Agenda, decisions and minutes

This meeting is to be webcast.

The Chairman will read the following announcement:

I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live to the Internet and will be capable of subsequent repeated viewing, with copies of the recording being made available for those that request it.

By being present at this meeting, it is likely that the recording cameras will capture your image and this will result in your image becoming part of the broadcast.

You should be aware that this may infringe your human and data protection rights. If you have any concerns then please speak to the Webcasting Officer.

Please could I also remind Members to activate their microphones before speaking.”

The Chairman made a short address to remind everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the internet, and would be capable of repeated viewing, which could infringe their human and data protection rights.

To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Cabinet Committee noted that there were no substitute members present at the meeting.

To declare interests in any item on the agenda.

The were no declarations of interest pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of the Cabinet Committee held on 16 March 2021.

Resolved:

(1)        That the minutes of the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee held on the 16 March 2021 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Resolved:

(1)        That the minutes of the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee held on the 16 March 2021 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

That the Housing Services Manager – Development to present a report to the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee with regard to updating the Committee on the progress of the Council House Building Programme, Phases 3 to 5.

Decision:

(1)        That the contents of this Progress Report on Phases 3 to 5 of the Council House Building Programme be noted and presented to the Cabinet in line with the Terms of Reference of the Council House Building Cabinet Committee; and

(2)        That members consider the proposals for Phase 5 and award officers the approval to move the schemes forward through planning and construction. 

Rochelle Hoyte, Service Manager, Housing Development presented a report to the Cabinet Committee and recommended that the Council House Building Progress Report - Phases 3 to 5 be noted. She advised that the report set out the progress that had been made across Phases 3 to 5 of the Council House Building Programme and that they were either completed, on-site or were currently being procured.

Phase 3

Cyril Hawkins Close, formerly known as Queens Road, North Weald was currently in the defects period which was being managed between Storm and Qualis and EFDC officers were interjecting when required to support defects raised and to find a resolution. In addition, EFDC would be working with the Parish Council and the EFDC Housing Management Team to arrange fencing across the boundary line to the rear as there had been a number of access issues from local residents. The final account for that scheme will be achieved following the 2-year end of defects review.

Phase 4

Package 4.1 consisted of 16 units that had been contracted and were all on site, handover dates for Package 4.1 were between September and November 2021 with Pick Hill in March 2022.

Chequers Road (A), Loughton

The foul drainage alternative connection had been agreed via a neighbouring garden. Approval had now been formerly confirmed with Essex Highways.

Bushfields, Loughton

Works had been delayed due to roof tile supply issues which had now been resolved.

Chester Road, Loughton

No delays had been reported.

Queensway, Ongar

The drainage route had already been installed and was awaiting completion this had been delayed until October 2021.

Package 4.2 consisted of 22 units which were all on site, handover dates for Package 4.2 were between February and March 2022. 

Package 4.3 consisted of 15 units. Work was underway to get both contracts signed.

Pentlow Way had been delayed mainly due to the substation being re-sited. UKPN visited the site on the 8 June 2021 and a relocation for the substation had been agreed. The legal paperwork would take approximately 9 months to complete,  therefore the start on site would be delayed and there would be updates to the tender sum which will be reported back to the committee when known.

Package 4.4 consisted of 24 units, consent was awaited from planning, determination expected June 2021 to work through next steps for January 2022 start on site.

Package 4.5 consisted of 2 units. This had been delayed within planning, updates were hoped to be received by the end of June 2021 to achieve a January 2022 start on site.

Phase 5

Since the last meeting of the Council House Building Cabinet Committee officers had been working with the architects ECDA to assess whether there were any viable schemes for the developments in Phase 5.

It was important that consultations were held with Ward Councillors and residents to obtain their views on the schemes to be taken forward. These would be held in June/July 2021.

Councillor A Patel stated that there was mention  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

That the Housing Services Manager – Development to present a report to the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee regarding the Phase 3 scheme budget for the Council House Building Programme to be noted and presented to the Cabinet in line with the Terms of Reference of the Council House Building Cabinet Committee.

Decision:

(1)        That the contents of this Phase 3 scheme budget for the Council House Building Programme be noted and presented to the Cabinet in line with the Terms of Reference of the Council House Building Cabinet Committee.

Rochelle Hoyte, Service Manager, Housing Development presented a report to the Cabinet Committee and advised that at the last Council House Building Cabinet Committee meeting it was requested that a view of the schemes budgeting was presented to the committee.

Phase 3

Bluemans End

Stewards Green Road

London Road

Parklands, Coopersale

Springfield and Centre Avenue

*The final account here remains unresolved due to waterlogging issue at the properties which was being resolved.

Centre Drive

Cyril Hawkins Close / Queens Road

*Still to be agreed at the end of the defects period 2023.

She advised that lessons had been learnt on how schemes going forward would be assessed financially. The introduction of ProVal was a huge asset to the development team, providing much more opportunity to consider varying costs and scheme viability before progressing schemes.

Contingencies were now reviewed on a case by case basis rather than the presumed 5-10% of a contract sum. Careful consideration was being made for the constraints identified as being recurring problems within sites. This included contamination, foundations, drainage, boundaries and ground water.

Officers also noted that some of the additions to the contract sum could have been avoided and officers would need to ensure that the lessons learned were not repeated for Phase 5 and beyond.

Councillor J Philip advised he requested this piece of work and thanked the officer for bringing to this meeting.  He asked if the new technique could be applied to the work in progress on Phase 4 which would give some indication about what we were likely to see and that would then give us a comparison of whether ProVal would give the Council the confidence that they were moving in the right direction.

