Agenda and decisions

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Please note: if the alarm sounds during the meeting, everyone should please exit the building via the way they came in, via the main entrance lobby area, and then the front ramp. Please then assemble on the paved area in front of the building on College Green by the flag poles.

If the front entrance cannot be used, alternative exits are available via staircases 2 and 3 to the left and right of the Conference Hall. These exit to the rear of the building. The lifts are not to be used. Then please make your way to the assembly point at the front of the building.  Please do not return to the building until instructed to do so by the fire warden(s).

Up to one hour is allowed for this item

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum. Petitions, statements and questions received by the deadlines below will be taken at the start of the agenda item to which they relate to.

Petitions and statements (must be about matters on the agenda):

• Members of the public and members of the council, provided they give notice in writing or by e-mail (and include their name, address, and ‘details of the wording of the petition, and, in the case of a statement, a copy of the submission) by no later than 12 noon on the working day before the meeting, may present a petition or submit a statement to the Cabinet.

• One statement per member of the public and one statement per member of council shall be admissible.

• A maximum of one minute shall be allowed to present each petition and statement.

• The deadline for receipt of petitions and statements for the 6 December Cabinet is 12 noon on Monday 5 December.  These should be sent, in writing or by e-mail to: Democratic Services, City Hall, College Green,Bristol, BS1 5TR

e-mail: democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk

Questions (must be about matters on the agenda):

• A question may be asked by a member of the public or a member of Council, provided they give notice in writing or by e-mail (and include their name and address) no later than 3 clear working days before the day of the meeting.

• Questions must identify the member of the Cabinet to whom they are put.

• A maximum of 2 written questions per person can be asked. At the meeting, a maximum of 2 supplementary questions may be asked. A supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or reply.

• Replies to questions will be given verbally at the meeting. If a reply cannot be given at the meeting (including due to lack of time) or if written confirmation of the verbal reply is requested by the questioner, a written reply will be provided within 10 working days of the meeting.

• The deadline for receipt of questions for the 6 December Cabinet is 5.00 pm on Wednesday 30 November. These should be sent, in writing or by e-mail to: Democratic Services, City Hall, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR.

Democratic Services e-mail: democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk

When submitting a question or statement please indicate whether you are planning to attend the meeting to present your statement or receive a verbal reply to your question

To note any declarations of interest from the Mayor and Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

(subject to a maximum of three items)

To note any announcements from the Chair

1. Authorised the Chief Executive, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Climate, Ecology, Waste and Energy, Deputy Mayor for Finance, Governance and Performance Director of Legal and Democratic Services and Director of Finance to take all steps required to enter into the City Leap Energy Partnership with Ameresco. This will include entering into and giving effect to the agreements, arrangements and documents set out in Appendix A (i) with further information in Exempt Appendix I (ii) which includes the subscription by the council for 50% of the shares in the City Leap Energy Partnership joint venture company (BCL).

2.     Authorised the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Deputy Mayor for Finance, Governance and Performance, Director of Finance and Director of Legal and Democratic Services to negotiate the terms of and enter into all necessary legal agreements to give effect to the relevant service transition, including the transfer of staff to the City Leap Energy Partnership.

3.    Authorised the Director of Finance (s151 Officer), in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance, to:

a.      Extend the existing loan facility from the council to the Bristol Heat Networks Limited by £2m to fund working capital for BHNL to the end of the 2022/23 financial year as contingency in the event that signing of the City Leap contracts is delayed beyond the beginning of January 2023; and

b.      agree the terms of the provision of such finance and to enter into any documents required to enter into the extension.

4.    Authorised the Chief Executive, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance, to:

a.  extend the City Leap Procurement legal services contract by up to circa £35k of potential additional spend to complete the City Leap transaction; and

b.    extend the City Leap Procurement financial services contract by up to circa £140k of potential additional spend to complete the City Leap transaction. Noting that this potential additional expenditure will be contained within the previously approved budget for the City Leap mobilisation phase.

