Meeting documents

Members received a report which contained the final business case for the design and construction of the redevelopment of Gerrards Cross Police Station scheme and sought Members approval to progress the project. Planning permission was issued on 17 August 2018 subject to 22 conditions, of which 10 had to be discharged prior to commencement. The redevelopment would be for 34 apartments, of which 20 would be private rent apartments and 14 affordable rent apartments to meet the 40% affordable housing requirement.

The current estimated cost was £8.3m as set out in section 6 of the report. Mitigation measures had been arranged to minimise the risk of: asbestos removal; ecology (bat); contamination; statutory services; planning conditions to discharge. The cost did not include project risks such as archaeology, ordinance, judicial review cost and de-contamination beyond the provisional sum allowance.

The Next steps were outlined in point 17.1 of the report with the ultimate completion and handover scheduled for 1 May 2020.

The PAG was advised that the business case estimated the development would break even in year 12 and start to turn a profit from there. Members agreed that this was an exciting project which would meet the Council’s affordable housing aspiration and benefit residents.

It was clarified that a housing association would receive a management fee built in to the planned costs of approximately £60k and as part of that agreement the housing association would be responsible for any damage caused to properties.

Members queried the increase in cost prediction from June 2018. It was explained that the finalised figures included figures for dealing with the mitigation measures as noted above and a further contingency sum of £200k was included. It was added that a further asbestos survey would be completed to establish the extent and instruct removal measures. Thames Valley Police had agreed to pay up to £200k of any de-contamination costs.

The PAG was clear that overspend on the project should not occur unless absolutely unavoidable. The PAG was advised that once the agreement had been signed with the contractor the majority of risks then became their responsibility which would avoid unexpected cost increases to the Council.

It was explained that as it was intended that the property would be held in order to make a financial return, the Council were required to do this via a company. It was therefore proposed to dispose of the development to Consilio Property Limited, a wholly owned company set up by SBDC, once it was completed.

Note 2: Councillor Dhillon left the meeting at 7.01 p.m.