Agenda item

To consider the following Corporate related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 12 February 2020:

•   Organisation Design – Estates Strategy

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Vikki Slade, Leader of the Council.

The Cabinet report will be published on Tuesday 4 February 2020 and available to view at the following link: https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=285&MId=3726&Ver=4

Organisational Development – Estates and Accommodation Strategy

The Leader of the Council presented the Cabinet report, a copy of which had been circulated and which appears as Appendix F to the Cabinet minutes of 12 February 2020 in the Minute Book.

The Leader explained that since Cabinet had adopted the principle of a single council hub in November 2019 a BCP Estate High Level Hub Options Analysis had been developed. She summarised the key findings as set out in the report. She emphasised that a single civic centre did not mean that the Council was retreating into one place and she talked about the role of community hubs in providing services to residents.

Following an evaluation exercise of three core options, the recycling and refurbishment of the Bournemouth Town Hall complex was considered the most appropriate recommendation for the reasons set out in the report. Although the expected net costs of this recommendation were between £20m - £29m, the Leader clarified that this was not as recently reported a proposal to spend £29m. A further report to Cabinet in June 2020 would include the results of a market pre engagement and evaluation process, a proposed project implementation plan, and budget and funding strategy.

The Leader and the Corporate Director of Resources responded to questions from Board members.

The Leader was asked whether any public consultation had been undertaken on the proposals. She explained that there had been no public consultation at this stage, as the report was a high-level options appraisal.  However, the information gathered from the community engagement survey on how people wanted to engage with the Council would feed into the development of a customer access strategy. This strategy would help to meet the corporate objective of a ‘modern and accessible council’. Decisions on more detailed proposals around service delivery and locations would be subject to further engagement at a later date.

The Leader was asked whether income from the sale of the other core hub sites would be used to fund the preferred option. She explained that the proposed next steps were set out in the report and would be considered alongside the Council’s corporate objectives and the duty to provide best value. The Leader referred to a summary of the implementation approach provided in the report, which set out the key milestones for the project. More detailed information on timescales would be available in Summer 2020. Much depended on the outcome of the procurement process.

The Corporate Director responded to a question on whether the net costs in the report included the community hubs. He explained that the net costs were based on a ‘per square metre’ calculation, which had provided a benchmark when evaluating the three core options. This did not include the community hubs, nor did it purely cover the single civic centre either. It was noted that at each stage of the process decisions would be required on what to spend and when. Many community hubs would already be in Council ownership (e.g. libraries) and associated costs could be met through other means, e.g. the transformation budget.

Board members spoke in support of the recommendations, and it was noted that a similar approach to estates and accommodation had been adopted by other large organisations. The Leader explained that the Council recognised that it needed a strong presence across the BCP area. She acknowledged the points made about dovetailing with the wider estates strategy and the value of engaging with local ward councillors when considering individual hubs. She agreed that the ‘reason for recommendations’ in the report should be amended to align with recommendation (b).

The Chairman suggested that it would be helpful to establish a Working Group, to understand in more detail the rationale behind the in-principle decision and the proposed next steps. The work would probably require one to two meetings and the Group would report back to the O&S Board prior to a further report to Cabinet in June 2020. He was happy to be the lead member and welcomed interest from other Board members who would like to take part.

RESOLVED that the O&S Board establish a Working Group on the Estates and Accommodation Strategy as outlined above.

Voting: Unanimous