Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence and notification of any substitutes present

Apologies for absence had been received from Mr A J King and Mr L B Ridings.

Mr M J Northey was present as a substitute for Mr L B Ridings.

The Vice-Chairman, Mr N J D Chard, took the chair for the meeting.

In accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct, Members are requested to declare any interests at the start of the meeting. Members are reminded to specify the agenda item number to which it refers and the nature of the interest being declared

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider and approve the minutes as a correct record

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 29 September 2016 are correctly recorded and they be signed by the Vice-Chairman. There were no matters arising.

To note that the following dates have been reserved for meetings of the Property Sub-Committee:-

Tuesday 21 March 2017 – 10.00 am

Friday 23 June 2017 – 2.00 pm

Tuesday 26 September 2018 – 10.00 am

Thursday 1 March 2018 – 2.00 pm

RESOLVED that the dates reserved for meetings of the Sub-Committee in 2017 and 2018 be noted.

The Vice-Chairman asked Members if, in discussing the two items on the agenda, they wished to refer to the information contained in the exempt appendices and hence consider the items in closed session. Members agreed that they wished to proceed on this basis. 

Accordingly, it was RESOLVED that, under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

EXEMPT ITEMS (OPEN ACCESS TO MINUTES)

To note information relating to an urgent decision taken, in accordance with the process set out at Appendix 4 Part 6 paragraphs 6.12 and 6.13 of the council’s constitution, by the Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services in December 2016

Mr M Hyland, Kings Hill Project Coordinator, Economic Development, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Mr Hyland responded to questions of detail from Members and explained that it was usual to include in land transactions a delegation to the Director of Infrastructure to negotiate a variance in sale price, and the scope for this level of variance would normally be in the region of 15%, as was the case in this transaction.

2.            The Cabinet Member, Mr Cooke, explained that the decision had been taken under the County Council’s procedure for taking urgent decisions to allow the Council to achieve best value from the sale of the parcels of land concerned.  Although it was always preferable to avoid urgent decisions whenever possible, it was occasionally necessary to proceed quickly to achieve best value for public money. He added that he hoped not to have to take further urgent decisions in relation to this issue.

3.            RESOLVED that the information set out in the report be noted.

To note the current performance of the TFM contractors

Ms K Ripley, Commissioning Team, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Ms Ripley and the Cabinet Member, Mr Cooke, responded to questions of detail from Members and assured them that monitoring of contractors’ performance was very rigorous

2.            At the Sub-Committee’s meeting in September 2016, concern had been expressed about the performance of one of the three TFM contractors, and it had been hoped then that further information on their performance might by now be available. It was hoped that a further report would instead be available for the Sub-Committee’s next meeting on 21 March 2017. 

3.            Ms Ripley and Mr Cooke clarified that there were two strands of work currently going on: a report by internal audit of the County Council’s monitoring procedures and processes, and the regular monitoring of the TFM contractors’ performance, which was undertaken as part of the contract arrangements.  The internal audit report had not been commissioned by this Sub-Committee so would be reported, when ready, to the Governance and Audit Committee.

4.            RESOLVED that the current performance of the Total Facilities Managements contractors be noted.