Full Cabinet – 14 April 2010
PRESENT: Councillor Kirk in the chair.
Councillors Carlile, Gosling, Grant, O’Sullivan, Regan and Swift.
Councillors Barker, Barkworth, B Briggs, Mrs Redfern, Mrs Sidell and Wilson also attended the meeting.
Simon Driver, Richard Stiff, John Coates, Frances Cunning, Keith Ford, Denise Hyde, Neil Laminman, Geoff Popple, Paul Savage, Pete Scott, Chris Skinner, Debora Winning, Peter Young and Mel Holmes also attended the meeting.
861 DECLARATIONS OF PERSONAL OR PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS – In relation to item 9, Councillor T Gosling declared a personal interest as the chair of Rape Crisis and Councillor C O’Sullivan declared a personal interest as a member of Rape Crisis.
862 MINUTES – Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of cabinet held on 3 February 2010, having been printed and circulated amongst the members, be taken as read and correctly recorded and be signed by the chair.
863 (39) OUTSTANDING ACTION FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS – The Service Director Legal and Democratic submitted a report which contained a schedule of outstanding issues on which cabinet had requested reports to future meetings.
Resolved – That the report be noted.
864 (40) NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE ROAD SAFETY PARTNERSHIP – UPDATE – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report updating cabinet on the work of the North Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership. The partnership had been formed in 2002 and was tasked with reducing the number of people killed and injured on North Lincolnshire’s roads.
Members of the partnership were Humberside Police, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, North Lincolnshire Council, the Scunthorpe Telegraph, the East Midlands Ambulance Service and the Highways Agency. The partnership is a member of Safer Roads Humber, the Civil Road Safety Organisation. Other organisations work with the partnership, for example a number of initiatives have been progressed with Corus over the last three years. The work of the partnership covers a wide range of activity, including road safety engineering, enforcement, education, training and publicity. Details of the work carried out by the partnership was set out in appendix 9 to the report.
The report also contained a number of key performance issues including a significant reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in 2009 which was down 19% from 122 in 2008 to 100 in 2009.
PC Barry Gardner from Humberside Police, Tony Parrott and Joanne Dixon from the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service and Richard Hall and Peter Scott from North Lincolnshire Council attended the meeting and gave a flavour of the work of the partnership. Unfortunately Mel Cook, the editor of the Scunthorpe Telegraph was unable to attend the meeting due to illness.
Resolved – (a) That the report be noted, and (b) that the representatives of the partnership be thanked for attending the meeting and giving an informative presentation.
865 UPDATE ON DEALING WITH POT HOLES IN NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE – The Service Director Highways and Planning gave an oral update on the issue of pot holes in North Lincolnshire. He indicated that there were approximately 5,000 pot holes in North Lincolnshire which required attention and outlined the work being carried out to deal with them. Many of those were a direct consequence of the severe winter weather. Reference was made to the additional budget allocation for pot holes outlined in the council’s budget in February 2010 and additional funding from central government to assist with this work. A commitment had been given to deal with the majority of the pot holes in one month. The Service Director stated that the council was now two weeks into this one month period and work was progressing well.
Resolved – That the report be noted. 866 (41) NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE – ECONOMIC SITUATION – With reference to minute 795, the Chief Executive submitted a report updating cabinet on the current economic situation in North Lincolnshire. The report contained information about the situation both nationally and in North Lincolnshire.
The report contained detailed information about the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance both nationally and in North Lincolnshire and about the number of unfilled vacancies in February 2010 which had increased by 32.4% since January 2010.
The Economic Development Team was continuing to work closely with partners and the council itself was continuing to work with Yorkshire Forward on the development of a two year programme to support local ambition and aspiration in response to the economic downturn. In addition, the council had continued to support business in the current climate including supporting existing businesses and individuals through the North Lincolnshire Employability Programme. The skills and workforce plan was currently being finalised and this would provide an important part of the council’s proactive approach to developing the North Lincolnshire workforce to take advantage of potential growth sectors and developments in the future. A number of business supportive events had also been held including a “selling to the Council” event that had taken place in February which 27 businesses had attended. Also, a North Lincolnshire Business Network had been launched in January 2010 to enable local businesses to meet regularly and promote trade opportunities between each other so that they could win more local work. The council also continued to work with the voluntary and community sector to deliver jobs under the future jobs fund.
