Agenda item

L Roberts introduced the report to the committee and thanked Councillor England for pointing out an inconsistency in the report, she confirmed that a report would be going to Cabinet in November. The project was started in February 2020 but Covid-19 has had an impact on its progress. The companies that were working on this project had to furlough their staff and the council’s programme manager’s contract was not continued as he was unable to continue the work required of him. There was also the additional task to ensure remote working was in place and move processes to work from home effectively across all services. The tender for the project was sent out to three companies and the local firm Aitchison Rafferty have been appointed to carry out the surveys of the garages. Obviously, they have also been affected by covid-19 but have agreed a start date of 6^th July and based on the number of surveys that need to be carried out, they expect to have completed it by the end of August. The garages team have done extremely well in lockdown, they are working from home and coming into the office when required. They have dealt with 263 eform enquiries, made 93 offers, 60 commencements and 56 terminations. The council’s surveyors have not been able gain access to properties due to social distancing so they have managed to do carry out inspections of 756 garages so there are approximately 6000 inspections left for Aitchison Rafferty to carry out. The lockdown period has been used productively but have been impacted by third parties furloughing their staff.

Councillor Bassadone asked how many garages were currently vacant.

L Roberts said she did not have that information to hand but would circulate the information to the committee
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Councillor Bassadone asked if there was a large number of vacant garages.

L Roberts said she knew approximately 30% of the total garages were vacant. The team will need to monitor the impact of covid-19, garages might be the first thing household’s return due to a reduced household income.

Councillor Freedman ask if any comparisons had been done with the same period last year.

L Roberts said it had and it was roughly the same as last year. Obviously, it is too early to tell the impact from covid-19 but will be monitoring on a weekly basis to identify trends.

Councillor Adeleke had a few questions. Firstly, he asked if the team were still accepting applications for garages, secondly, asked if L Roberts could expand on the definition of the external programme manager and thirdly, asked if intervention was required to avoid a decline in applications for example, some garages are not compatible with modern vehicle sizes.

L Roberts said garage applications were still being processed and the team were receiving a steady stream of enquiries. The external programme manager was a contractor being paid a day rate and was signed up for a period of time to complete the work. The consequences of lockdown meant it was sensible to give him five days’ notice of his contract ending as he was unable to perform the role required. With regards to intervention, the data needs to be collected to understand what needs to be done with the stock to make best use of it. This may mean a complete refurbishment or some enhancements. It is not clear whether the garages are used to store cars so this needs to be understood before money invested to make them suitable for modern cars as people may use them for storage. The project is complex and the data is needed to make decisions on whether garages are knocked down to rebuild, knocked down and the land sold or just refurbished.

Councillor Mahmood asked what the terms of the survey were.

L Roberts said it was a building survey and analysis of the results will be conducted by the council, not Aitchison Rafferty. They are collating the data and giving their opinion on the quality of assets.

F Williamson confirmed it was a full component stock condition survey which would also outline financial costs.

Councillor England asked what measurements will be collected in this survey.

L Roberts said they have the data in terms of occupancy levels which was a piece of work carried out at the end of last year and the asset information will enable better, more informed decisions.

Councillor England asked how many garages the council have built in the last 10 years.

L Roberts said she didn’t have the information to hand but would circulate to the committee.
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Councillor Durrant commented that garages could be reinforced with doors and locks to make them a viable option for local businesses to use as storage.

L Roberts said it was certainly an option to be considered.

Councillor Adeleke commented that if the council are offering out garages as a storage solution then the relevant licence and legal obligations need to be researched.

L Roberts said that was a useful point and would need to look at consequences for all options and look at the council’s current terms and conditions.