Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is to give an update on the progress of Our Cultural Heart programme following Cabinet approval at Gateway 3 on the 27^th June 2023 to progress the delivery of Phase 1 of the masterplan.

Work is now progressing in preparation for Cabinet to review the programme again at Phase 1 Gateway 4 in December 2023.

Contact: David Glover, Senior Responsible Officer, Cultural Heart

Councillor Graham Turner introduced the item, advising that this is an update on progress with the Cultural Heart, and the information will be presented with the aid of a few slides to show progress to date. 

Edward Highfield, Service Director, Skills and Regeneration, reminded the Panel that a commitment was made to update the Panel between each of the gateways to provide a retrospective look at what has been achieved and to look forward in terms of what is ahead.

Referring to the slides, the Panel was informed that the gateways that the council has adopted are tied to the RIBA stages of development.  Gateway three was where the concept design was confirmed, looking at spatial co-ordination, that is the headline master planning of the moving towards gateway four, which is the technical design where all the detail is finalised.

In June 2023, gateway three was brought before Cabinet, and this was seeking approval to sign off the spatial co-ordination and move towards the technical design, which locked in the principle of phasing, rather than undertaking the whole Cultural Heart project in one go.  It was decided to take a phased approach which introduces significant benefits in terms of flexibility and being able to respond to market opportunities and secure external funding. 

The gateway three report in June, locked in the principle of phasing and it confirmed phase one.  It sought delegated authority to make contractual arrangements with the delivery team, the most noticeable was to appoint BAM construction Ltd for phase one and get them working.  This was not unconditional and there was no commitment to construction at that stage.  

The aim in appointing BAM was to work initially on the Pre-contract Service Agreement (PCSA), to progress to gateway four. By getting the contractor on board early, it enabled the contractor to pick up the detailed design to get to the stage to go back to Cabinet with gateway four, in terms of the final scheme, providing more certainty around cost and seeking approval to proceed or not to proceed from gateway four onwards.

The June report talked about combining the museum and the gallery rather than having a separate museum and a separate gallery, being mindful of cost and value for money at all stages.  The gateway three report confirmed the principal of a combined museum and gallery and that frees up a future development on the Green Street plot, that was previously going to be the gallery. In June 2023, Cabinet gave approval to proceed as outlined.

The Panel was shown a diagram of the Cultural Heart redline boundary and advised that the diagram shows the library, food hall, public realm and the event square and this will be phase one, which is the subject of the gateway four report which will shortly be going to Cabinet. 

In summary, the Panel was informed of the following:

Phase one

-      New library

-      Food hall

-      Events Square

Design and build Contract

-      Pre-contract Service Agreement (PCSA) awarded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8