There was a change of membership for this meeting: Councillor Derbyshire replaced Councillor Hastrick.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The following decision taken on 3 April 2013 by Cabinet has been called in:

Evaluation of final tenders to provide Parks and Open Spaces, Street Cleansing and Waste  and Recycling

“To question why there was not a proper In-House bid along with the 2 private bidders

To ask who did the final evaluation and if the Council had someone to evaluate the figures?

If there is nothing to hide why can't we see the figures that justify the differences between the 2-private bidders and an In-House bid as if the savings can't be realised in the future this is important?

How many jobs would be lost by the proposals by the 2-private bidders and the Inhouse bid?

If 130 staff are to transfer how are all support services staff going to be affected?

As this is such a major privatisation of Council services, what powers to scrutinise and hold to account the private company would Councillors have?

How tough would the sanctions be on the private company if standards of service and quality declined for Watford residents?

Why should 1 - Company have responsibility for the whole service if another can provide a better quality and price for say Parks?

We call on the Cabinet to ensure that the contract includes not only a full TUPE of present staff but any future staff are guaranteed the LG Pension scheme, and that all those employed on providing services under the contract be paid at least the 'Living Wage'; and that the Council promotes the Living Wage and applies for 'Living Wage' accreditation.”

The following documents are attached –

(A)    Report of the Executive Director Services presented to Cabinet and its Appendix

(B)    Extract of the Cabinet minutes on 3 April 2013

(C)    Proforma requesting the call-in of the decision signed by Councillors Nigel Bell, Jagtar Singh Dhindsa and Mo Mills

(D)    Call-in procedure to be followed

RESOLVED (by Overview and Scrutiny Committee) –

that, having considered the response of officers to the questions raised by the three councillors who requested the call-in of the Cabinet decision of 3rd April to award Veolia Environmental Services preferred bidder status for the provision of Parks and Open Spaces, Street Cleansing, Waste and Recycling services, with a start date of 1 July 2013 (whilst holding Enterprise in reserve), the Committee gives it support to and ratifies the Cabinet decision, recognising the need for the Council to continue to achieve savings in its Revenue budget in line with the Medium Term Financial Strategy, whilst at the same time maintaining high standards of service delivery.

The Cabinet decision taken on 3 April 2013, minute reference 83, regarding the final decision on selecting a Preferred Bidder to provide Parks and Open Spaces, Street Cleansing and Waste and Recycling services had been called in by Councillors Bell, Dhindsa and Mills.  The reason for call-in was included as part of the agenda for the meeting. 

The Scrutiny Committee received a copy of the Cabinet report, the relevant minutes, the completed call-in proforma and details of the call-in procedure.  It was noted that the call-in also referred to minute reference 85 which, due to commercial sensitivity, contained confidential information about the evaluation process.

For the benefit of the public present, the Chair explained how scrutiny was a vital component of local government decision-making.  It enabled Councillors to challenge Executive decisions.

The Head of Legal and Property Services informed Members that some of the questions raised within the call-in proforma would need to be discussed under the closed part of the meeting due to the nature of information requested.  Following a request by Councillor Dhindsa, one of the Councillors who had called in the decision, the Head of Legal and Property Services explained that question 3 referred to detailed figures and this information was commercially sensitive and could be detrimental to the Council and bidders if revealed.  Question 4 related to job losses and would need to be discussed both in the public and closed parts of the meeting; the information regarding the in-house benchmarking was already in the public domain whereas the information from the external bidders was not.  Finally question 7 referred to sanctions and any discussions on this matter would have to be discussed on the closed part of the meeting as the contract had not yet been signed.

Councillor Dhindsa commented that if the information about job losses was not yet available then it should be discussed in public.  He also felt that the sanctions should be discussed in public.

The Head of Legal and Property Services advised that the reason the sanctions should be discussed in private was to protect the Council, as the contractual agreement had not yet been signed.

Following a further comment from Councillor Dhindsa, the Executive Director stated that the Council had yet to receive the final measures letter which would contain any details about job losses.  In the public part of the meeting it would be possible to provide Members with details of the quantum as discussed at Cabinet.

Councillor Dhindsa asked for an explanation as to why the Portfolio Holder for Community Services was not present at the meeting. 

The Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, Councillor D Scudder, explained that it had been agreed that he would attend Overview and Scrutiny Committee to answer any questions on behalf of Cabinet.

Councillor Dhindsa responded that it was the Scrutiny Committee’s right to be able to question other relevant Portfolio Holders.

The Chair invited Councillor Bell to present the call-in.

Councillor Bell read the details of the call-in which had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

The Chair to move: that, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business as it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during consideration of the item there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Section 100(1) of the Act for the reasons stated below in terms of Schedule 12A.

NOTE: if approved, the Chair will ask members of the press and public to leave the meeting at this point.

RESOLVED

that, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during consideration of the item there would have been disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Section 100(1) of the Act for the reasons stated in the report.

RESOLVED

that, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during consideration of the item there would have been disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Section 100(1) of the Act for the reasons stated in the report.

Paragraph 3 Schedule 12A.

(Report contains commercially sensitive information)

The reasons for this call-in are as set out in item 3 of this agenda.

RESOLVED (by Overview and Scrutiny Committee) –

that, having considered the response of officers to the questions raised by the three councillors who requested the call-in of the Cabinet decision of 3rd April to award Veolia Environmental Services preferred bidder status for the provision of Parks and Open Spaces, Street Cleansing, Waste and Recycling services, with a start date of 1 July 2013 (whilst holding Enterprise in reserve), the Committee gives it support to and ratifies the Cabinet decision, recognising the need for the Council to continue to achieve savings in its Revenue budget in line with the Medium Term Financial Strategy, whilst at the same time maintaining high standards of service delivery.

The Scrutiny Committee received the relevant paperwork which had been provided to Cabinet on 3 December 2012 and 3 April 2013 and additional information circulated by the Executive Director during its discussion.

Councillor Derbyshire proposed the following motion –

“having considered the response of officers to the questions raised by the three councillors who requested the call-in of the Cabinet decision of 3rd April to award Veolia Environmental Services preferred bidder status for the provision of Parks and Open Spaces, Street Cleansing, Waste and Recycling services, with a start date of 1 July 2013 (whilst holding Enterprise in reserve), the Committee gives it support to and ratifies the Cabinet decision, recognising the need for the Council to continue to achieve savings in its Revenue budget in line with the Medium Term Financial Strategy, whilst at the same time maintaining high standards of service delivery.”

On being put to the Scrutiny Committee the motion was CARRIED.

RESOLVED –

that, having considered the response of officers to the questions raised by the three councillors who requested the call-in of the Cabinet decision of 3rd April to award Veolia Environmental Services preferred bidder status for the provision of Parks and Open Spaces, Street Cleansing, Waste and Recycling services, with a start date of 1 July 2013 (whilst holding Enterprise in reserve), the Committee gives it support to and ratifies the Cabinet decision, recognising the need for the Council to continue to achieve savings in its Revenue budget in line with the Medium Term Financial Strategy, whilst at the same time maintaining high standards of service delivery.