Agenda and minutes

34/22 – APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND NOTIFICATION OF SUBSTITUTES: An apology for absence had been received from Councillor Phil Ireland,

(5.30 pm)

Members to advise of any declarations of interest.

35/22 – DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST: There were no declarations of interest.

(5.31 pm)

of the meeting of 17 August 2022

36/22 – MINUTES: The Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 17 August 2022 were approved unanimously as a correct record.

(5.31 pm)

To determine whether to exclude the press and public during the consideration of any exempt information items – items 6.

37/22 – EXEMPT INFORMATION: The report and appendices at Minute 38/22 were considered to be exempt under paragraph 3 of Schedule 12a to the Local Government Act 1972. Discussion on the item took place in open session.

(5.31 pm)

The Director, HCC to submit a written report.

38/22 – CATERING CONTRACT – FORWARD PLAN REF: 08HCC22: The Director of Harrogate Convention Centre submitted a written report which provided an options appraisal for future catering provision at HCC now that the current catering contractor, CH&Co, had served notice.  The report outlined the background to the current situation and recommended that Option 1 Phase 1 which was to bring the catering function back in-house on an interim basis.  Following this a full due diligence process would be carried out to ascertain whether running the service in-house long term would be the best option for the Council.

The report provided human resources, finance and legal assessments, although a more detailed implementation plan containing timescales and full costs would need to be developed.

RESOLVED (UNANIMOUSLY):

That    (1) approval is given to pursue Option 1 Phase 1, to bring the catering service back in-house as an interim measure now CH&Co have served notice on the contract;

(2) the Director of HCC be authorised to take the necessary action to prepare for and implement the transfer of the catering service to HCC for in-house delivery as an interim measure;

(3) a due diligence exercise is undertaken by the Director of HCC, in consultation with the Head of Finance and Head of Legal and Governance, as part of the transition to an in-house catering service to enable a decision to be taken as to whether the transfer in-house should be permanent or interim to enable a new catering partner to be procured; and

(4) approval is given to fund the cost of implementing this option, now contract notice has been served, subject to legal advice and the contract Exit Management Plan. (See Appendix 1, Schedule 1). These costs will be further clarified once an implementation plan has been drafted and a project team is in place. Management believe these costs will be in the region of £200k but could be much lower following the completion of contract termination negotiations. The implementation costs will be funded by repurposing 21/22 corporate savings. The estimated implementation cost excludes the cost of the staff transfer of £270k as indicated in section 7.1, as this will be a service running cost and form part of the wider business profit and loss account for the service.

Reasons for decision:

CH&Co have not performed in accordance with the requirements of the contract following the pandemic and the re-opening of HCC in July 2021.  They have failed to comply with a number of contractual obligations, primarily those relating to investment in staff resources, replacement of light and heavy equipment and capital investment in improving fixed catering points.

Alternative options considered and recommended for rejection:

To allow CH&Co to remove the minimum commission payment and reduce all commission levels to 15%. These are significant values which management are not prepared to agree to. Additionally removing the minimum opens up HCC to the risk that catering sales could fall to zero and HCC would lose all commissions.  Furthermore HCC  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.