Decision details

The Cabinet was invited to consider:

Ø  a proposal to relocate the data centre to the civic suite car park to assist in planning for the complete redesign of the Council house complex and to improve efficiency and capacity; and

Ø  proposed changes to basement storage facilities in Church Hill House to rationalise storage space in order to assist with the Council House refurbishment project.

The Director of Resources advised that the data centre formed an essential part of the Council’s IT infrastructure, housing serves and storage equipment that run software process and store data for the Council. He advised that it was key to ensuring business continuity for all services within the Council. The report detailed the risks to the data centre especially relating to the Church Hill House refurbishment project. The report set out the recommended action, the costs and evaluation of alternative options. The Director also drew Members attention to the energy savings which could be accrued.

With regard to the rationalisation of the basement storage facilities within Church Hill House, the Director advised Cabinet of the current arrangements and the reasons why changes were necessary, along with the associated costs and the proposed solution.

In receiving the report Members asked how many people would be affected by the loss of car parking, whether security issues had been considered and had the risk of flooding been taken into consideration in relation to the storage of paper files. The Director advised that 16 people currently had parking permits for this area, and they would be accommodated elsewhere, security for the area had been taken on board, as had the risk of flooding in the storage area for the paper files.

RESOVED:

(i)  That the relocation of the data centre to the first floor of the Civic Suite car park as set out in Appendix A to the report be approved;

(ii)   That the plans to rationalise basement storage space within Church Hill House as set out in Appendix B to the report be approved;

(iii)   That the prudential borrowing of up to £900,000 for the data centre project and up to £300,000 for the basement storage project, which allowed for contingencies be approved; and

(iv)  That the changes to the Council’s energy budgets and IT revenue budget as set out in the appendices to the reports be approved.