Agenda and minutes

Councillor David Smith – ill health

Councillor Steve Young – ill health

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2016

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2016 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

Report of Director of Strategic Assets and Property

Bevis Mackie, Senior Estates Surveyor, introduced the report which updates the Committee on the key matters relating to the Bridge Estate property portfolio that have taken place since the last meeting and future recommended actions.

Further detail and recommendations are included within the exempt appendix.

Peter Wells, Infrastructure Asset Manager, presented the Trent Bridge Maintenance report, attached as appendix 1 to the report, which informs the Committee of the current maintenance approach, assessment findings, advice sought regarding conservation, and possible approaches to funding future maintenance works.

For future maintenance works, the Committee were presented with 3 potential options which are detailed in the report.

Councillor’s comments included:

(a)  the Charity should start to consider the long-term future of the Trent Bridge and ensure that necessary modernisation, to meet the needs of the City, can be achieved;

(b)  the majority of major European city bridges have been made a statement feature with enhancement lighting. This should be an aim of the Committee for Trent Bridge;

(c)  the decorative stone work of the bridge must be protected;

(d)  any works undertaken must be part of a co-ordinated plan and sensitive to the further long-term planned works on the bridge. Care must be taken to ensure that materials and methods used in one area of work do not have a longer-term negative impact on other areas of work;

(e)  the Committee needs to consider which is the most viable option with long-term benefit to the Bridge, not just which could result in the quickest completion of the required pavement works; 

(f)  the condition and appearance of the paving on the Bridge needs to be addressed very soon.

Colleagues responded as follows:

(g)  if option 2 were chosen by the Committee, the cost of repairs to the ornamental features of the bridge will need to be funded by the Bridge Estate as they are of no function to highway maintenance or road safety;

(h)  Option 1, Department of Transport (DfT) Maintenance Challenge Fund bid application, is structured to support maintenance of exceptional schemes and the bid, of up to £5 million could include proposals for non-highway works to the bridge. However, an application to this fund is likely to be more successful if a significant level of match funding by the Charity were to be offered. Letters from the Committee and English Heritage, supporting the bid application, could also be beneficial;

(i)  decorative feature lighting for Trent Bridge has previously been considered but the Committee considered it too costly;

(j)  the Senior Estates Surveyor has already contacted English Heritage requesting advice on sympathetic maintenance approaches and what areas of work they consider should be prioritised,  however, despite following up, a response is yet to be received so further contact will be made;

(k)  maintenance of Bridge furniture may be considered for funding within Option1, but could not be considered if Options 2 and 3 were to be pursued;

(l)  the previous unsuccessful bid by the City Council to the Challenge Fund was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

The Chair of the meeting was of the opinion that this item, although not included on the agenda, should be considered as a matter of urgency in accordance with Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, in view of the special circumstances that, approval from the Committee is required to award the contract to the winning provider for the operation of an adventure golf course at Highfields Park to ‘Showcase Greens Ltd’, following a successful tender, to enable ground works to commence within the next few days.

Further to minute 7, ‘Highfields Adventure Golf Course’ of the meeting held on 27 May 2016, Eddie Curry, Head of Parks, Open Spaces and Investment Funding, circulated a report, a copy of which is to be issued with the initial publication of the minutes. The report requests that the Committee approve awarding the adventure golf course contract to Showcase Greens Ltd.

A competitive procurement process has been undertaken and Showcase Greens Ltd is preferred option, offering a significant investment in the adventure golf course which will improve the allocated area of the park and provide annual income to the Charity during the 10 year period of the contract. During this time, Showcase Greens Ltd, which has a proven good reputation for providing modern and attractive facilities in other areas of the country, will be responsible for creating and maintaining the adventure golf course and associated buildings such as the kiosk.

A large map of the adventure golf course, detailing the local theme of the each green, was available for the Committee to examine.

A more detailed report regarding Highfields Park will be submitted to the 31 March 2017 meeting of the Committee.

Members welcomed the design of the adventure golf course and confirmation that pricing would be competitive and affordable for families. It is predicted that the course will be open all year round, weather permitting.

RESOLVED to award the 10 year contract for the operation of an adventure golf course at Highfields Park to Showcase Greens Limited.

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration

of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local

Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information

RESOLVED to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs in the public interest in disclosing the information.

To confirm the exempt minutes from the meeting held on 25 November 2016

The exempt minute of the meeting held on 25 November 2016 were confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Bevis Mackie, Senior Estates Surveyor presented the exempt appendix to the report of the Director of Strategic Asset and Property Management, with contributions from Connie Green, Solicitor, and Thomas Straw, Senior Accountant for Capital Programmes.

RESOLVED to note the updates and approve the recommendations within the exempt appendix.