Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be found here

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Convener proposed that the Committee consider items 13.1 (Roads and Transport Related Budget Programme 2019/20 - Exempt Appendix), 13.2 (Workplans and Business Cases - Capital) and 13.3 (Disposal of the Former Cordyce School Site) with the press and public excluded.

The Committee resolved:-

in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting from item 13.1 of the agenda (article 17 of this minute) so as to avoid disclosure of information of the classes described in the following paragraphs of Schedule 7(A) to the Act:- article 17 (paragraph 10), article 18 (paragraph 8) and article 19 (paragraphs 6 and 9).

Members were requested to intimate any declarations of interest in respect of the items on today’s agenda, thereafter the following was intimated:-

(1)       Councillor Nicoll declared an interest in item 11.7 (External Funding for Transportation Projects) by virtue of him being a Council appointed member of Nestrans Board. He considered the nature of his interest did not require him to leave the meeting and therefore chose to remain in the meeting for consideration of the item; and

(2)       The Vice Convener and Councillor Yuill declared an interest in item 11.7 (External Funding for Transportation Projects) by virtue of them being Council appointed substitute members of Nestrans Board. They considered the nature of their interest did not require them to leave the meeting and therefore chose to remain in the meeting for consideration of the item.

The Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 7 February 2019, for approval.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)        that in relation to article 9 (World Energy Cities Partnership AGM, Presidency and Travel) of the minute, that officers re-issue a service update to provide the tangible economic benefits for the city in relation to the WECP presidency;

(ii)       that in relation to article 11 (Strategic Buy Back Policy) of the minute, that officers provide additional context in relation to “this figure does not include the costs incurred providing a valuation, legal fees and other miscellaneous costs” at section 4.1 (bullet point) of the report; and

(iii)      to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Committee had before it the Committee Business Planner as prepared by the Chief Officer – Governance.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)        to remove item 9 (Consultative Draft Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), item 71 (Unit 24 Howemoss Drive, Kirkhill Industrial Estate Dyce) and item 73 (87-93 Union Street and 1-6 Market Street) from the planner in terms of the explanation provided by officers within the planner;

(ii)       to transfer item 14 (Christmas Village 2018 Feedback and Proposals for 2019) to the Strategic Commissioning Committee planner in terms of the explanation provided by officers within the planner;

(iii)      to note the reasons for the reporting delays in relation to item 5 (Annual Committee Effectiveness Report), item 7 (Aberdeen Cross City Transport Connections STAG Part 2 Study), item 8 (Granite City Growing – Aberdeen Growing Food Together), item 10 (Bridge of Dee West – Walking/Cycling Improvements), item 11 (External Funding Plan), item 13 (Roads Hierarchy) and item 17 (Schoolhill Public Realm Enhancement and Living Wall);

(iv)      that in relation to item 7 (Aberdeen Cross City Transport Connections STAG Part 2 Study), to note that a report would be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee; and

(v)       that in relation to item 5 (Annual Committee Effectiveness Report), to note that following the submission of all Annual Committee Effectiveness reports for consideration to Council in June, that officers would review the process and make any necessary improvements going forward.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Governance, which sought approval for the re-establishment of the Community Asset Transfer Review Sub Committee.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee -

(a)       approve the re-establishment of the Community Asset Transfer Review Sub Committee; and

(b)       appoint five Members (1 per Group) and five substitute Members to the Sub Committee, where none of the substantive or substitute Members have been involved in the decision-making in respect of any Community Asset Transfers considered by the City Growth and Resources Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 6 of the minute of the previous meeting of 25 April 2019, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided information on the financial position of the Council against budget for the financial year 2018/19 including (1) General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) revenue and capital accounts; and (2) Common Good Revenue Account and Balance Sheet.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee -

(a)       note the unaudited final outturn position for financial year 2018/19 as detailed in Appendix 1;

(b)       note that the General Fund deficit for the year will be funded by the uncommitted working balance;

(c)       note that the Housing Revenue Account and Common Good surpluses for the year increase their working balances;

(d)       note that the Housing Revenue Account has acquired sites from the General Fund as approved by Council;

