Agenda item

Councillor Collie substituted for Councillor Crockett for the following two items of business. 

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

A number of Councillors declared interests in the subject matter of the following article, but chose to remain as the Boards and organisations in question were established wholly or mainly for the purpose of providing services to the local authority and had entered into a contract (as per paragraph 5.18(2)(i)(d) of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct).  The declarations were as follows: Councillor Collie due to his position as a Director of Aberdeen Sports Village, Councillor Cormack due to her being a Board member of Aberdeen Performing Arts, Councillor Fletcher due to him being a Board member of AECC, Aberdeen Sports Village, Sport Aberdeen and Castlegate Arts, Councillor John Stewart due to his position as a Director of Transition Extreme, Councillor John West due to his position as a Director of Sport Aberdeen, and Councillor Young due to his position as a Director of Sport Aberdeen. 

ACCORD CARD – CITIZEN ROLL OUT (CG/10/205)

12.             Reference was made to article 20 of the minute of the previous meeting of this Committee of 2 December, 2010, whereby officers were instructed to report back on a rapid roll out of the Accord Card to all citizens of Aberdeen, with the fees and charges for the facilities of this Council to be discounted for Accord Card holders; and further, to investigate the possibility of including any partner organisations in this proposed rapid roll out.  The Committee had before it on this day a report by the Director of Corporate Governance which provided the details as requested at the aforementioned meeting. 

The report advised that the proposed rapid roll out could be achieved by taking a number of steps, namely (1) a Mifare 4k smartcard would be used to minimise card procurement costs; (2) existing systems could be adapted to accommodate this new smartcard type; (3) an electronic ‘residents’ pass’ would be added to the Accord card which the cardholder would use to validate their entitlement to the appropriate charge; (4) the residents’ pass would be valid for one year and would have to be renewed annually in person by the cardholder; (5) the locations at which residents could apply for an Accord card and renew their residents’ pass would be reviewed to increase the number of available sites; and (6) the National Card Production Bureau would process bulk applications and produce the Accord card.  The costs associated with these steps were outlined within the report. 

The report further detailed (a) the timeframe associated with the proposal; (b) the services provided by the Council for which there was currently a charge; and
(c) information pertaining to the proposal to implement a tiered charging policy for services provided by the Council and for services provided by partner organisations.  Appended to the report was further information on the implications of introducing a tiered charging policy. 

The Committee intimated its concern that some organisations were under the impression that the Council would be imposing fees, and requested that officers make it clear to all relevant organisations that this would not be the case. 

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to instruct officers to investigate a tiered charging policy, and for options on an appropriate revised charging policy for Aberdeen City Council facilities to be reported to the Budget meeting of Council of 10 February, 2011 in order for a decision to be taken in this regard; and

(ii)        to instruct that a progress report be submitted to this Committee every second cycle.