Noting that this potential additional expenditure will be contained within the previously approved budget for the City Leap mobilisation phase.

5.    Reallocated £2.3m of previously approved heat network capital spend on the Bedminster heat network (approved in a cabinet report dated October 2021) to the Redcliffe Phase 2 and PSDS heat network projects.

6.    Authorised, in order to transfer the company that owns the heat network assets, Bristol Heat Networks Limited, from Bristol Holding Limited to Vattenfall Heat UK Limited:

a.    the transfer by Bristol Holding Limited of its one ordinary share in Bristol Heat Networks Limited to Vattenfall Heat UK Limited.

b.        Bristol Holding Limited to enter into a share sale and purchase agreement and any other contracts, documents or arrangements required to give effect to the transfer of shares in Bristol Heat Networks Limited from Bristol Holding Limited to Vattenfall Heat UK Limited.

Noting that the above is conditional upon the receipt of a payment to the council from Vattenfall Heat UK Limited that is  ...  view the full decision text for item 8.

That Cabinet:

1.        Authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes to take all steps required to procure and award the contract(s) (including individual contracts over £500k) necessary for the implementation of a waking watch at a cost of up to £2m from 21 January 2023 to 31 March 2023 and £10.4m from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

2.        Authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes to take all steps required to procure and award the contract(s) (including individual contracts over £500k) necessary for the implementation of fire alarms in tower blocks which will negate the need for a waking watch at a cost of up to £9.9m.

3.        Authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration to invoke any subsequent extensions/variations specifically defined in the contract(s) being awarded, up to the maximum budget envelope outlined in this report.

4.        Noted the emergency key decision taken on 22 November 2022 authorising spend of up to £2m for emergency waking watch at various blocks in the city up to 20 January 2023.

Authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration in consultation with Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance, to take all steps required to accept and spend the Arts Council England NPO funding including procuring and awarding contracts (which may be over £500k) as outlined in this report.

That Cabinet:

1.    Approved the procurement of a contract/s to deliver the Bristol Refugee Resettlement Scheme household goods contracts.

2.    Authorised the Executive Director of People in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, to take all the steps required to procure and award the contracts up to an estimated value of £1.5m from 1st April 2023 up to 31st March 2028.

That Cabinet:

1.    Noted the submission of a £1.5m Grant Funding Application to the Brownfield Land Release Fund (to facilitate the development at Redcliffe Wharf, Bristol) which led to the award of funding of £516k.

2.    Noted the decision to conclude a conditional grant agreement, implementation of which was subject to Cabinet approval.

3.    Endorsed the action taken by the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration to secure the funding as outlined in this report.

4.    Authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Mayor, to take all steps required to enter into the grant funding agreement and to accept, draw down and use the £516k grant to deliver the qualifying works, as outlined in this report.

That Cabinet:

1.        Noted an application for the powers to carry out MTE has been made to the DfT that covers the whole administrative area of Bristol City Council as Highway Authority.

2.        Noted that enforcement will only be carried out at the six sites outlined in this report once use of MTE has been approved by Cabinet, and further sites may be added subject to statutory consultation as outlined in this report

3.        Authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration to take all steps required to implement the use of the Moving Traffic Enforcement in Bristol once the powers are received.

That Cabinet:

1.             Authorised the Executive Director People in consultation with the cabinet member Public Health and Communities and the Director of Public Health to take all steps required to accept and spend the allocated funding of up to £1.208m in accordance with the requirements of the grants (including procuring and awarding contracts) to deliver a range of substance misuse treatment and housing support services as outlined in this report.

2.        Authorised the Executive Director People in consultation with the cabinet member Public Health and Communities and the Director of Public Health to invoke any subsequent extensions/variations specifically defined in the contract(s) being awarded, up to the maximum budget envelope outlined in this report.

