the moment due to:

• A move into new international reporting standards
• The fact that Birmingham had asked for more credit and this was having an impact on the distribution of monies
• The comprehensive spending assessment was still not resolved.

He thought that December 2007 would be the earliest time that there would be any news on the EOI and stressed that the above information had been gathered from many sources and did not come direct from the Department for Transport (DFT).

Members considered the table of events shown at Annex A of the report and agreed that their fundamental concern was the time taken to realise the savings identified as part of the Best Value Review. Members raised a number of questions about the delays and were informed that:

·        On conclusion of the review there had been no available funding to appoint a Project Manager

·        A continuous Service Improvement Plan (CSIP) was agreed and followed and progress had been routinely reported on up until September 2004.

·        At the time of starting to implement the CSIP, a decision was made to commence setting up a thin client approach to procurement and that problems arising from this had resulted in delays in implementing the CSIP.

·        Officers would have preferred a negotiated route for procuring thin client services but on the advice of Corporate Procurement had taken a restricted route.

·        Having no permanent [amendment made to minute at meeting held on 7.11.2007] Section Head in Highway Infrastructure had resulted in there being limited progress made between February 2002 and June 2003.

·        As a small authority there was little flexibility to move resources around without causing knock on effects.

·        In October – November 2002, Members agreed to finance a new Street Environment Service from the Venture Fund after Officers recommended that the money could be repaid from the savings made in Highways Maintenance as identified by the Best Value Review.

·        The total savings made in Highways Maintenance were significantly higher than those identified by the Best Value Review, but it had taken longer to realise these savings than originally expected.

·        As a result it had taken significantly longer to repay the monies taken from the Venture Fund to finance the Street Environment Service.

·        Even though all their advice was followed, at the point when the contract was ready to be signed, Procurement recommended that work be put on hold due to the perceived level of risk associated with the contract.

·        That issues around the lack of resources in Corporate Procurement had since been addressed.

It was recognised that in order to prevent similar problems and delays arising with any future major projects, there were a number of possible steps that could be taken:

·        Resourcing of major projects be prioritised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.