Issue - meetings

Councillor Williamson, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Financial Sustainability, presented a report on the Old River Lane Business Plan. He ran through the history of the project from when the Council bought the site five and a half years ago and the council have shaped and refined its ambition and vision for the site to be a complete regeneration of the Old River Lane area to drive footfall into the area and revitalise the local economy by welcoming people into the town. The plans have progressed and have been presented to Council at various key stages however, at the Council meeting in January, members were asked to look again as several factors have emerged over the last 12 months which have impacted the plans. One change is in the financing of the main site as the plans did allow for residential and commercial units with an agreed buy back model for the Council to retain full ownership as the landlord and receive rental income. However, the government changed the rules on borrowing so that local authorities could no longer get lending for projects primarily for yield and this had made this option unavailable. The Council recognised that the only option was to sell the leasehold to Cityhold and would receive the leasehold receipts. This outcome has the merit of reducing the council’s overall borrowing requirement for the project. Council approved the revised scope for the project in January which removed the auditorium as an increase in costs and the reduced ability for subsidising the project was no longer viable and the future financial burden was unaffordable.

Councillor Williamson said that removing some of the residential and community elements made significant savings on the build costs. The capital requirements had fallen from £23.5 million to £15.5 million with a return on investment increased from £4.1 million to £6.9 million. The redesign of the scheme has included extra care housing on the scheme which would add £700k to the capital receipts.

Councillor Williamson said there had been a lot of comment around further consultation with stakeholders and the community therefore he amended the wording of recommendation 1 to:

“That Council approve that Officers proceed with the delivery of the Old River Lane Arts Centre development and the Old River Lane Main Scheme development, as set out in this report and on the basis of the financial viability demonstrated in the business case and that through the detailed design and planning stages public engagement and statutory consultation will be undertaken.”

Councillor Williamson proposed the two recommendations with the amendment to recommendation one. Councillor E Buckmaster seconded the recommendations and reserved his right to speak.

Councillor Goldspink felt the amended recommendation did not go far enough and therefore proposed an amendment to recommendation one and was seconded by Councillor Wilson and reserved his right to speak. The amendment was as follows:

“That Council approve that Officers proceed with the delivery of the Old River Lane Arts Centre development and the Old River Lane  ...  view the full minutes text for item 435