Agenda and minutes

In the absence of Councillor Wynter, Councillor Barnard (Vice-Chair) chaired the meeting.

Councillor Hays    )  leave

Councillor Wynter    )

Councillor Woodings    -  personal

None.

Last meeting held on 12 December 2023 (for confirmation)

The minutes of the last meeting held on 12 December 2024 were agreed as a correct record and were signed by the Chair presiding at the meeting.

Report of Corporate Director for Communities, Environment and Resident Services

Stephen Chartres, Performance and Improvement Manager, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the report sought approval to continue the Council’s membership of the East Midlands and Mid Anglia (EMMA) libraries stock consortium with 8 other library authorities (Cambridgeshire, Derby City, Derbyshire, Leicester City, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Peterborough and Rutland);

b)  working as a consortium allowed member library services to combine their spending power to gain significant discounts on the majority of book stock items purchased, achieving best value and maximising library budgets;

c)  the proposal was for Nottinghamshire County Council to lead and manage the procurement process and provide legal advice, for which each participating authority would pay agreed fees. This would be beneficial to the Council by providing a saving on staff resource and time;

d)  the proposed contract period would be for 4 years, with 2 possible extension periods of 1+1 years, and would commence on 1 April 2024, making a maximum contract period of 6 years;

e)  once suppliers had been agreed and a framework agreement signed, each authority would then enter into separate order and call-off contract agreements.

Resolved to

(1)  approve participation by Nottingham City Council in the procurement, to be led by Nottinghamshire County Council, of a new consortium-based framework agreement (for a period of 4+1+1 years) for the provision of books for loan and reference via the 15 public libraries across Nottingham and on behalf of HMP Nottingham Prison Library;

(2)  delegate authority to the Head of Culture and Libraries to sign and award the contract to the successful provider following the procurement process, and any associated orders for the Council for the purchase of adult and children's books, entering individual call-off contracts for the term of the agreement.

Reasons for recommendations

a)  To procure the City’s Library Service book supply contract, through a consortium approach, allows member library services to combine their spending power to gain significant discounts on most items purchased, achieving best value for the Council and maximising library budgets.

b)  This is an established consortium, where the City Council has previously benefited from working in a combined way to maximise purchasing power with suppliers.

c)  In approving the request to be a partner organisation in the creation of a supply framework, the leading organisation, in this case Nottinghamshire County Council, has an obligation to act and award in line with Public Contract Regulations, satisfying contract procurement rules of the City Council.

Other options considered

a)  Cease having a book supply contract for the purchase of books for the Library Service – Rejected as this would result in a detrimental impact on the Council’s ability to offer a responsive service to meet the current and potential future needs of our Citizens, risking the longer-term literacy and reading levels across our city. It potentially could also result in the City Council being in breach of its statutory duty (Libraries & Museums Act 1964) of delivering a comprehensive and efficient library service.

b)  Nottingham City Council to secure an individual book supply  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

Report of Corporate Director for Growth and City Development

James Howe, Public Transport Operations Team Leader, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the Council currently has a 25-year contract, let in 1999, for the supply and maintenance of street furniture with and without advertising, which is due to expire on 31 December 2024;

b)  street furniture in the terms of this contract is specifically bus shelters and Council information panels (CIPs), otherwise termed as Free-Standing Units (FSUs);

c)  the Council’s street furniture estate comprises of 213 advertising bus shelters, 619 non-advertising bus shelters and 27 free standing units, which are located in the city centre;

d)  the incumbent is contracted to supply and maintain the full estate and manage the analogue (paper) advertising aspect. The Council is not involved in the commercial aspect of selling advertising space on these advertising panels;

e)  as per the existing contract, the Council receives an advertising fee. This is off set against the cost to the Council of the on-going supply and maintenance of the bus shelters, resulting in the existing contract being cost neutral overall;

f)  Nottingham has a comprehensive, high quality public transport network that is supported by high quality infrastructure, including excellent passenger waiting facilities, such as bus shelters. These waiting facilities help citizens to complete their public transport journey in a safer and more comfortable manner, and consultation has identified this is important to them;

