Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

12.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Stewart.

13.

Urgent Business

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear). It being a special meeting, under the Council’s Constitution, Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 17, no new items of urgent business will be admitted.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

14.

Declarations of interest

A Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

 

a)    must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

b)    may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

 

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending disclosure must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

 

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

15.

Procurement of Real Estate Legal Advisors for Commercial Development at Alexandra Palace pdf icon PDF 246 KB

Report of the Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace Charitable Trust, to seek Board approval to waive Contract Standing Order 9.01 (requirement to tender) and to award the contract to Pinsent Masons LLP.

Minutes:

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace Charitable Trust advised that the reason for the urgency in convening the meeting was in order to reach the position such that market testing could be undertaken by the deadline of summer 2014.

 

Duncan Wilson introduced the report, which recommended that the waiver of Contract Standing Order 9.01 be approved, as allowed under CSO 10.01.1(a) on the basis that the specialist services required for this commission can only be provided by a limited number of providers, and the approval of the intent to award the contract to Pinsent Masons LLP. Following assessment of the tender submissions received and an interview process, it was felt that Pinsent Masons represented the best value for money, and demonstrated a strong understanding of the brief. Bob Kidby was invited to address the Panel on his views, having been involved in the assessment and interview process for the tender submissions. 

 

Bob Kidby advised the Panel that, having taken part in the short-listing and interview process, any of the firms short-listed would have been able to fulfil the brief adequately and that all of their presentations had been of a good standard. Pinsent Masons were felt overall to have stood out in terms of their enthusiasm, and likelihood to suit the overall project approach. Given the strict budget for the work, it was felt that Pinsent Masons offered exceptional value, and Mr Kidby advised that he had no concerns in endorsing the recommendation of the report.

 

In response to a question from the Panel, it was felt that there was an element of kudos attached to involvement with this particular project, and this was likely to have been the reason that the law firms had made submissions as part of the tender process.

 

With regard to the need for the decision to be made at this point, Duncan Wilson emphasised that this decision in no way predetermined the outcome of any subsequent decisions around appointing development partners, but would enable professional legal advice to be in place such that that decision could be taken by the Board on a sound legal basis at its meeting in 2014.

 

RESOLVED

 

i)             The Panel approved the waiver of Contract Standing Order 9.01 as allowed under CSO 10.01.1(a) on the basis that the specialist services required for this commission can only be provided by a limited number of providers.

 

ii)            The Panel approved the award of the contract to Pinsent Masons LLP.

 

 

The Panel agreed that, in agreeing the recommendation as set out in the report, the decision could be implemented as soon as possible, prior to the formal approval of the minutes. 

 

 

16.

Exclusion of press and public

Item 6 is likely to be subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as it contains exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972; Paragraph 3, information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information).

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

That the press and public be excluded for the consideration of agenda item 6, as it contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972; paragraph 3, information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information).

17.

Procurement of Real Estate Legal Advisors for Commercial Development at Alexandra Palace

To consider exempt information pertaining to agenda item 4 above.

Minutes:

The Committee considered exempt information pertaining to agenda item 4.

 

 

The meeting closed at 18:45hrs.