To present a post project review of Orwell Place Car Park and Event Space for consideration by Cabinet, and to provide an update on the regenerated site in Dovercourt Town Centre since opening in September 2023.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

a)     notes this post project review of Orwell Place and endorses the learning points as set out in Appendix A of the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.4), to inform future capital projects;

b)     requests the Leader of the Council to ensure that key messages from the aforementioned Appendix A, are clearly documented within the Council’s Annual Governance Statement, as expected by the Best Value Duty Statutory Guidance; and

c)      invites the Overview and Scrutiny Committees to consider including the outcome of this review on their work programmes to provide additional scrutiny of the performance and lessons learnt.

Cabinet considered a report of the Economic Growth, Regeneration & Tourism Portfolio Holder (A.4) which presented a post project review of Orwell Place Car Park and Event Space for consideration by Cabinet, and which provided an update on the regenerated site in Dovercourt Town Centre since opening in September 2023.

Cabinet was aware that Orwell Place Car Park was the first phase of the ‘Dovercourt Revisited’ plan, supporting the town to grow to its full potential and would support future projects in the process of being developed which included:-

“1.   Kingsway improvements: A major investment into the appearance of Dovercourt Town Centre.

2.    Library project: The Adult Community Learning skills centre will return to the area within a refurbished library.

3.    Milton Road: Demolish the out-of-date multi-storey car park at Milton Road and provide an attractive and safe ground level car park to compliment Orwell Place.

4.    Victoria Street: Demolish a dangerous structure and redevelop 8 new social homes.”

Members recalled that further opportunities were currently being delivered through the High Street Accelerator Pilot Scheme (HSA) which had provided seed funding of £237,000 and green space funding of £500,000. Dovercourt High Street had been chosen as one of ten high streets receiving funding from the HSA Pilot Programme which had been announced in March 2023 as part of the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Action Plan.

Schemes within the HSA included shop front grants, a pop-up shop, improved wayfinding, shop wrapping, a new website and events.  The green spaces proposal currently being designed by a team of award-winning urban designers, would link the high street, beach and the Kingsway Improvements Projects enhancing the public realm offer to the community.

The ‘Starlings’ site redevelopment had been advocated in Dovercourt Revisited, approved by Cabinet in July 2019.  Dovercourt Revisited had proposed a redevelopment with a new animated public space, public toilets, and a surface car park with the capacity to accommodate 59 car parking spaces, with six designated for disabled use. 

It was reported that on 13 September 2019, Cabinet had allocated £1.599m from existing Council resources to the redevelopment of the Starlings site in Dovercourt Town Centre and the demolition of the Milton Road Car Park and 15 parking spaces in Bagshaw Road. The delivery proposed redevelopment of the Starlings site first, to create new parking and then demolish Milton Road Car Park.

Members were reminded that, following provisional completion of the project, Orwell Place Car Park had been opened in September 2023 on the site of the former derelict Starlings Site in Dovercourt High Street with a revised 53 parking spaces in total; eight with electric vehicle charging, and eight disabled bays which hosted two of the electric chargers. Essex County Highways were still to sign off the entranceway and so completion of the final account with contractors remained outstanding, which would determine the final cost of the project. The Council had allocated a total of £2,541,050 to the project and there was currently a forecast underspend.

Cabinet was cognisant that the project had been completed during the post-pandemic surge in the cost of capital works, and significant ground contamination had been discovered, as well as the following challenges:-

•    post COVID-19 and the substantial increase in the cost and availability of materials.

•    more site contamination than originally anticipated.

•    discovering a petrol tank that had leaked and further contaminated the development site.

•    discovering pits and wells on the development site. 

As a result of those challenges, the project budget had been increased by Cabinet on 28 January 2022 to £1,871,550 when the tenders had been received, and subsequently on 7 October 2022 to £2,471,550 and then in January 2023 this budget had been increased to £2,541,050.

In recognition of those cost increases, the demolition of Milton Road Car Park had been removed from the project by Cabinet in January 2022 and subsequently included in the successful Capital Regeneration Project bid (formally the Levelling Up Fund) in July 2022. Those works had recently been approved for planning permission and were scheduled to take place in 2025. 

Cabinet was advised that the approved contractor was now in the final snagging period, and there was a requirement for UK Power Network (UKPN) works to be completed and final Highways approval for the entrance before the final account could be agreed. The total forecast cost of the project was expected to be £2,377,123.67 when the retention sum was paid, which would leave a potential underspend of £163,926.

Progress against the original project objectives as set out in the original report had been strong, as set out in the table below:-

Cabinet was told that the original Cabinet report had also set out wider objectives for the car park and events space, to bring in additional footfall and private sector investment to the town centre. Those had yet to be achieved, as this project was one of several ‘building blocks’ including the wider regeneration of Dovercourt through the CRP and HSA schemes. The significant national decline for town centres, driven by the move to out of town and on-line shopping, would also be recognised in progressing the wider outcomes set out below:

·      Supporting wider ‘place shaping’ objectives through the delivery of new housing

·      Creating confidence in the market, and encouraging private sector investment

·      Creating a more accessible public car park, and improving footfall in the town – where footfall in the town has dropped slightly since 2023

·      Giving the towns’ existing traders the confidence to invest in their businesses and in their property

The full list of key objectives from the delivery of Orwell Place were summarised in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.4) along with lessons learnt.

It was important to learn from any challenges for future projects and ensure that mitigation was put in place to ensure similar issues could be addressed pro-actively. The Council now had a Project Delivery Unit staffed with architects and surveyors to provide expertise and capacity for the scale of capital works it was undertaking given the multi-million pound grants from Government for capital delivery.

Some of the key lessons learnt, which importantly should be used to inform future projects were:

Having been updated with regards to the success of the Orwell Place capital project which had supported economic development, enhanced community services, and ultimately contributed to the long-term regeneration of Dovercourt High Street and having been informed of the lessons learnt for the delivery of a major construction project and to ensure those were documented and considered for future projects:-

It was therefore moved by Councillor I J Henderson, seconded by Councillor Barryand:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

a)       notes this post project review of Orwell Place and endorses the learning points as set out in Appendix A of the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.4), to inform future capital projects;

b)       requests the Leader of the Council to ensure that key messages from the aforementioned Appendix A, are clearly documented within the Council’s Annual Governance Statement, as expected by the Best Value Duty Statutory Guidance; and

c)       invites the Overview and Scrutiny Committees to consider including the outcome of this review on their work programmes to provide additional scrutiny of the performance and lessons learnt.