Issue - meetings

This report provides details of a land transaction over £500,000 in respect of the Cabinet’s decision on 8 March 2016 to award a contract, or a series of contracts, to develop Rochester Riverside.

Please note that this report includes an exempt appendix.

Discussion:

This report provided details of the recent decision by Cabinet to award a contract, or series of contracts, for the Rochester Riverside regeneration. It was noted that this report complied with constitutional requirement to report any land and property transaction over £500,000 to Council for information.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Jarrett, supported by the Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Housing and Community Services, Councillor Doe, proposed the recommendation in the report.

Decision:

The Council noted the report.

Background:

This report requested the Cabinet to approve the procurement of a sole development partner with a contract, or series of contracts to ensure sufficient time to deliver the regeneration of Rochester Riverside, which was anticipated to take between 10 to 15 years, as highlighted within 3.2 of the accompanying Exempt Appendix. This would involve a development agreement to ensure a quality development as well as the freehold transfer of the site in phases throughout the development period.

It was noted that this was based upon the previous legal advice which stated that the procurement should be for a sole development partner to be sourced via the EU Competitive Negotiated Procedure.  This process that had included the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) Phase reduced the initial tenders from five to three, then the Invitation to Continue Negotiations (ITCN) Phase reduced the tenders from three to two and then the Best and Final Offers (BAFO) Phase which saw the receipt and evaluation of the final two tenders.

Cabinet approved the commencement and delivery of this procurement requirement at Gateway 1 on 2 December 2014 (decision number 195/2014).

This report had been approved for submission to the Cabinet after review and discussion at Regeneration, Community and Culture Directorate Management Team meeting on 7 January 2016, the Rochester Riverside Board on 12 January 2016 and the Procurement Board on 17 February 2016.

The Homes and Communities Agency, the Council’s partner for this development, was also required to approve the procurement of a sole development partner with a contract, or series of contracts. A Board meeting of the Homes and Communities Agency was scheduled to take place on 10 March 2016.

An exempt appendix contained key financial analysis information.

The Council's decision to award this contract(s) would be subject to observing the procurement standstill period of a minimum of 10 working days in accordance with the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Council would be unable to enter into the contract(s) before the end of the standstill period.

Reasons:

This proposed project will deliver a high quality development to a much needed regeneration area within Rochester.