That Cabinet:

1.        Authorised the Director of Public Health to agree a variation of the CCHP contract to cover up to an additional £598,027 per year, on a recurrent basis until 2026/27, for NHS AfC pay uplifts in 2021/22 and 2022/23 for all services within the contract, provided that there continues to be sufficient funding available to cover this from the Public Health Grant (for the Public Health funded services) and Children or Education General Fund budgets or an alternative funding source (for the non-Public Health funded services).

2.        Authorised the Director of Public Health, in consultation with the Director of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Public Health & Communities, to meet the cost of any additional AfC pay increases for Public Health funded services within the contract between 2023/24 and 2026/27 from the Public Health Grant, provided that sufficient, designated funding is available within the grant allocation.

3.        Authorised the Directors of Children, Families & Safer Communities and Education & Skills, in consultation with the Director of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education & Equalities, to meet the cost of any additional AfC pay increases for non-Public Health funded services within the contract between 2023/24 and 2026/27, from Children or Education General Fund budgets or an alternative funding source, provided that sufficient funding is available.

4.        Noted that if sufficient funding is not available in relation to any of the recommendations above, other options will need to be explored, in consultation with the Director of Finance and the relevant Cabinet Member(s) and subject to service user consultation if required. A report will be brought back to Cabinet if required.

That Cabinet:

1.             Agreed to explore the scope for transferring activities and functions (and associated resources) to the Combined Authority, (or developing other joint working arrangements with the Combined Authority) and agree to explore ceasing functions which are not statutory requirements of a Highway Authority and authorises the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration to take all steps required to give effect to this approach.

2.        Noted the proposal for the City Design service to be disbanded subject to consultation with staff and trade unions.

3.             Noted the intention to create a single City Planning service as outlined in this report including the appointment of a City Chief Planner.

4.        Noted that the proposals in this paper which relate to staff are expressly subject to the outcomes of staff and trade union consultation.

That Cabinet:

1.             Authorised the Executive Director People, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children's Services, Education and Equalities, to procure and award the contract necessary for the implementation of the Independent and Non-Maintained Special School Placements block contract (including any individual contracts above £500k) at a cost of up to £10.5m as set out in this report.

2.        Authorised Executive Director People to invoke any subsequent extensions/variations specifically defined in the contract(s) being awarded, up to the maximum budget envelope outlined in this report.

That Cabinet:

1.        Approved the drawdown of £4.7m from reserves for the 2022/23 pay awards budget shortfall impact.

2.        Authorised the Council’s S.151 Officer to accept the Adult Social Care Discharge Fund of £1.69m.

3.        Approved the realignment of heat network budgets to meet estimated funding requirements to 31 March 2023. This includes an additional £3.3m being funded from the Council’s capital contingency.

4.        Approved both the upfront payment of the pension deficit (£13.9m) and the future service cost which will generate an upfront saving of £981k and an annual saving of £300k.

That Cabinet noted:

5.             The General Fund risk adjusted forecast overspend of £12.2m, noting further mitigations continue to be explored.

6.             The forecast overspend of £2.0m within the HRA (with actual end of year position being funded by a transfer to or from the HRA general reserve).

7.        The forecast in-year deficit of £19.9m accumulating to a total £44.6m carried forward deficit in the DSG for 2023/24, and that the Council and the Schools Forum are developing a mitigation plan which will seek to address the High Needs overspend.

8.             The forecast £7.3m underspend within the General Fund against the latest approved Capital Programme’s Budget.

9.             The emergency decision taken to approve the use of HRA reserves to enter a contract for £2.0m to secure the service of a company or companies to carry out Waking Watch provision at the Council’s high-rise blocks

10.     The revised reporting of Q3 so that Period 8 rather than Period 9 constitutes a detailed report and thereby comes to Cabinet in January alongside Budget 23/24.

That Cabinet:

1.        Approved the report and calculated amount as set out in the report and refer to Full Council for approval.

That Cabinet :

1.        That Cabinet approved the report and calculations as set out in this report and refer to Full Council for approval.