The incredible £20,000 report into Dave Green/Colas that Wirral Council wouldn’t release on “data protection” grounds

The incredible £20,000 report into Dave Green/Colas that Wirral Council wouldn’t release on “data protection” grounds

The incredible £20,000 report into Dave Green/Colas that Wirral Council wouldn’t release on “data protection” grounds

                          

Roadworks on the Wirral from 2011
The Colas contract included maintenance of Wirral’s roads

Three and a half months ago I submitted a FOI request for a dozen documents held by Wirral Council that were given to Richard Penn before writing his thirty-nine page report into Dave Green’s involvement in the Colas contract. Over three months later they have replied, providing a copy of the Council’s conflict of interest policy and conflict of interest procedure.

What’s interesting is what’s in the list of ten documents requested that they refused to supply on “data protection” grounds. One of these was a report that cost Wirral Council £20,000 from their then auditor the Audit Commission. It was a twenty-six page Public Interest Disclosure Act report into what happened during the tendering of the multi-million pound Colas contract. Despite Wirral Council’s reluctance to release it in response to my FOI request it was in fact published on their website as it was considered during an Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting that met in September 2010.

Here are some quotes from that report by the Audit Commission that obviously Wirral Council didn’t want to release in response to my Freedom of Information Act request:

“However, the issues raised were genuine concerns and our review did highlight some weaknesses including a lack of clarity about separation of duties, inadequate records and documentation and the need to clarify corporate systems for raising and recording potential conflicts of interest. There were also examples of a lack of proper consideration of or disregard of procedures, for example meeting with potential tenderers during the period between the post tender qualifying stage and tender
submission.” (page 7)

“These weaknesses potentially left the Council and individuals open to external challenge. If there had been external challenge to the contract by an aggrieved bidder, the remedy could have led to substantial damages being paid and loss of reputation by the Council. Going forward, a new EU Remedies Directive applicable to new procurements advertised after 20 December 2009 means that aggrieved bidders now have tougher remedies against public authorities that break procurement rules. The High Court will be able to set aside signed contracts resulting in delays to services, as well as significant and costly litigation and further procurement costs (see Appendix 3 for further detail).” (page 7)

“As noted at paragraph 1, the PIDA concerns were raised with us following an internal PIDA investigation. The Council needs to continually consider the adequacy of its Whistleblowing procedures and how well they are complied with to ensure that individuals have confidence that issues will be fully investigated and lessons learnt.” (page 7)

“Concerns were raised with us that a meeting was held by the Director of Technical Services and another senior officer with one of the tenderers between the post qualifying stage and tender submission.” (page 11)

“However, the meeting was not minuted and so there is no formal record of what was actually discussed. The Director of Technical Services and the other senior officer indicated that the reason for the meeting was to clarify whether tenderers could bid for both the main tender and for the sub-contract work for the in-house tender. Holding this meeting and failing to record it was clearly inappropriate and contrary to procedure and put the Council at risk of non-compliance with procurement regulations and the tenderer at risk of disqualification.” (page 11)

“The invitation to tender clearly specifies the procedure for enquiries from potential tenderers in order for the process to be open and fair for all concerned and to ensure there is no canvassing which would result in disqualification from the tendering exercise” (page 11)

“Concerns were raised with us that the Director of Technical Services had failed to declare a potential conflict of interest regarding a personal friendship with an individual in one of the firms bidding for the contract.” (page 12)

“Our review confirmed that a conflict of interest form was submitted by the Director but this was done retrospectively. We found no evidence of any information being shared as part of this association.” (page 12)

“The Director of Technical Services completed a conflict of interest declaration on 11 November 2008 and submitted it to the Chief Executive to be considered at his next annual Key Issues Exchange (KIE) meeting which was held in November 2008. However, it was following the award of the contract (16 October 2008) and should have been submitted and discussed with the line manager at the start of the tendering process. In addition, as the tenderer was an existing contractor, there should have been existing annual declarations on file. This retrospective declaration has clearly allowed the relationship between the Director and the individual to be viewed with suspicion.” (page 12)

“The Director of Technical Services indicated that the individual in the firm is an acquaintance who is a close friend of his brother who had previously worked for the firm. Although the Director was aware that the individual worked in the firm he judged that there was no conflict to declare. Once he became aware that the individual would be involved in the contract going forward the Director submitted his conflict of interest form in line with his judgement and his interpretation of the Council’s procedures.” (page 12)

