Issue - meetings

The report of the Executive Manager – Transformation

The Chairman provided a brief outline of the Councils ambition to relocate the depot to a more suitable site, bringing the land at Abbey Road forward for housing development. He continued to explain to the Group what is required from them by way of scrutiny, to ensure the project is delivered as expected. The Chairman highlighted the aspirations of Cabinet and Council for the delivery of a showcase development of new high quality housing that would be an example to other developers in the market of what can be achieved.

The Executive Manager – Transformation delivered a presentation that provided the Group with information on the Cabinet recommendations, the Council’s objectives, design code and the progress to date.

The Executive Manager - Transformation reported the progress made in respect of the Cabinet recommendations on 9 October 2018 as follows:

a)    Agrees that officers undertake the necessary work to submit an outline planning application for housing on the Abbey Road site, accompanied by a design code.

b)    Dependant on an appropriate planning permission for the site being secured, authorises the Deputy Chief Executive to undertake a marketing exercise for the disposal of the site with the benefit of planning permission for housing.

c)    Requests a follow up report with the results of the marketing exercise and detailing any other options for the Council to consider with regards to the future development of the site.

And subsequent Cabinet recommendation on 9 July 2019 as follows:

a)    Authorises the Chief Executive to shortlist the developer bids and undertake appropriate due diligence to arrive at a preferred bidder.

b)    Requests a follow up report providing details of the preferred bid for further consideration with regard to the future development of the site.

The Executive Manager – Transformation continued to advise the Group that Cabinet supported appointing an architect to prepare a housing scheme with focus on high quality design, including 30% affordable housing. In appendices attached to the report the Executive Manager – Transformation  provided the Group with a Masterplan, which included specific design standards and illustrative examples of how the housing may look. These included:

·         Minimum house sizes

·         Building for Life Standards

·         Off road parking and cycle storage

·         Roof top gardens

·         Level access

·         Central open space

·         Non-standard house type, using different elevations styles and materials

The Executive Manager – Transformation informed the Group that these documents formed part of the outline planning application and that planning permission was granted in June 2019. The site was marketed and 17 offers were received, 9 that mostly met the criteria of the Design Code and Masterplan with the highest offers were shortlisted. The shortlisted developers were asked to prepare a second bid based on revised Design Codes to include a list of energy efficiencies, which was provided for the Group to view in a separate appendix with the report. The Executive Manager – Transformation advised that from the 9 shortlisted, 4 developers, who met the additional criteria have been selected for interview and the preferred  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3