Councillor A Patel stated that what had been highlighted in the report was the additional cost to the Council and asked how much of that cost was borne by the contractor as when the contractors submit their tenders they should make  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

That the Housing Services Manager – Development to present a report to the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee with regard to EFDC becoming members and using the National Framework to ensure all projects can demonstrate best value for money.

Decision:

(1)        That members agreed that EFDC became members and used the National Framework, as an additional framework to ensure all projects can demonstrate best value for money, quality and where contractors judged on merit.

Rochelle Hoyte, Service Manager, Housing Development presented a report to the Cabinet Committee and asked them to agree that EFDC became members and used the National Framework, as an additional framework to ensure that all projects could demonstrate best value for money, quality and where contractors were judged on merit.

EFDC entered into a framework agreement in October 2018, this agreement was administered by the managing director of Cameron Consulting. The framework agreement consisted of one employer’s agent (EA), one architect and four contractors. Over the last few years only two contractors have tendered for proposals that were put forward.

In order to ensure that EFDC were instructing the right consultants and contractors for the varying complexity of some of the development schemes, it was vital that EFDC were able to tender outside of the current framework agreement. 

Furthermore, the current limited framework did not always provide appropriate opportunities to carryout due diligence in terms of cost and quality.  This was because the framework was limited to a low number of contractors.

Officers were committed to ensuring that EFDC delivered schemes that firstly met the needs of residents but also achieved our service business goals, which included delivering on time, in budget and providing the highest quality units. To deliver these schemes we will need to be flexible in our approach to working with consultants and contractors going forward.

Using the National Framework Partnership was based on access fees which were calculated on the total cost of the development contract sum.  As such these fees would be incorporated in our early feasibility studies to ensure affordability and good value.

The Chairman asked how we could ensure that local contractors were used and was there a way within this framework of firstly preferencing local Epping Forest contractors or Essex based contractors if we had to look further afield.

R Hoyte advised that within the National Framework you would be able to see all of the details from the different contractors and you could look to see what area they were based in, so from that we could tailor the areas we specifically want to concentrate on in the tender response to ensure that we were giving the opportunity first to local businesses.

Councillor J Philip stated that this was definitely the right way to go to give EFDC more choice thereby obtaining better and more economically sensible results. He suggested that neighbouring districts and not only Essex based contractors, for example North London could also be added to the areas tailored for tender responses.

Decision:

(1)        That Members agreed that EFDC became members and used the National Framework, as an additional framework to ensure all projects could demonstrate best value for money, quality and where contractors were judged on merit.

Reason for Decision:

The Council House Building programme was growing and in order to meet the targets set out as a part of the business plan and local plan, flexibility was needed within the tendering process to ensure best value across  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, together with paragraphs 6 and 25 of the Council Procedure Rules contained in the Constitution require that the permission of the Chairman be obtained, after prior notice to the Chief Executive, before urgent business not specified in the agenda (including a supplementary agenda of which the statutory period of notice has been given) may be transacted.

In accordance with Operational Standing Order 6 (non-executive bodies), any item raised by a non-member shall require the support of a member of the Committee concerned and the Chairman of that Committee. Two weeks’ notice of non-urgent items is required.

Councillor D Wixley referred to the minutes of the last meeting on page 8, where it said:

 “Councillor D Wixley advised that part of Burney Drive was in his Ward and he would like to know where the site was as he could not envisage a scheme going ahead in that area.”

Initially in the previous meeting Burney Drive was referred to as Burney Close and that confused him and he could not think of a garage site in Burney Drive, to which he has now remembered so has therefore answered his question.

On the agenda another site had been referred to in Castell Road which was also in his Ward and earlier in the meeting the Officer had said that they would be moving away from garage sites, therefore, what other sites were Officers looking at.

R Hoyte advised that there were a number of other identified land opportunities within the Local Plan and the Council wished to target some of those larger pieces of land. The garage sites could normally only facilitate 3-5 units and it was expensive to build on such a small scale. Therefore, in order to meet the target of units that were needed to build, the Council would have to start looking at sites that gave an opportunity to build more units, which would make it more cost effective, to which the garage sites don’t always provide that opportunity. She stated that they would still be looking to develop garage sites but needed to broaden what was being looked at.

Councillor Wixley asked if that meant that some of the garage sites would not be used as he was concerned with a particular garage site in his Ward as it was used for fly tipping.

R Hoyte advised that the Council were not going to abandon the garage sites in terms of looking at them, but the Council needed to consider building on larger sites, to meet housing targets and to reduce the cost per unit and also think about being carbon neutral which was a more expensive process.

Councillor Wixley asked if nuisance garage sites were not going to be built on were there any other ideas of what could be done to prevent these sites being used for fly tipping and anti-social behaviour.

R Hoyte advised that talks were ongoing, for instance where garages were still being used they could be refurbished and made more fit for purpose, as the current garage sites were built so many years ago when cars where much smaller and therefore many cars of today would not fit in them. Hopefully by refurbishing the sites this would mean they would be more widely used and therefore help towards stopping the anti-social behaviour. Each garage site would have to be assessed on a case by case basis.

R Hoyte advised that the supplementary agenda concerned Phase 5 of the Council House Building Programme and she would now be looking to book meetings with the Ward Members to discuss  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Exclusion

To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Background Papers

Article 17 - Access to Information, Procedure Rules of the Constitution define background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)        disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

The Council will make available for public inspection one copy of each of the documents on the list of background papers for four years after the date of the meeting. Inspection of background papers can be arranged by contacting either the Responsible Officer or the Democratic Services Officer for the particular item.

The Cabinet Committee noted that there was no business for consideration which would necessitate the exclusion of the public and press from the meeting.