Agenda item

Decision:

(1)     To authorise immediate payment of £70,106.89 to UK Power Networks (UKPN) to establish the capacity for, and cost of, the electrical connections that will be required for the Guildford Park Road Redevelopment scheme.

(2)     To authorise the Strategic Director: Place, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Resources, to enter into such agreements as are necessary with UKPN.

(3)     To agree that funding for this payment be brought forward into this financial year from the approved HRA capital programme budget for 2023/24 in respect of this project.

(4)     To agree that the call-in provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 16 (h) should not apply in respect of the decision in respect of this matter due to its urgency.

Reason(s)

Officers consider that authorising this payment now will be of significant benefit to this project in the future. Making the payment will secure electrical capacity for the scheme and shield it from unquantified but potentially significant cost, programme and deliverability risk.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

Option (b) To not authorise officers to make payment to UKPN now.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

The Council had been working with the appointed professional team to develop a new planning application for the Guildford Park site to deliver a residential scheme of circa 240 new homes. This work had progressed to RIBA stage 3 and the planning application would be submitted soon.

It had been established that there were electrical distribution network capacity issues in Guildford that could have significant consequences for the cost and deliverability of the redevelopment scheme in the future. The Council had the opportunity to act now to secure capacity for its development through early funding of the future electrical connections required for the scheme. The cost was £360,000 based upon the quotation received from UK Power Networks (UKPN). This cost had been budgeted for but was not expected to be incurred at this early stage of the project. Officers had no existing delegation to authorise payment in respect of this cost at this stage.

Given the urgency of the decision which, in compliance with the UKPN contractual arrangement, was to be taken no later than 15 December 2022 the special meeting of the Executive had been convened.

The Leader of the Council introduced the report and thanked the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for waiving the call-in procedure and the requirement to wait the 28-day period for a key decision.

It was explained that since the agenda had been published, legal advice had been received which considered that instructing UKPN to undertake all works, including those that were contestable, would not comply with procurement regulations unless an appropriate exemption was sought. Contestable works were the elements of the connections work which could be undertaken by others.

For the purposes of securing the capacity it was acceptable to instruct UKPN to undertake non-contestable works only. This work had been costed at £70,106.89. Non-contestable works were the elements of the connections work which must be completed by UKPN.

There was scope to instruct UKPN to undertake the contestable works at a later stage if it could be determined that this would provide best value for the project and an appropriate procurement exemption was sought. This information was set out in the Supplementary Information Sheet circulated at the meeting.

The UKPN quotation for the contestable works set out terms and conditions regarding timescales for take up but these were negotiable given the Council had entered into the agreement. If, in future, either the Council as developer or another party as developer required negotiations for contestable works this could be agreed alongside the non-contestable works.

UKPN would reimburse the Council should the work to develop the site not proceed, but the level of reimbursement would be subject to deductions dependent upon how much advance preparatory work had been undertaken by UKPN. Consequently, the Executive,

RESOLVED:

(1)      To authorise immediate payment of £70,106.89 to UK Power Networks (UKPN) to establish the capacity for, and cost of, the electrical connections that will be required for the Guildford Park Road Redevelopment scheme.

(2)      To authorise the Strategic Director: Place, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Resources, to enter into such agreements as are necessary with UKPN.

(3)      To agree that funding for this payment be brought forward into this financial year from the approved HRA capital programme budget for 2023/24 in respect of this project.

(4)      To agree that the call-in provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 16 (h) should not apply in respect of the decision in respect of this matter due to its urgency.

Reasons:

Officers consider that authorising this payment now will be of significant benefit to this project in the future. Making the payment will secure electrical capacity for the scheme and shield it from unquantified but potentially significant cost, programme and deliverability risk.