(e)       approve the various transfers for 2018/19, between Council Reserves and Earmarked sums for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account, Common Good and Statutory Funds as at 31 March 2019, as detailed in Appendix 1;

(f)        approve the updated Loans Fund Repayment Policy as described as ‘Proposed Policy 2018/19’ in Appendix 2;

(g)       approve the reprofiling of the 2019/20 – 2023/24 capital programmes to take account of the year end position and that the outcome of this is incorporated into the 2019/20 Quarter 1 reporting;

(h)       note that the unaudited Annual Accounts for 2018/19 will be presented to the Audit, Risk & Scrutiny Committee, along with the Annual Governance Statement and Remuneration Report, at its meeting on 30 April 2019; and

(i)        approve cost control measures continue to be in place to support the delivery of the 2019/20 budget given the continued uncertainty around reaching agreement on the teachers’ pay award, with effect from 1 April 2018.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – City Growth, which sought approval for the erection of a plaque to Sir Alexander Ogston, Professor of Surgery at University of Aberdeen at 252 Union Street, Aberdeen.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee approve the erection of a plaque to Sir Alexander Ogston, Professor of Surgery at 252 Union Street.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendation.

With reference to article 11 of the minute of meeting of 27 November 2018, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Strategic Place Planning which sought approval for the draft Aberdeen Adapts document and associated Environmental report to go to public consultation.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      approve the proposed Aberdeen Adapts: Climate Adaptation Framework

(Appendix 1) and associated Environmental Report (Appendix 2), for an 8 week public consultation;

(b)      agree that Aberdeen City Council delegates authority to the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to progress the development of a cross-sector partnership approach to climate adaptation for the city, aligning with existing relevant partnership arrangements, which will lead to the development of an Implementation Plan to deliver adaptation action;

(c)      instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning, to arrange for public consultation of the proposed Aberdeen Adapts: Climate Adaptation Framework and to report back to City Growth and Resources Committee on 26 November 2019 with:-

·       An update on governance proposals for Aberdeen Adapts;

·       The findings of the public consultation; and

·       A final version of Aberdeen Adapts and associated Environmental Report for approval and publication.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 29 of the minute of meeting of the Communities, Housing and Infrastructure Committee of 24 January 2017, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Operating Officer which outlined the proposed roads and transportation programme from the approved capital budgets for 2019/20.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       approve the schemes listed in the appendices as the detailed proposals for expenditure within budget heading;

(b)       instruct the Chief Officer - Operations and Protective Services to implement the detailed programme;

(c)       instruct the Chief Officer - Operations and Protective Services to undertake or instruct appropriate procedures in accordance with the council’s procurement regulations to procure the works referred to in the exempt appendices for the roads capital budget programme for the financial year 2019/20 and award contracts relating thereto;

(d)       instruct the Chief Officer - Operations and Protective Services in consultation with the Chief Officer - Commissioning to award contracts on receipt of a valid tender submission subject to necessary funding in the approved capital budgets;

(e)       approve as estimated expenditure in terms of the procurement regulation 4.1.1, in order for work to commence on the capital programme, the sums shown against each heading of the roads capital budget for the financial year 2019/20 set out in exempt appendices to this report; and

(f)        note that approval of the procurement of these works contracts with estimated expenditure of £250,000 and above is sought within the Procurement Workplans and Business Cases report also presented to this committee.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 7 of the minute of meeting of the Strategic Commissioning Committee of 30 April 2018, the Committee had before it  a report by the Chief Officer – Strategic Place Planning, which (1) provided an update on the status of the current Bus Lane Enforcement (BLE) programme; (2) sought approval for funding to be released for the Traffic Management of Offshore Europe 2019; and (3) requested approval to not seek any further new BLE applications until the programme is completed.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       note the progress on the projects funded from the BLE programme up to 2018/19, as detailed in Appendix 1;

(b)       approve the request to treat as high priority and release funding when it becomes available for the temporary traffic management for Offshore Europe 2019 as detailed Appendix 2;

(c)       approve the request to commit BLE funding to Offshore Europe (when in Aberdeen) for the amount of up to £60,000 providing there is available BLE funding; and

