The report of the Director of Place is to follow.

Contact: Mark Barrow (01743) 258919

The Committee received the report of the Executive Director of Place which provided an update on continuing actions made to address the recommendations contained in the Audit report, previously submitted to the Audit Committee on 22 February 2024.

The Executive Director of Place introduced and amplified his report.  He explained that the audit had identified a range of opportunities to tighten the approach and make improvements to various aspects of the project and its governance, which have been taken on board and he thanked the audit team for their support in setting up the project for success.  He drew attention to the two fundamental recommendations set out in paragraph 2.2 of the report and confirmed that they had both been addressed as far as they could be.  The first related to governance and the clarification of certain roles and responsibilities and had been completed.  The second related in part to updating Council delegations and current levels of financial approvals, which had been approved at Council on 29 February 2024.

Turning to the confirmation of the potential cost and confirmation of government funding, the Executive Director of Place confirmed that they were on track to report to a special meeting of Full Council to consider the Full Business Case, hopefully in November.  In relation to any higher-level financial risks to the Council, he confirmed that they had met with the Department for Transport (DFT) on numerous occasions, including since the General Election, and he had no reason from any of those conversations to give Members any sense that this was a project at risk in their programme. The DFT were saying that this continued to be a large local major funded project within their programme which was not affected by any of the reviews heard about in the press.

The Executive Director of Place confirmed that the governance and financial reporting had been strengthened and the project was operating well within its financial headroom as agreed by full Council.  The oversight of financial commitments had been reviewed and an authorisation and monitoring process was in place giving full openness to those issues raised in relation to the ‘Confirm’ system.  He went on to clarify that management responsibility for the project now sat with Andy Wilde as the lead Assistant Director and who was taking on new levels of oversight including Manager of the Confirm system.  Any orders of a significant size that were above Matt Johnson’s (Strategic Project Executive Manager) level would be committed by Andy Wilde (Assistant Director for Growth and Infrastructure) with the support of the commercial manager within the project.  So, there were multiple layers of governance within the Confirm system.

In terms of the firewall between planning and those promoting the project, Andy was positioned in the promoter/delivery side of things whilst the planning / development control function sat with Rachel Robinson, the Executive Director for Health and Wellbeing, further strengthening the governance arrangements.  Andy Wilde was also the lead officer in conversations with WSP in terms of ensuring best value from consultants during this process and was looking at a range of opportunities around the wider contract with WSP.

In terms of transparency and the public interest, the Executive Director of Place informed the Committee that all of the meeting notes and all of the papers that relate to the projects were recorded and saved within a SharePoint site that all key project members from various departments within the Council including the audit team had access to which provided full visibility.  They were also looking to publish as much as they could publicly during October as there was a great deal of interest in the project including a number of Freedom of Information requests and questions at full Council so they were hoping to let people self-serve on as much of that information, albeit redacted where necessary, but then being open and transparent which would hopefully provide some reassurance to members of the community and provided that transparency highlighted by the audit.

The Executive Director of Place reported that teams were currently evaluating the final tender submissions, and it was hoped to complete that by the 25^th October to allow for the construction costs contained therein to feed into the Full Business Case.  He confirmed that good progress was being made in response to discharging the planning conditions and in formalising the legal agreements with the landowners for the Section 106 Agreements. Following this, and once the planning decision notice had been issued, they would be in a position to go to Full Council to make a recommendation for submission to the DFT, hopefully during November and it would normally take a couple of months for the DTF to make its decision and it was hoped to start to mobilize towards delivery as we enter the new year.

In response to a query, the Executive Director of Place explained the procurement process, noting that it was an open process inviting anyone with an interest in bidding and a total of 12 submissions had been received. The process had been narrowed down to the final stages and Council could be reassured that there had been a full market test approach.

In response to another query, the Executive Director of Place confirmed that they were working on the assumption that there would be a special meeting of Full Council in November to approve the submission of a Full Business Case to the DFT.  In response to a further query, the Executive Director of Place confirmed that the capital finance partner was Donna Payne a member of the Executive Director for Finance’s team.  He also confirmed that the Executive Director for Finance had joined the Executive Steering Group as further oversight.

Concern was raised that Members had been continually refused any up-to-date financial information about the NWRR and as far as they were concerned, nothing official had been received from the new Government confirming what had been agreed by the previous Minister eg that they would fully fund the NWRR.  Due to the precarious financial position that the Council found itself in, there was concern whether this was still a viable project and whether more money should be put at risk before the Full Business Case was submitted.

In response, the Executive Director for Finance (Section 151 Officer) confirmed that Council had approved the original budget and that expenditure to date had been within that approved budget.  A further report had been to Council earlier in the year that requested additional funding to be allocated to continue the work based on the necessary delegations.  He explained the current position was that the Full Business Case was being worked through before the Council committed itself to any expenditure that went beyond the current delegations, which would be approved by full Council. In terms of the financial position, that was understood, and the Portfolio Holder was aware of the discussions that had been had around the financial position, but until they got to that final point where Council makes the decision, that information would not be widely shared.  He confirmed that he was joining the Executive Steering Group to oversee this position and would ensure that what Council saw in November gave a full position and was clear what Council was signing up to at that point in time in terms of that overarching financial position.

The Executive Director for Place reassured Members that he was working on the basis that this project would not in any way impact on any wider Council services.

In response to a query about climate change and in particular reference to condition number 41, which stated that no development should commence until the carbon assessment had been submitted for approval to the LPA.  In response, it was confirmed that a draft carbon assessment plan had been written and was close to being approved in the next few weeks. 

The Executive Director for Place explained that the Marches LEP was now the Marches Joint Committee, and a report would be forthcoming at its next meeting, and he was comfortable that those conditions would all be met and discharged in that report.  A brief discussion ensued about discharge of the conditions and any possible contract variations.

In response to a query, it was confirmed that no specific piece of work had been undertaken by Internal Audit around the BECC contract framework but from a line of assurance perspective, an update could be requested by the Committee from the Commissioning and Procurement Manager around that element.  By way of reassurance, the Executive Director of Place confirmed that the current contract had only been let the previous year following a full public procurement process that was competitive and had a range of consultants and which WSP had won again. 

It was queried whether a full-time commercial manager was required on this project at the moment.  In response, the Executive Director of Place explained that a considerable amount of money had been spent getting the project this far and that every package of work that was commissioned to any of the specialist consultants or WSP was reviewed by that commercial manager, and he reassured members that the role was providing value to the project.

In response to concerns whether the DFT had time to make their decision prior to the pre-election period, the Executive Director of Place confirmed that they were aware of the potential for this.  However, he reassured the Committee that DFT had been provided with information as the project proceeded and so had full visibility and were not currently flagging any significant concerns.

RESOLVED: 

To acknowledge the continuing adherence to project management amendments as suggested in the original audit report and updated Managers response in February 2024.