Agenda item

Councillor Dempster submits a report that seeks approval of the direction of travel towards Final Business Case (FBC) for the Council’s Building Schools for the Future Rushey Mead School project and to obtain the necessary authority to progress the project. Cabinet is asked to approve the recommendations set out in Paragraph 3 of the report.

A minute extract from the meeting of the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee on 31 August 2010 will be circulated as soon as it is available.

Councillor Dempster submitted a report that sought approval of the direction of travel towards Final Business Case (FBC) for the Council’s Building Schools for the Future Rushey Mead School project and to obtain the necessary authority to progress the project.

Councillor Dempster stated that it was important that schools become the heart of communities, rather than just rebuilding existing schools. In response to the recommendation of the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee, she stated that Members would be informed of the location of land identified for Council receipts within their ward as a matter of course.

RESOLVED:

                        That Cabinet:

1)     Approves the direction of travel for the Final Business Case as presented in the report;

2)     Endorses the Director’s Action in approval of the staged process towards Final Business Case;

3)     Notes that the Rushey Mead contract will be a ‘Design and Build’ contract, not a PFI contract;

4)     Approves the further design development of the Rushey Mead project on the basis that the cost capital build does not exceed £19,607,335. The FBC is to provide a separate cost analysis reconciled against the OBC for both the design and build plus the ICT elements of the project. The most recent analysis indicates the proposal is affordable and within the funding envelope;

5)     Pursuant to 3.2.3 of the report, notes the expenditure required to progress the project to completion as identified in section 5 of the report;

6)     Approves the use of prudential borrowing against future receipts from land sales to support the project as shown in Section 5.1.2 of the report;

7)     Approves in principle the expected commercial proposal offer from the LEP to pay the capital amount required for the Combined Heat and Power plant and to receive energy saving gains to repay that capital cost and thereby avoid any financial contributions from the City Council;

8)     Authorises the Divisional Director, Learning Environment to negotiate on behalf of the Council project specific amendments to the standard form of contracts (without prejudice to final business case approval);

9)     Following Cabinet approval of FBC, authorises the Head of Legal Services to sign necessary contracts to enable construction to start on the basis of delivering the scheme described in the FBC. These will be the Design and Build contract, FM contract and ICT contract as well as the commercial contract for the CHP unit;

10)Authorises the Chief Finance Officer to provide PfS with assurance that the Council understands this report is concerned with the Final Business Case (FBC). When submitting the FBC, the Chief Finance Officer is required to certify that the Council understands the content of the Final Business Case, and that it is affordable, value for money and deliverable;

11)Notes the intention to provide flexible access for communities to facilities in the school and the use of ‘zoning’ of the school buildings to provide a more cost effective and environmentally sustainable solution to community use of these public buildings;

12)Authorises the Strategic Director Children, in consultation with the Cabinet Lead, to take such decisions as she thinks fit to implement the scheme within the scope of the FBC;

13)Notes the requirement for Full Council approval of the FBC prior to sign off by PfS. Rushey Mead School FBC Direction of Travel report has been added to the full Council agenda of 16^th September 2010.