Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received by Councillors Akbar, Kane and Khan with Councillors Court, Baker and Harvey in attendance as named substitutes respectively. Councillor Prosser had also submitted his apology.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests, and any Party Whip.

There were no Declarations of Interest nor of any Party Whip.

The Minutes from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting held on Thursday 5th September 2022 will be considered at this meeting.

The minutes from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting held on Thursday 5th September 2022 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that

the minutes from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting held on Thursday 5th September 2022 be approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chair.

To invite members of the public who have registered in advance of the meeting to speak to the Committee. Please note that the deadline to register to speak at this meeting is 12 noon on Tuesday 4^th October 2022.

The Chair introduced the Public Speaking item and explained to the Committee that there had been a number of public speakers who had registered for this meeting and that he had extended the length of time allocated for public speaking from 15 minutes to 30 minutes in order to accommodate the extra speakers.

The Chair welcomed Mr R. Rowberry to the meeting, who was invited to speak to the Committee.

His speech was delivered as follows:

“I am going to start by saying that this is not about party politics at all. My point is all about Redditch Library. I do not think that the Tory Councillors were elected to demolish the Library. According to the internet, Redditch has got a population of 86,00 people. If you cut that down to houses, I make that within reason about 30,000 houses. According to my calculations, before the Council has got actual permission to demolish the Library and replace it with restaurants, that probably will not work, you need full permission from at 15,001 houses. If you do not stick to that you are letting down the people of Redditch.”

The Chair explained to Members that a written statement had been received from K. Stanton and would be read out by the Democratic Services Officer present. Her statement was delivered as follows:

“I have followed the proposals for the demolition and relocation of Redditch Library closely - it's a subject very close to my heart both as a library customer and as an ex member of library staff who spent the majority of my 14 years with Worcestershire Libraries based at Redditch Library. My time there spanned two recent extensive (and expensive) refurbishments - the first a full building renovation and update in 2010 and more recently the works in 2017 to prepare for the co-location of the DWP into the building. Having seen these improvements first-hand, and also having worked at other libraries who have co-located services within the library building (for example, Droitwich Library) or library services that have moved into buildings housing multiple services (such as Bromsgrove and Stourport Libraries), I have seen how successful this model can be - when done in the right way and with the needs of the customer at the centre of decision making.

This is not the case with the proposals for Redditch Library. As mentioned above, the library building has twice been upgraded in recent years. It was originally purpose-built as a library; it is centrally located at the top of the hill right next to the Kingfisher Centre - it's already delivering as a library (consistently one of the best performing in the county). During my time working at Redditch Library, it was not an uncommon occurrence for members of the public to come in to the library to ask where the Town Hall was - located down the hill and tucked off to the side it's far from the landmark Redditch Library currently is. It was also not uncommon for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

This report will follow in an Additional Papers pack, once the report has been published for consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Programme Delivery Manager from North Worcestershire Economic Development and Regeneration and the Head of Planning, Regeneration and Leisure Services presented the report regarding the Redditch TIP Library Development.

In doing so the following was highlighted for Members’ attention:

·       The business case had been prepared by Mott McDonald and the summary documents were due to be submitted to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on 15^th October 2022.

·       The high level objectives of the Redditch Library Redevelopment were to improve connectivity between the Kingfisher Centre and the Conservation Area. The plans included the demolition of the current library building.  However, it was clarified by Officers that the plan was to relocate the library to the Town Hall Hub therefore ensuring future library provision within the Town Centre. The plans also included a commercial mixed use building including Food and Beverage (F&B) unit and co-working space.

Members requested further clarification regarding the arrangements with Worcestershire County Council (WCC) and the Letter of Understanding (LoU) provided by WCC. The Interim Director of Finance explained that this letter had been received by the Authority and that provided the requirements contained within the letter were met, that WCC would be supportive of the Town’s Bid to demolish the library. This was of considerable concern to some Members who felt that it was premature to agree to endorse a project without the agreement of WCC. However, it was reported that the Council had been working with WCC officers for some time and that this project had been taken very seriously at all points of the process. In addition to this, it was noted that if WCC did approve the relocation of the library as outlined in the business case a public consultation would still have to be undertaken as part of the statutory process. Members requested whether it would be possible to view a copy of the LoU with WCC and it was agreed that this LoU would be circulated to Members of the Committee following the meeting.

During a robust debate, Members also discussed the following:

·       That library provision was a key criterion within the Towns Bid Funding and the Towns Board made the decisions and all minutes of their meetings were a matter of public record. In respect of consultation, Officers explained that before the original TIP was supported there was consultation in 2019.

·       Risk – The Interim Director of Finance explained that risks involved within the projects were being mitigated and that redesigning and reengineering had been undertaken in order to meet the new proposed budget. In addition to this, it was imperative the project be managed effectively and was key to the delivery of the project. Members suggested that the projects can sometimes go over budget and with the Council’s current financial situation this was a cause for concern. In addition to this, Members highlighted that it would take some time to see a return on investment of the £4.2m required to demolish the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

This report will follow in an Additional Papers pack, once the report has been published for consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Interim Director of Finance presented the report in respect of the Town Hall Hub. During consideration of this item the proposals for the Redditch Town Hall were outlined for Members information. As had been discussed earlier in the meeting, the Town Hall was not currently being used to capacity and the proposals presented within the report included the potential for external organisations to rent space within the proposed Community Hub. These external organisations could potentially include representatives from the NHS and WCC. Also included in the proposals was a new Members’ Suite, which could be used for any meeting.

Officers reported that the cost of the refurbishment project would be £5.2m and would be funded by capital receipts and the sale of Council assets which had been valued by Savills as between £3.45m and £5.65m. Any timing differences could be funded through short term borrowing. It was further explained that revenue costs to run the Town Hall were currently £878k per year, however this amount would be significantly reduced, by approximately £400k as the other organisations would be responsible for some of the revenue costs in the future. Members raised that there was no mention of inflation rates included in the proposed costs.

Some Members felt that this was an excellent opportunity to half revenue costs for the Council by £400k going forward which would significantly help the Council’s present budget deficit and provide better value for money for Redditch and its residents. In addition to this, it was highlighted that Community Hubs were being established all over the country and that it was a great opportunity to create a vibrant workplace alongside wider financial and social benefits.

In respect of the relocation of the Library it was discussed that, as indicated earlier in the meeting that this was still to be agreed by WCC and would still be subject to consultation.

Although Members agreed that a Community Hub would be a good asset for the community, concerns were raised by some Members regarding the costs of the demolition of the current library combined with the costs of the Town Hall Hub and whether this was good value for money for residents. It was with this in mind that the following recommendation was proposed:

RECOMMENDED that:

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee, having considered the report advises the Executive Committee not to proceed with this project as currently described in this report, which includes the provision of a Library, instead it advises to submit a further report for the re-purposing of the Town Hall update/ Town Hall Hub for community uses as described in the report but without a library.

On being put to the vote this recommendation was lost.

A further vote was then carried out in respect of the recommendations contained within the report and it was

RECOMMENDED to the Executive Committee that:

1)    subject to the agreement of the Town’s Fund Library Business case, which itself is subject to the required public consultation, the Town Hall be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

The latest version of the Executive Committee Work Programme will be published in an Additional Papers pack once it has been published on 3^rd October 2022.

The minutes for the Executive Committee meeting the Executive Committee's Work Programme were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that

the contents of the Executive Committee Minutes of the meetings held on Tuesday 6^th September 2022 and the Executive Committee's Work Programme be noted.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee's Work Programme was submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that

the contents of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee's Work Programme be noted.