All those present at the meeting stood in silence in memory of those people who lost their lives at the recent Grenfell Tower fire in London. 

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interest received.

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting of the General Purposes Committee held on 24 May 2010 be noted for signature by the Chair.  This had been the last time the Committee had been required to meet. 

To consider the exclusion of the press and public for the following items of business on the ground that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

By Virtue of Paragraph 3: Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

Condition:

Information is not exempt if it is required to be registered under-

The Companies Act 1985

The Friendly Societies Act 1974

The Friendly Societies Act 1992

The Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 1978

The Building Societies Act 1986 (recorded in the public file of any building society, within the meaning of the Act)

The Charities Act 1993

Information is exempt to the extent that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Information is not exempt if it relates to proposed development for which the local planning authority may grant itself planning permission pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Town & Country Planning General Regulations 1992(a).

Councillor Marion Lowe proposed, Councillor June Molyneaux seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the disclosure of exempt information as defined by paragraph 3 of Part 1 of schedule 12A to the Local Government Act.

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 16.GP.13