Minutes:
The Leader stated that there
was an exempt appendix to the report, and Members should only
discuss this if Cabinet agreed to enter into an exempt session. He
added that Councillor Anderson had also attended the Cabinet
meeting to discuss the outcome from discussions of the report from
the Planning, Transport and Regeneration (PTR) Overview and
Scrutiny Committee that had taken place the previous night.
Councillor Coxshall introduced the report and stated that it was
good to see the Chair of PTR had attended the meeting, and felt it
was good to see Cabinet being challenged by the scrutiny function.
He explained that the report presented good news as the project
moved from phase three to phase four, in the eight phase strategy.
He described how Cabinet had chosen the design last year, and this
had been improved since then as the underpass had been widened, and
additional opportunities for shops had been included in the
designs. He stated that the Council planned to invest £37m
into the scheme, £23m of which had been discussed earlier as
capital project investment, and this would help to rejuvenate
Grays high street and connect Grays
South with Grays North, which had been divided by the railway line
almost 100 years ago.
Councillor Anderson explained that the report had been discussed at
the previous night’s PTR O&S Committee, and they had
debated the three recommendations in great detail. He explained
that recommendation 1 had been agreed, but the wording had changed
from ‘endorsed project next steps’ to
‘noted project next steps’.
He stated that recommendation 2 regarding delegated authority had
also been agreed, but Members wanted to see regular briefing notes
brought before the Committee. He added that Members had not
approved recommendation 3 as they had believed not information had
been provided regarding a detailed cost plan. He commented that
Members had not expressed dissatisfaction with the project
progress, but had felt unable to make a decision due to the lack of
information. Councillor Anderson noted that an exempt appendix had
been included in the Cabinet papers, and this had not been made
available to the Committee. He felt that this appendix might have
been useful for the Committee to see.
Councillor Coxshall responded and stated that Cabinet would
consider in future allowing access to exempt information for
overview and scrutiny committees, or holding private and closed
briefing sessions for scrutiny members.
The Leader stated that based on the comments made at PTR Overview
and Scrutiny Committee, an addition would be made to recommendation
2 outlining that regular briefing notes would be brought before the
Committee.
RESOLVED: That Cabinet:
1. Endorsed the next steps in the
programme for the project.
2. Delegated to the Corporate Director of Resources and Place
Delivery, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for
Regeneration, Strategic Planning and External Relationships, the
procurement for the next contract stages set out in the programme.
Regular briefing notes on project progress would be provided to the
relevant overview and scrutiny committee.
3. Approved the latest iteration of the cost plan appended to this
report, including paragraphs 3.8 and 3.9, and noted the efforts
made to continue to drive cost efficiency.
Reason for decision: as outlined in the
report
This decision is subject to
call-in
Supporting documents: