Decision - King Alfred Development

(1)               That the Project Board be thanked for the work undertaken to date, the main findings of which summarised in Sections 3.9 to 3.44 of the report be noted, and the Project Board’s recommendations to proceed be supported;

(2)               That the Board’s view that the project’s primary objective remains the delivery of a new, modern sports facility in the west of the city, either on the King Alfred site or another appropriate site to be identified as part of the procurement process by a preferred developer be supported;

(3)               That it be agreed that the proposed sports centre specification shown at Appendix 1 provides the appropriate range and mix of facilities demanded in the city, and approve the specification as the basis for taking the project forward, whilst not at this stage ruling out a 50m swimming pool and provision for diving should a developer come up with a viable proposal to incorporate this in a scheme;

(4)               That the forecast revenue costs for the proposed sports centre, the potential saving this provides when compared with the costs to the council of the current centre, and the potential this has to support council borrowing to enable direct investment towards the capital cost of the new facility;

(5)               That the findings of the development viability advice, which suggests financially viable solutions, are possible, but that pragmatic compromises are likely to be required be noted;

(6)               That the appointment of appropriate external advisers to support the procurement and evaluation process and approve the allocation of existing financial resources to enable this be agreed; and

(7)               That it be agreed that the Council should seek a preferred developer for the sports centre and enabling development by way of the Competitive Dialogue process and note the indicative programme leading to this, including a proposal for an open day with potential developers, and that a further report leading to the appointment of a preferred developer will return to a future meeting of this committee.