“However, Council procedures clearly state that in order to manage conflicts of interest (including any perception of a conflict), employees should complete the form even if there is nothing to declare and return it to their line manager at the KIE and any amendments should be made immediately. During our review we found no evidence of any annual declarations of interest for the Director prior to the one submitted on 11 November 2008 apart from those covering the period when his brother worked for the firm. However, the absence of annual declarations was not unusual in the Council at that time and was raised as an issue in Internal Audit reports during 2008 and a memo dated March 2009.” (page 12)

“The key issue is whether the Director or his line manager should have made the judgement about whether and when a potential conflict should be declared. Our view is that it was the responsibility of the Director to make the line manager aware of his ‘acquaintance’ when the firm first contracted with the Council and this should have been reviewed when the tendering exercise started and the firm received an invitation to tender. The judgement about whether it was a conflict (or a possible perceived conflict) then rests with the line manager and arrangements could have been put in place to ensure that it was appropriately managed and any ‘perceptions’ of conflicts rebuttable.” (page 13)

“As noted above, the absence of annual and updated declarations as well as poor evidencing of review and consideration by line managers was not unusual within the Council. We also found during this review that there were weaknesses in the procedures around the employment of consultants, for example ensuring sign up to confidentiality clauses and completion of conflict of interest forms and supporting consideration (one of the consultants had previously worked for the winning firm).” (page 13)

“The Council needs to continually consider the adequacy of its Whistleblowing procedures and how well they were complied with to ensure that individuals with genuine concerns have confidence that issues will be fully investigated and lessons learnt.” (page 15)

“During the period when the contract was tendered and let any external challenge by aggrieved bidders could have lead to damages being paid.” (page 23)

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What Really Matters budget options, Improvement Board review, Foxfield School move, Byrne Avenue Recreation Centre, Rock Ferry High and Acre Lane sale, Fernbank Farm update, contracts and Wirral Council’s response to critical reports

What Really Matters budget options, Improvement Board review, Foxfield School move, Byrne Avenue Recreation Centre, Rock Ferry High and Acre Lane sale, Fernbank Farm update, contracts and Wirral Council’s response to critical reports

What Really Matters budget options, Improvement Board review, Foxfield School move, Byrne Avenue Recreation Centre, Rock Ferry High and Acre Lane sale, Fernbank Farm update, contracts and Wirral Council’s response to critical reports

                                 

The first half of last week saw each of the new policy and performance committees met to discuss the current What Really Matters? consultation on Wirral Council’s budget options for 2013-14.

The first policy and performance committee (Families and Wellbeing), which has a remit covering both education and social services met on Monday. As education and social care are about three-quarters of Wirral Council’s budget there was much discussion about what the impact of the budget options would be. At about two and a half hours long councillors asked questions of officers of the fifteen budget options that fell within the remit of the Families and Wellbeing Policy and Performance Committee. The budget options ranged from cutting £100,000 of funding to reduce teenage pregnancies and £60,000 to try to reduce substance misuse to getting schools to pay for school crossing patrols, the school improvement service and the early retirement costs of their staff (a saving of £1.215 million over two years). Another budget option (saving £2 million over two years) discussed was reducing the opening hours of twelve Children’s Centres. If this option is agreed then there will be a future public consultation on outsourcing the running of Wirral’s Children Centres to the private, faith or voluntary sector. As the What Really Matters consultation runs to the 6th December you can respond to the consultation by completing the questionnaire on Wirral Council’s website.

The second policy and performance committee (Regeneration and Environment) met on Tuesday evening to discuss ten budget options. Being Guy Fawkes night what politicians said was at times drowned out by fireworks, however the meeting started with the unusual scene of a committee Vice-Chair (Cllr Steve Foulkes) arguing with its Chair (Cllr Alan Brighouse). Normally a committee’s Chair is of the same political party as the Vice-Chair, but as the Lib Dems only have one representative on the Regeneration and Environment Committee the Chair and Vice-Chair are from different parties. The source of Cllr Steve Foulkes’ ire towards Cllr Alan Brighouse was about a Oxton Lib Dem Focus in which Cllr Foulkes claimed that Cllr Alan Brighouse was critical (or at least was associated with critical comments about) the What Really Matters? consultation. The rest of the meeting was about the budget options ranging from the not particularly controversial (the Floral Pavilion or Floral Hall as one councillor called it charging a £1 booking fee on tickets), to the Friends of Birkenhead Kennels running Birkenhead Kennels resulting in its opening hours reducing to 8am to 8pm (from a twenty-four hour service), cancelling maintenance of the non-golf and non-football pitch parts of Arrowe Park as well as cancelling maintenance of “fourteen local parks, thirty-two natural and semi-natural green spaces, and forty-four amenity green spaces”, switching off more street lights (alternate lights in residential areas) to charging at car parks at Fort Perch Rock, Royden Park, Wirral Country Park, Eastham Country Park and Arrowe Country Park. The charging at these five car parks is particularly unpopular with the public and a petition against introducing car parking charges at Eastham Country Park has attracted over a thousand signatures.

