Agenda item

Report No CAB/FH/16/007

Portfolio Holder: James Waters Lead Officer: Alex Wilson

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL (24 February 2016):

That:-

1. Progress on the Mildenhall Hub project and the next steps set out in Section 1.6 of Report No CAB/FH/16/007 be noted and approved; specifically that

2. The updated 2015 business case be approved for use in the design stage of the project, alongside any adopted Development Brief.

3. The Director, in consultation with the Leader, be authorised to negotiate, prepare and sign a partnership agreement for the project, provided it is consistent with the business case and the framework set out in this report.

4. A further budget of £100,000, be funded from the Delivering the Strategic Priorities and MTFS Reserve, to meet Forest Heath’s share of project management and development costs, be approved; and

5. The Director be authorised to approve spending from this budget, in consultation with the Leader.

(Report No CAB/FH/16/007)

The Director presented this report which updated the Cabinet on the Mildenhall Hub Project, including a revised Business Case (Appendix 1) and also sought approval to move to the next (design) stage of the project, subject to the outcome of the public consultation on the Development Brief (as previously considered under Report No CAB/FH/16/006).

The revised Business Case set out the latest requirements of the partners and there had been several key changes since the 2014 version of the Business Case, which materially affected the project in scope and delivery and these changes were set out in paragraph 1.3.2 of the report.

The Director explained that it had not been possible to bring the final Business Case to the Cabinet at this stage, due to the Mildenhall Academy funding announcement (under the Priority Schools Building Programme) being deferred to at least Spring 2016. Therefore, the full financial Business Case would be presented to the Cabinet and Council later in the year.

If the Cabinet supported the proposal to move ahead to the design stage of the project, then the next steps for the Council would be:

(a) The Local Planning Authority would complete work on preparing the Development Brief which must be adopted for the project to proceed.

(b) The partners would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (or equivalent) legal document to create a partnership agreement for the project.

(c) Pre-application investigations and studies would be carried out, including design of traffic schemes.

(d) A design and project management team would be appointed to take the project to a developed design capable of achieving planning consent in accordance and a final cost estimate.

(e) A detailed financial business case would be presented and approved by the partners (including FHDC Council), so that the project could proceed.

(f) The submission of a planning application (involving further public consultation and provided a Development Brief was adopted).

To move the project forward, the Council would also need to set aside further funding to cover its share of the design costs and planning application processes and therefore, £100,000 of additional funding was also being sought, subject to approval by full Council.

With the vote being unanimous, it was

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL: (24 February 2016)