Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Housing

RESOLVED THAT

1.    CBC enter into the deed of variation with UBICO for the delivery of these changes to the grounds maintenance services in the contract dated April 1st 2012 for grounds maintenance and other services (the contract identifies CBH as the managing agents). The changes to commence on April 1^st 2019.

2.    It be noted that any anomalies in current service provision (as detailed in Section 3 of this report) will be rectified, subject, where appropriate, to any financial approvals being first obtained from CBC.

3.    Authority be delegated to the Managing Director Place & Growth, in consultation with the Borough Solicitor, to finalise the Deed of Variation to implement the objectives set out in this report. Also, authority be delegated to the Managing Director Place & Growth, in consultation with the Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment and the Cabinet Member Housing to make any subsequent changes to the Grounds Maintenance Services to be provided by UBICO provided that any such changes have no significant financial impact on either the General Fund or the HRA.  

The Cabinet Member Housing introduced the report which outlined the culmination of a detailed review of CBC’s grounds maintenance service on Housing Revenue Account land, provided by UBICO and managed by Cheltenham Borough Homes. The review was prompted by the need to provide a more accurate and equitable charging system for grounds maintenance coupled with a desire to address outstanding quality issues in the service provided by UBICO. The outcomes had been welcomed by tenants and officers. He made reference to the benchmarking data with regard to the quality of service standards at Appendix 2 and the anomalies which would be addressed as outlined in paragraph 3 of the report. He highlighted that those households facing an increase in their service charges would have them increased incrementally over a 3 year period to better enable them to adapt to the changes.

All changes had been discussed with tenants and would bring about a better quality of service.

RESOLVED THAT

1.    CBC enter into the deed of variation with UBICO for the delivery of these changes to the grounds maintenance services in the contract dated April 1st 2012 for grounds maintenance and other services (the contract identifies CBH as the managing agents). The changes to commence on April 1^st 2019.

2.    It be noted that any anomalies in current service provision (as detailed in Section 3 of this report) will be rectified, subject, where appropriate, to any financial approvals being first obtained from CBC.

3.    Authority be delegated to the Managing Director Place & Growth, in consultation with the Borough Solicitor, to finalise the Deed of Variation to implement the objectives set out in this report. Also, authority be delegated to the Managing Director Place & Growth, in consultation with the Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment and the Cabinet Member Housing to make any subsequent changes to the Grounds Maintenance Services to be provided by UBICO provided that any such changes have no significant financial impact on either the General Fund or the HRA.