Issue details

An urgent decision was sought in relation to the decarbonisation and agile working proposals for Forde House. This was in order to obtain design and costing information to inform the report for the extraordinary Council meeting called for 4th May 2021. The Council had received an offer of grant funding towards part of the decarbonisation element of the project. The agile working element and additional carbon reduction measures were added to this to benefit from economies of scale and to minimise anticipated disruption of the works. Total cost of the upfront work required is £91,350. Professionally obtained cost estimate information gives a level of certainty on the design and costing which allows a financial appraisal and business case to be prepared, giving members the relevant information they will require for decision-making. The time between the grant offer and the deadline to demonstrate project progress in line with the grant conditions was insufficient to allow a PH decision. Authorisation was therefore obtained in the form of an urgent officer decision, using the managing director’s delegated powers, in consultation with the Leader, Deputy Leader, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Council. This is in accordance with the Council’s constitution.