Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

Agreed.

Received a report seeking approval to tender for a new term contract for building maintenance and repair works in schools, operational and public buildings over a four year term.

Agreed, in order to provide a safe and cost effective 24 hour repair and maintenance works service to schools, operational and public buildings, thus helping to achieve the Community Priority of “Making Barking and Dagenham Cleaner, Greener and Safer”, to:

1.  Authorise officers, in accordance with the Council’s Constitution (Contract Rule 3.6), to proceed with the seeking of tenders for the for building maintenance works in schools and public buildings; and

2.  Appoint Councillor Collins and one non-Executive councillor to be involved with the packaging and specification of the contract

Further to the meeting, Councillor Mrs S Bailie has been appointed as agreed in 2 above.

Received a report providing an update on the ongoing work to bring forward the demolition and redevelopment of the Cadiz Court site.  The redevelopment of Cadiz Court represents an opportunity to replace the existing tower block with a high quality residential scheme on a key gateway site in the Borough.

Agreed, in order to provide high quality attractive housing and excellent public realm on a high profile gateway site in to the Borough, to:

1.  The revised scheme to provide 60 mixed, affordable, tenure homes as set out in paragraph 2.3 of the report, as the basis for the final scheme development work and planning application;

2.  Forego the capital receipt for the land value for the site of Cadiz Court and for this to be applied to the development cost of the scheme, less all project costs incurred; and

3.  Explore the viability of using the hoardings erected around the site for advertising space in order to generate income.

Councillor P Waker placed on record his thanks to the relevant officers who had been involved in the proposal.  Councillor Smith returned thanks to Councillors L Waker and P Waker (Village Ward Councillors) and Councillor Kallar (Portfolio Holder) for their involvement in bringing about the redevelopment proposals.

Please note that Appendix 1 to this report is restricted and has been circulated separately.

Received a report proposing a framework of contracts be established for the provision of taxi and escort services to provide services on a standing order basis and when additional requirements are identified. 

Agreed, in order to improve the co-ordination of taxi service requirements and bring about enhanced financial and efficiency savings, to:

1.  The setting up of a framework of contracts for the provision of private hire vehicles including, where necessary, the provision of escorts;

2.  The award of framework contracts to the successful suppliers as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report; and

3.  The use of the framework contracts as mandatory across all Council departments.

Received a report on the Council’s revenue and capital position from the beginning of April to the end of September 2006.

Noted, as a matter of good financial practice:

1.  The current position of the Council’s revenue and capital budget as at 30 September 2006 (sections 3, 5 and 6 of the report);

2.  The position and projected out-turn for the Housing Revenue Account (Appendix B and section 4 of the report);

3.  The action plans produced to alleviate the budget pressures to ensure that the necessary balanced budget for the Council is achieved by year end (section 3 of the report);

4.  The prudential indicators for April to September 2006 (Appendix E and section 7 of the report); and

5.  The financial health indicators (section 8 of the report).

Agreed, the re-profiling and budget virements of individual capital schemes as identified in Appendix D to the report.

Received a report setting out the overall approach to a Customer Services Strategy, which will involve four project streams which will develop a Culture Change Strategy, a Customer Access Strategy, a methodology for undertaking business transformation activities and setting standards for services and / or activities across the Council as a whole.

Agreed, in order to deliver the Council’s priority of providing outstanding customer service and improve customer access, customer experience, customer and staff satisfaction and corporate brand reputation, to:

1.  The draft strategy including:

a.  The governance structure (set out in paragraph 1.6. and Appendix A of the report);

b.  The four project strands of work which will cover:

  i.  The scope of work necessary to take forward the Done In One Strategy (DIO) (section 1.4 of the report); and

  ii.  The production of robust strategies that align with the Corporate vision and other related dependences such as Information, Communication Technology (section 3.11 of the report)

c.  The name of the Corporate Customer Strategy will be known as “Done In One”;

d.  The Customer Focus Leadership Framework to be incorporated within the overarching delivery of the DIO Strategy (section 3.26 of the report);

2.  The short-term appointment of expert advisors to explore the development of a Barking and Dagenham Business Process Re-engineering methodology and that a long list of suitable pilot areas be identified (sections 3.18 and 3.19 of the report);

3.  The DIO outputs be considered by the Community Cohesion Strategy review and remains proactive about the links between the two strategies as far as social exclusion and equalities and diversity matters are concerned (section 3.32 of the report);

4.  The full work plan for delivering these proposals is fully developed by December 2006, to include resources and accountabilities for implementation from April 2007; and

5.  Delegate the approval of the final version of the strategy, once it has been put into the emerging Corporate Strategy format, to the Chief Executive.

* Item considered as a matter of urgency with the consent of the Chair under Section 100B (4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.