Wednesday saw the Transformation and Resources Policy and Performance Committee meet to consider five budget options and there were more fireworks. Cllr Chris Blakeley who welcomed the new councillor Matthew Patrick followed by saying that “might be the only kind word you’ll hear from me” wanted the meeting adjourned and resumed after the consultation had finished. The four Conservative councillors voted for an adjournment but were outvoted by the Labour councillors, a Lib Dem councillor and an independent councillor. The budget options they discussed (although the Conservative councillors decided not to ask any questions after being outvoted over having an adjournment) was to axe the Council Tax discount of 7.76% to the over 70s (or in an option that saved less money limit the discount to Band A, B and C properties), increasing what Wirral Council charges for its costs for Magistrate’s Courts summons for Council Tax non-payment or business rates non-payment from £85 to £95, charging people extra when they use their credit card to pay Wirral Council for something, an option involving merging their telecommunications contracts, reviewing mobile phone usage and buying cheaper printing equipment and finally transforming Wirral Council (basically making five hundred staff redundant and reducing redundancy payments to the legal minimum).

Thursday saw a meeting of Wirral Council’s Cabinet. A revised recommendation for item 17 (progressing neighbourhood working including strategic reviews of street scene and community safety) was agreed that requested a further report and delegated future decisions about this area to individual Cabinet portfolio holders. The financial monitoring halfway through the Council’s financial year projected nearly a £600,000 underspend. However most of the underspend was agreed to be set aside to meet future restructuring costs with £100,000 released from reserves for spending to do with the Open Golf tournament next year. Cllr Phil Davies also made a comment about car parking charges and stated that the income from car parks had gone up this year to £1.4 million compared to £1.2 million the previous year (although not as much as expected). He singled out Cllr Stuart Kelly for particular criticism for commenting on the car parking charges shortfall in the press and used this opportunity (as many Wirral Labour councillors do) to blame their problems on the Coalition government finishing by calling on opposition councillors to “be more responsible”. He also reported that Wirral Council had received almost all of its Icelandic investment back and were confident of receiving the whole amount.

Cllr Ann McLachlan gave an update on the Improvement Board. There is a consultation on a review of the Improvement Board’s work followed by a public question and answer session of the Improvement Board on Friday. As part of its review a report has been published which makes for interesting reading including the view of the Improvement Board that when it first started its work that Wirral Council was denying it had the corporate governance problems that were identified by the Improvement Board.

The outcome of the consultation on moving Foxfield School from Moreton to Woodchurch was also reported (the Planning Committee recently granted Wirral Council planning permission for the move) and Cabinet agreed to move the school. The Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Policy and Performance Committee talked about a report produced as a review by councillors looking into the outcomes for looked after children. The report’s recommendations were agreed.

Ben Harrison of the Byrne Avenue Community Trust told the Cabinet that they had got agreement on £350,000 of funding (to match Wirral Council’s £350,000) and wanted to start work on repairing the sports hall. The Byrne Avenue Community Trust wanted to restore the building, creating employment and asked that the asset be transferred to the Byrne Avenue Community Trust. David Armstrong (the Assistant Chief Executive) talked about the history of the site, which was classed as a surplus Council asset. He pointed out that the big funders (Sports England and the National Lottery) had turned down grant applications from the Byrne Avenue Community Trust and that the Community Trust hadn’t submitted a business case to the Council. The Council’s view that was due to the presence of asbestos that the repairs would cost three or four times more than the £700,000 allocated to give it a lifespan beyond the short term and that it had very significant running costs. There were serious structural problems with the building and their concern would be that however well intentioned that it would only be partially restored. He referred to other sports facilities nearby that had been built over the last ten years. Cllr Phil Davies commented on it and his memories of the building.

