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.

A previous decision was made, at decision point A (06/04/2021), 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 was sourced from an appropriate Framework in accordance with Procurement policy.

Decision was to incur expenditure to get to next decision point B (10 May 2021) estimated to be up to a £300K in order to progress the consultant and Contractors work necessary to meet the grant conditions.

This work has enabled the project to successfully reach Decision Point B which is the next stage of the project to which this delegated decision relates.

The work from Decision Point B is set out in the sections below.

The decision allows further appointment of both the consultants Faithful & Gould (including sub-consultant Hoare Lea) and Willmott Dixon and sub-contractor ODS and other supply chain to continue with producing detailed design (RIBA stage 3 and 4), Employers Requirements, Specifications, Contract Sum, Programme, Health and Safety Phase plans and other documents/survey work necessary for construction (RIBA stage 5). This decision will get the programme/project works to decision point C for construction.

The reason for the additional decision to instruct Willmott Dixon to place orders of materials in advance of £ 1.75million is to address extended lead times for ordering equipment from Europe post-Brexit and with the pandemic. Any delays in delivery of equipment could adversely affect the project delivery by 30 September 2021.

There are 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, in which 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 is likely to result in the Council failing to meet the Salix deadline and to a larger extent, 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.

Mish Tullar, Head of Corporate Strategy, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance & Asset Management; Cabinet Member for Green Transport & Zero Carbon Oxford; Cabinet Member for Leisure and Parks; Head of Financial Services; and Head of Law & Governance.