Agenda and minutes

Councillor Jenkins  -  leave

None.

Last meeting held on 14 November 2023 (for confirmation)

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2023 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of Corporate Director of Growth and City Development

Chris Carter, Head of Transport Strategy, presented the report and stated the following:

 i.  Nottingham’s e-scooter hire scheme commenced in October 2020 following a joint procurement in partnership with Derby City Council. Initially planned for a 12-month duration involving 30 local authorities, the trial period has been extended each year by the Department for Transport (DfT);

ii.  the DfT have indicated the legalisation of all e-scooters will be forthcoming however, delays have been experienced with securing a Bill slot to take the proposed legalisation through Parliament;

iii.  Nottingham’s e-scooter scheme is one of the most well used in the country with an average of 3,000 rides per day and is particularly popular with young people, students and other low-income groups without access to a car. The fleet has been expanded from an initial roll out of 250 scooters to 1,300 scooters (operating license limit) at the current time. Issues with pavement riding and poor parking are being addressed through the implementation of innovative technology, education/communications, and infrastructure;

iv.  the existing contract for the city’s e-scooter scheme is due to expire on the 31 May 2024. Therefore, there is a requirement to retender for an e-scooter operator to continue the scheme post-May 2024;

v.  the trial has recently been extended to 31 May 2026 by the DfT as work on legalisation of all e-scooters continues. A longer-term contract with a duration of three to five years will be sought to cover the extended trial period and a transition period whilst legislation is being passed.

Resolved to

(1)  approve undertaking a procurement for a concessionaire to operate Nottingham’s public hire e-scooter scheme for a duration of three to five years;

(2)  delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Growth and City Development to award the contract to the successful provider following the tender process.

Reasons for recommendations

 i.  Retendering for an operator will secure commitment to continue the ongoing public e-scooter hire trial in Nottingham. It is proposed that the new contract will cover any extension period set out by the DfT as well as the follow-on period where legislation and long-term arrangements are put in place.

ii.  Continuation of the e-scooter hire scheme assists in meeting a number of strategic objectives. These include supporting access to work, education and other services. Providing an affordable personal transport option for short journeys. A clean and green transport mode, that supports the Carbon Neutral 2028 plan.

iii.  The council will be seeking a revenue share from the operator to offset costs associated with managing and overseeing the contract including planning of supporting infrastructure and ongoing maintenance with any surplus to support Council revenue savings. Any supporting infrastructure, such as parking corals, will continue to be funded by local transport grant funding.

Other options considered

Two other options were considered – i. do nothing and ii. seek a short-term contract to cover trial period only.

 i.  Do nothing. Procurement have advised that it is not possible to extend the contract duration (that is due  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

Report of Corporate Director of Growth and City Development

Chris carter, Head of Transport Strategy, presented the report and stated the following:

i.  a car club offers ‘pay as you go’ car hire for the public and for businesses. It contributes to Nottingham’s sustainable transport approach by offering an alternative to private car ownership for journeys not suitable or possible by alternative means of transport. The benefits of car clubs are that it can be a cheaper option than owning a car, helps to reduce congestion, reduces parking pressure and helps cut pollution;

ii.  all costs and responsibilities associated with private vehicle ownership are included in the annual membership, hourly booking rates and mileage rates. This creates a saving for members when compared with traditional car ownership with limited mileage (typically less than 7,000 miles per year;

iii.   CoMoUK, the national charity dedicated to the social, economic and environmental benefits of shared transport, recently published their annual study into car club usage. The report highlighted that nationally there has been a significant growth in car club membership, which has more than doubled since 2019. On average each car club vehicle in the UK has replaced 22 private vehicles;

iv.   the Nottingham car club has been in operation since 2014. First launched with a City Centre focus it was retendered in 2019. The contract was awarded to Enterprise and will expire in May 2024;

v.  the car club operates on a ‘back to bay’ model whereby users hire and return a vehicle to a dedicated location. The current fleet comprises of 20-25 vehicles and is a mixture of low emission, hybrid and fully electric vehicles;

vi.  the scheme operates on a fully commercial basis with the concessionaire taking on responsibility for all costs associated with the operation of the scheme including vehicle purchase, fuel, tax, insurance, cleaning, maintenance, customer support, online booking and payment system.

Resolved to

(1)  approve undertaking procurement to retender for a concessionaire to deliver the Nottingham Car Club for up to five years (a 3 + 2 year concession contract);

(2)  delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Growth and City Development to award the contract to the successful provider following the tender process.

Reasons for recommendations

i.  Retendering of the Nottingham Car Club scheme will secure commitment to expand the operating fleet to new hire locations across the city, that will increase the availability of car club vehicles to more residents, businesses and visitors. To support CN28 and cleaner air objectives the operator will also be required to increase the share of low and zero emission vehicles.

ii.  In order to expand the car club, it will be necessary to allocate additional dedicated car club bays in commercial and residential areas, which for on-street locations will require the implementation of further Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs). Future bay locations will be assessed for their viability in terms of customer attractiveness, commercial value and deliverability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

iii.  The current concession includes payment of an annual charge by the operator for each dedicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

Report of Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Eileen Hudson, Principal Records Officer, presented the report and stated the following:

 i.  since 2010, the offsite document storage service has been provided by Box-it North Midlands, who are based in Uttoxeter. They are a franchise operated by R P Storage Ltd

ii.  the Council have been out of contract with Box-it for a significant period of time, and so a retendering process now needs to take place for the storage of NCC’s paper documentation. The current contract terms with Box-it are to store documents, with a select number of boxes having to be stored in archival (or specialist) storage conditions. They offer a delivery and collection service twice a week to NCC sites and provide a service for confidential destruction of paperwork when requested. They also provide materials, such as file storage boxes and security tags;

iii.  the retendering process provides the opportunity for the Council to futureproof its archived paper data and approval is being sought to re-tender for the provision of an off-site data storage service for approximately 22,739 boxes, with significant additional modifications over and above the existing service provision;

iv.  the process will be to procure a hybrid document management solution using a competitive procedure with negotiation;

v.  the proposal is to move to a hybrid model of service that offers:

·  a physical paper archive solution;

·  a scan on demand service;

·  a significantly reduced box delivery and collection service;

·  a bulk scanning option with file preparation;

·  an improved box tracking audit system;

·  an electronic document management storage solution.

Resolved to

(1)  note that approval is being sought,via the spend control process put in place by Nottingham City Council’s Chief Finance Officer, to spend up to £800,000 on the procurement of a hybrid total document management solution and that the procurement will only proceed once approval has been given;

(2)  subject to (1) above:

(a)  approve procurement of a hybrid total document management solution service provider (as detailed in paragraph 3.1 of the report) using a competitive procedure with negotiation;

(b)  delegate authority to the Head of Legal Services to approve the outcome of the competitive procedure with negotiation and award and enter an initial 5-year contract, with the option to extend for a further 3-years and then a further 2-years contract, with the successful provider, subject to satisfactory contractual performance:

(c)  note each Corporate Directorate Service Delivery Area will be given responsibility for:

  i.  document digitisation suitability;

  ii.  document record management (including document retention period policy compliance;

  iii.  UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 compliance;

  iv.  ensuring sufficient resource and budget allocation to ensure UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 compliance;

(d)  note the intention to de-centralise the budget for the document management solution and devolve this to each Corporate Directorate Service DeliveryArea.

Reasons for recommendations

 i.  NCC currently stores 22,739 boxes at Box-it’s offsite storage facility. 2,359 of these boxes require storage in higher cost archival conditions, due to the age of these documents, and the need for them to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.