Agenda item - Public Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by members of the public:

(a)      Petitions: to receive any petitions presented by members of the public to the full Council or as notified for presentation at the meeting by the due of (10 days)

(b)      Written Questions: to receive any questions submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 15 March 2019

(i)            King Alfred – Ms V Paynter

(c)      Deputations: to receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 15 March 2019.

137(a) Petitions

137.1  There were none

137(b) Written Questions

137.2  One question was received.

            Ms V Paynter asked the following question:

Cllrs at PRG have - at some length - complained about and questioned the progress of the King Alfred Development Agreement.  It prompts the question in my mind:  how long should it take to formulate, agree & sign a Development Agreement after bids are awarded?

            The Chair gave the following response:

The procurement regulations do not specify the length of time which can be spent settling an agreement following the conclusion of a competitive dialogue procedure. The length of time it takes therefore depends on the circumstances of the project and the extent to which there are outstanding matters at the conclusion of the dialogue.

At the time of Crest Nicholson’s selection in 2016, it had been hoped that the development agreement would be entered into within 6 month. This was known to be a challenging timetable for a complex project such as the King Alfred but one that both parties were keen to achieve. Unfortunately, financial viability problems prevented this. Since that time the Council and Crest have worked to address these challenges, culminating in the December 2018 and January 2019 reports to the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee through which the 30^th March 2019 deadline for signing the development agreement was agreed.

137.3  Ms Paynter asked the following supplementary:

Have any lessons been learnt over the long delay, and could things have been done differently?

            The Chair gave the following response:

No one at the Council is particularly happy with the length of time it has taken to get to this point, and we would have expected at this stage to have gone through public engagement and that planning was being applied for so the development could start. The lesson I have learnt is not to enter into any agreement which was ultimately reliant on the decision of a conservative government during a Brexit period.