Agenda item

Prior to the introduction of the report, the Chair, Councillor Austen White wished to stress that despite a rather sad story of poor management of this project, together with the problems that had arisen and which remained, this had been a very effective and well delivered project, and he felt that it was important not to lose sight of this.  Members were advised that progress had been made following the publication of this report, and the current situation looked a lot differently today.

Tracey Harwood, Acting Assistant Director of Environment updated members on the progress made, stating that she echoed the comments made by the Chair, reporting that Smart Light had delivered an effective scheme and wished to advise that it was important to note that energy savings had exceeded what was originally forecast. Tracey advised Committee that work had been carried out within the last 2-3 weeks on developing a recovery plan for the scheme which included:-

·         Existing lighting classifications – possibility of dimming lights in specific areas and specific times.

·         Smarter Town Centre Lighting

·         Reviewing inventory and installation

It was also advised that further negotiations were taking place with Urbis the suppliers of the lamps to find a solution for the laps ordered but not yet supplied, i.e. for them to be supplied to another local authority. It was noted that whilst the situation was not favourable, the service were confident that the budget pressure had been heavily reduced through the introduction of the recovery plan to £50k.Other action to reduce the excess stock included holding some stock as spares and allowing for future housing and other commercial developments in the borough.

Members were afforded the opportunity to make comments and ask questions as follows:-

Councillor Iris Beech asked whether there was the possibility of dimming the lights as she felt especially within her ward lights appeared to be brighter than they needed to be. Dave Wilkinson reported that the first priority was to install the lights, following that the light levels can be assessed and through the intelligent software dimming lights can be achieved. He also stressed that if there was an emergency like a road traffic accident at night, the lighting could be brightened to assist the emergency services.

In reference to the phase 1 audit review, Kathryn Smart asked whether all the recommendations had been clearly understood. It was reported that all apart from 1 had been dealt with and taken on board, which was around only ordering to specific need. Due to the 6 week lead in time from the requesting of the lights to the delivery and the design teams being understaffed, some lamp orders had been estimated. Kathryn asked whether there were appropriate programme/project management in place to mitigate. It was advised that this was in place but not to the extent it should have been.

Further discussion took place in relation to safeguards and lessons that should be learned from this project for the future and whilst this was considered to be a large oversight, officers had worked hard to mitigate the overall impact which was now considered considerably smaller than from the time the report was initially produced.

Councillor Houlbrook stated that £100,000 was a massive amount of money at a time when the Council was trying to cut back with its finances. It was reported that the Council needed to look forward to the future and it was very positive that the Smartlight Project was in place, however it was a large oversight which obviously wasn’t intentional.

Councillor Houlbrook commented that there needed to be lessons learned to make sure this never happened again as it was embarrassing that this amount of money had been overspent.

Councillor Joe Blackham was in attendance at the meeting and wished to state that there had been a systematic failure in the project which had been poorly managed. The lessons had been learnt and there should not be a repeat of working in silos in the future.

The Vice-Chair, Councillor R A Jones asked whether street lighting can be adjusted in order to reduce costs. Members were advised that the lamps were self- reporting, they are automatically pre-programmed and if there was an issue then these would be manually changed. It was reported that the Central Management System (CMS) was currently programmed to have savings of £1.4m per annum.

The Chair noted that discussions were taking place with the supplier Urbis. He asked whether all the lamps were bespoke to Doncaster or could they be used elsewhere. Alternative can we return to Urbis and pay a restocking charge. In relation to the orders stated at page 97 of the report, he asked what the reason was for the difference between what was ordered and what was delivered. Officers advised that once the problems were detected, the orders for the lamps were ceased which was the reason for the difference and in relation to discussions with Urbis regarding the stock, it was stated that following further negotiations, officers will be in a position to provide the Committee with a full update at its October meeting.

RESOLVED that the contents of the report and the action taken as a result be noted.