Issue - meetings

To note an update report on the management of corporate projects.

The appendix detailing the management of asset projects contains exempt information within the meaning of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and by the Local Government (Access to information) (Variation) Order 2006 Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information because, disclosure to the public would prejudice the financial position of the authority.

The Group Heads for Commissioning and Transformation and Regeneration and Growth presented the update on Corporate Project Management and the confidential report on assets projects, respectively.

Officers agreed to address the following concerns/queries raised by Members, in future reports:

·         The meaning of the red, amber, green (RAG) status of projects was not clear to the reader and needed clarification – a key will be restored to the report.

·         The priority flagship Southern Light Railway (SLR) project was shown with a green status but no detail was provided of progress, or risk considerations.

·         The change to a Committee system agreed by Council at its July 2020 meeting was not included in the list of projects.

·         A missing column from the assets projects showing forecast spend to practical completion, which had been unintentionally removed.

·         Projects identified in capital expenditure were not cross-referenced with Project Management.      Assets and finance officers will co-ordinate better integration of the project reports with the financial monitoring reports.

·         The project reports do not provide the information members need to facilitate scrutiny, in a clear and simple to understand format.

·         That all projects have living business cases and project managers are reminded to do a refresh.

The Group Head for Commissioning and Transformation confirmed that projects marked as ‘red’ were reviewed by the Project Steering Group and if still not progressed referred to Management Team, where project updates were regularly on the agenda for discussion.

Members raised a concern that not all the assets projects they were aware of had been included in the report. Officers responded that the assets referred to were at a very early stage in their development and no decisions had been made as to what the projects would comprise. Once those projects were developed, they would be included in the list provided to the Committee. The expectation from the Committee was to be provided with a list of all projects on which any money had been spent, even if they were still at an early stage in their development. Members requested a top-level description of the project followed by fuller detail where this applied.

Resolved that:

1.    a comprehensive list of projects with the appropriate and relevant level of detail is provided to the Committee; and

2.    Cllr Noble is asked to work with officers on simplifying the reports to help members scrutinise them.

To note an update report on the management of corporate projects.

To receive a confidential presentation from the Property Development Manager on the management of commercial asset projects.

This presentation is likely to contain exempt information within the meaning of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and by the Local Government (Access to information) (Variation) Order 2006 Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information because, disclosure to the public would prejudice the financial position of the authority.

The Group Head for Commissioning and Transformation outlined her report which tracked progress with Council projects. She explained that some had suffered delays due to the impact of COVID-19 and consideration was being given as to how to get these back on track.

Members requested that the confidential information in the asset related reports be provided in the agenda papers, instead of in a presentation at the meeting, so that they had time to review it.

Resolved to defer consideration of this item until the next meeting and that the confidential information be provided to members in advance.