Issue - meetings

1.         That all the necessary preconditions identified in the Cabinet report of 23 July 2013, as outlined in paragraphs 3 - 34 of the submitted report, have now been met.

2.         That the assessment of the Director of Finance is that the cost of proceeding with the Waste Strategy, including the Eco Park, meets the value for money criterion and is the most affordable option available to the council.

3.         That the council proceeds to issue the second Notice To Proceed (NTP2) in accordance with the contractual processes approved by Cabinet on 30 October 2013.

4.         That the corporate revenue budget refresh in July 2015 will take into account the budgetary effect of delivering the Waste Strategy, including the Eco Park.

5.         That the Strategic Director of Environment and Infrastructure puts in place the governance arrangements described in Annex 2 of the submitted report, and provides quarterly reports to the Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning and reports to Cabinet at key milestones by agreement between the Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning and the Leader of the Council.

Reasons for Decisions:

To authorise development of the Eco Park, an essential part of the Waste Strategy and a priority for the council.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Environment and Transport Select Committee]

Before handing over to the Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning to introduce the report, the Leader of the Council reminded Members that in October 2013, Cabinet had agreed to the terms of the Contract variation, subject to seven conditions being met.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning then introduced the report on the amendment to the waste contract to deliver the Waste Strategy. He said that this was an important report and that he would give a detailed introduction to it.

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He said that, in July 2013 the Cabinet took the decision to deliver the Surrey Waste Strategy, including the development of the Eco park by varying the council's long term contract with SITA. In agreeing to vary the Surrey Waste contract to deliver the Eco park, the Cabinet set out seven conditions that would need to be in place before they would consider building it and the Cabinet would need to be assured that all seven conditions had been met. Today’s report confirmed that all seven conditions have now been met. These conditions and are outlined in paragraphs 3 to 39 of the submitted report.

Taking each condition in turn:

·         Condition 1 - the Director of Legal and Democratic Services must confirm that the contract documents for signature were consistent with terms which related to the recommendations in the report of July 2013 and with the requirements of the EU Public Procurement regulations.

This condition was met in October 2013.

·         Condition 2 - to divert the footpath to the North of the Eco park.

This condition was met on the 19 March 2014.

·         Condition 3 - variation of planning permission to reflect the replacement of the gasification technology.

This condition was met on the 24 September 2014.

·         Condition 4 - amendment required to the environment permit to reflect the replacement of the gasification technology.

This condition was met on 29 October 2014 when the Environment Agency issued the variation.

·         Condition 5 - the fulfilment of outstanding planning conditions.

This condition was met when Surrey County Council’s Planning and Regulatory Committee approved these on the 13 March 2015 and this was subsequently implemented by SITA Surrey.

·         Condition 6 - outlined in paragraphs 8 to 30 of the submitted report was that Surrey County Council’s Director of Finance would examine the final cost, decide if this represented Value for Money, was the lowest cost option and importantly, was it the most affordable within the council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.

The Director of Finance has confirmed that this condition has now been met.

The assessment of the Director of Finance was based on advice from the Council’s external financial advisor, Deloitte and Technical Advisor, Mott Macdonald. It has demonstrated that the variation to the waste contract to deliver the waste strategy, including the Eco park, represented the best value for money for the residents of Surrey. It also represented overall Value for Money for the public sector and it represented the most affordable solution to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82