g)  none of the current advertising panels used within the estate are digital. The use of digital advertising panels has become more prevalent across the Out of Home Media industry in recent years, with technology advancing and becoming less costly;

h)  digitising an estate provides more opportunity for income generation as other local authorities have found in recent years when re-tendering for similar contracts. It provides for a more flexible and dynamic approach for advertisers and removes the laborious nature of physically posting new adverts and the associated costs that come with that (such as printing costs);

i)  a procurement process is necessary to tender for a new contract for the supply and maintenance of bus shelters and FSUs with and without an advertising concession;

j)  a new advertising concession will allow for the provision of digital advertising panels where appropriate, which will make this a more attractive opportunity for potential providers. This, in turn, should provide more income generation for the Council and thereby help alleviate budget pressures.

Resolved to

(1)  approve commencement of a tender process for a 15-year contract for the supply and maintenance of bus shelters with and without an advertising concession throughout Nottingham and of free-standing council information units with advertising panels within the city centre;

(2)  delegate authority to the Corporate Director for Growth and City Development, in consultation with the Corporate Director for Finance and Resources, of the preferred procurement strategy, financial performance model and finalised tender documents, and to sign and award a contract to the preferred supplier.

Reasons for recommendations

a)  The decision was made not to extend the contract with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

Report of Corporate Director for Growth and City Development

Joseph Muir, Senior Homelessness Project Officer, presented the report and stated the following:

The spend detailed in the report was approved on 18/12/23 by the s.151 Officer (SCB ref: 1618).

a)  Nottingham City Council has a responsibility for:

·  employee welfare and contractual obligations for travelling and accommodation whilst Nottingham City Council employees complete essential tasks detailed within job descriptions;

·  satisfying all statutory duties placed upon the Council to provide emergency accommodation to support and safeguard vulnerable households, assess homeless applications and for the protection of children and young people;

b)  the Council currently uses an online booking system, Click Travel, to book 100% of its travel and accommodation requirements for employees, and over 90% for citizen travel and accommodation;

c)  the Council endeavours to commission a sufficient supply of temporary and supported accommodation to meet its statutory duties to all citizens. However, a continued higher than expected demand for these services means that, in emergency situations or when our temporary and supported accommodation provision is full, the use of the online booking system is required to secure emergency nightly paid accommodation in hotels;

d)  the current Click Travel contract expired on 30 November 2023 and a decision was taken at Nottingham City Council Executive Board on 19 December 2023 to extend the current contract for an interim period of two months to 31 January 2024;

e)  during 2023, a review was completed to assess the future requirements and needs of the Council for corporate travel and short-term accommodation bookings for citizens and to determine whether it is appropriate to call off a new contract for a further longer term fixed period.  The review concluded that there is a need for a booking system and that a Direct Call-Off, call off to Click Travel via Lot 1 of the YPO Travel Management Solutions 2 framework was the only feasible option to maintain the possibility of both citizen and corporate bookings

f)  consultation with internal users found the existing system to be effective overall.  However, the council seek a further development of the service provided by Click Travel to enable the separation of Corporate and Citizen travel and accommodation bookings and expenditure on usage. With a further breakdown within the citizen booking functionality to distinguish between single person and family households. The reason this is required is to maximise the availability of suppliers within each type of booking arrangement and minimise one negatively impacting on another;

g)  Click Travel is the preferred option to continue to deliver the service to ensure that no disruptions are experienced to:

·  employee travel and accommodation;

·  in securing emergency placements to meet statutory duties to citizens;

h)  the Council has determined a need to review and develop an additional process/system to procure other nightly paid and short-term block booking arrangements from accommodation providers who are not registered on Click Travel;

i)  when established, this system could eventually become the primary route of securing emergency accommodation for citizens, particularly those the council is required to accommodate under homelessness  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item 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 the public interest in disclosing the information

The Committee agreed to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item 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 the public interest in disclosing the information.

The exempt appendix was noted.