Agenda and minutes

The Leader will advise of any items of urgent business.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

(Report of the Director of Place and Sustainability). The report seeks approval to changes in contractual arrangements for the purposes of designing and delivering the engineering phase of the development.

The Leader of the Council considered a report that sought approval to changes in contractual arrangements for the purposes of designing and delivering the engineering phase of the development. The report also sought approval to establish a capital budget of £1m for the delivery of the Reuse and Recycling Centre.

RESOLVED:

      i.        That the use of the Council’s existing LoHAC contract, for the purposes of delivering the engineering and design construction works required for the replacement Reuse and Recycling Centre at Western Road Depot, be approved, and that the call-off contract be awarded to Ringway Jacobs.

    ii.        That it be agreed that authority be delegated to the Director of Place and Sustainability to finalise the contract for these works, in a sum not exceeding £675k, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment.

   iii.        That the establishment of a capital budget of £1m for the initial delivery of the Reuse and Recycling Centre be approved, with all costs properly accounted to this project subsequently to be effectively recovered from the North London Waste Authority on the purchase of the site by them.

   iv.        That it be approved that any necessary subsequent revision to the capital budget be delegated to the Director of Place and Sustainability, in association with the Chief Financial Officer, and reported to Cabinet via budget monitoring.

Alternative options considered

The Council could undertake a new procurement for the delivery of the required works.  A new procurement would add a period of around two months to the timetable. This option therefore carries a very significant risk of extending timescales beyond the target completion date (end-March 2014) and therefore would prejudice the Council’s disposal of the Hornsey Depot site. 

In contrast the recently awarded LoHAC contract allows call-offs to be made for engineering design and construction works for all Council services, without the need to tender.  Given the very significant timescale pressures for delivery of Western Road Depot and the availability of appropriately procured contract arrangements for the type of works in question, new procurement has not been considered further. 

The Cabinet report, which considered the procurement process for the LoHAC contract (18 June 2013 Cabinet, as detailed in Section 5 of the report) has demonstrated the contract is capable of delivering competitive pricing for a wide range of engineering works.  As such, it can be assumed that call-off from the LoHAC contract schedule of rates, with the flexibility to negotiate additional discounts for fixed price work, will deliver competitive pricing.  There would in addition be a saving from not having to run a fresh procurement. 

As noted in paragraph 1.4 of the report, the price is subject to the completion of the final design. Due to the timescale pressure, the report recommends authority is delegated to the Director of Place and Sustainability to finalise the contract in a sum not exceeding £675k after consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Environment.  In preparation for this stage, a due process will have been followed involving verification of the costing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

(Report of the Director of Corporate Resources).  The report seeks approval for Broxbourne District Council to prosecute offences relating to benefits issued by Haringey Council in the case referred to in the report.

The Leader of the Council considered a report, previously circulated, which sought approval for Broxbourne District Council to prosecute offences relating to benefits issued by Haringey Council in the case referred to in the report.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to agreement as to the fair apportionment of costs by the Head of Audit and Risk Management, that authorisation be given to Broxbourne District Council to prosecute offences relating to benefits issued by Haringey Council in the case referred to in the report.

Alternative options considered

Each authority may prosecute only for benefits issued by it. However, this would mean that a joint investigation would be followed by separate legal proceedings in different courts which is not beneficial to the residents of each authority, either from a cost/efficiency point of view, or from giving an impression that fraudsters can potentially avoid the true extent of their fraud being realised by prosecuting individual offences in different courts. In this case the overpayment of benefit for both boroughs is in excess of £30,000, covering the period from September 2009 to April 2013.

Reasons for decision

To prevent the need for different sets of legal proceedings arising out of the same or similar facts; and to send a message to fraudsters that the various authorities that issue benefits are working together.

Note from the Head of Local Democracy and Member Services

Item 5 allows for the consideration of exempt information in relation to Item 2 above.

RESOLVED:

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contain exempt information, as defined under paragraph 3, Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

RESOLVED:

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contained exempt information, as defined under paragraph 3, Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

To consider exempt information in relation to Item 2 above.

Exempt information pertaining to Item 2 above was considered.