Democracy in Crawley

How decisions are made and who represents you

Agenda

Items
No. Item

1.

Delegated Planning Decisions pdf icon PDF 20 KB

Delegated planning decisions for the week beginning 19 October 2020 are attached.  Contact for enquiries: Jean McPherson, Group Manager: Development Management on jean.mcpherson@crawley.gov.uk.

2.

Significant Operational Decision: Town Hall Site Redevelopment - District Heat Network Contract Award

The Town Hall Site Redevelopment has reached its next key milestone. Westrock have now completed a contract to deliver the District Heat Network.

 

Councillors are asked to note:

·        That Kier, and their Heat Network specialists Hopkins, are now in contract with Westrock to deliver the District Heat Network.

·        The costs of the contract is within the indicated amount included within the Revised DHN Budget Report agreed at Council in March 2020, including a healthy contingency.

·        The next key milestone for the DHN project will be the appointment of the O&M contractor.

·        The new Town Hall building continues to progress in line with both programme and budget, and the first 91 affordable homes are due for practical completion in Spring 2021.

3.

Action Taken Under Delegated Powers (Significant Operational Decision): Unified Communications Award of Contracts

The Council’s current state of telephony is outdated i.e. doesn’t support agile working with users tied to desk phones, there are issues with call quality and the overall service is deemed poor. The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare the current telephony system’s inability to support remote working.


Additionally, the Council’s telephony contract is coming to an end in Quarter 1 2021. The Council is investing in a new telephony and contact centre solution that enables the agile transformation vision and provides a dynamic and flexible service for staff and Councillors, with considerable benefits.

 

Report FIN/501 which was considered by Cabinet on 24 June 2020 identified this decision as requiring approval by the Leader however, due to the final costs being significantly lower than initially indicated, the decision no longer requires approval by the Leader and has been taken by the Head of Digital and Transformation as a Significant Operational Decision.

 

The Head of Digital and Transformation undertook a procurement exercise in relation to a new telephony and contact centre solution.  As a result of the finalisation of the procurement process and following consultation with the Chief Executive/Deputy Chief Executive, Leader and Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development, the Head of Digital and Transformation exercised delegated authority on 30 September 2020 to award the contract to the most advantageous suppliers with the telephony contract (Bidder C) to start in November 2020 and the Contact Centre contract (Bidder A) to start in January 2021.

 

Further details on the outcome of the procurement exercise are attached for Councillors only.

4.

Response to Councillor's Written Question: Lifts at Milton Mount Flats

At the Full Council meeting on 21 October 2020 the following question was asked by Councillor T Belben to Councillor Irvine (as Cabinet Member for Housing):

                                                                                                    

“Are you aware of the plight of the residents of Milton Mount flats? Not all the lifts have been working in 3 out of the last 4 weekends. One weekend the main entrance lifts were out of use, resulting in mums with toddlers having to use the narrow stairwells as well as disabled residents having to get to one end to the other of this huge block. The security doors have also been broken, giving non-residents access to do unspeakable things in the lifts and use drugs. At the moment, there are no security doors in place at all.  When are the promised improvements going to happen, especially CCTV?

 

It had not been possible for Councillor Irvine to provide a full response to the question at that meeting and so, in accordance with Full Council Procedure Rule 1.2 I.3, the following response has now been provided:

 

·         Lifts

 

All lifts were operational on 21 October 2020.  Lift No 2 was reported as not working on 15 October 2020 but was reset that morning and left operational.  All lifts were serviced on 12 October 2020 so would have had periods of unavailability during this time.

 

Lift number 1 was out of action for a 7 day period 2 September 2020 to 9 September 2020 as the doors had been kicked hard and this had damaged the door roller mechanism. The parts had to be ordered.  Lift No 2 was also reported out of action on 2 September 2020 as it too had been kicked but a repair was carried out that day and it was put back in to service.  Other than this misuse the lifts have been operating well and are generally in a good operational condition.  There is a planned upgrade to the door roller mechanism which was to have been done as part of the wider works on site in the next few months but we are now considering bringing this forward owing to the damage done to the door mechanism on two of the lifts.  This work will keep the lifts in optimum condition.  Lifts are subject to an insurance inspection as part of the Council’s liability insurance.  This inspection was last carried out in February 2020 and the inspectors referenced the overall good condition and limited fault history.  The lift maintenance history is kept up to date on the residents’ bulletin board in the lobby of the building.

 

·         CCTV

 

Installation of CCTV is proposed as part of the planned works due on site in the next few months. The CCTV installation will be carried out alongside replacement of the security doors.  Preparation work for the whole programme is underway and discussions being held on where in the programme this work will be done, primarily whether better before or after the cold water services upgrade.  As yet the leasehold consultation  ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.

5.

Press Releases

Press releases are available at www.crawley.gov.uk/news