Agenda for Executive Board on Tuesday, 16th March, 2021, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Remote - To be held remotely via Zoom - https://www.youtube.com/user/NottCityCouncil. View directions

Contact: Kate Morris, Constitutional Services, Tel: 0115 8764353  Email: kate.morris2@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Note: Unless stated otherwise, all decisions are subject to call-in. The last date for call-in is 25 March 2021. Decisions cannot be implemented until the working day after this date. 

Items
No. Item

90.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

None

91.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

Councillor Neghat Khan declared an interest in item 5 The acquisition of the Clarendon College site for a new secondary Free School and the creation of a Temporary Sixth form base at the Maid Marian Way Nottingham College site for the Archway Trust (minute 94) as a Governor of Nottingham College

 

Councillor Sam Webster declared an interest in item 5 The acquisition of the Clarendon College site for a new secondary Free School and the creation of a Temporary Sixth form base at the Maid Marian Way Nottingham College site for the Archway Trust (minute 94) as a non-paid Council appointed director of SCAPE.

92.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 403 KB

Last meeting held on 23 February 2021 (for confirmation)

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2021 were confirmed as a true record and were signed by the Chair.

93.

School Capital Maintenance Grant Allocations 2021/22 - Key Decision pdf icon PDF 249 KB

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Schools and Communication

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board considered the report of the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Schools and Communication, addressing the School Capital Maintenance Grant Allocations for 2021/22. He informed the Board that an additional one off payment of £568,017 had been offered to Nottingham City alongside the standard grant that will be confirmed in Spring 2021 and is anticipated to be around £1.2million. The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  This grant helps to support capital programmes within community schools paying towards building improvements heating schemes and ways to make schools better environments for teaching and learning;

 

(b)  A programme of prioritisation is in place to address the need in schools. Forward planning is crucial as there are many projects, but a contingency for emergencies also has to be maintained.

 

Resolved to

 

(1)  note the appended business case and accept the recommendations for the proposed school capital maintenance funding and delivery of schemes for 2021/22.

 

(2)  accept the one off Capital Maintenance grant already received of £568,017 for school capital maintenance issues and amalgamate it with the school capital maintenance funding for 2021/22 upon receipt.

 

(3)  accept and approve the  2021/22 allocation received by the Department for Education (DfE) to Nottingham City  of the school capital maintenance funding upon receipt for the projects as set out in appendix A, noting that £0.211 million is set aside as a contingency fund.  To allow the adjustment of the number of projects prioritised in Appendix A and this contingency upon receipt of the grant announcement, should it be necessary.

 

(4)  amend the capital programme to reflect the one off grant of £568,017 already received.

 

(5)  amend the capital programme to include the allocation of schools’ capital maintenance grant for 2021/22 once the capital maintenance funding has been received

 

(6)  approve £0.030 million to allow the scoping and prioritisation of projects for a programme of works in 2022/23 to commence in Autumn 2021, once the 2021/22 capital maintenance funding has been received

 

(7)  delegate authority to the Corporate Director for People to:

·  allow the adjustment of the number of projects prioritised in Appendix A and the contingency should it be necessary.

·  allocate contingency funding to projects such as health and safety or condition issues which arise during 2021/22, and

·  adjust the funding allocation for each project once cost information is finalised, subject to value for money being demonstrated and costs being within the overall budget allocated for this programme of works.

once the 2021/22 capital maintenance funding has been received

 

(8)  appoint NCC Building Services to design, procure and manage the mechanical and electrical projects

 

(9)  approve the procurement of the roofing, window and safeguarding schemes through the SCAPE regional construction framework – an OJEU (the Official Journal of the European Union) compliant framework

 

(10)  approve the procurement of any technical services (for example construction contract administrator role) that are no longer available from the resource pool of NCC through a compliant framework as directed by the Director of Commissioning and Procurement.

 

(11)  appoint Nottingham City Homes to design, procure and manage the fire door

 

(12)  delegate authority to the Director of Legal and Governance and Monitoring Officer to  sign contracts with the preferred contractors and technical services suppliers following procurement exercises to allow the projects to be delivered.

 

(13)  approve a payment of up to £0.100m from the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Lifecycle Reserve fund to Rosehill Special School to undertake condition and maintenance works to the building

 

Reasons for decision

Accepting this grant funding allows the Council to maintain community Schools across the City. The funding is prioritised so that issues of Health and Safety, where issues are likely to impact on children and staff and Condition Issues, where issues are likely to impact on the operation of the school are addressed first.

 

Delegation of Authority to the Corporate Director for People allows a swift response to urgent needs as they arise.

 

Other options considered

Consideration was given to combining the one off grant for 2021/22 school maintenance with the basic need funding to address the shortfall of places across the city.

 

Another option considered was to amalgamate the one off grant and the 2021/22 grant into the wider capital-funding programme.

