Agenda item

Reference was made to article 53 of the minute of its previous meeting of
17 June, 2010, and the decisions taken at that time in relation to the sale of the Summerhill Education Centre site, in particular the decisions taken that the highest scoring offer for the site be accepted and that the Head of Asset Management and Operations be requested to report further on the actions taken by officers and on the costs associated, in relocating all of the existing users from the Centre.  The Committee now had before it a report by the Director of Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure which provided members with an update on the discussions held with the preferred bidder for the site and also advised with regard to the relocation of services and the financial consequences.

The report indicated that following the meeting on 17 June, 2010, discussions with the preferred bidder were held with the primary objective of agreeing a strategy to take the disposal of the site forward and also to reach a situation where a guaranteed minimum price was identified assuming planning permission for a retail supermarket was forthcoming.  The outcome of those discussions was outlined within the report which also made it clear that the agreement reached had allowed the preferred offer to be compared directly with that of the second placed bidder, whose headline figure remained below the revised price identified.  The planning issues surrounding the project were also highlighted.

As regards the relocation of current users of the Summerhill Centre, the report indicated that the full provision of community services had been relocated to Northfield Community Centre, Mastrick Community Centre and Sheddocksley Sports Centre; that the one service for which a short term relocation had not been possible was the Mastrick Young People’s Project, which continued to operate from self contained facilities situated to the north west of the Summerhill site; that officers had however identified the Hillylands Centre in Mastrick, recently vacated by the Social Care and Wellbeing Service and to be declared surplus to their requirements, for that purpose; and that the budgetary requirements for such a course of action were as detailed within the report.  The report concluded with a reference to the fact that the future operational issues surrounding the Hillylands option would be the subject of reports as appropriate to future meetings of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee and also the Social Care and Wellbeing Committee.  The relocation outcomes for Council services and community users were detailed within appendix 1 to the report.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       note the issues raised in relation to the conclusion of missives with Optimisation Limited and the prospect of having to meet additional planning monitoring fees of around £5,000;

(b)       agree that a budget of £250,000 from the capital receipt is set aside for the relocation of the Mastrick Young People’s Project to the former Hillylands Centre, and that a further sum (£379,993.04) is also set aside from the capital receipt to pay off the outstanding debt on the Hillylands facility; and

(c)        agree that subject to the agreement of the Social Care and Wellbeing Committee and the Education, Culture and Sport Committee, the Hillylands Centre be transferred to the Education Account.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)                 that recommendations (a) and (c) be approved;

(ii)               that the Director of Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure be requested to report back to the Committee in relation to the suggestions contained at recommendation (b); and

(iii)             that the Social Care and Wellbeing Service be requested to carry out an inspection of the equipment at the Hillylands Centre with a view to utilising it elsewhere.