This meeting of the Tendring Council Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee will consider a range of financial, procurement and service delivery topics, including the performance and project management of projects undertaken by each of the council's portfolio holders. It will also receive a progress report on the procurement process for a new waste and recycling and street cleaning service provider. The meeting will then consider a report from the council's external auditor on the value for money the council has achieved.

Portfolio Holder Project Reviews

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Mark Stephenson, will attend this meeting to discuss the outcome of a review into the performance and project management of all of the projects that are being undertaken by the council's Portfolio Holders.

This review was requested by the Committee in response to the discovery of unauthorised expenditure on the Spendells project at its meeting on 23 September 2024. The Spendells project is the refurbishment and fit out of Spendells House on Naze Park Road in Walton-on-the-Naze, to provide temporary accommodation for homeless people. The Committee considered a report on the Spendells project at its meeting on 22 July 2024. It subsequently recommended that Portfolio Holders review the performance and project management of all existing projects in their portfolios.

Portfolio Holders should review, with their Corporate Directors, the performance and project management of all existing projects within their respective portfolios and report their findings to the Leader of the Council and the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee together with such additional actions as the Leader wishes to undertake.

The report pack for this meeting confirms that Tendring District Council's constitution contains a range of financial, procurement and other policies that are designed to ensure that spending is properly authorised and scrutinised.

The report pack also confirms that Cabinet receives regular budget monitoring reports that it uses to monitor the progress of projects. Portfolio holders also receive regular updates from the Directors of their services.

Waste and Recycling Service Procurement

The Committee will receive an update on the progress of the ongoing procurement process for the council's waste and recycling and street cleaning services.

The council's current contracts for these services, which are both held by Veolia Environmental Services, will expire in 2026. The waste and recycling contract will expire on 31 January 2026, and the street cleaning contract will expire on 31 December 2025. Veolia Environmental Services is a waste management company. They provide a range of services including waste collection, recycling and disposal.

The Committee previously considered a report on this topic at its meeting on 26 July 2024. The Committee agreed that the procurement should be carried out using the Competitive Dialogue procedure, as laid out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Competitive Dialogue procedure is a procurement process that allows the council to engage in dialogue with bidders to discuss the technical aspects of the contract and to refine the specification.

The report pack for this meeting states that the Environment Act 2021 will require the council to collect a wider range of materials for recycling, including glass. The report confirms that the service specification will be amended to account for these new requirements. The Environment Act 2021 is an Act of Parliament that sets out a range of measures to improve the environment, including targets for reducing waste and increasing recycling.

The report pack also explains that the council will explore the possibility of funding the purchase of the new contractor's vehicle fleet.

It is likely that the Council will need to fund, up front, the purchase of the contractor's vehicle fleet. Overall this is expected to reduce the cost.

The report explains that this could result in a cost saving because the council has access to lower interest rates than a commercial contractor.

This approach could offer a cost saving to the Council by virtue of access to lower cost borrowing, typically at 4%, compared to a contractors commercial rate of around 8%.

The report pack also confirms that the council is required to explore entering into a risk-sharing agreement with the new contractor relating to the costs of processing recyclable materials.

The report pack explains that a risk-sharing agreement would mean that the council would have to pay a variable fee for the processing of recyclable materials, based on the market price of those materials.

A common approach is for the material processing cost to be shared between the contractor and council. In practice the material value is indexed on a monthly basis against industry published data and in a risk share model if the value decreases below a set value, then the cost burden is shared, whilst if the value increases above a set value then the profit is shared.

This is a departure from the council's current contracts, where Veolia Environmental Services bears the risk and reward of processing recyclable materials.

The report pack mentions the Fowler Road depot, which is owned by the council and used by Veolia Environmental Services to deliver its services. The report pack states that the council plans to offer the new contractor a lease of the Fowler Road depot.

Fowler Road depot made available to the contractor on a lease at no charge, as currently

External Auditor's Value for Money Report

The Committee will consider a report from the council's external auditor. This report covers the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23, and comments on the council's value for money arrangements.

Our VFM work for 2020/21 to 2022/23 has not identified any significant weaknesses in the Authority’s arrangements. However, we have identified opportunities for the Authority to improve their arrangements and have made a recommendation accordingly.

The external auditor's report pack highlights the council's Corporate Investment Plan, its partnerships with other organisations including Essex County Council and its counter-fraud arrangements as examples of good practice. Essex County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the county of Essex. It provides a range of services including education, social care and highways.

The external auditor makes one recommendation for improvement in the report, relating to the council's management of information security. The auditor found that the council was allowing councillors to automatically forward their council emails to personal email accounts, which could be a breach of data protection legislation. The Data Protection Act 2018 is an Act of Parliament that sets out the rules for how personal data can be processed. The Act is based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The external auditor made this recommendation in its reports for each of the three financial years covered by its report, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.

The Council should expediate the implementation of solutions identified to prevent any risk of being in breach of GDPR laws.

The report pack confirms that the issue was addressed in 2023.

Management response is that the arrangements to address the risk, have all been implemented post-May 2023 local elections under the newly elected Council.