Agenda item

To consider the following transformation related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 11 November 2020:

·       Estate and Accommodation Project

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 Drew Mellor, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation

The Cabinet report is attached for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Estate and Accommodation Project - The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Finance introduced the report, a copy of which had been circulated and which appears as Appendix ‘I’ to the Cabinet minutes of 11 November in the Minute Book. A number of issues were raised by the Board in the subsequent discussion, including:

·     A Councillor raised the issue that the original figure of £29million was agreed cross party before the pandemic and the way that the Council responded to it and that the figure for the project three or four months ago had already reduced to about £10million pounds and clarified that the reduction from the original figure to the now £6million figure did not happen overnight.

·     A Board member asked about the decoupling of the civic space from the office space with no indication of what the cost, timeline and impact would be of this work. The public entrance and mayor’s parlour was part of the commitment to make the whole site fully disabled friendly and the Leader of the Council was asked how this would be impacted. The Leader advised that Councillors would be consulted on about this space and a hybrid option would be developed. The Leader also confirmed that disabled access was being championed and he would be working on solutions to this issue.

·     A Councillor queried what would be happening to the annex as it was referred to in one area of the report and then seemed to be omitted in others. It was expected that all staff would fit into the town hall footprint while this is being considered he Town Hall Annex would be retained.

·     The Portfolio Holder was questioned on the choices provided to staff for where people may choose to work, originally there was an intention that staff could work from hubs, at home or in the new civic centre. The Board was advised that the Council would be developing a hybrid option for working with. There was still very much an ambition to have drop in areas for staff within the libraries.

·     A Board Member raised concerns about the financing for the project to borrowing and that a lot of this did not appear to be investment but was in fact restructuring and change. The Leader advised that this deliver a £700k net benefit largely due to maintenance costs.

·     In response to a query about the disposal of the sites the Leader advised that the disposal of the sites was not already decided and there were a number of different options for how the sites could be taken forward at present.

·     A Councillor commented that he welcomed a considered view on the development of the strategy and that a quick sale of the sites may not release best value and that these issues need to be looked at carefully. The Leader agreed with this and commented that he didn’t feel that a quick sale would be best value and want to get long term value for the assets.

·     A Councillor raised concern with line in the report regarding disposal of the whole of the civic centre as this was never previously approved by Cabinet or the agreed intention. Disposal of the site figures previously used were purely on principle and whatever route which the previous administration would have gone down would also have delivered best value as this was a legal requirement. The Corporate Director advised that the paper had been in development for some time. The language in paragraphs 54 / 54a regarding the release or repurposing of some sites had evolved over 12 months and through two different administrations. The original paper quoting £29million costs to redevelop the town hall would have required the disposal of assets, the June paper was update to reflect that the sites may be disposed or repurposed and the latest paper reflects the most recent changes.

·     A Councillor raised concerns that there was practically no mention within the paper of the environmental impacts of the proposed decision or anything relating to the impact of the improved IT systems. The Portfolio Holder advised that the IT issues would be covered within the transformation paper which would be coming to the following Cabinet meeting. The Corporate Director of Resources advised that he would be happy to provide a written response to the Councillors comments which could be shared with the Board. (See Action Sheet).