Agenda, decisions and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2017 will be submitted to the next meeting of the Cabinet for approval.

There were no minutes to sign.

There were no minutes to sign.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Griffiths.

Apologies were received from Councillor Griffiths.

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)            may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct for Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements and ask questions in accordance with the rules as to Public Participation.

There was no public participation.

There was no public participation.

To consider any referrals to Cabinet.

None.

None.

That the Cabinet Forward Plan be noted with no changes.

That the Cabinet Forward Plan be noted with no changes.

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 CA/7/17