Agenda item

With reference to article 7 of the Council meeting of 27 April 2011, at which the Council had agreed to delegate authority to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee to make all necessary decisions at its meeting on 2 June 2011, in order to keep the project on track, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport which updated members on the current status of the project, and on the outcome of investigations into alternative methods of funding the Council’s capital contribution.  The report also provided an analysis of the tenders received for the proposed development; detailed the outcome of the EU Invitation to Tender evaluation to select the Principal Contractor for the construction of the complex; and provided a comparison of cost for constructing either an eight or ten lane pool.

The report recommended:-

that Committee:-

(a)       note the content of the report;

(b)       note that the development cost, based on the most economically advantageous tender for the 10 lane option is £21,918,104 and for the 8 lane option is £21,638,104 compared to the previously reported estimated costs of £23,347,259 for the 10 lane option and £22,726,794 for the 8 lane option;

(c)        note that the total funding available from the other partners as detailed in section 5.3 of the report has increased from the previous total of £10 million reported to Council on 15 December 2010 to £14 million.  This being the result of the University of Aberdeen increasing their contribution from £5 million to £8 million and Aberdeen Sports Village Ltd. (ASV Limited) agreeing to underwrite the shortfall of £1 million for the 10 lane option to ensure that the funding package can be secured.  The remaining balance of external funding coming from a £5 million grant from sportscotland;

(d)       agree to approve funding of up to £8 million pounds and this be met from the Non-Housing Capital Programme for the construction of a 10 lane pool subject to:

(i)         the Corporate Asset Group, on behalf of the Corporate Management Team, managing the overall spend of the Non-Housing Capital Programme in 2011/12 to stay within approved spending limits and to take into account the future capital demand for this project in the budget process for 2012/13 and 2013/14;

(ii)        the revenue support for the ongoing costs of the project being capped at £250,000 per annum at 2010/11 prices with a review of future indexation once the facility is nearing completion of the construction phase;

(iii)       officers reaching an agreement with partners in regard to the use of the facilities in light of the potential migration of swimming clubs to the new facility;  and

(iv)       officers reaching agreement on a Transfer Agreement Document, which will formalise the transfer of responsibility for the delivery and operational phases of the 50 metre pool project to ASV Limited.

(e)       note that the most economically advantageous tender for the 50 metre pool project was submitted by Contractor A, and subject to the Committee agreeing to approve funding on the basis of recommendation (d), to instruct officers to arrange, in conjunction with Aberdeen University and Aberdeen Sports Village Ltd., to appoint Contractor A as the Principal Contractor, based on their tender figure for the 10 lane option which results in an overall development cost of £21,918,104;

(f)         to instruct officers to report back to the next appropriate meeting of the Council in regard to the progress on the negotiations on items d(iii) and (iv) above;  and

(g)       to note that the provision of a 50 metre pool has been included within the scope of the Water Management Plan currently underway, and will also be included within the report to Committee, due on 15September 2011.  The Committee should be aware that historically there has been a recognition that the city has a greater number of swimming pools for the size of population than elsewhere.  sportscotland is providing support to model the existing water provision and future needs.  The recommendations will also take full account of the reducing revenue and capital budgets and the costs associated with the 50 metre pool and are likely to include a reduction in the number and range of facilities.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations contained in the report, with an additional recommendation at d(v) “subject to officers receiving clarification from Aberdeenshire Council that their revenue funding contribution remains intact”.