Decision details

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance and Growth, presented the report regarding the procurement of the main contractors for the Radcliffe Civic Hub and Bury Market Flexi Hall projects, having now been subject to a competitive tendering process which culminated in the receipt of multiple submissions, the details of which were set out in the Part B paper later in the agenda.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.   Noted progress to date on the development of the Radcliffe Civic Hub and Bury Market Flexi Hall projects, in line with the LUF bid procurement strategy and spending programme requirements;

2.   Approved the contractor appointments to undertake design development and planning for both projects on behalf of the Council under preconstruction service agreements (the details of which are in the Part B paper); and

3.   Noted that update reports will be presented to Cabinet upon completion of each RIBA Stage.

Reasons for the decision:

·         The Radcliffe Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) was adopted in September 2020 as the Council’s policy for the future regeneration of the town. The development of a Hub in Radcliffe’s town centre is integral to the SRF’s aims, and access to monies from the Levelling Up Fund is crucial to the delivery of the hub.

·         In Area policy BY6 - Central Shopping Area, the current development plan states that the Council will encourage and support proposals for retailing and appropriate ancillary retail uses within Bury town centre's central shopping area.

·         In Area policy S1/1 - Shopping in Bury Town Centre, the Council will protect, maintain, and enhance the role of Bury Town Centre as a subregional shopping centre and promote the centre as a focal point for further development. In particular, the Council will support the expansion of the centre through the development of additional comparison shopping floorspace, complementary non-food retail warehousing and speciality shopping.

Other options considered and rejected:

Undertake all duties required to complete RIBA Stages 2-4 and go out to the market via a traditional tender route. This approach is not feasible due to limited internal resource to manage all design and planning activities. Moreover, the timescales required to fulfil these duties and follow a compliant traditional tender route would not enable compliance with the LUF spending criteria a programme.