Agenda item

L Roberts introduced the report and advised this was a brief progress update from when they had last discussed garages in February this year. She advised that the plan had been impacted by Covid-19 and the programme had to be paused as one of the key suppliers (Orchard) had been furloughed. We re-engaged with them once their surveyors started to return and some work had been completed over the weekend. She said the mobile surveys start tomorrow with a local firm we had appointed called Aitchison Rafferty.

She highlighted that the garages team had continued to work through all the garage applications during the lockdown period and had worked really hard to achieve 263 e-form enquiries, 93 offers made, 60 commencements and 56 terminations. Also the DBC surveyors who have been unable to go into tenant buildings due to Covid-19 have carried out 756 inspections. She explained that once the surveys have been completed they will be able to map the data against the demand. This information will be reported to this committee at the meeting in November.

Councillor Chapman asked if they would consider new roofs for the garages where asbestos had been found and cleared and were in disrepair. L Roberts advised that would need to be decided when the data comes back so they can understand the life span of the garages and whether it would be cost effective.

Councillor Tindall asked if we held a record of how many garages were occupied or vacant. L Roberts advised that the current void rate was 31% and the stock was approximately 7,500. She added that the performance from this quarter was significantly better than it was this time last year despite the pandemic.

Councillor Tindall asked if there was any scope for levelling the garages and just using the area as off street parking spaces to get some cars off the roads. He added that most garages were too small for modern cars so most people end up using them for other purposes. L Roberts suggested that could be considered as an option but it would depend on the condition of the garages. She said there was a range of options to consider once they had the data.

Councillor Guest asked if we had the information on a ward basis for where the enquiries and offers were. L Roberts said she didn’t think they had that information on a ward basis. Councillor Guest asked if it was possible to produce that information for members. L Roberts said she wasn’t sure how much work would be involved to produce that information so she would need to look in to it. Action: L Roberts

The Chairman said it would be interesting to know how many garages in total were in each ward and asked if L Roberts could take that on board. Action: L Roberts

Councillor Symington queried the cost for the surveys to be completed. L Roberts advised just under £20k.

Councillor Symington said she was curious how a company that was a supplier to the Council was able to furlough their staff if they had an ongoing work programme with us. L Roberts felt she couldn’t answer that on behalf of Orchard but suggested they would have needed to look at their level of resourcing and some of their other work may have stopped.

Councillor Symington asked if we were still on track for completion at the end of August despite the delays caused by the pandemic. L Roberts confirmed we were and having the mobile app was the key.

The Chairman asked if the report in November would include the survey results and the recommendations on how to move forward. L Roberts replied that was the plan.

Outcome:

The report was noted.