Agenda item

(Report Ref SC049)

RECOMMENDATION:

It is recommended that scrutiny committee comment on the proposals within the attached cabinet report, ref CAB3303 which is to be considered by cabinet at its meeting on the 21 July 2021.

Scrutiny report reference SC049

Cabinet report reference CAB3303

The Head of Programme: Central Winchester Regeneration introduced the report and provided members with a presentation that covered the following aspects of the project; the business case, the strategic outline case, the delivery options long list, Kings Walk and the next steps.

The Committee proceeded to ask questions and debate the application in detail and in summary, the following matters were raised.

Project Risks and Mitigations:

• the identified risk relating to potential legal challenge and the council’s mitigation plans
• the measures to mitigate developers delay and incentives to encourage drawdown of sites
• the identified risk relating to “Pushback from the neighbouring landlords”
• the risk of future development partners altering the planned phasing
• how the council manages the two roles of Local Planning Authority (LPA) and Landowner

Costs and Expenditure:

• the management of project costs including consultancy expenditure
• availability of external funding sources
• the adequacy of the budget for works at Kings Walk
• whether there was a breakdown of consultancy expenditure?

Member and Public Engagement

• future member involvement in developing project “red lines” and the potential future involvement of full council
• the plans for future public engagement

Physical aspects of the regeneration

• the archaeology of the site and associated issues such as soil samples and the formation of the archaeology group
• facilities for families within the regeneration site
• the provision of a new bus station and the options regarding the wider bus infrastructure
• the impact on the night-time economy
• the cultural/heritage experience within the plans
• how to reduce cases of anti-social behaviour
• whether officers were aware of any plans for the St Clements surgery site?
• The expiry dates for Kings Walk leases

Project Management

• how would the council measure progress against plans and established success criteria?
• the merits of the proposed development agreement approach
• whether the requirements within the Supplementary Planning Document could be met within the existing red lines?
• how could sustainability be given greater weighting in partner selection?
• the possibility of specialist developers being utilised underneath the main development partner.

These points were responded to by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Asset Management, officers, and representatives from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) accordingly.

The committee agreed to move into exempt session to consider the exempt appendix to the report before returning to open session to debate the report further and to agree the recommendations as set out below.

RESOLVED:

The Committee agreed the following comments be passed to Cabinet.

1. The committee wished to emphasise the following aspects of the project:

·         That the archaeological elements were significant and should be at its core, Members recommended the archaeological group be reconvened by autumn 2021

·         The wider cultural offer should be at the heart of the project and ensure that the family offering is kept in mind

2. The committee supported the formation of a cross-party advisory group and that the following issues could form part of its work plan:

·         Understanding the “red lines” and supporting development of the outline business case

·         Reviewing expenditure on external fees and understanding likely future costs to deliver the project

3. That scrutiny committee be given opportunity to review progress of the project, particularly

·         Review the overall governance of the project

·         Scrutiny to be conducted in a timelier manner for future cabinet papers.

·         Understand how separation of duties with developer and planning would be maintained

and that full council be given an opportunity to consider the matter in due course