The Leader of the Council also updated cabinet on the skills pledge. He reminded cabinet that in November 2008 he and the Chief Executive had signed the skills pledge on behalf of North Lincolnshire Council. This pledge gave a number of commitments about actively encouraging and supporting the council’s employees to gain the skills and qualifications that would meet the needs of businesses and would support their future employability. The council had achieved Level 4 of the skills pledge.
The report contained further detailed information about the current economic situation.
Resolved – (a) That the report be noted; (b) that cabinet agrees that the council continue to provide support for local businesses and individuals affected by the recession, and (c) that further reports be submitted to cabinet in relation to the economic situation.
867 (42) THE COUNCIL’S TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME – A report was submitted by the Chief Executive updating members on progress of council transformation and seeking approval for a number of main priorities.
On 22 April 2009, cabinet had approved the strategic plan 2009/2012 which replaced the old internal ambitions with the transformation outcomes it required. Cabinet also agreed at that meeting four main programmes of change required to meet them. The report submitted outlined the delivery priorities for each programme and sought cabinet approval for these.
To achieve the transformation outcomes the council desired four main programmes of change to be adopted. These were –
Organisational Excellence
Operational Fitness
Valued Council
Worksmart
As the programmes moved forward changes would need to be made and the council would need to ensure that it was organised in the best possible way to meet future demands. As with previous change these will be taken forward through the Special Committee for Shaping the Council and with regular reports to cabinet on overall progress. Elected member and staff engagement in the transformation was essential to its success and senior manager briefings had been changed to ensure managers were involved. A communication plan would accompany the transformation plan to ensure staff and their representatives were involved. In addition, transformation would also be included in the elected member development programme and with specific events to supplement normal engagement mechanisms at critical times.
The report contained further detailed information about the transformation programme.
Resolved – That the priorities for transformation projects as outlined in paragraph 2.3 of the report be approved and adopted.
868 (43) WASTE CONTRACT PROCUREMENT PROJECT – The Service Director Neighbourhood and Environment submitted a report updating cabinet on the progress of the Waste Procurement Project. Current contracts for the delivery of waste management services to the council would terminate on 31 July 2011 and the council had decided to procure one contract for its recycling services and another for the treatment and disposal of residual organic waste. A treatment and disposal contract had been advertised first.
At its meeting held on 11 March 2009, cabinet had approved the procurement strategy and a contract notice had been issued on 19 March 2009 to the European Union and local media. The contract was advertised in two lots – Lot 1 for residual waste and Lot 2 for organic waste.
Thirteen organisations passed pre-qualification. Of these eight submitted outline solution proposals by the deadline. Some organisations had made submissions for both lots. Four organisations for each lot had been invited to have further dialogue with the council and then submit their detailed solutions (ISDS). One bidder for lot 2 withdrew during the dialogue discussions.
The deadline for detailed solutions was 1 March 2010 and the bids received were shown in table 1 in paragraph 2.5 of the report. These were described as either a standard bid or a variant bid. A standard bid was one that met the council’s specification and a variant bid was one that met the council’s specification but offered some advantage by varying one or more elements e.g. length of contact. All bidders had been afforded the same opportunities to submit variance solutions for lot 1 and/or lot 2.
Due to the volume of work required to consider these submissions, issue clarifications to the bidders, evaluate their responses and moderate the various scores from the various teams, it had not been possible to complete the same process for lot 2. It was proposed however that work continued on lot 2 and that a further report be submitted to a future meeting.
The moderated scores and recommendation for progression to the final tender stage had been considered by the Waste Contracts Project Board on 24 March 2010 and the board had fully endorsed the recommendations of the Project Director’s report. The Project Director’s report and the board recommendations were considered by the cabinet member for Neighbourhood, Environment and Communities on 26 March 2010 who had endorsed the outcome of the evaluation process and his decision was to take the top two bidders through to the final tender stage.
In the report considered by cabinet on 11 March 2009, the Contract Procedure Rules for the project had been approved. However it had been recognised that these might require amendment following a decision by the Project Director to utilise an additional software system to support the procurement project. An amended set of rules were shown in appendix A to the report which included the use of the portal software as well as SCMS.
