Issue - meetings

That Cabinet approve:

1. the virement of £1.5m from the Strategic Acquisitions budget to the MSCP budget; and

2. the awarding of the contract to Huber Car Park Systems International GmbH for the construction of the MSCP.

Decision

That Cabinet approve:

1. the virement of £1.5m from the Strategic Acquisitions budget to the MSCP budget; and

2. the awarding of the contract to Huber Car Park Systems International GmbH for the construction of the MSCP.

Reason for decision

To seek Cabinet approval to approve the budget virement and award a contract for the construction of the MSCP in Berkhamsted.

Corporate objectives

·      Building strong and vibrant communities

·      Ensuring economic growth and prosperity

·         Delivering an efficient and modern council

Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer comments

Monitoring Officer:  

Under the Access to Information Regulations and the Council’s Constitution the Council is normally required to give 28 days’ notice where the Council intends to make a key decision.  The Regulations and the Constitution contain urgency provisions which can be used where a key decision is urgent. 

This can be done in two different ways.

·         The Council can take an urgent key decision without giving 28 days’ notice where it is impracticable to give the full notice, provided that the Council gives at least five days’ clear notice to all members of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the authority (the “general exception” rule); or

• where a key decision is so urgent there is not even time to give five clear days’ notice, the Council can take the decision if the Chairman of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed that the key decision is urgent and cannot reasonably be deferred (the “special urgency” rule).

This notice requirement applies whether the key decision is to be taken by the Cabinet at a meeting, by the Executive Leader, another Cabinet Member or by an officer without a meeting taking place.

The Council intends via this urgent Cabinet decision to make a decision to award the contract for the Berkhamsted Multi-Storey Car Park.

The approval of the contract award is urgent to enable the Council to award the contract and secure the contract price but also to secure the contractor to enable them to commit to delivering the contract within a reasonable timeframe; however, it is still possible to give 5 days’ notice to all members of the relevant overview and scrutiny committee (Finance and Resources) and therefore the “general exception” rule applies.  5 days’ notice has been given to all members of the Finance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee in compliance with this rule.

Part 4- under “Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules”: “Call-in and Urgency”

Call-in can be disapplied where the decision is urgent; the decision will be urgent if any delay likely to be caused by the call-in process would seriously prejudice the Council’s or the public’s interests. The decision is an urgent one and therefore should not be subject to call-in in order to enable the Council to award the contract and secure the contract price and the contractor for the works. In the absence of the Mayor (on leave), the deputy Mayor has agreed both that the decision proposed is reasonable in all the circumstances and that it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7