Property Plus for Self-Help Projects

For your self-financed building projects you can commission the Council’s in-house Property Services team which include the design, specification and implementation of works executed on your behalf in respect of any alteration, energy conservation, improvement and refurbishment projects that are to be financed by yourselves.

This has the following benefits:

• You have control of the services you wish to commission;
• The commission includes free initial viability assessments;
• Compilation of all required specifications and drawings by building professionals;
• Assistance in making all necessary legislation approval submissions;
• Access to specialist contract administration advice; and
• Supervision of contractors on site.

If you request any work to be undertaken, then a quotation in respect of professional fees will be presented to you in writing at the time the project brief is discussed.

Where a time-related service such as supervision only is required a fee of £55 per hour will be charged (by agreement on a target number of hours normally).

Property Service Desk Support

The Property Service Desk provided by Buckinghamshire Council is available:

• During normal working hours (Monday – Friday 8.00am - 5.00pm)
• Out-of-hours phone calls for emergencies are also monitored and responded to.

For the majority of enquiries to the Service Desk managed via ServiceNow (call management system) enabling you to:

• Raise requests with detailed descriptions of the type and location of the problem.
• For all emergency situations at any time the Property Service Desk should be contacted on 01296 383238.

The Property Service Desk will:

• Diagnose your call;
• Request your name, job title and full school name with postcode;
• Require a detailed description of the type and location of the problem to be addressed,
• Prioritise the work in terms of urgency;
• Approve simple tasks to allow works to be conducted asap; and
• Inform you on how your call is being treated.

In some cases an enquiry may require a more detailed technical investigation so you would then be contacted back by either a Building Surveyor or, if a services issue, a Services Engineer who has been specifically assigned to your enquiry to support in more complex building maintenance issues. A site visit may be arranged if necessary.

When available the New Customer Portal will allow you to:

• View your site’s own unique PPM schedules;
• Access key documentation about your site;
• Log and track reactive your maintenance requests; and
• Access your site’s maintenance certification.