Decisions set out in the book have been made under delegated powers by the Chief Executive, Executive Directors or the Chief Finance Officer and Monitoring Officer, in consultation either with the relevant committee or Lead Councillor.

The Decision Book process has been altered to suspend the current Councillors’ call-in arrangements within the 10-day period after its publication and replace it with the ability during that period for three Councillors to request a retrospective review of the decision in writing to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services.

The decision book can be accessed on the Council’s website – www.reading.gov.uk/decisionbooks.

The officer reports accompanying the decisions are attached.

Contact: Richard Woodford Committee Services
Tel: 0118 937 2332
e-mail: richard.woodford@reading.gov.uk

This report sets out the decision to allocate additional funding to the Scheme, enter into a construction contract and amend the approved Capital Programme for 2020-21 accordingly.

On 8th April 2020 a Decision Book was published (under the Chief Executive’s Emergency powers) which gave approval for the release and spend of the £8.1m budget for the above project and delegated authority to award the construction contract to ISG Ltd.

The Main Contract Tender was procured through the Southern Construction Framework. The mini-competition tenders for Contractor selection were invited via Hampshire County Council’s In-Tend system. ISG Ltd tender return has come in £600k over the allocated budget.

It is proposed to use the secured DfE Special Provisions Fund Grant for Hamilton School development to fund the gap. The grant was originally secured in 2018 and is held in RBC accounts and was allocated for the development of the then Phoenix School (now Hamilton School) to allow the School to take girls. The physical limitations of the existing school building had only allowed for boys to be accommodated. The new relocated school will enable girls to be accommodated at the School.

It is the decision of the Executive Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Education, to allocate £600k, which has been received from the DfE Special Provisions Fund Grant on the specific condition that it is used to cover the increased cost and deliver the Hamilton School Development project on the basis described in Section 4.2 of the report.

It is the decision of the Executive Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services in consultation with the Assistant Director for Procurement and the Lead Councillor for Education to enter into a contract with ISG Construction Limited to carry out the refurbishment and new building works for a total sum of £7,641,828.16.

It is the decision of the Executive Director for Resources in consultation with the Executive Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhoods and the Leader of the Council to amend the approved Capital Programme for 2020-21 to include the additional expenditure and grant funding of £600k.