Agenda item

Lansdowne Programme

The recent change in leadership of the Council has resulted in a review of the Lansdowne Programme by the relevant Portfolio Holders and officers. The outcome, which is supported by consultation responses gathered over the life of the Programme, is that there should continue to be a focus on delivering high quality public realm improvements to Holdenhurst Road, whilst also allowing access to all traffic.

This revised scheme for Phase 1 of the Lansdowne Programme remains focused on the heart of Lansdowne and aims to deliver benefits to the area that help to deliver the long-term vision the Council and other stakeholders have for this part of Bournemouth.

The revised scheme is at preliminary design stage. This design requires approval from Cabinet to enable it to progress quickly towards detailed design and then delivery.

Decision:

RESOLVED that Cabinet:-

(a) approves the preliminary design of the revised scheme, enabling the Programme Team to progress the detailed design and begin early contractor engagement;

(b) notes that significant public and stakeholder consultation has taken place over the last 5 years, resulting in the preliminary design appended to this report;

(d) delegates authority to the Director of Development, as Senior Responsible Officer for the Lansdowne Programme, in consultation with the relevant Portfolio Holder(s), to:

- progress the detailed design

- approve the final design

- start early contractor engagement

- move to delivery phase, subject to the Traffic Regulation Order process

Voting: Nem. Con. (2 abstentions)

Portfolio Holder: Regeneration, Economy and Strategic Planning

(Councillors M Greene and N Greene declared disclosable interests in respect of this item and refrained from participating in the discussion and voting thereon.)

Reasons

By Cabinet approving these recommendations, it will enable the Programme Team to move the scheme through the preliminary design phase to detailed design and on to delivery.

This will facilitate delivery of phase 1 of the Lansdowne Programme relating to improvements along Holdenhurst Road, the outskirts of Lansdowne Roundabout and Meyrick Road (north).

It will also ensure expenditure of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership funding in line with the required timelines.

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Economy and Strategic Planning presented a report and additional addendum sheet, copies of which had been circulated to each Member and copies of which appear as Appendix 'D' and ‘E’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

In presenting the report the Portfolio Holder thanked the Overview and Scrutiny for their robust discussion at their recent meeting and highlighted that the addendum sheet sought to address the points raised.

Further to this Cabinet were advised that the recent change in leadership of the Council had resulted in a review of the Lansdowne Programme by the relevant Portfolio Holders and officers. The outcome of which is supported by consultation responses gathered over the life of the Programme that there should continue to be a focus on delivering high quality public realm improvements to Holdenhurst Road, whilst also allowing access to all traffic.

Cabinet were informed that this revised scheme for Phase 1 of the Lansdowne Programme remains focused on the heart of Lansdowne and aims to deliver benefits to the area that help to deliver the long-term vision the Council and other stakeholders have for this part of Bournemouth, and that the revised scheme was at preliminary design stage, and that this design required approval from Cabinet to enable it to progress quickly towards detailed design and then delivery.

In respect of the changes that had been made to the scheme the Portfolio Holder advised that it was still hoped that pedestrianisation for the area would be able to be achieved in the future.

Further to this the Portfolio Holder thanked the Lead Member for equalities for looking at the equalities impact assessment which still required further work.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board addressed Cabinet, expressing thanks that the decisions from the Board as set out below had been dealt with in the published addendum:

The Overview and Scrutiny Board resolved that:

1. Officers be requested to review the cabinet report and amend it accordingly in light of concerns raised by the Board regarding the inclusion of all options for the programme within the report.

Note: The board also raised further concerns regarding the accuracy of Appendix A to the report and that there wasn’t further detail included with the report on the risk register.

2. The administration be urged to publish the results of the consultation in advance of the Cabinet meeting on November 11 broken down to reveal the views of respondents including business and local stakeholders.

The Leader highlighted the tight timescale and the Portfolio Holder advised that the timeframe hasn’t changed and that in order to ensure that this could be met only a limited number of changes had been made to the scheme, and there was a high level of confidence that the timeframe would be met.