Cllr Adrian Jones, the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services expressed his regret at the unhappy position the Cabinet found themselves in. He showed photographs of rusting steel reinforced beams supported by steel acro bars that were rotting away and estimated the cost of repairs at two to three million pounds. He said that the £350,000 was desperately needed and wouldn’t be wasted or lost and that he was sure they’d go away painting him as the bad guy. Cllr Phil Davies said that the condition of the building was more serious than they’d originally been told and that £700,000 wouldn’t go near what was needed to bring it to a minimum safety standard. He referred to the nearby Oval and facilities at Prenton High School for Girls. The Cabinet agreed the recommendations in the report which were to retake possession of Byrne Avenue Recreation Centre from Byrne Avenue Community Trust, withdraw the offer of a £350,000 grant and reallocate it to other Community Asset Transfer activities, declare the asset surplus and give authority to its disposal and if sold on the open market to do so at auction. David Armstrong reassured the Byrne Avenue Community Trust that Wirral Council would allow them to make a photographic record and recover any of their property so that the community would have a record of Byrne Avenue Recreation Centre.

There was a slight change to the recommendation agreed in the report on asset management and disposals. Although Acre Lane (the former professional excellence centre) and the former Rock Ferry High school were both declared surplus to requirements, the land at Manor Drive (called Fernbank Farm) was not declared surplus to requirements due to the Birkenhead County Court case hearing on the 21st November. Cllr Phil Davies said that they had a challenge to try and find an alternative site for the pony club which he knew was much loved and cherished. He said that they wouldn’t lose anything by awaiting the outcome of the legal case and it was agreed that a decision on declaring Fernbank Farm would be deferred to the next Cabinet meeting (which would be after the court case on the 2nd December). This change to the original recommendation was agreed by Cabinet.

The Cabinet then agreed to note a report on proposed public health contracting arrangements for 2014/15 and to a further report in February 2014 which would include a recommendation to agree to all 2014/15 contracts. Cabinet also agreed the award of the reablement and domiciliary support contract to providers named in the exempt appendix.

Agreement to proceed with a joint procurement for garden waste (including the option of providing composting services in-house through the Parks and Countryside service) was agreed by Cabinet.

The Highways and Engineering Services Contract for 2014-2018 (currently run by Colas) was awarded to either BAM Nuttall, Galliford Try or North Midland Construction. The “preferred bidder” that Cabinet decided on was again in an exempt appendix. Approval to start a tender for a four year traffic signals maintenance contract (with an option for a two year extension and cost of £350,000 a year) was also given by the Cabinet.

A two year pilot of emergency accommodation for homeless sixteen and seventeen year olds was agreed by Cabinet. Finally Cllr Phil Davies welcomed the Council’s new Director of Resources (and s.151 officer) Vivienne Quayle and expressed his thanks to Jim Molloy and his work as Acting Director of Resources. The Cabinet then excluded the press and public from the remainder of the meeting which included two business grants to Wirral companies or businesses, the exempt appendix for the Reablement and Domiciliary Support Procurement contract, the exempt appendix for the Options Appraisal for the Future Treatment of Wirral’s Kerbside Collected Garden Waste, the exempt appendix for the Highway Services Contract 2014 – 2018 and exempt appendix for the Emergency Accommodation Provision for 16 and 17 Year Olds.

Later this week a special meeting of the Audit and Risk Management Committee will consider a report on Wirral Council’s response to critical reports (2010 – 2013) and a review of the Improvement Board which includes a suggestion that Wirral Council’s Audit and Risk Management Committee should co opt some independent members to itself.

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Exclusive: Next 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract)

Exclusive: Next 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract)

Exclusive: Next 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract)

                           

This continues from an earlier blog post with the first twenty pages of the Colas contract. The contract itself is in A5 format, but the version I’ve been given is a copy in A4. As usual you can click-through each thumbnail for more readable versions of each page.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 21

These pages have screenshots from the Inventory Management Screen and Job Management Screen as well as some instructions on how to use the software.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 22

These pages have details on Cost Management, Test Management, Customer Care, Mapping Links and some further screenshots of the Customer Care Screen and the Test Management – Unit/Cable Test screen.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 23

These pages have sections on mobile working (not implemented at Wirral), night scouting, job management, inventory management, gully cleansing, gully cleansing background, gully cleansing assets, contractor data and reports & photographs.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 24

These pages are about ICT at Wirral Council with sections on Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Document Management, GIS, Databases, ICT Infrastructure, Server Equipment and Operating Systems, Desktop Systems, Telecommunications Networks and Network Protocols.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 25

This continues being about ICT at Wirral Council with sections on Network Protocols, Internal Telephone Network, Network Equipment and Internet Access & Network Security.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 26

