Agenda item

The Highways and Streetscene Task Group, first established in 2013, has undertaken extensive scrutiny of the contracts associated with servicing of Wiltshire’s highways and streetscenes.

At its meeting on 12 October 2015, following the early termination of the contract with Balfour Beatty Living Places in July 2015, the Environment Select Committee considered the latest recommendations of the Task Group, and resolved:

[For the Task Group to] monitor the development of the tendering process [for the new contract] and the Environment Select Committee to hold an extraordinary meeting in January 2016 to consider the proposed contract decision.

A report from Dr Carlton Brand, Corporate Director, is attached.

A confidential report will be circulated when available.

The Committee is asked to consider the proposal in the reports and provide comment ahead of consideration by Cabinet on 19 January 2016.

A report was introduced by the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Councillor Philip Whitehead and Dr Carlton Brand, Corporate Director. The Cabinet Member praised the work of officers in appropriately and robustly preparing and tendering for the contract in as short a time as was possible since the termination of the previous contract.

Following the early termination of the Council’s existing Highways and Streetscene contract with Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP), a procurement exercise had been undertaken for a new highways contract. The new contract would include the provision of routine highways maintenance, Parish Stewards, pothole repairs, winter gritting and the implementation of safety and Community Area Transport Group (CATG) schemes. The new contract was anticipated to start on 1 April 2016, and it was anticipated that annual expenditure through the contract was likely to be in the region of £15,000,000.

In response to queries, the report was corrected to confirm that although the new highways contract was a joint procurement exercise with Swindon Borough Council, there would be separate contracts between each Authority and the Contractor.

The Cabinet member, Cllr Philip Whitehead, also explained that 65-70% of services within the previous contract had been retained by the Council and would run for another four years, therefore the new contract award was for the remaining 30-35% of the services within the previous contract.

The committee then discussed the report raising points including the following:

It was noted that score weighting for assessing the tenderers on price and quality had been amended from the previous contract to give a greater emphasis on the quality of the offer, moving from a 70/30 split between price/quality to 60/40. The Committee welcomed the change.

Concern was raised over the amount of road closures that BBLP undertook in the past, in order to service the highways. It was explained that the current preferred new contractor had their own health and safety systems and thus, road closures would continue, if this was deemed appropriate when carrying out work on Wiltshire’s highways.

The Committee sought and received from the Cabinet Member and Corporate Director assurance that performance on the new contract would be monitored closely from the commencement of the contract, and performance levels would continue to be published, with the contract including termination clauses if necessary. It was also confirmed full referencing and proper assessment of all those who had submitted tenders had been undertaken.

The Committee especially welcomed the emphasis given to the role of Parish Stewards as a co-ordinating role in the process for the new contract, and requested detailed specifications of what the role would entail, and that this be made available as widely as possible. The Committee also recommended that a guide for councillors on common maintenance issues and the level at which intervention could be authorised would be of assistance to councillors and parish councils in dealing with queries, which would also reduce some need for reporting matters to the council directly.

Lastly, some members queried the description in the report of Overview and Scrutiny involvement in the process as having been ‘active’, with appreciation that involvement prior to the decision had occurred, but that it had been limited in nature and contributed to only 5% of the scoring of the process, while welcoming the receipt of a report ahead of Cabinet’s determination. The Cabinet Member acknowledged the query and stated the description would be amended accordingly.

The Cabinet member stated in response to queries that the KPIs for the new contractor would continue to be published. He also welcomed the opportunity for further discussions on the level of information that could be made available to councillors on service intervention levels.