(d)       agree not to currently seek any further new applications for the BLE

programme and continue with the delivery of the current BLE programme.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 32 of the minute of meeting of Council of 15 March 2017, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Capital, which provided a robust analysis of the performance of the new AWPR/B-T main junctions which had been undertaken and revealed that there were no significant impacts now that the AWPR/B-T was fully operational.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee accept the contents of the analysis and modelling carried out by the AWPR/BT Technical Advisors, with respect to the anticipated operation and performance of the main AWPR/B-T junctions.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)        to approve the recommendation; and

(ii)       to agree that a Service Update be circulated to members of the Committee and Local Ward Members in relation to the proposals identified by Transport Scotland to mitigate traffic issues at the Kingswells South junction.

With reference to article 10 of the minute of meeting of Council of 17 December 2018, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided an impact assessment on the Council’s workforce in terms of the UK leaving the EU.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee note the information provided and the actions in place to manage the impact of EU Exit on the Council’s workforce.

Officers had circulated correspondence to members of the Committee prior to the meeting, which referred to paragraph 3.84 of the report, advising that a paper released by the Home Office outlined the following new information:-

          “You will not be required to undertake retrospective checks on existing EU employees when the UK transitions to the future skills-based immigration system.”

In this regard, officers would seek clarity from COSLA on the details and implications of the statement, and would circulate a Service Update to members as soon as it had been made available.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to approve the recommendation; and

(ii)      that a Service Update be circulated to members of the Committee regarding EU Exit Workforce implications relating to workforce statistics associated with Bon Accord Care; to seek information about whether the Council could assess the potential applied for status (settled or pre-settled) of Non-UK EU staff; and to include further detail obtained from Exit Interview feedback, providing that any and all of this information was available and would not be considered insensitive to current staff.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Strategic Place Planning which outlined a number of external funding opportunities that the Council had submitted funding applications for and may soon become available to the Council for transportation projects and, where these were successful, requests Committee approval for the use of match funding for some projects.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note that Aberdeen City Council:-

(1)    has been successful for funding from Paths for All to deliver projects outlined in the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places 2019/20 Programme (See Appendix 1);

(2)    is bidding for funding from NESTRANS Revenue Programme 2019/20 to deliver projects outlined in this report (See Appendix 2A);

(3)    is bidding for funding from NESTRANS Capital 2019/20 funds to deliver projects outlined in this report (See Appendix 2B);

(4)    is bidding to the SUSTRANS Community Links 2019/20 to deliver

projects outlined in this report (See Appendix 3);

(5)    is bidding for Transport Scotland Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Funding (Appendix 4);

(6)    uses Developer Obligations to construct active travel links to the A96 Corridor (Appendix 5); and

(7)    has bid for funding, and spent funding from, Transport Scotland for EV Charge Point Warranty & Annual Service Contracts;

(b)      approve using the Civitas PORTIS project works funding as part of the

match funding mechanism;

(c)      approve the cost estimate, proposed funding sources and detailed design for the Craigshaw Drive-Cycle Lanes project;

(d)      instruct officers to progress all necessary approvals, permissions, licenses, agreements and consents required and implement the projects;

(e)      note that the procurement of contracts with estimated expenditure of £250,000 and above (Works) and £50,000 and above (Goods or Services) for revenue projects, was reported to, and approved at, the Strategic Commissioning Committee at its meeting on 28th March 2019 and is detailed in the Appendices; and

(f)       to note that the procurement of contracts with estimated expenditure of £250,000 and above (Works) and £50,000 and above (Goods or Services) for capital projects is included within the procurement business case to this Committee for approval and is detailed in the relevant Appendices.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to approve the recommendations; and

(ii)      to note that officers were reviewing internal governance aspects of the process.

