Decisions

Details of decision:  It has been decided to award the contract for EV charge points to SWARCO at a cost of £155,000 (before Office of Zero Emission Vehicles funding) through the use of a public sector framework.

The use of the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation framework allows the council to take advantage of the procurement exercise already run by others and allows for a greater economy of scale. It also means that as the exercise has already been undertaken the council can make a direct award through this process speeding up the otherwise lengthy contracting process.

The largest part of the cost is made up of the new connections needed to near by substations with this money being paid via SWARCO to the network operator Western Power Distribution. 

The award to SWARCO is for two x 22KW charger within the phase one car parks as follows:

Wood Street, Taunton

Enfield, Taunton

The Crescent, Taunton

North Street, Wellington

North Road, Minehead

North Street, Wiveliscombe

Porlock Central

Williton Central

Market Street, Watchet

Deane House, Taunton  

SWT have opted for 22KW chargers rather than the slower 7KW chargers often associated with the free schemes.

SWARCO are one of a number of operators on the Framework list, they have been selected as they equipment is Open Charge Point Protocol compliant where others were not. They are also the operator chosen by Western Power Distribution for the DC Share Scheme and collaboration on this project makes implementation smoother and provides a simpler charging process for members of the public with fewer operators and therefore let confusion for customers. 

Following the recommendations of the External Auditor PKF Littlejohn LLP in their Notice of conclusion of audit – Annual Governance and Accountability Return for the year ended 31 March 2020, that “In future years, the smaller authority must maintain an adequate and effective system of internal audit of the accounting records and control systems”. Officers had sought quotations from various companies.

RESOLVED that the Taunton Charter Trustees appoint IAC Audit & Consultancy Ltd as their Internal Auditor for the 2020/21 and 2021/2022 municipal years.

The Clerk introduced the item, which set out the quotes obtained and clarified the total expected price, which would be £1700 for the die and one copy of each. Past Mayor and Consort badges were given in recognition of the significant commitment made in undertaking the role, as an award to acknowledge and thank them for their contribution.

RESOLVED in principle to approve the purchase of x1 Past Mayor Pendant and x1 Past Consort Badge, to be funded from the Mayoral Civic Activity Budget, subject to final amendment of the design taking into account the comments provided.

The Mayor advised that the Governance Manager of SWT was in attendance to speak to this item and explain the next steps.

The Governance Manager explained that a report was to be taken to SWT Full Council on the 30^th March 2021 requesting a cross party working group is set up to look at the Community Governance Review for the Unparished Area of Taunton. The recommendations reinforced that the former Taunton Deane Borough Council had resolved to undertake this, with a view to a new entity being set up by May 2023, and would tie into Unitarisation plans for 1^st April 2023. Whilst Charter Trustees would be kept informed via regular progress reports, the responsibility for the review still sat with Somerset West and Taunton Council. A timetable was attached to the report as an Annex.

During the discussion of this item, members made comments and asked questions which included:-

·       In regards to the Working Group, it was queried as to whether the significant number of Taunton based Councillors who had an interest in this matter would be ensured a place?

·       The decision was for SWT Full Council, but if Council was minded to agree the Group Leaders would come forward with the names of the appropriate Councillors on said Group. Members of the Executive could serve on the Working Group. Individual Councillors could respond to the consultation as well as the Charter Trustees as a body, and other Parish Councils on the boundary.

·       Concern was raised that there was sufficient staff resource to carry out this exercise?

·       The Governance team had a high workload and this project would be prioritised, a business case for extra resource would be taken to the Senior Management Team but this was not required at this moment in time. Other teams would be involved such as Communications and Elections.

·       A suggestion was made that a pre-agreement for extra resource was put in place before starting this work.

·       What would be the position of the Charter Trustees if there were multiple parishes wished to be set up being the ultimate outcome of this exercise?

·       The Charter Trustees and Taunton Mayoralty would remain in existence until any future arrangements were stood up, the Working Group would look at the options and their impact on the Taunton Mayoralty.

·       It was raised as to why the option for a Town Council had not been identified as the proposed option already, as other localities of a similar size had this form of Governance and could SWT promote this as the preferred choice?

·       No option was off the table at the moment, but once the Working Group was set up and the preferred option was a Town Council that it is narrowed down when the Terms of Reference is considered, but it is inappropriate to do so at this stage.

·       There was a need for the Charter Trustees to have on their Agenda regularly to have a discussion and collectively feedback viewpoints to the Working Group.

·       The Working Group would be expected to meet with the Charter Trustees to understand their views.

·       It was requested that the recommendation was amended to reflect that a Town Council as well as a Parish Council was a potential option.

·       This would be taken on board and happy to be made more explicit.

·       It was urged that this process was kept as simple as possible.

·       It was queried whether the Charter Trustees would continue if the area remained Unparished under a unitary position?

·       This would need to be investigated and legal advice sought.

·       Concern was raised as to how the Working Group would balance the strength and number of responses received from various parties to ensure justice and a fair result was given to the residents of the Unparished area?

·       A communications plan would outline how there would be an equality of opportunity to comment on the plans.

·       It was suggested that just looking at the Unparished area may be a simpler exercise now and then in a few years’ time the question of including other Parishes nearby was looked at again rather than now.

·       A query was raised as to whether the unitary campaigns were still suggesting that a Minister would be able to just take a decision to parish the Taunton area and thus make the Review redundant.

·       At the Somerset Monitoring Officers Group meetings, this review was discussed and Somerset County Council were keen for this to get underway and deliver the new arrangements by 1^st April 2023. It would be a surprise for this process to be interrupted once underway and the Charter Trustees would expect to be consulted as the representatives of the Unparished Area of Taunton.

·       A query was raised as to the typical powers of a Parish/Town Council and what powers the new body would have?

·       The legal duties of a Town/Parish Council are clearly laid out in statute. As part of the scoping during the process, conversations with Officers would be expected to take place around Assets etc. in readiness for the Shadow arrangements.

·       It was commented that it would be a Shadow Unitary Authority that would be negotiating with the Shadow Parish or Town Council grouping.

RESOLVED that a letter be written on behalf of the Charter Trustees for Taunton to the SWT Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder to urge him to ensure that the Community Governance Review is considered SWT Council’s highest corporate priority in the forthcoming year, in relation to governance matters under his portfolio. The letter was to also urge that resources are in place to complete this task, with a contingency built in now, so that if unexpected matters do arise in year this project does not get waylaid. The letter would highlight that with an impending decision on unitary status expected soon, it is considered fundamentally essential that this project is progressed at this time, so that the residents of Taunton do not continue to suffer any democratic deficit by the time any new unitary authority is stood up. Copies of the letter would be sent to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Minister of State for Regional Growth and Local Government, as well as the One Somerset and Stronger Somerset campaigns to ensure they are aware of the forthcoming Community Governance Review for the Unparished Area of Taunton.