Decision Reference Number: WPC3-0115
Lead Officer: Raja Khan
Chief Officer approval: Ben Smith
Date: 24/01/2024
Status: Non-confidential
Decision summary:
Replacement primary boilers and hot water cylinders at Leek Wootton HQ. Removal of the existing district heating system.
I confirm that my register of interests declaration is up to date and that none of my interests preclude me from making this decision.
Signature: Philip Seccombe TD
Date: 25/01/24
Supporting information
1. Background information
The existing buildings at Leek Wootton are provided heating and hot water via a dated district heating system with a primary boiler plant located within the workshop building plantroom. The district heating system has had a number of failures over the last 5 years which has resulted in decanted buildings coming off the network. This includes the training block and accommodation blocks both of which remain empty.
Currently, the district heating system provides heating and hot water to Woodcote House, 60s block, stables block and the workshop block. Should a failure to the below ground pipework occur again or any of the obsolete boilers fail then the site will have no heating or hot water and will either need to close temporarily or find alternative methods of heating / hot water to maintain function.
It is recommended that the site designs out its need for the district heating system which is inefficient and has had a number of leaks over the last 5 years. There will be significant benefit in separating the buildings to have their own services. This includes a dedicated boiler plant for the stables block, workshop block and the 60s block. The 60s block plantroom will also serve Woodcote House.
The new plant will ensure significantly increased resilience across the site in the event of failure. The new boilers will also allow for better user control, varying occupancy times (rather than a blanket setting for the whole site) and improved efficiency of plant which will improve running costs and carbon consumption.
A full boiler room plant replacement is recommended to the workshop building and the stables building with updated automatic controls to ensure heating and hot water is provided to the building moving forward. The 60s building will have a new plantroom.
A design specification has been prepared which will be tendered to three or four contractors on the open market. A full tender evaluation will occur with a recommendation to enter into contract with a single contractor to deliver the entire scheme as one project. The public contracts regulations 2015 threshold for works projects is much higher than Goods or services (£5,336,937 vs. £213,477) therefore an open advertised tender is not legally required for a works project of this value.
The project works will be occurring March 2024 – July 2024. During this period temporary boilers will be provided to maintain the buildings.
2. List of additional information attached as appendices
Tender specification available and tender recommendation report will be prepared upon completion of the procurement exercise.
3. Expected benefits
- Provision of adequate heating capacity and increased hot water capacity to each building with independent heating plant.
- Maintain adequate heating throughout with better controls including new
TRV’s to all radiators.
- Significantly improved efficiency boilers, reducing running costs.
- Resilient system with increased product warranties on the primary plant such as boilers, hot water cylinders, pumps and controls.
4. Impact of not approving the application
- Inadequate heating should one of the primary boilers fail or the district pipework fail.
- Primary plant is now obsolete. Increased risk of failure which would have an impact to the whole site.
- Officers and staff will need to be moved to other locations whilst temporary heating and hot water is provided should the current boiler plant fail.
- Inability to repair any further plant due to the age, condition and availability of spares.
5. Costs (including any identified savings)
The project costs will be defined once the project is tendered on the open market. A budget of £700,000 has been earmarked for the works, in addition to a further £60,000.00 for the Design / Survey costs and £23,500.00 for the Project Management costs. These costs will be met from within the current budget and capital programme.
6. Equality considerations
Non identified.
7. Legal comments
The contract to be tendered under a full commercial JCT tender process.
8. Social or Environmental considerations
The OPCC has a duty of care to provide Police Staff, Officers and public visiting the station to adequate space heating and hot water. .
9. Publication
Information in this form is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI Act) and other legislation. Unless the information provided is covered by an exemption and stated to be either confidential or partly confidential, the information contained in the form will be published on the OPCC website.
Comments from the Treasurer
These costs will be met from within the planned capital programme.
Comments from the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer
This replacement boiler is part of the planned maintenance work for Leek Wootton to ensure efficiencies.