With reference to article 21 of the minute of meeting of the Communities, Housing and Infrastructure Committee of 16 January 2018, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – City Growth which provided information on the delivery of the Aberdeen City Region Hydrogen Strategy 2015-2025 and which recommended a series of actions to ensure that the Council’s investment in hydrogen was capitalised on in order to secure future economic benefits for the city.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      continue to support the delivery of the approved hydrogen projects in line with the Action Plan and note the 2019 delivery plan with associated resourcing requirements;

(b)      instruct the relevant Chief Officers to assign two retrofitted diesel /hydrogen Transit vans to North East Scotland College (NESCOL) as learning vehicles for the development of a NESCOL hydrogen technical training course;

(c)      delegate authority to Head of Commercial and Procurement Services to enter into contract to purchase 5 additional fuel cell buses from the UK joint Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus contract framework at no additional cost to the council; and

(d)      instruct the relevant Chief Officers to implement the actions identified in the Council policies and plans review which could incorporate the use of hydrogen technologies in delivering our Local Outcome Improvement Plan objectives.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 9 of the minute of the previous meeting of 7 February 2019, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – City Growth which sought approval for international trade and European partnership priorities for 2019-20 and for associated travel expenditure.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      approve the international trade and European partnership travel priorities for 2019-20 (sections 3.7, 3.8 and 3.11.4) provided the cost of such travel does not exceed the budget envelopes set out in this report;

(b)      approve travel to two key World Energy Cities Partnership events (being the Annual General Meeting and the Working Group Meeting) in the financial years 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 subject to the annual budget setting cycle;

(c)      delegate authority to the Chief Officer - City Growth (as the budget holder) to authorise only necessary and appropriate travel and associated expenditure to fulfil the agreed plans for 2019-20, provided the cost of such travel is reasonable and does not exceed the budget envelopes set out in the report. All travel will be booked in accordance with the Council’s policies on travel; and

(d)      instruct the Chief Officer - City Growth to submit an annual service update to the City Growth and Resources Committee on all international travel outlining the economic benefits achieved.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 18 of the minute of meeting of 18 September 2018, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided information on the potential upgrade to the toilets at Kincorth Community Centre and Rosemount Community Learning Centre to include adult changing facilities that meet ‘changing place’ standards.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      agree that changing place provision at Rosemount Community Learning Centre will be incorporated into the updated Condition & Suitability Programme for approval at the September 2019 meeting of this Committee; and

(b)      agree that changing place provision at Kincorth Community Centre should not be considered further at this time.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to approve the recommendations; and

(ii)      to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to consider inclusion of changing places facilities when progressing condition and suitability or other changes to the properties within the Aberdeen City Council estate and for the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to promote the inclusion of changing places facilities by partner organisations whenever possible.

In accordance with the decision recorded under article 1 of this minute, the following items of business were considered with the press and public excluded.

The Committee had before it and exempt appendix relating to the Roads and Transport Related Budget Programme 2019/20 report, referred to article 9 of this minute.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the information contained within the exempt appendix.

With reference to article 6 of the minute of the meeting of the Strategic Commissioning Committee of 28 March 2019, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Operating Officer which (1) presented the procurement workplans where capital expenditure was included for Operations, Place and Resources functions to Committee for review; and (2) sought approval of the total estimated capital expenditure for each proposed contract as contained within the Procurement Business Cases appended to the report.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      review the workplans of the Operations, Place and Resources Functions as detailed in the Appendices;

(b)      where a Business Case has been submitted, approve the total estimated capital expenditure for each proposed contract and delegates authority to the Head of Commercial and Procurement Services following consultation with the relevant Chief Officer to procure appropriate works and services, and enter into any contracts relating thereto; and

(c)      note that Business Cases for procurements exercises to be commenced after 25th April 2019 will be submitted on a phased basis to future meetings of the City Growth and Resources Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 13 of the minute of meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 25 January 2018, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided details of the outcome of the marketing of the former Cordyce School site, Riverview Drive, Dyce and sought approval for the next course of action.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the offers received for the site and instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to formally reject all current offers; and

(b)      instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to remarket the site taking account of the contents of the Local Development Plan main issues report seeking a development partner who will seek to maximise the capital receipt from the site and report back to a future City Growth and Resources Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations subject to amending wording at recommendation (b) above, replacing the words “to maximise the capital receipt” with “best value”.

-         COUNCILLOR DOUGLAS LUMSDEN, Convener.