Council decisions

Authorisation to enter into a procurement process for a commercial collections customer management system as the current system is not fit for purpose and does not meet the requirements of the future business need.

To consider a report on the Outline Business Case II for the Street Scene ADM.

Councillor Dean Cohen, Chairman of the Environment Committee, moved reception and adoption of the recommendations in the report. Debate ensued.

The amendment in the name of Councillor Alan Schneiderman was put to the vote*:

* The Mayor noted that Councillor Eva Greenspan was not present when the vote was put, meaning that her vote would not be counted.

The amendment was therefore lost.

The recommendations as set out in the report were then put to the vote. Votes were recorded as follows:

The recommendations in the report were therefore declared carried.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Council approved the progression of the Alternative Delivery Model project towards the Revised Outline Business Case (OBC2), which will also be submitted for approval to a future Environment Committee.

2.    That Council approved the recommended options shortlist for further consideration in the Revised Outline Business Case (OBC2):

·         In-house service delivery with management support from The Barnet Group;

·         Transfer service delivery to The Barnet Group as a Local Authority Trading Company;

·         Outsource service delivery to an external provider(s);

·         Share service delivery with a neighbouring local authority.

3.    That Council approved a public consultation on the recommended options shortlist (as above) to inform the Revised Outline Business Case (OBC2).

This report provides a general update on progress against the Oakleigh Road Depot and seeks approval to enter into the JCT Design and Build Contract for the construction of the new Council Depot as a replacement for the Mill Hill East Depot.

A summary of decisions taken under delegated powers.

Attached is a summary of decisions taken under delegated powers from October 2015.

The attached document is a summary of decisions taken under delegated powers in August.

London Borough of Barnet (LBB) currently operates a waste and recycling depot at Mill Hill East. The depot falls within the area identified for regeneration in the Council’s adopted Mill Hill East Area Action Plan (MHEAAP)^[1], as agreed in January 2009. In 2010, LBB agreed to form a consortium with private partners to develop the land, forming the Inglis Consortium. As part of this agreement, LBB has a contractual commitment to relocate the depot by December 2016, which will bring significant financial benefits, estimated at £41.5m over the next 10 years.

A business case has been developed, reviewing the short-listed sites from the options appraisal stage. The business case has appraised the options and recommended the option that presents the greatest value for money for the Council. It has also reviewed commercial considerations, affordability and management arrangements to recommend a preferred option. The preferred scheme is now moving forward to the next stage of the process i.e. planning permission, land acquisition, and Stage 3 design.

Detailed site searches have been developed since 2011, and in 2014 an evaluation process was run to shortlist the available sites. The two sites which were shortlisted are:

·        Relocation of current operations to Lupa House, Borehamwood (with the bulk transfer facility and salt barn relocating to Bunns Lane);

·        Relocation of current operations to the old Abbotts Depot in Oakleigh Road South, Barnet;

·        An option for No relocation, and extraction from the Inglis Consortium will be considered;

·        Do Nothing will also be reviewed.

Following the Council decision on 14 April 2015 (as referred by the Assets, Regeneration and Growth committee on 16 March 2015), officers included Winters lease within the preferred option. This analysis in the business case indicates that the Abbotts site with a lease of the Winters site is still the preferred option, with a Net Present Value (NPV) per benefit point^[2], of £7,208 per benefit point to -£2,190 per benefit point (a Net Present Cost or NPC) for Lupa House.

Do Nothing is not an option for the Council as continuing operations of the depot from the current site is not possible. The Council entered into a Limited Liability Partnership and Co-operation Agreement with private developers to develop the Mill Hill East area for residential use, the ‘Inglis Consortium’. It is bound under this agreement to vacate the Mill Hill Depot site by December 2016. The Council also chose not to take up the option to ‘carve out’^[3]part of the existing depot land in June 2013.

We have considered a further option of not relocating from the depot site at all. This would mean terminating a contractual agreement with a number of partners, failure to regenerate the Mill Hill East area (and benefit from the associated income), failure to meet LBB’s strategic regeneration aims in that area, lead to significant reputational damage and open the Council up to a high degree of financial and commercial risk. The loss of income from the Mill Hill site would amount to a total NPC of £35.7m over 11 years, which does not include the additional costs of exit from LBB’s contractual agreements.

The Lupa House site is out-of-borough, requiring another facility to be acquired for the salt barn and bulking station, which results in the option being too large for the Council’s needs. Furthermore, the only commercial option open to the Council at this point is a lease arrangement. Timescales however are a positive factor for this site, with the build being simpler than for Abbotts (it is an existing industrial site which would require modification rather than a complete new build) and therefore LBB could be more likely to meet the December 2016 vacation date. The total gross capital costs of this option are £10.6m, with recurrent costs of £1.7m per annum.