Issue - meetings

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Evelyn Archer)

Report of the Head of Property Services. 

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Evelyn Archer)

(It was noted that Councillor Roger Mace had previously declared a personal interest in this item). 

The Head of Property Services submitted a report that informed Members of the proposals received to date for the Auction Mart car park and sought direction on how to proceed with the site. 

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

The schemes were outlined as follows:

·         Option 1 – 91 space public car park and 25 space private car park along with 80 one and two bedroomed retirement apartments over 4 floors with 1^st floor amenity space.  Alternatively, they proposed ground floor retail unit with 1^st and 2^nd floor office / leisure space with 131 public car parking spaces.  Proposed access from the north western end of the site.

·         Option 2 – Ground floor 1286m² food retail with 40 dedicated spaces and 225 public car parking spaces provided in a 3 floor multi storey car park above.  Proposed access to the car park to be at the north western end of the site and access to the food supermarket at the southern end of the site.  The developer had identified and been in discussions with an operator for the food supermarket.  The developer has offered 3 separate financial options for the site including (a) the City Council disposing of the freehold in the site; (b) the City Council retains freehold but is responsible for the construction and related costs of the scheme, paying the developer one years income as a fee, but the City Council would gain the supermarket and the car park as an investment; (c) The City Council grant the developer a long lease of the car park but continue to manage the car park, providing the developer with 55.5% of the income from the enlarged car park and the City Council continues to receive a proportion of the income equating to 44.5% of the car park income.

·         Option 3 – 6327m² of health centre and related accommodation over 6 storeys in a V shaped building with a central pedestrian plaza, with 212 car parking spaces on 3 decks below the building with a yet undefined number of spaces required for the medical centre.  The proposed access to the development will be from the north western end of the site.

·         Option 4 – As an alternative version of option 3, the City Council could work with the North Lancashire Teaching Primary Care Trust to identify a developer who could provide a health facility and car park which would meet the needs of both the PCT and potential occupiers and the City Council.

·         Option 5 - The Vision Board and the County Council, as previously mentioned, have jointly commissioned a report with transport consultants Faber Maunsell.  The final report is due in April, but the initial feedback outlined sees the need for a southern interceptor car park which could require up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 143