 

Both of these options were rejected as they would leave schools at risk of closure due to health and safety or condition issues. School buildings would continue to deteriorate increasing the risk of emergency closure and repairs.

94.

The acquisition of the Clarendon College site for a new secondary Free School and the creation of a Temporary Sixth Form base at the Maid Marian Way Nottingham College site for the Archway Trust - Key Decision pdf icon PDF 334 KB

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Schools and Communications.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Neghat Khan declared an interest in this item as a Governor of Nottingham College

 

Councillor Sam Webster declared an interest in this item as a non-paid Council appointed director of SCAPE.

 

 

The Board considered the report of the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Schools and Communications seeking to acquire the Clarendon College site for a new secondary Free school and the creation of a temporary sixth form base at the Maid Marion Way Nottingham College site for the Archway Trust. The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  In the recent past an expansion in Primary school places helped to increase the provision in response to changing demographics of the City. It is now necessary to increase the secondary provision. The Government have agreed to fund a new Free school within the City to be built on the site of Clarendon College and run by the Archway Trust;

 

(b)  To create the spaces for September 2021 Bluecoat Academy Aspley Sixth Form will temporarily be based at the Maid Marion Way Nottingham College site whilst the space created at Bluecoat Academy will allow the Free school to open temporarily at that site in 2021. This will allow work to take place at the Clarendon College site to build the new Free school; 

 

(c)  This site is adjacent to land linked to the Active Travel programme planned route for Cycle Paths across the city. It will help to promote green and active transport for students and staff;

 

Resolved to:

 

(1)  approve the allocation and payment to the Department for Education of £3.250 million of Basic Need Grant funding from the allocation already received from the Department of Education, for the Council’s contribution towards the acquisition and associated costs of the Clarendon College site.

 

(2)  approve the use of £1.800 million of Basic Need Grant funding from the allocation already received from the Department of Education.  To undertake works at the Nottingham College site on Maid Marian Way, to refurbish and reconfigure the building as necessary to allow the Archway Trust to use it as a temporary sixth form base for 2 to 3 years.

 

(3)  approve the procurement of any technical services that are no longer available from the resource pool of NCC through the SCAPE framework, which is a compliant procurement route

 

(4)  approve the procurement of a contractor through the Scape Regional framework, which is a fully compliant procurement route, to undertake the works

 

(5)  delegate authority to the Director of Legal and Governance and Monitoring Officer to sign contracts with the preferred contractor and technical services provider as long as they are within the funding envelope approved of £1.8million

 

(6)  delegate the expenditure of the contingency to the Corporate Director of People (Children and Adults) in conjunction with the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Schools and Communications.

 

(7)  approve the granting of a lease for the Nottingham College, Maid Marian Way site to the Archway Trust to facilitate the use of a site as a temporary sixth form base for up to 3 years and delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Development and Growth to agree the terms of the lease

 

(8)  approve the proposed revenue budget to cover the potential costs of holding the site vacant, prior to and following occupation by the Archway Learning Trust

 

(9)  note the Business Case in Appendix 1 of the published report.

 

 

Reasons for decision

The Council has a statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places for the population of the city and this decision will help to secure an addition 1,200 school places. The creation of this school will also mean more jobs within the city.

 

It is also a positive use of the Nottingham College site for the temporary sixth form base. Some work will need to be done to ensure that the temporary base is fit for purpose but works will not exceed the requirements for the temporary nature of the project.

 

Other options considered

Other sites for the permanent school base were considered. However these were rejected as the proposed site is a central location to address the city wide need for spaces and is particularly accessible for central, north and west areas of the city. The proposed site will also ensure that deliverability in time to address the peak overall pressure on capacity city wide.

 

Other options for the temporary sixth form base were also considered however these were also rejected as the proposed site offers better value for money and a good balance of accommodation to cost for the 2/3 year time scale.

95.

Exclusion of the public

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item(s) in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs in the public interest in disclosing the information

Minutes:

The Board decided to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of this/ the remaining agenda item(s) in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, as defined in Paragraph(s) 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

 

96.

The acquisition of the Clarendon College site for a new secondary Free School and the creation of a Temporary Sixth Form base at the Maid Marian Way Nottingham College site for the Archway Trust - Exempt Appendices

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Schools and Communications.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board considered the exempt appendix for the report on the acquisition of the Clarendon College site for a new secondary Free School and the creation of a temporary sixth form base at the Maid Marian Way Nottingham College site for the Archway Trust and noted its contents.

 

 

97.

District Heating - Key Decision

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Energy Environment and Democratic Services

Minutes:

This decision is not subject to call in because the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny agreed that the decision is reasonable in all circumstances and should be treated as a matter of urgency because the decision could not be implemented in time, thus undermining the decision’s objective.

 

The Board considered the Report of the Portfolio Holder for Energy, Environment and Democratic Services.

 

Resolved to approve the recommendations as recorded in the exempt minute.