Issue - meetings

This report is due to be pre-scrutinised at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee scheduled to take place on 12^th May 2025.  Any recommendations arising from that meeting will be published in a supplementary pack for the consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Regeneration Project Delivery Manager presented the DMIC (Digital Manufacturing and Innovation Centre) Additional Design Costs (AHR Architects Contract Variation) for Members’ consideration.

In doing so, Members were reminded that Redditch had been awarded an investment of £15.6 million in 2021 through the Towns Fund. The investment had been allocated to three projects as follows:

·       Digital Manufacturing Innovation Centre (£8,000,000)

·       Redevelopment of Redditch Library Site (£4,200,000)

·       Redditch Public Realm (£3,000,000)

Due to a change in priorities of the current Council administration, the redevelopment of the Redditch Library site project was no longer progressing. This had resulted in £4,200,000 underspend in the funding allocation. It had subsequently been agreed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) that £3,937,000 of this underspend could be utilised as further funding for the DMIC project. The remaining underspend totalling £263,000 would be allocated to the Public Realm project.

The additional funding would be used to fund an expansion to the DMIC which would require additional design, civil engineering and architecture costs. It was confirmed that the Redditch Town Deal Board had agreed these proposed changes and that contingency funds had also been included in the funding allocation in order to mitigate any potential issues in the future.

The report also requested that the costs for Gardiner and Theobald (G&T) to provide project management services be increased to £250,000.

Members were informed that both AHR Architects and G&T were originally procured within the Procure Partnerships framework. As a result of the changes to the projects this framework has been revisited in conjunction with the Council’s legal and procurement teams. The outcome of this was that both AHR Architects and G&T continued to provide value for money due to prior knowledge of the projects.

Following the presentation of the report, Members thanked the Officers for their hard work on this project, which would be an asset to Redditch. The inclusion of a contingency within the budgets was welcomed and it was felt that this was prudent for such a large project.

Members raised questions in respect of the funding from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP), which had also been raised at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting the previous evening. It was confirmed that a bid would be made for the funding which would be assessed. Once this had been through the appropriate governance process it was hoped that the funding would be allocated accordingly.

RESOLVED that

1)    AHR Architects design team costs are increased up to a maximum of £1,450,000 for design of Redditch Digital Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (DMIC);

2)    Costs for Gardiner and Theobold (G&T) project management services for the DMIC are increased up to a maximum of £250,000.

RESOLVED to NOTE

3)    Any draw down of contingency is subject to approval by the Deputy Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer) in conjunction with the Assistant Director for Regeneration and Property.

4)    that the additional funding at recommendations 1 and 2 above utilises reallocated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 110