The report contained further detailed information about the project and referred to the council’s strategy agreed at cabinet on 11 March 2009 to invite a minimum of two bidders for each lot to submit final tenders. At least two bidders, not bids, were required to ensure competition. As WRG submitted two bids, which had scored highly with NLGE’s single bid, WRG would progress to the final tender stage with NLGE and the council would hold dialogue with WRG during the final tender stage to agree which one of its two bids should be developed further.
Finally, the report referred to the resource implications and indicated that the estimated contract value of all elements of the procurement assuming a 20 to 30 year arrangement was in the order of £250m. A treatment facility could cost £20m – £60m depending upon the technology and the cost of borrowing.
Resolved – (a) That the report be noted, and (b) that the contract procedure rules for the project be amended as detailed in appendix A to the report.
869 (44) PROGRESS ON THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SCRUTINY ACTION PLAN – The Service Director Community Planning and Resources submitted a report updating cabinet on progress on the executive action plan approved by cabinet to address the recommendations of the Safer and Stronger Communities Scrutiny Panel following a review of domestic violence.
Following that review some 51 recommendations had been made and an action plan had been approved by cabinet in December 2008. The report submitted updated cabinet on the progress of the actions which were being co-ordinated by the Safer Neighbourhoods Partnership on behalf of cabinet. An updated version of the action plan and progress and implementation was attached as an appendix to the report. The Service Director also introduced Debora Winning, the Domestic Violence Strategy Manager who had been in post since October 2009 and who outlined the work being carried out to drive progress on the remaining actions in the action plan.
Resolved – (a) That cabinet notes the report on the Scrutiny Action Plan, and (b) that all reasonable steps be taken to successfully complete actions that are currently in progress as soon as possible.
870 (45) RE-VISIT OF THE REVIEW OF SICKNESS ABSENCE IN NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL COMPLETED IN DECEMBER 2003 – The Service Director Legal and Democratic submitted a report which considered the conclusions and recommendations of the Economic Development and Corporate Issues Scrutiny Panel in relation to a re-visit of the Review of Sickness Absence in North Lincolnshire.
At its meeting held on 17 March 2010, council had considered a report of the Economic Development and Corporate Issues Scrutiny Panel in relation to this re-visit. The report was approved by council and referred to cabinet for consideration of the recommendations with a view to the preparation of an action plan. Attached as appendices to the report were the conclusions and recommendations of the panel which had been referred to cabinet for consideration of the recommendations with a view to the preparation of an action plan.
Resolved – (a) That the report and recommendations be approved and adopted, and (b) that the Service Director Human Resources and other officers, together with the cabinet member for Corporate Services prepare an action plan in response to the recommendations of the report for submission to a future meeting of cabinet.
871 (46) REVIEW OF SCHOOL ABSENCE IN NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE – The Service Director Legal and Democratic submitted a report which considered the conclusions and recommendations of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel in relation to a review of school absence in North Lincolnshire.
At its meeting held on 17 March 2010, council had considered the report of the panel in relation to a review of school absence in North Lincolnshire. The report had been approved by council and referred to cabinet for consideration of the recommendations with a view to the preparation of an action plan.
Resolved – (a) That the report and recommendations be approved and adopted, and (b) that the Director of Children’s Services and the cabinet member for Children’s Services prepare an action plan in response to the recommendations of the report for submission to a future meeting of cabinet.
872 (47) THE INVERSE CARE LAW IN NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE – A report was submitted by the Service Director Legal and Democratic which considered the conclusions and recommendations of the Healthier Communities and Older People’s Scrutiny Panel in relation to the Inverse Care Law in North Lincolnshire.
At its meeting held on 17 March 2010, the council had considered a report of the Healthier Communities and Older People’s Scrutiny Panel in relation to the Inverse Care Law in North Lincolnshire. The report had been approved by council and referred to cabinet for consideration of the recommendations with a view to the preparation of an action plan.
Resolved – (a) That the report and recommendations be approved and adopted, and (b) that NHS North Lincolnshire and the Director of Public Health working with the chair of the Local Strategic Partnership Board prepare an action plan in response to the recommendations of the report for submission to a future meeting of cabinet. Inverse Care Law in North Lincolnshire