This is a flowchart entitled HESPE (Highways Engineering Services Procurement Exercise) Assets and Work Ordering Interim Position at April 2009.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 27

These pages have sections on call out/out of hours repairs, works areas and definitions of priorities 1,2 and 3, priority repair times (with definitions of priorities 1 to 5), aggregation of work, discounting of work orders based on value, structural maintenance programme/minor traffic improvement schemes and gully cleansing/minor drainage works.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 28

These pages have sections on work ordering and the payment process as well as a screenshot of an example highways drainage work order.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 29

This has a table of incident analysis codes by asset type, asset description, main cause, effect, action and result. It also details who determines the level of service for a work order and a table of the target timescales for various types of highway drainage work.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 30

These pages have a table detailing which letter (from A to Z) corresponds to which planned gully cleansing round along with a map showing which areas the rounds cover.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 31

This details the information that Colas is to supply to Wirral Council when it does work on the highway drainage assets (including the car parks). It also details how the Highway Drainage Asset Amendment Form should be used.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 32

These pages contain a blank Highway Drainage Asset Amendment Form and a section on “Drainage Specials”. Drainage Specials are areas that are particularly susceptible to flooding and/or accumulation of silt and require more frequent cleansing.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 33

These pages are a table of the Council’s car parks (each is given a number) in the areas of Birkenhead, Liscard, Moreton, New Brighton, Seacombe, Wallasey, Heswall, Irby, Pensby, Hoylake, Meols, West Kirby, Bromborough, Higher Bebington, Eastham, Bebington, New Ferry and Rock Ferry.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 34

These pages detail bridges, interceptors and culverts.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 35

These pages have sections on the public rights of way network, painting programmes, winter maintenance arrangements, coast protection minor works and street lighting.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 36

These pages are a section on depot arrangements and a plan of the main depot building, external stores and canteen.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 37

These pages contain a map of where the depot is and sections on completion, working with the employer and others, tests, title and the New Roads and Street Works Act 1981.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 38

These pages have sections on notices, performance bond and performance as well as the cover page for section 2.2 (specification).

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 39

This has the preamble to the “Specification for Highway Works”.

Wirral Council Colas Highways Maintenance Contract Page 40

This has a table of pages and relevant publication dates for the specification for Highway Works. If you’d like me to continue to publish more of the Colas contract then please leave a comment.

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First 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract)

First 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract)

First 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract)

                            

For some reason people seem to like reading about Colas on this blog so here is another blog post about Wirral Council’s relationship with Colas. Wirral Council have a really long contract with Colas (called the Highway and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract), that’s over five hundred pages long. Currently the contract (which runs to 2014) is out to tender with Wirral Council’s Cabinet expected to reach a decision on a new contractor (or to bring it in-house) by the end of the year. Colas have already stated they won’t bid for the new contract.

The contract itself is in A5 format, but the version I’ve been given is a copy in A4. As usual you can click-through for more readable versions of each page.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 1

This is a cover page for volume one of the contract, which detail the sections in volume one (forms and certificates, general data and optional statements, additional conditions of contract (Z Clauses), Local Labour, Freedom of Information and TUPE information).

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 2

This is the start of the contract. Although the contract ran from the 1st April 2009, the agreement with Colas is dated 17th March 2010. In order to protect itself shouldn’t Wirral Council have made sure they a signed contract in place before work was started?

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 3

This is just a cover page for section 1.1 (forms and certificates).

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 4

These contain the signature of Colas’ Chief Executive Officer dated the 4th September 2008. These pages are reassurances from Colas made as part of the tendering process to carry out the work if they win the tender and that before the returnable date for the tender that they’ll keep various aspects of their tender confidential.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 5

This is Colas’ tax certificate information and the cover page for section 1.2 (General Data and Optional Statements).

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 6

This page details various terms used in the contract even going so far as to define the language of the contract as English and the currency of the contract as pounds sterling!

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 7

This deals with risks and insurance, optional statements, Y(UK)2 (please leave a comment if you know what that means) and how prices are to be adjusted for inflation with reference to Baxter indices and Gershon Efficiency Savings.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 8

This has the Baxter (nothing to do with soup) index in the form of a table and sections on performance bond, retention, limitations of liability, key performance indicators and a reference to Y(UK)3 (again if you know what this means please leave a comment).

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 9

This is a cover page for section 1.3 (additional conditions of contract – Z clauses).

