The Cabinet Member with the Resources Portfolio introduced the report of the Group Director of Operations and the Group Director of Services (previously circulated) providing information to Members  on the delivery of the Council’s Capital Programme; the financial outturn position as at 31st March 2020; proposed financing of the 2019/20 capital expenditure; the current status of all construction projects currently being undertaken by the Council; and requesting that consideration be given to a number of changes to that programme.

The submitted report stated that significant enhancements had been made to the Council’s assets in three major programme areas of schools, housing and transport, mostly using external funding; those investment were delivering a wide range of improvements to the Council’s assets and services; capital expenditure in 2020/21 totalled £29,875; there were 38 live projects currently being managed by the Council with an overall value of £126,196M; the majority of those projects were running to time, cost and quality expectations with no foreseeable issues; and that the projects were managed either by the Council’s in-house management team, a Framework Partner or by Consultants sourced via an open/OJEU tender process.

In response to questions raised by Councillor Keir, on behalf of a resident in respect of the Crown Street Library refurbishment, the Group Director of Services, reported that as the library building could not take the weight of the scaffold, the scaffold needed to be free standing and weighted down which required ground investigations to be carried  to ensure the area around the library was capable of taking the load; and that ‘value engineering’ related to looking at budget options to reduce costs should the scheme be over budget to bring it back into, or close to the budget.

RESOLVED - (a)  That the delivery and financial outturn of the 2020/21 Capital Programme, as detailed in the submitted report, be noted.

(b)  That the projected capital expenditure and resources, as detailed in the submitted report, be noted.

(c)  That the adjustments to resources, as detailed in paragraph 25 of the submitted report, be approved.

REASONS - (a)  To enable Members to note the progress of the 2020/21 Capital Programme and to allow the capital spend to be fully financed.

(b)  To inform Cabinet of the current status of construction projects.

(c)  To maintain effective management of resources.