This meeting was about awarding contracts for the provision of building works and refuse collection vehicles, and was scheduled to include a discussion about whether to bring the provision of some corporate security services in-house.

Procurement of Building Works Contracts

The council was scheduled to discuss awarding a contract for building works to empty properties.

The report pack recommended awarding two contracts for the refurbishment of empty properties, one to cover properties managed by the Regeneration Voids Team and one to cover properties managed by the Direct Labour Organisation (DLO). It was proposed that the contracts be awarded to the two highest scoring bidders through the council's E-tendering portal, ProContract, with the first-ranked bidder delivering the Regeneration Voids contract and the second-ranked bidder delivering the DLO Voids contract. The report pack argued that using a mixed economy of in-house and external providers had worked well in the past. It said:

This mixed economy of repairs resource has worked well achieving good value, maintaining a competitive tension, a flexible resource to meet varying workloads and occasional need for more specialist trades not included in the in-house capacity.

It also argued that splitting the contract into two lots would give opportunities for smaller local businesses.

Purchase of Refuse Collection Vehicles

The Council was scheduled to discuss a report about the proposed purchase of 24 refuse collection vehicles to replace vehicles that are past their practical operational life.

The report pack recommended using the Halton Housing Framework to directly award a contract for the purchase of the vehicles to an unnamed supplier, arguing that the supplier was the only one that could meet the council's requirement for 'narrow track' vehicles. It said that the use of a direct award was appropriate because:

As no other supplier offers a ‘narrow track’ refuse collection vehicle there can be no market competition.

The report pack went on to explain that this approach would also save money as the Halton Housing Framework charged a fixed fee of £50 per vehicle, whilst other frameworks charged a percentage of the total contract value.

Review of Corporate Security Services

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report into the provision of corporate security services.

This included a proposal to re-tender a framework agreement for the provision of two out of three ‘Lots’ of corporate security services: the provision of security at empty properties, and the provision of residential concierge services at the council's housing blocks. The report pack explained that the third Lot, covering the provision of manned guarding services, was still under review and might be brought in-house. This was because:

The CCTV network and infrastructure across the Council’s property estate were being modernised and optimised to reduce the number of physical guards and lead to a reduction in costs.

The report pack noted that, legally, the council could not provide its own security services in-house and that it was also restricted in how it procured security services from external providers by the Private Security Industry Act 2001¹.

The Private Security Industry Act 2001 is an Act of Parliament that was passed in the United Kingdom in 2001. The Act created the Security Industry Authority (SIA), which is responsible for regulating the private security industry in the UK. The SIA licenses individuals and companies that provide security services, such as manned guarding, door supervision, close protection, and key holding. The Act also created a number of offences relating to the provision of unlicensed security services, and to the possession and use of prohibited weapons by security operatives.