The Chair will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. This is particularly important for visitors and members of the public who will be unfamiliar with the building and procedures.

The Chair will inform the meeting whether there is a planned evacuation drill due to take place, what the alarm sounds like (i.e. ringing bells), where the closest emergency exit route is, and where the second closest emergency exit route is, in the event that the closest exit or route is blocked.

The Chair will inform the meeting that:

(a) in the event of the alarm sounding, everybody must leave the building via the nearest safe available exit and gather at the Assembly points at the far side of the Car Park.  Nobody must leave the assembly point until everybody can be accounted for and nobody must return to the building until the Chair has informed them that it is safe to do so; and

(b) the lifts must not be used in the event of an evacuation.

Any officers present at the meeting will aid with the evacuation.

It is important that the Chair is informed of any person attending who is disabled or unable to use the stairs, so that suitable arrangements may be made in the event of an emergency.

The Chair outlined the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chair will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a) Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011. The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared. After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote. This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b) Disclosable Non Pecuniary Interests (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012. The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared. After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

(c) Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the meeting while that item is considered.

Advice to Members: If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

No interests were declared.

Report added 09.08.2022

The Head of Environment and Leisure introduced the report by explaining that the current ten-year Waste and Street Cleaning joint contract with the Mid-Kent Waste Partnership consisting of Maidstone, Ashford and Swale Borough Council (SBC), was due to end in October 2023.  He gave a background of the stages of the tender process that had been carried out to date and said that the final stage of the tender process was about to start in which the final tender specification would be released and bidders would submit their prices.  This would then be followed by an evaluation and the contract awarded to the successful bidder.

The Head of Environment and Leisure advised that during the stages of competitive dialogue that had taken place, all bidders had raised issues of availability of vehicles necessary to deliver the service.  He said that a ten- month mobilisation period had been built into the contract originally from December 2022/January 2023 to the expiry of the existing contract in October 2023 but due to the supply issues highlighted, ten months would not now be long enough.

The Head of Environment and Leisure referred to the options to address the supply issues, as set out in the report, and the partnership had all agreed that in order to achieve a smooth transition from the old to the new contract, an extension of the existing contract by 5 months from October 2023 to March 2024 would be necessary.  He said that if the supply situation worsened, options could be considered again.  The Head of Environment and Leisure highlighted the financial impact to the Council detailed in the exempt appendix.  He  said that it was key that a decision was made as soon as possible and an Urgent Decisions meeting would follow the Extraordinary Environment meeting, to consider the financial implication of the extension of the contract.

The Chair opened up the debate to Members, highlighting that discussion on the exempt appendix should take place in closed session.

Members raised points and asked questions including:

·         It was the Committee’s role to scrutinise the recommendations and it was being asked to make a decision without knowing full details of the new contract or specification;

·         despite the short notice of the meeting, full attendance illustrated how important the decision was;

·         the Committee had not been working with the external consultants for 2 years, as officers had, so did not have all details required to make a decision;

·         why had the officers/external consultants not flagged up supply issues sooner?;

·         did the new contract stipulate certain vehicles were unsuitable and if so, why?;

·         the option of asking the current contractor to sell their current vehicles to the Council gave the message that they would not be awarded the new contract;

·         had there been frequent dialogue with the joint authorities?;

·         what was the timetable for the joint authorities?;

·         there was no political input into Recommendation 3;

·         Members had to respond to public complaints but had no knowledge of the details of the contract,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 237.

To decide whether to pass the resolution set out below in respect of the following item:

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting from the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3.

1.    Information relating to any individual

3.   Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Resolved:

(1) That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3.

3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Members considered the Exempt Appendix.  The Head of Environment and Leisure and Director of Resources responded to questions.

The meeting was adjourned at 11.28 am and reconvened at 11.31 am.