Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Business, Development and Growth.

Councillor Graham Dunn, Executive Member (Homes and Housing) presented the report of the Director (Business, Development and Growth).  The decision to proceed with the scheme had been taken in September 2016 with the detail of the proposals.

The report provided an update, including the detailed design, cost schedule and construction timetable.  The report sought approval to enter into a Design and Build contract with Eric Wright Construction.

Background

The Council had entered into a Pre-Contract Services Agreement in 2017, in order to enable the detailed design work and site enabling works to progress, pending the development of a suite of contractor’s proposals, accurate cost schedule and also a Design and Build contract. 

All of the preparatory work had now been completed by the design team, working with the Council to finalise the design requirements, and a cost schedule had been produced and audited by Pick Everard.  Pick Everard had undertaken a thorough process of due diligence on the cost schedule.

An external legal specialist, Hill Dickinson had been instructed to draft a fixed price contract, which provided minimum risk to the Council.  This meant that all risk lay with Eric Wright and that following the detailed cost analysis undertaken, the Council could be satisfied that the price paid represented value for money, would deliver a high quality scheme and would not increase.

Primrose Gardens had evolved from the initial outline design with the main contractor engaged to develop the design and assisting in drawing up a set of contract proposals.  As the design process evolved the original cost schedule of £9.1m was reviewed and developed into a more accurate reflection of actual costs required to deliver the scheme.  This resulted in an increase in costs of £787k of which £292k, and a revised design and build budget of £9.394m, was reported to the Leader and Chief Officers in February 2017.  The Council had at that time secured additional funding from the HCA to cover the then £292k increase in costs. Additional costs of £8k for the purchase of the site and £50k for the Furniture, Fittings and Equipment have also been identified. The total proposed budget for the scheme would now be £10.59mill up from £9.75mill an increase of £0.84mill.

The further amendments to the project were transparent and justified as they would deliver a scheme which went above and beyond minimum requirements, with the most significant investment being the fire suppression system to keep tenants safe and meet expectations in terms of the quality and standard of the building.

Fire Strategy

The initial fire strategy proposal had been based on a ‘stay and defend’ basis with no suppression system at all.  This met with all necessary building regulations, however, it was less common in new schemes and those of this size.  Most extra care schemes, including those recently developed by Eric Wright, had fire suppression or mist systems installed. 

The Council’s insurers were asked to comment on the proposed fire strategy and strongly recommended that a suppression system be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13