Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Property and Public Engagement introduced the report which provided the Committee with progress in respect of the implementation of the Council’s Maintenance Strategy Action Plan for Corporate (General Fund) Property Assets.

It was stressed that the maintenance of assets was important to the Council and the Cabinet had approved proposals for a Maintenance Strategy at the meeting on 10 September 2024.  Good progress was being made in respect of the Action Plan with the following areas highlighted:

·       Gas consumption levels shown at 2.21 of the report.  The Cabinet Member assured the Committee that operational usage patterns at the locations were being looked at, especially where there appeared to be variations in consumption such as at the Bus Station and SK House.  Operation plant reviews were being undertaken at both locations to establish if there were any mechanical means to isolate areas where rooms were not in use, also energy efficiency in these areas was being reviewed.

·       An explanation was given in respect of the categories shown at 2.8 of the report. It was stated, it was not the whole building that was classified as A, B, C or D but items/needs within the buildings.

·       Paragraph 2.11 of the report estimated that the current backlog of category C maintenance costs for needs and requirements stood at £5,355,997.

·       A revenue budget of £1m had been requested to action works associated with the backlog of maintenance.  Cabinet at its February meeting had proposed that as part of the budget to Council a £2m reserve allocation to the Property Maintenance Reserve from the Local Priorities Reserve be considered.

The Cabinet Member for Property and Public Engagement stated work was progressing and the Committee would be kept informed.

The Head of Service, Property and ICT then went through the Maintenance Strategy Action Plan which was appended to the report and updated the Committee on progress with each action.

Action 1 – to undertake a comprehensive Condition Survey on all Corporate Assets was now complete and work was being undertaken to put the information on the system to develop the programming going forward.   From that a programme of works was being compiled in respect of short, medium and long term projects.  It was stated in the long term an estimated £25m would be required in investment over the next 25/30 years to address the backlog and requirements to maintain all assets in a good condition.

Actions 2 & 6 – Work was progressing with routine visual inspections of properties and compliance inspections.  An asset management system had been put in place which officers were using to schedule inspections. This was an ongoing process.

Actions 3 & 4 – These had been combined in respect of the whole life costings and undertaking a utilities audit.  Monthly audit meetings were undertaken with the Energy Officer to monitor consumption usage, monitoring was continually undertaken on how much was being spent and identifying how costs could be reduced.   Examples of where costs had been reduced were highlighted such as the replacement of boilers in the Guildhall and Bourne Corn Exchange.

Action 7 – this had been prioritised as the asset tagging process was required to be undertaken as it formed part of the base data which was necessary for the implement and identification of works within the asset management system.

Action 8 – currently the Council managed a range of investment portfolios and depending upon the lease terms these had been outsourced to a company called Eddison’s who undertook the management and inspection of these properties.

The Chairman stated that this was a massive piece of work with large projects taking a considerable amount of time to progress.

A discussion followed with points being raised in respect of gas consumption particularly at the bus station, “packaging” large pieces of work together, the types of building involved (Victorian and Georgian) and the capacity within the industry together with moving away from fossil fuels. 

It was stated that “Meet the Buyer” events were being held in both Stamford and Grantham to see what local suppliers could offer although it was acknowledged that larger pieces of work would be outside the remit of small local suppliers.

The Committee noted the positive steps being made in respect of the Action Plan and the Maintenance Strategy.