Agenda item

* To consider a report

The Chair suggested that, in future years, the asset management plans be phased across a number of the Group’s meetings to allow Members sufficient time to consider the individual plans in detail. This could be considered for future years’ work programmes.

He also expressed the view that Members should be given the opportunity to review the Asset Management Strategy itself.

The Head of Finance and Treasurer presented the covering report to the Asset Management Plans for 2017/18 to 2020/21 for Fleet & Transport, Information & Communications Technology and Land & Buildings. The total value of assets as at 31 March 2017 was £31,326,000: £5.7 million of vehicles, plant and equipment, £24 million of land and buildings and £1.6 million of assets under construction.

Further to queries raised at previous meetings of the Group, the Head of Finance and Treasurer reported that investigations had been undertaken into the water usage at Ampthill, Toddington and Shefford stations.

The result of this was that it had been determined that the Ampthill benchmark had been set too high as it was set on inaccurate measurements, the actual usage measured at Shefford was too high and had been revised down, and the benchmark for Toddington was low based on previous year averages and the actual usage was used to set the 2017/18 benchmark.

The Group then went on to consider the individual Asset Management Plans.

Fleet & Transport

GC D Cook introduced the updated Fleet & Transport Asset Management Plan. He highlighted the following changes that had been made to the Plan:

• The section on assets, locations and cost had been updated. The current fleet numbered 115 and there were currently no vehicles on lease.
• Capita was employed to provide advice on investments and borrowing and, in the current financial climate, it was more prudent to buy vehicles and other assets rather than lease.
• The age profile of the fleet had decreased from 8 years to 7 years. 10 new vehicles had been purchased in the year with 7 more planned for 2017/18.
• The carbon footprint of the fleet had increased slightly as the mileage travelled by the fleet had increased, as had the cost of fuel, although the Aerial Platforms were now fuelled with red diesel.
• The Service had been successful in recruiting to vacant workshop posts which had reduced the outsourcing budget.
• The projects for the next three year period had been updated.
• End of year performance indicators were included, all of which had met or exceeded targets.
• Achievements during the year were set out in the appendix to the Plan. These included the purchase of fire bikes, rescue pumps and the Special Response Unit.

In response to questions on the mileage of the fleet, which had increased significantly from 152,000 in 2015/16 to 192,000 in 2016/17, GC D Cook advised that this was the result of the additional collaboration work, such as co-responding and forced entry, taken on by the Service.

The view was expressed that if the collaboration work was at a cost to the Service, and in terms to the mileage travelled by the fleet it was, than this should be acknowledged and some form of cost recovery should be introduced.

ACO Evans confirmed that in other collaborative arrangements, such as the ICT Shared Service, costs were shared. Other blue-light services were also being charged for premises use. Co-responding was a national pilot and the actual model for delivery in the future had not yet been determined.

The Chair requested that, in reports to the FRA, this was highlighted as an issue as Members had not been aware of the increase in mileage previous to discussing this Plan.

In response to a question on forecasting the fleet maintenance revenue budget, GC Cook explained the difficulties that arose in forecasting maintenance costs, particularly for vehicles aged over 5 years. Even vehicles of the same age could have different faults.

It was acknowledged that, although the age profile of the fleet was decreasing, the Service operated a “long life” policy to extend the life of some equipment and this made it difficult to predict what future revenue costs would be.

The Head of Finance and Treasurer reassured Members that he scrutinised all budgets line by line with the relevant Principal Officer. There had not been a significant overspend or underspend in this area and the budget contained a high level of detail.

Members were advised that this budget could be considered during the budget-setting process.

Information and Communications Technology

ACO Evans referred Members to the summary of the ICT Asset Management Plan provided by the Head of ICT and advised that the annual review of the ICT Shared Service would take place at the Group’s next meeting.

ACO Evans highlighted the following points from the summary:

• The Asset Management Plan detailed the assets of the ICT Shared Service, including networks, hardware and software.
• Work was ongoing to replace the Pharos system with “best of breed” products. The first migration away from Pharos had been the new HR and payroll system, iTrent.
• Projects for the next four years were set out in the Plan. This included work on shared servers and disaster recovery. The procurement of a Wide Area Network, Eastnet, was being led by Cambridgeshire County Council. In the interim period, the life of the current arrangement was planned to be extended to December 2019.
• Security and resilience would also need to be enhanced.
• Server replacements were being planned for 2018. The desktop infrastructure replacement programme (VDI) was coming to an end, with VDI evolution commencing in 2018/19.
• An assessment of cloud-readiness had begun to ensure that the Service was able to utilise cloud technologies and infrastructure.
• The action plan had been updated and revised.

In response to a question, ACO Evans confirmed that iTrent was cloud-based.

Funding for the VDI evolution had not yet been approved to form part of the Capital Programme and would be considered as part of the budget setting process for 2018/19.

It was noted that this was required as the Citrix system currently used by the Service was being discontinued, therefore an upgrade was required.

Land & Buildings

The Head of Finance and Treasurer introduced the Asset Management Plan for Land & Buildings.

He drew Members’ attention to the following points:

• A section on collaboration and the Policing and Crime Act had been included.
• The Service continued to share its stations with the Police, Ambulance Service and other organisations.
• One Public Estate funding had been made available for a feasibility study to be undertaken on a joint blue-light headquarters facility.
• It had now been recognised in the Plan that the unique reference number of properties should be included in the transparency information published by the Service.
• A summary of the Service’s properties was set out in the Plan, including the age profile of the premises. The Service still owned 7 houses and 6 garages. A number of stations were built in the 1960s and 70s and had flat roofs. There was a plan to replace these.
• Re-roofing of the older stations was included in the planned programme of works from 2017/18 to 2020/21, as were the refurbishment of male and female toilets and showers at Luton Fire Station and car parks and drill yards.
• The total water usage for 2016/17 was 7,235 metres cubed against a target of 7,940. A baseline of 7,325 metres cubed had been set for 2017/18.
• The total electricity usage for 2016/17 was 1,146,000 kilowatts per hour against a benchmark of 1,131,000 kilowatts per hour.
• The total gas usage for 2016/17 was 161,000 metres cubed against a benchmark of 192,000 metres cubed.
• There was no gas supply at Bedford or Stopsley.
• Fluctuations in usage were investigated.
• Options for the monitoring of usage were being considered to determine whether this task should be kept in house or outsourced.

In response to a question, the Head of Finance and Treasurer confirmed that all fluctuations in utility usage were investigated. The water usage in Control was much higher in 2016/17 than during the previous year and this was most likely due to the refurbishment of the Control Room in 2015/16 which meant that the area was not fully staffed during that year.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the updated Asset Management Plans for Fleet & Transport, Information & Communications Technology and Land & Buildings be approved.

2.    That consideration be given at the next Chair’s briefing to the scheduling of Asset Management Plans in future years.

3.    That the Group receive the Asset Management Strategy at a future meeting.

4.    That the Group be provided with an update on the investigations into the fluctuations of utility usage in stations/premises at a future meeting.