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 10

This has sections on intellectual property rights, corrupt practices, principal contractor, confidentiality, partnering, quality statement, quality management system, named key persons and named sub-contractors.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 11

This part has sections on accidents on site, recovery of sums due from contractor, special requirements of statutory bodies, Construction Industry Scheme, Value engineering, TUPE, Pension Scheme, Two Tier Workforce, Freedom of Information and Provision of Information on Contractor’s Employees for the Purposes of the Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2008.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 12

This continues the additional contract conditions with sections on audit and ECC Option B Clause 63.13. It also has the cover page for a section on local labour.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 13

The section on local labour is just a blank page, but this also has the cover page for a section on employment and training in the construction industry.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 14

This is the code of practice signed by Colas which includes a signed statement of intent by Colas to “use their best endeavours to ensure that not less than 90% (including those directly employed by us and those sub-contracted to ourselves) will be established residents of the Wirral Borough”. Councillors have asked previously if local labour clauses can be included in other Wirral Council contracts to be told by officers they can’t because it’s “illegal”, the fact it’s in this contract shows it’s not and is a good way that Wirral Council can ensure the money it spends remains within the local economy.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 15

This is the statement of support signed by Colas for the Code of Practice for Employment and Training in the Construction Industry and for its role in “the objective of reducing local long-term unemployment to be publicised in an appropriate manner”. It’s also the cover page for a section on Freedom of Information.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 16

This contains a short, but interesting section on Freedom of Information copied below followed by the cover page for TUPE information:

“FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

STATEMENT OF INTENT

The Council undertakes to use its best endeavours to hold confidential any commercially sensitive information provided in the tender submitted, subject to the Council’s obligations under law, including the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If a tenderer considers that any of the information submitted in the tender should not be disclosed because of its commercial sensitivity or confidentiality, then this should be stated with the reasons for considering the information confidential or likely to prejudice commercial interests if disclosed to the public. The Council will then consult with the tenderer in considering any request received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 before replying to such a request.”

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 17

This just states:

TUPE INFORMATION

The Information on both the HESPE TUPE list schedule and CD (enclosed with hard copy of this contract) relate to current conditions of employment.”

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 18

This is the cover page for Volume 2 (Contract Data Part One (ii) Works Information) detailing sections on general description, specification, performance management and standard details as well as the cover page for section 2.1 (general description).

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 19

This is a description of the works to be carried out under the contract which are in two packages (package A and B). Package B is minor repairs to coast protection structures, package A is highway works. It has sections on drawings, specifications and method of measurement, indicative annual expenditure by Wirral Council for various types of work, a section on the Contractor’s responsibilities and on working hours.

Wirral Council Colas Highways and Engineering Services Contract Page 20

This continues the section on working hours and starts a section on administration of the contract. This has subsections on existing IT systems, Highways (Field Service Overview) and Street Lighting (HiLight Horizon Street Lighting System).

If you’d like me to publish more of the Colas contract than this please leave a comment.

Continues at Exclusive: Next 20 Pages of Wirral Council’s Colas Contract (Highways and Engineering Services Term Maintenance Contract).

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A joint Colas/Wirral Council production: Sherlock in “Good riddance to bad rubbish”, eleven skips that cost £1,584

A joint Colas/Wirral Council production: Sherlock in “Good riddance to bad rubbish”, eleven skips that cost £1,584

A joint Colas/Wirral Council production: Sherlock in “Good riddance to bad rubbish”, eleven skips that cost £1,584

                               

Wirral Council Colas invoice Birkenhead Park August 2012 small

The invoice above (the thumbnail links to a larger image), for £144 for skips at Birkenhead Park in August 2012 is one in a series of eleven Colas invoices. The other ten are invoices for Warren Farm (April 2012, £144), Frankby Cemetery (May 2012, £144), Birkenhead Park (again) (May 2012, £144), Frankby Cemetery (another from May 2012, £144), Frankby Cemetery (again) (May 2012, £144), Highway Division (September 2012, £144), Frankby Cemetery (April 2012, £144), Ivy Farm (August 2012, £144), Birkenhead Park (September 2012, £144) and Love Lane allotments (September 2012, £144).

This raises the following questions that hopefully someone out there will answer by leaving a comment.

1. Is £144 a reasonable amount for a skip or if Wirral Council had used a local supplier would it have been better value for money?

2. Why were skips needed at these locations? Is it to clear up flytipping, building work or something else?

3. Where are the Love Lane allotments (anybody answering in Love Lane will find their comment is not approved)?

4. What and where is Ivy Farm?

5. What and where is Warren Farm?

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