Archived decisions
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority |
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Finance and General Purposes Committee |
Item |
15 January 2003 |
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First Report of the Asset Management Working Group |
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Report of the Chief Fire Officer |
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Contact:: |
David Howells, Director of Corporate Services | |
023 8064 4000 ext 203 | ||
1 |
Introduction | |
The Working Group was established by the Finance and General Purposes Committee to consider - in more detail than is normally possible at regular meetings of the Committee - various aspects of the Authority's asset management strategy. | ||
1.1 |
Four Members were appointed to the Group; Councillors Peter Hutcheson, Roger Price, Paul Russell and John Stocks. Various officers attend meetings as advisers. Cllr Peter Hutcheson (as Vice Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee) chairs the Group, which has met twice since its inception: on 8 November 2002 and 16 December 2002. | |
1.2 |
The Group is an informal body and as such is not clerked. It was agreed that notes, rather than formal minutes would record meetings. Reports on activities of the Group would be made to the Committee - this is the first of those reports. | |
2 |
Meeting held 8 November 2002 | |
2.1 |
At the first meeting the Group received two briefing papers: one from the Treasurer which set out key sources/methods of funding capital schemes; the second from the Director of Corporate Services which summarised some of the current and most urgent asset management issues. | |
2.2 |
The Group acknowledged that apart from the issues raised in the two initial briefing papers, there were a number of other potentially complex, inter-related and sensitive issues that needed to be explored in more detail over the coming months. It was therefore agreed that a comprehensive list of the Authority's capital assets - both its built estate and its vehicle fleet - needed to be produced in a format that would provide a brief commentary on current use and future plans and needs for those assets. |
2.3 |
Members of the Committee will be aware that, at the request of the Group, the Treasurer has since given a brief presentation to the Authority (at its meeting on 4 December 2002) of the advantages and disadvantages of pursing Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The Group wanted to be sure that that the Authority would not wish to rule out the potential to use PFI as a potential funding methodology for major schemes. The Authority confirmed that it wanted the Group to explore further the potential for PFI. |
3 |
Meeting held 16 December 2002 |
3.1 |
The Director of Corporate Services presented a first draft of the Asset Register to ensure that it was in a format that the Group would find helpful. The format was accepted and a second - more complete draft - has since been circulated to members of the Group. The Register will eventually be put on the `restricted access' part of the Authority's web site (some of the information is potentially commercially sensitive) and the information will be refined and kept up to date. Included in the details for each building is the appropriate extract from the latest version of the Condition Survey summarising future (medium- and long-term) repair and maintenance needs. The estimated replacement cost of the facility is also given. |
3.2 |
The `spreadsheet' used to plan and manage the vehicle replacement programme was explained to the Group. This spreadsheet forecasts vehicle needs over the next 20 years and is based on the Authority's current vehicle replacement policies. |
3.3 |
The Group received a further detailed update on each of the Authority's current and planned capital building projects. It noted that the Authority's Basic Credit Approval (BCA) for 2003/04 was confirmed at £1.401m. The Committee will note from the Draft Budget Report (also on this Committee's agenda) that this will provide for a slightly enhanced three year capital programme and enables the Authority to proceed with the scheme for the second fire station at Basingstoke from 2005/06. |
3.4 |
Members of the Group took the opportunity to `walk' the Headquarters site and received a detailed briefing on the two options for significantly improving the Training Centre and Headquarters accommodation (previously outlined to the Committee at its meeting in October 2002). However, Members of the Group felt unable to recommend to the Committee that either of the two options should proceed for the time being. Instead, it asked officers to draw up plans for a scheme that would address only the most urgent needs - essentially those associated with the inadequate showers and changing areas within the Training Centre building. The Group was aware that, by not proceeding with either of the wider-scope schemes, the possibility of utilising the Supplementary Credit Approval (SCA) - allocated to the Authority for improving equality and diversity in the workplace - would almost certainly be lost. |
4 |
European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 |
4.1 |
The proposals within this report are compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 and considered in the light of the Race Relations (amendment) Act 2000. |
Recommendation | |
That the report of the Asset Management Working Group be noted. | |
Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers | |
The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report. | |
- Working Group - Notes of meetings: 8 11 2002 and 16 12 2002 - Vehicle Replacement Programme Spreadsheet - HFRA Asset Management Register (draft) | |
NB The list excludes: | |
1 Published works | |
2 Documents that disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act | |
Dir.fin: HFRA FGP 15 1 03 Asset Man First Report DCH/JMW/7/1/2003 | |