Decision details

To consider a proposal to engage with the County Council's appointed strategic property / regeneration partner to explore the potential and interest for their involvement in working with the City Council on a comprehensive approach to regeneration of Morecambe’s key central sites and for the City Council's service delivery/improvement agenda in the area.

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Hanson)

Cabinet received a report from the Chief Officer (Regeneration & Planning) to consider how the City Council could implement the Morecambe Area Action Plan as one element in delivering the Council’s priorities for economic growth.

The options, options analysis, including risk assessment and officer preferred option, were set out in the report as follows:

There are 3 main options to how the City Council might respond to the commercial opportunities and interests currently expressed for central Morecambe:

Option 1  - Adopt anad hoc reactive approach and treat with potential developers on a reactive and opportunist basis (subject to property disposal rules). 

Option 2 - The City Council could seek engagement with a major developer partner to bring forward commercial ideas and partnership interest in a formal way.  Given the extent of publicly owned assets in the central area there is potential to explore a range of delivery arrangements/approaches.  Securing a developer partner to the stage where a proposal is on the table which covers all council objectives, requirements and legal/procurement issues points to the need for a ‘complex’ OJEU (European Union) compliant procurement process, such as Competitive Dialogue (CD).  CD is a non-standard procurement approach to ensure that, to the best of its ability, the council ensures its objectives and statutory obligations can be met efficiently, effectively and legally.  The procurement process would need to be highly structured, resource intensive and include for specialist advice to reduce the risk of legal challenge associated with undertaking complex procurements.  

Option 3 (Preferred Option) - the County Council has already undertaken an OJEU compliant exercise to appoint Carillion as its strategic partner for the delivery of a range of regeneration and property services for East and North Lancashire.  It is suggested that that the City Council engage with Carillion to review their potential and interest in delivering a comprehensive approach to regeneration on Morecambe’s key central sites.  Carillion are interested in exploring this opportunity and have assisted the Council (on a without prejudice basis) to undertake the aforementioned development options exercise (described above).   Although procured to full OJEU compliance standards, the City Council may still require independent specialist advice to resolve any potential legal issues, particularly in areas such as State Aid,  which may have a bearing or impact on its ability to implement a development strategy with Carillion (refer to Financial Implications).

Option3 is preferred, but Member’s should appreciate that Carillion's involvement is not certain.  The county council’s regeneration partner agreement covers 6 Lancashire districts and Carillion’s own resources are limited to genuine commercial opportunities.  An assessment protocol is in place where schemes/ideas are subject to a phased endorsement process and movement through the early stages is dependent on the outcome / attractiveness of the development options exercise. 

Councillor Hanson proposed, seconded by Councillor Sands:-

“That the recommendations, as set out in the report, be approved.”

Councillors then voted:-

Resolved unanimously:

(1)        That Cabinet supports the preferred approach of engaging with Lancashire County Council’s regeneration partner, Carillion, to explore partnering opportunities to develop Morecambe’s key central sites.

(2)        That Cabinet authorises the Chief Officer (Regeneration and Planning) in conjunction with other relevant Chief Officers to:

                                 I.      Further explore and clarify the staged assessment process and appetite for County Council/Carillion engagement.

                               II.      Clarify the objectives, brief and geographic area for the engagement with Carillion.

                              III.      Review the City Council’s assets in the area and/or service delivery aspirations and integrate (if required) into the developer engagement/proposal. 

                            IV.      Seek specialist advice on the legal/state aid implications (if any) arising from the proposals. 

(3)        That Cabinet approves a general fund revenue growth item totalling £175K for 2014/15 as referred to in Section 3.5 of the report for consideration by Council as part of Cabinet’s budget proposals.

Officers responsible for effecting the decision:

Chief Officer (Regeneration & Planning)

Chief Officer (Resources)

Reasons for making the decision:

The Morecambe Area Action Plan is part of the Local Plan which is part of the policy framework.  The decision is consistent with the economic growth priority within the Corporate Plan and raises the issues within the Morecambe Area Action Plan with the County Council at the highest level.