Issue - meetings

To seek authority to make a direct award to COLBEA as Operating Partner for Jaywick Sands Covered Market and Managed Workspace, based on a licence and service contract, and to increase TDC’s contribution for enabling for works and for year one operating costs of the facility. In addition, the report sets out the current status of the project delivery.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    notes the feedback from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities) regarding the Council retaining ownership of the Jaywick Sands Covered Market and Commercial Space once constructed;

(b)    grants an exemption to the Council’s Procurement Procedure Rules, having considered the recommendation from the Council’s Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer, in order to allow a direct award to the Council’s Operating Partner, COLBEA, to enter into a Service Contract for the Management of the Facility and to provide a Business Support Service;

(c)    authorises the Interim Corporate Director (Project Delivery), to agree the terms and conditions of the Service Contract, within the context of the principles set out in the Portfolio Holders’ joint report, and in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and the Portfolio Holder for Business and Economic Growth;

(d)    endorses  the granting of a Licence to COLBEA to occupy the property on terms to be agreed by the Interim Corporate Director (Project Delivery), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and the Portfolio Holder for Business and Economic Growth;

(e)    endorses the allocation of up to an additional £70,000 from the budget set aside to support housing in Jaywick to the Jaywick Sands Covered Market and Managed Workspace project, with the final amount being agreed by the Interim Corporate Director (Project Delivery), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and the Portfolio Holder for Business and Economic Growth; and

(f)     authorises the Council’s Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance, to make the necessary changes to the Council’s General Fund and Housing Revenue Account budgets to reflect the decisions made.

Cabinet had before it a joint report of the Business & Economic Growth Portfolio Holder and the Housing Portfolio Holder (A.4) which sought its authority to make a direct award to COLBEA as the Operating Partner for the Jaywick Sands Covered Market and Managed Workspace to be based on a Licence to Occupy and Service Contract. The joint report also sought Cabinet’s approval to increase the Council’s financial contribution for the enabling works and operating costs of the facility for year one. The joint report also provided an update on the project’s current delivery status.

Cabinet recalled that, at its meeting held on 21 May 2021, it had approved the development of a Covered Market and Managed Workspace facility at Jaywick Sands, and had made associated decisions to enable the development to proceed.

Cabinet had further agreed to seek approval from the Secretary of State under Section 12 of the Housing Act 1985 to use the land (which was held in the Housing Revenue Account – HRA) for non-housing purposes and to seek approval under Section 32 of the Housing Act to dispose of the land by way of a lease to the Council’s Operating Partner. COLBEA had already been identified as the Council’s preferred Operating Partner through a procurement exercise undertaken earlier in the year, for which the specification had set out the Council’s contribution to the operating costs and referred to a lease arrangement in Modules 3 and 4.

It was reported that, following feedback from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities), Officers had reviewed the options of a lease, a licence, and a service contract, carefully considering the financial implications for the Council and the sharing of risk with COLBEA, our Operating Partner, in order to enable a successful project delivery. The details of that review were included in the finance section of the Portfolio Holders’ joint report.  COLBEA had also requested certain changes to the provisions in the Heads of Terms of the lease.

Cabinet was informed that that review had led Officers to recommend that a Service Contract for Management of the Facility and Business Support Service and a Licence to Occupy would enable the most effective project delivery for the benefit of the community, better share risk between the Council and COLBEA, and avoid an accounting anomaly that would lock up the land value of the project (£300,000) in an unusable reserve, and would also keep the land for the project within the HRA.

Members were advised that a Service Contract and Licence to Occupy, in addition to the new provisions proposed by COLBEA, the Operating Partner, differed from the original procurement sufficiently that it was no longer viable to continue with the previous procurement exercise in its entirety.  One of the options open to the Council would be to commence a fresh procurement tender to select an Operating Partner against the new terms, however, at this stage, such a process would impact on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59