Agenda item

The report describes an opportunity to make progress on the regeneration of the Southern Gateway area of Chichester. It seeks the Cabinet’s support for the project in principle and for bids for funding, and approval of initial governance arrangements for the project, with the intention that a further report on the project will be made to a later meeting of the Cabinet.

RESOLVED

(1)  That the Cabinet supports the Southern Gateway Project in principle and the funding bids to the Local Enterprise Partnership; Homes and Communities Agency; and West Sussex County Council and other appropriate funding streams.

(2)  That the preliminary governance arrangements set out in paragraph 6.3 be approved including the Council being the “accountable body” for any funding received if required.

(3)  That a full Project Implementation Document (PID) and the masterplan specification be prepared for consideration at the June Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet considered the report circulated with the agenda, together with a coloured map of the area under consideration (copy attached to the official minutes).

Mr Dignum introduced the report, explaining that the area known as the Southern Gateway had long been seen as an area for redevelopment, and a planning framework for the area had been adopted as supplementary planning guidance as long ago as April 2001.

The area was originally defined as stretching from the former Girls’ High School site to the south to the bus station, bus garage and station concourse to the north. Since 2001 the old southern railway sidings had been developed as the Wileys office block shown on the map as the Atrium. The old Osborne’s office block on the south side of the canal basin had been replaced by housing, and the old Girls’ High school site and grounds by student accommodation.

The remaining areas had not been developed mainly because of a lack of funding to finance the relocation of the Royal Mail depot, the Stagecoach bus station and bus garage. In addition public sector funding was needed for waste water, transport and other public realm investment and for tackling issues like decontamination.

However, a three part opportunity to raise public finance had now emerged to allow the relocation and other items of public realm investment:-

(a)   To bid for a share of £1.8bn of Local Growth Funds (LGF3) announced in the Budget and available through the Coast to Capital (C2C) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The Council’s bid had met the deadline of 29 April 2016.

(b)   To bid tothe Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)/ Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as an expression of interest for a share of £1.2bn of newStarter Home Land Fund to be made by Friday 13 May (open until 31December 2016).

(c)   West Sussex County Council had allocated £30m of WSCC funds in the Capital Programme (2017/18 – 2019/20) to support the leverage in of external funding.

Whilstthere was no commitment at this stage, officers had been preparing bids for submission within the very tight deadlines given.

The sites that could be included in these bids had extended beyond the Royal Mail depot, the bus station and garage, to embrace the Courts building, the Police station, the redundant portion of the Boys’ High school site, the Basin Street car parkand the Job Centre, all shown in different colours on the plan. The Council’s land interest included the bus station and garage, leased to Stagecoach for the next 30 years, and the Basin Street car park.

It was proposed that theDistrict Council takes a lead in initiating this project andshould use its own standing orders to progress procurement and other actionsrequired.

Itwas alsoproposed that the three funding bodies, namelytheCouncil,the HCA and WSCC form a Steering Group. The Steering Group would be chaired by the Leader of the DistrictCouncil andWSCC would be asked to nominate a Cabinet member representative and substitute. The Deputy Leader would also sit on the Steering Group. [He subsequently agreed that the Cabinet Members for Commercial Services and Housing and Planning should also be on the Steering Group]

The Steering Group would be supportedby a project group of officers withappropriate disciplines and of external consultants where required. A Communications Strategy would be developed to ensure thatstakeholders and the public were kept up to date.

The project was probably the biggest regeneration project the City had ever had, extending to 30 acres in all. This was an exciting opportunity to realise a number of desirable outcomes which could include:

·         Additional housing

·         Student accommodation

·         High earning employment space

·         Retail space

·         Other visitor attractions including an attractive northern canal frontage to the canal basin

He thanked the officers, led by Mr Over, for preparing and submitting the bids.

Mr Over confirmed that the bid to the LEP had been submitted and could possibly unlock substantial private sector investment. Chichester had a number of distinctive features, such as the only canal basin, the only University, and the highest house prices in West Sussex. The bid also was near a transport interchange, on brownfield land and provided significant new housing. The Council would not know until the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement whether its bid had been successful. Potentially the project could bring about 280 homes, 1,250 new jobs and safeguard a further 1,250 jobs. The project would take several years, probably in phases, to complete. There had been little community consultation to date, but this would be a feature of the master planning, carried out with the assistance of consultants, over the next few months.

Cabinet members welcomed and expressed strong support for the bid. The HCA bid could provide 300-600 starter homes (not all on this site) and make a good contribution to a five year land supply. However, they noted the competitive nature of the bidding process.

Mr Over confirmed that the LEP expected a lot of bids, but Chichester’s was a unique offering with a good private:public investment ratio. The LEP was expected to announce its initial shortlist in June 2016. The master planning would probably have knock-on effects outside the site, and would take into account projects such as the Enterprise Gateway and improvement of the A27 Chichester By-pass.

RESOLVED

(1)  That the Cabinet supports the Southern Gateway Project in principle and the funding bids to the Local Enterprise Partnership; Homes and Communities Agency; and West Sussex County Council and other appropriate funding streams.

(2)  That the preliminary governance arrangements set out in paragraph 6.3 of the report be approved including the Council being the “accountable body” for any funding received if required.

(3)  That a full Project Implementation Document (PID) and the masterplan specification be prepared for consideration at the June Cabinet meeting.