Technical Advisers Group

BEST VALUE

NOTES OF THE LOTAG STRATEGY BEST VALUE GROUP

MEETING OF 1^stMARCH 2001

Present:
	Terry Felstead	LB Kensington & Chelsea
	Geoff Buckley	LB Newham
	Keith Weir	LB Waltham Forest
	Kath Akoslovski	LB Southwark
	Bram Kainth	LB Camden
	Brian Foley	LB Havering
	Ian Knott	LB Richmend
	Gordon Pragnell	LB Hammersmith & Fulham
	Jeff Lemon	LB Haringey
Apologies:
	Brynn Hodgson	LB Harrow
	Keith Manaton	LB Hackney
	Bob Walker	LB
	Mike O’Gallagher	LB Southwark
	Suresh Kamath	LB Brent

Item	Minutes	Action
1.0	MINUTES OF 14^th DECEMBER 2000 - Agreed.
2.0	MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES - None
3.0	DISCUSSION ON HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE BY GORDON PRAGNELL - Highway Maintenance Best Value Group Results were expected soon from the information supplied from completed questionnaires previously sent out to each London Borough by the Audit Commission. There had been a good response. - Parks The results from the completed questionnaires were now available - Kath Akoslovski Covering Southwark and Waltham Forest to circulate by email Best Value Questionnaire (copy attached with completed example for Southwark) - Keith Weir Sought assistance in the completion for questionnaire. The boroughs selected all use in house provision and all the collections are from wheeled bins - Gordon Pragnell Provided the meeting with the opportunity to look at the reports produced by the District Auditor covering Hammersmith and Fulham from information previously supplied by several London Boroughs. Efforts had been made to make the questionnaire ‘London Friendly’ the resultant reports covering five areas of operation including Public Lighting The cost for participating is £1000 and it was thought that any authority which did not participate would have the opportunity to join the club The previous response was from seventeen London Boroughs. At a suggestion from Gordon the meeting agreed that Lotag should consider inviting the District Auditor to make a presentation in June/July 2001. The report on Public Lighting would be made available to Camden Benchmarking Group.
4.0	FEEDBACK FROM TAG - Deferred
5.0	UPDATE ON BV LEGISLATION, GUIDANCE ETC - No specific points
6.0	REPORTS FROM ‘SUB-GROUPS’ - Public Lighting – Terry Felstead Reported on the good progress made on the Group, it was hoped the comprehensive report would be available sometime later in the year. Whilst there was good representation at the meeting some representatives had not honoured their commitment to supply the necessary information - Fleet Provision and Vehicle Maintenance - Jeff Lemon Reported that the APSE Benchmarking Group covering the whole country now had a fully operational system, was producing reports on an annual basis. The imput information preferably on a disc is extremely comprehensive, therefore the output covers a large range of the aspects of the operations with details down to vehicle groups. Annual cost in the region of £1,750.00 - Passenger Transport – Jeff Lemon Reported of the good progress being made, the group meeting at Harrow now attended by representatives from about 20 London Boroughs. First results have been produced which are very encouraging. A recent meeting was addressed by a Representative from the Audit commission who undertook to maintain links with the group as the Audit Commission considers the information produced to be extremely useful particularly in planning future requirements.
7.0	FUTURE DIRECTION OF THE GROUP - Future directions discussed If the strategy meetings cease to exist then the sub groups would have no reason to exist. - Should ‘Best Value’ be dropped from the title as the meetings now spent more time discussing other issues, mainly of a technical nature. Gordon Prangnell gave a similar report from his sub group. - There was unanimous agreement that the Strategy Group should continue to meet as it was continuing to play an important role.
	Next meeting: 2.00pm – 4.00pm on 7^thJune 2001 at ALG Offices, 59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 0AL Dates of future meeting: 4 October 2001
	Jon Judah, Assistant Director of Environmental Services at Camden has agreed to outline his experience of inspection. This includes (over the next couple of months) Parking, Street Services and Engineering consultancy.