The Chairman of the Council to answer any questions by the public of which notice has been given no later than midday three clear working days before the day of the meeting in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 12.
Minutes:
Question 1
Mr Ferguson to Councillor Busby, Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets & Investments
At the Council Meeting on Thursday 6th October 2022, I asked the Cabinet Member for Finance, Assets and Investments for a copy of the risk assessment of Gipping Construction’s ability to complete the redevelopment of the old Babergh District Council offices at Corks Lane. One of the reasons that I gave for this request was my concern about Gipping’s limited experience with working on listed buildings – part of the old Council HQ is listed Grade II.
In his response Councillor Busby refused to let me see that risk assessment, and Babergh District Council also refused to provide it when I subsequently submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. However, in his reply to my question on 6th October 22, Cllr Busby told me that Babergh Growth Limited would ensure completion of the project quote: “on time and on cost” through robust management of the contract. He went on to say that April 2024 had been set as the completion date.
Also, in response to a question from Cllr Dawson (the Ward member for North Hadleigh) to the Chief Executive (CE) with regards to the timeframe and financial impact of delays in the development work, the CE responded as follows:
“The work on site has been progressing well and in line with the projected programme.”
The Chief Executive went on to say that:
“There are currently no significant delays to the programme and therefore the financial implications are that there is some cost to the redesign work, but this is allowed for within the project contingencies.”
In the context of those assurances, it is apparent that work stopped on this project at the end of November 2022 (i.e. now almost 3 months ago), and as of Monday 13 February 2023, work has not restarted on the site.
My question to Cllr Busby is:
Against that background, are you still reporting that the Corks Lane redevelopment will be delivered quote: “on time and on cost,” and that it will it be completed by April 2024? If not, what has changed since you provided those assurances on 6th October 2022, and what are the potential implications on the 2023/24 Babergh District Council budget forecasts?
Response from Councillor Busby, Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets & Investments
The redevelopment of the former HQ at Hadleigh is a complex project due to the listed buildings and unique nature of the existing buildings on site. The complex nature of this redevelopment was anticipated and allowed for within project contingencies. It was expected that there would be a need to make adaptions to the programme as works progressed on site and additional heritage aspects were uncovered. Whilst work has slowed down on site, considerable technical work is still underway, and we anticipate works on site accelerating in March. Babergh Growth Ltd are still reporting this project to be on budget and on time, however it should be noted that we are still at the very early stages of this development.”
Supplementary Question from Mr Ferguson to Councillor Busby, Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets & Investments
The response I’ve just had which quite frankly I find less than informative and rather disappointing in the context of the reality that this has now been shutdown 3 months which was clearly never planned but if I can put that to one side. My question is can we be assured, and I’m now talking in terms of the residents of Hadleigh in particular because this question is being asked all the time, can I ask that we be assured to be given updates in the context of what’s going on with this programme in terms of further developments, particularly if it starts to impact on the costs of it.
Response from Councillor Busby, Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets & Investments
Yes, I’m more than happy to keep you up to date on what is going on, especially with the costs, however as I said it is at an early stage, we anticipated that there would be issues and there have been. Fortunately, these occurred during the winter period, during Christmas and the new year when work on site would not have been happening anyway, we haven’t lost 3 months and work has been going on. The problems were caused by ground conditions discovered which affected the car park area as well as heritage assets uncovered in the early part of the on-site works. So, we’ve had to do additional design work to sort this out and then this has to be signed off by the statutory authorities, but work will start and proceed at a pace very soon.
Supporting documents: