Agenda item

The Chairman presented this report and set out the position to date.  The Barbican Residents Consultation Committee of 12 March had received a report recommending the installation of a fibre-optic system to replace the existing five wire integrated reception system (IRS). 

The Barbican Residential Committee of 26 March 2012 resolved, that:

1.    The Comptroller and City Solicitor be instructed to commence negotiations with Vision Holdings and draft a set of Contract Terms and Conditions.

2.    That the Terms and Conditions be approved by the Residents’ Consultation Committee.

3.    That, subject to (2) above, the final details of the contracts be delegated to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Barbican Residential Committee, in consultation with the Town Clerk, Comptroller and City Solicitor and the Director of Community and Children’s Services. 

The Chairman advised that the issues raised at the last meeting in respect of the Term Sheet, had been largely resolved.  Since that meeting, the Working Party had been looking at the Core Service KPI’s.  As several members of the Group have a very high level of technical expertise, the Chairman suggested and Members agreed, that it should continue in order to oversee the KPI’s. (Names of the Working Group Members can be seen at Appendix 1 to these Minutes)

A resident from Defoe House Group tabled a set of proposed approval conditions, appended at Appendix 2 to these Minutes.  Residents were asked to note specifically the requirement for  ‘an agreement of 66% of the Working Group that the KPIs are reasonable and protect the interests of the resident adequately; RCC decision required if a Working Group consensus cannot be achieved.’

The Chairman agreed that this reflected an acceptable commercial consensus and, from recent conversations, was confident that the conditions would be acceptable.  The residents agreed that they addressed their previous concerns.

The following points were raised during questions:

• Most email addresses can be retained and used with the new service; however, if a resident uses an email address provided by their ISP (eg zen, btinternet) then they should be able to retain their address for a nominal on-going charge (typically around £4 per month per mailbox).

·         Consultation will be via the Working Group, House Groups and the Residents’ Consultation Committee; there will not be a ‘ballot’ as such.

·         There will be no liability to residents in the event of a failure.  The old IRS system will not be removed until the new system is installed. 

·         BT owns the copper cable over which phone and dsl services are provided

·         fibre core ring of the current tv system will remain in place, the most  labour intensive (and time consuming) part of installing the new system is replacement of the risers.

·         All satellite dishes will be retained as a back-up.

·         Concero will be in regular contact with the City of London to ensure thorough testing and that all conditions are met.  Following agreement to the term sheet, a letter of intent would be issued to VFM to begin the design of the system. Commencement is expected in January 2013 but this may lapse a little.

It was Proposed by Jane Smith; Seconded by Chris Mounsey and agreed unanimously, that: 

The Head Terms Sheet at Appendix 1 to the Report be approved, subject to the final contract being conditional on the additional terms set out in Appendix 2 to these Minutes.