Report by Head of Place, Property and Regeneration (attached)

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration (circulated previously) regarding Future High Street Project Update.

The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration highlighted the following:

·         Members were aware of the interventions involved in the Future High Street Fund project.

·         The Pannier Market and Guildhall interventions were now completed and had been finished on budget.

·         The Butchers Row and Cross Street interventions were now being dealt with in a separate project.

·         The contract for the reconfiguration of Queen Street and Bear Street carparks was awarded to Mac Plant Construction Ltd in February 2024 and the works began on 7 May 2024.

·         The project had been split into three phases to ensure car parking was available across the sites at all times.

·         A two week delay had been reported to the completion of the works and this was due to sub-base ground testing to ensure the grounds could accommodate the structures being built.  The results of this testing found that some areas of the site required a complete reconstruction. 

·         A meeting was held with the civil engineers in Exeter to test the robustness of the programme due to the unforeseen extension to the phase one completion date.

·         The drainage was all in for phase one and the new completion date for phase one was 31 October, which the contractors were confident would be met.

·         Nearby businesses had been informed of the two week delay.

·         Phase two, would begin immediately after phase one and would see works to create the new access into the carpark from Alexandra Road.

·         Phase three would commence once the compound was clear.

·         Pearce construction were awarded the contract for the works on 36 and 37 Boutport Street and pre-construction works began immediately in February 2024.

·         Works focussed on 36 Boutport Street, scaffolding was erected around the entire building and the roof works were all but completed.  There were three roofs lower, middle and mansard.

·         The contract with Pearce construction included a number of significant provisional sums and target savings.  The contract had to be set up in this way because the building was Grade II listed and so the contractors were unable to ‘open up’ the building to understand the required works ahead of commencement.

·         As works progressed, a number of challenges became known.  The main façade of the building was in a considerably poorer condition than thought as well as discovering timbers in the mansard roof in a bad condition.  Pragmatic solutions had been found to restore the listed building.

·         Monthly progress meetings were held with the contractor to ensure requests for information from the contractor were being addressed.  Those meetings were now being held fortnightly to ensure delivery of information was received and decisions made in a timely manner.

·         As with the car park project, monthly cost reports were received from the quantity surveyor.  The project manager, sponsor and 151 officer scrutinise the reports to ensure monitoring of provisional sums against actual spend and spend against the target savings list.

·         At the last cost report, 38% of the contingency was reported as remaining.  Whilst this will appear low, the main unknowns were always with 36 Boutport Street and where any utilisation of contingency would have been anticipated.  37 Boutport Street would be a new build and so the quantity surveyor was able to cost this much more concisely.

·         The majority of these were now known and had been firmed up in the cost report i.e. the condition of the roofs, structure etc.

·         Members had visited the site recently to see the progress being made and to see first-hand the care and attention the contractors were paying to the building and the complexities of the work.

·         Further update reports will be brought to members in the future.

In response to a question about what the percentage of the budget the contingency was, the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration explained that it would be difficult to give a percentage figure as alongside the contingency were the figures given for the provisional sums.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, added that the actual costs had come in lower than the provisional costings and so this had offset the overall spend.

The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration advised that she could provide the link to the ‘unique sustainability tracker’ as referenced in paragraph 7.1 of the report.

In response to a concern about the finished tarmac surface being damaged by heavy plant still on the site, the Head of Place, Property and Regeneration explained that for that very reason the final car park surface would not be completed until the end of phase two.

The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration advised that there was no planned road closures during the works on Alexandra Road to create the new access to the car park.  There may be signal controls but only for a contained period.

RESOLVED that the update report be noted.