Agenda and minutes

Corporate, Finance and Property Select Committee - Wednesday, 2nd February, 2022 7.30 pm

Venue: Committee Room 6 - Civic Centre, High Street, Uxbridge UB8 1UW. View directions

Contact: Liz Penny  Email: epenny@hillingdon.gov.uk or Tel: 01895 250185

Items
No. Item

60.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Vanessa Hurhangee and Raymond Graham, with Councillor Steve Tuckwell substituting for the latter.

61.

Declarations of Interest in matters coming before this meeting

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

62.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 154 KB

Minutes:

In response to a query from Councillor Eginton, it was confirmed that an update on the action points relating to Website Performance and Improvement had yet to be received. Democratic Services would communicate the information to Members as soon as it was available. The minutes of the meeting dated 12 January 2022 were unanimously agreed.

 

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting dated 12 January 2022 be agreed as an accurate record.

63.

To confirm that the items of business marked as Part I will be considered in Public and that the items marked as Part II will be considered in Private

Minutes:

It was confirmed that all items were in Part I and would be considered in public.

64.

Draft Budget Proposals 2022/2023 - Comments from Select Committees pdf icon PDF 136 KB

Minutes:

A typographical error in the comments / minutes relating to the Families, Health & Wellbeing Select Committee was noted whereby the date should read 5 January 2022 rather than 2021. It was agreed that this would be corrected by Democratic Services.

 

Members enquired whether the comments of each Select Committee could go straight to Cabinet rather than being referred to the Corporate, Finance and Property Select Committee for approval first. It was agreed that Democratic Services would explore this further. (After the meeting Democratic Services established that this was a local convention rather than a constitutional requirement therefore, in future, the comments of each select committee could go directly to Cabinet as requested).

 

Subject to the above typographical amendment to the date in the comments / minutes of the Families, Health & Wellbeing Select Committee, the combined set of formal Select Committee comments on the Cabinet’s budget proposals 2022/23 were unanimously approved.

 

RESOLVED: That the Corporate, Finance and Property Select Committee:

 

1.    Considered the formal comments on the Cabinet’s budget proposals from the other three Select Committees;

 

2.    Agreed its own final comments on the Cabinet’s budget proposals for submission; and,

 

3.    Agreed to submit the combined set of formal Select Committee comments to Cabinet for consideration.

65.

Energy Efficiencies in the Civic Centre pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Minutes:

An addendum, which had been circulated to Members prior to the meeting, was tabled which included graphs setting out the Civic Centre electricity consumption from 2016 onwards, avoided energy costs, annual electricity cost and impact of energy price inflation and Civic Centre carbon emissions.

 

Gary Penticost, Head of Repairs, Engineering, Planned Works & Facilities Management, and Richard Coomber, Energy Efficiency Officer, introduced the report which provided an update to the Committee on the initiatives being explored to reduce the carbon footprint of the Civic Centre and actions that supported the Council’s overall Climate Action Plan, commitments and vision.

 

Members heard that the Civic Centre had been constructed between 1974 and 1979. It was a large building with 700 single glazed windows and doors. The heating was provided by 4 large gas fired boilers and the hot water by 3 dedicated gas fire boilers. The Committee’s attention was drawn to the graphs which gave an indication of the work carried out over the last 3 or 4 years. In terms of energy, it was noted that the baseline for kilowatt usage had been set in 2016/17 and the trend in terms of annual consumption had been generally downwards. Carbon emissions were also reducing and heading in the right direction.

 

The Committee heard that, to assist in achieving these reductions, nearly 2,000 lights in Phase I of the building had been replaced with LED lighting. These LED lights had a lifespan of over 50,000 hours and would last for about 11 years. Other initiatives and innovations were currently being worked on. Members were informed that details as to how energy reductions could be achieved were to be submitted for inclusion in the Deloittes’ Sustainable Interventions paper; these included improvements to the fabric of the building, use of Photovoltaic (PV) materials and changes to ventilation systems.

 

As set out in the graphs, it was noted that successes in terms of carbon reductions and avoided energy costs had already been achieved. Over £500,000 in avoided energy costs had been achieved since 2016/17 mainly due to the introduction of LED lighting and other energy efficiency works; there had been a spike in energy consumption in 2019/20 which was being explored further but could possibly be attributable to the use of cooling systems at the time. Members heard that a large amount of work was ongoing to reduce carbon emissions in the building.

 

In response to questions from the Committee it was confirmed that six options were being considered and costed out by Deloittes; these included thermal stores, replacement chillers, cooling towers, and water / air sourced heat pumps.  In terms of cost, works could potentially range from £4m to £10m/12m depending on what options were selected.

 

The Committee was interested to know the age of the gas-fired boilers in the Civic Centre. It was confirmed that the current Hoval boilers were inefficient having been in place for many years. It was acknowledged that this was a matter of concern and would form part of the review  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

66.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 83 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was noted that the Performance Monitoring and Reporting review report would be going to Cabinet on 17 February 2022.

 

RESOLVED: That the Corporate, Finance and Property Select Committee noted the Cabinet Forward Plan.

67.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 55 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was noted that the next meeting of the Corporate, Finance and Property Select Committee was scheduled for 2 March 2022. Due to the impact of the pandemic, no further update was available at present regarding the Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Bullying review; however, an update on the Voluntary Sector Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic review would be provided at the March meeting. At the request of Members, it was agreed that  Democratic Services would explore the possibility of the Select Committee receiving an update regarding the HOAC construction project.  

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.    That Democratic Services explore the possibility of the Select Committee receiving an update regarding the HOAC construction project; and,

 

2.    That the Corporate, Finance and Property Select Committee considered the Work Programme and agreed any amendments.