Cabinet at its meeting on 16 June 2021 delegated authority to the Head of Corporate

Strategy in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Zero Carbon Oxford to enter

into a loan agreement with Low Carbon Hub on terms to be agreed by the Head of

Financial Services/Section 151 Officer; and the Councils Monitoring Officer.

To appoint a Tier 1 Contractor to provide specialist Pre-Construction service under a Pre-Construction Service Agreement (PSCA) for the decarbonisation of the following properties.

·         Hinksey Outdoor Pool

·         Leys Pool & Leisure Centre

·         Barton Leisure Centre

·         Rose Hill Community Centre

·         Oxford Ice Rink

·         Ferry Leisure Centre (Replaced Town Hall as back-up site)

The contractor being sourced from an appropriate Framework in accordance with Procurement policy.

To incur expenditure to get to next decision point estimated to be up to a £300K. In order to progress the consultant and Contractors work necessary to meet the grant conditions.

There were three options:

Option 1) Due to the tight time scales there is an option not to proceed with the Decarbonisation programme due to the risk of missing funding deadlines. This was rejected because it’s not in line with the City Council’s new and fourth internal carbon management plan set to run from 21/22 to 29/30, the Council commits to reduce the underlying emissions and become Zero Carbon by 2030.

Option 2) To proceed with the De-carbonisation programme via a traditional procurement route. This was rejected as it could cause massive delays as well as shifting most risks into the construction stage. This will result in the Council failing to meet the Salix deadline and to a larger extend, it will require the council to have a large contingency sum for both known and unknown risks.

Recommended - Option 3) To proceed with Decarbonisation programme via a Two stage procurement route with an early Contractor involvement.  Due to tight time scales set by the Funding organisation to complete the works by 30 September 2021, this option is the recommended route. It enables investigative works to be frontloaded and minimises risks. Involving contractor early to undertake all the feasibility work will generally promote lean construction and allow early buildability analysis of the designs, specifications and proposed works. The traditional route enables an unideal situation where work will be back loaded creating unnecessary risks in the construction and handover stages.

Tom Bridgman, Director of Development in consultation with Cabinet Member for Zero Carbon Oxford; the Transition Director; the Head of Financial Services/Section 151 Officer; and the Council’s Monitoring Officer.