Agenda item

To consider the reports of the Cabinet and to receive answers to any questions asked on those reports as follows:

a)    Report of Cabinet – Matters which require a decision by Council (Yellow Pages); and

b)    Report of Cabinet – Summary of decisions taken (White Pages).

Connecting Worcestershire Phase 3 Broadband Programme

Following the original contract for 90% coverage for residential and business premises, the Council subsequently secured an additional £4.8m from BDUK and through the Local Growth Fund to invest further into extending superfast speeds across Worcestershire – Phase 2. This further investment was aimed at extending a better service to 95% of the county's businesses and residents, when the contract was agreed it was expected that 94% of the county would be able to access superfast speeds (in excess of 24Mbps) by an accelerated date of Autumn 2017, from an original projected date in Summer 2018.

Due to the progress of delivery, as well as higher than expected take-up rates (Phase 1 current take-up was currently in a region of 42%, against the projected 13% at this stage); BT offered the Council the opportunity to recoup funds early and invest in extending fibre coverage even further.

In November 2015, Council agreed the addition to the Capital Programme for the purposes of extending Phase 2 by reinvesting up to £3.25m from clawback funds to further coverage of fibre broadband across Worcestershire. Cabinet in October 2015 delegated authority to the Director of Commercial and Change in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member and CFO to make the final decision on reinvestment in order to achieve this; the resultant change "gainshare reinvestment" was completed in March 2017.

In addition to the gainshare reinvestment, that was anticipated to increase superfast coverage to 95%, Council officers had applied for further funding to extend broadband coverage into areas of need. The consequence of this was the proposed Phase 3 contract leading to further deployment of superfast broadband.

A third phase of provision of superfast broadband services had been made possible through the Council's funding applications and request to BDUK. This provided the Council with the opportunity to procure and appoint a supplier to extend services into areas without access to 24Mbps as a result of commercial deployment or our existing plans.  This Phase 3 aimed to extend superfast broadband to as many Worcestershire business premises as possible (ensuring ERDF compliance to draw down the funding), whilst, at the same time, deploying superfast infrastructure to as many residential areas of Worcestershire as was possible within the parameters of the allocated funding. Dependent upon supplier responses and the solutions offered it was anticipated that this phase could make superfast speeds available to 96% of premises; it was recognised that despite the investment to date and this potential investment it was not expected to reach 100% superfast broadband coverage.

Approximately £1.1m from the ERDF had been approved in principle. A requirement of the ERDF funding was that it was fully matched, which had been provisionally secured from BDUK for £1.5m, increasing the amount of funding to be added to the Capital Programme by £2.6m. The total budget for the Phase 3 procurement would be £2.5m, as £100k was being utilised to match the County Council programme resource.

In the ensuing debate, the following principal points were raised:

·         The Leader commented that the Broadband Programme had been very successful to date in providing superfast broadband across the county, with a positive impact on the local economy and service provision.  The aim of Phase 3 was to extend coverage of the County beyond 95%. Due to the exceptionally high take-up rate, the Council had been able to claw back funds to help finance Phase 2 of the programme

·         The project would also involve private sector investment. The spread of superfast broadband to the wider community had had a positive impact on children's education as well as extending adult social care. The Government had given its own commitment to broadband speeds of 10 mega bytes per second.

RESOLVED that £2.6m be added to the Capital Programme for the purposes of Phase 3 of the Broadband Programme, the funding of which comes from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) £1.5m and European Regional Development Fund c.£1.1m (ERDF).

Capital Programme Cash Limits

The County Council had received notification of capital grants and Section 106 income, and Cabinet asked that Full Council approves the following additions to the Capital Programme:

·      £8.7 million School Basic Need Allocation 2019/20

·      £3.7 million School Condition Capital Maintenance 2017/18

·      £1.3 million Highways Maintenance Incentive Element 2017/18

·      £0.3 million Worcestershire Intelligent Transport Systems 2017/18

·      Skills Capital Projects 2017/18  - Grant applications from the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Fund including:

£0.6 million –  Engineering Facility (Skills Capital Fund)

£0.4 million –  Pershore College/ Agritech

£0.3 million  -  META project

£0.3 million –  Inclusive Centre for Entrepreneurship and Business Growth (Skills Capital Fund)

£0.1 million –  Centre of Vocational Excellence

£0.1 million –  Inclusive Skills Based Centre (Skills Capital Fund)

In the ensuing debate, the following principal points were raised:

·         The £1.3m Highways Maintenance Incentive Element would be welcomed by Worcestershire residents. The receipt of additional funding from the Government was based on the quality of the Council's Asset Management Plan

·         The £40k funding for Pershore College was welcomed

·         Although the investment in Highways Maintenance was welcomed, the quality of the Asset Management Plan was questioned. Information in the Asset Management Plan had been based on flawed traffic survey data for the Bromsgrove area

·         It was queried why funds for the Skills Capital Projects had not been received directly from the Local Enterprise Partnership. The Leader responded that the Council was the accountable body for the LEP and the allocation of their resources

·         It was queried how the knowledge of local members would be utilised and how local councillors would be consulted on the allocation of the £3.7m School Condition Capital Maintenance funds in their division. The Leader of the Council responded that there was a standard procedure for additions to the capital programme. The CMR would welcome any suggestions in relation to the programme.

RESOLVED that an increase to the capital programme cash limits to include additional schools, highways and skills funding as detailed in paragraph 17 in the report be approved.