Agenda and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were asked to declare, at this point in the meeting, any personal interests, not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they may have in respect of business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on Monday 10 August 2020, at 5:30pm.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held at 2:00pm on 10 August 2020 be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chair at a later date.

Further to the minutes, however, where there was an apparent lack of reference to written reports being considered at meetings, he reminded Members of the importance of the statutory function of scrutiny committees and the need for such reports to enable Members to adequately fulfil their role. As a result, he proposed that he and Cllr Fenton (Vice Chair) seek a meeting with the Leader to discuss commitment to scrutiny. This was seconded by Cllr Rowley and following a unanimous vote in favour it was:

Resolved: That the Committee explicitly support  Councillors Crawshaw and Fenton as Chair & Vice Chair in seeking a meeting with the Executive Leader, Cllr Aspden, such that they may convey Committee’s frustration at the lack of reports in advance of meetings and request that sufficient resources be made available to ensure that the Scrutiny function is appropriately supported to carry out its statutory role.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines have changed to 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at remote meetings.  The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Thursday, 3 September 2020.

To register to speak please contact Democratic Services, on the details at the foot of the agenda. You will then be advised on the procedures for dialling into the remote meeting.

Webcasting of Remote Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this remote public meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The remote public meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

During coronavirus, we've made some changes to how we're running council meetings. See our coronavirus updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy ) for more information on meetings and decisions.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Members will receive a presentation which will cover the current position of the following key projects at Castle Gateway, Guildhall and York Central.

The Head of Corporate Finance & Commercial Procurement gave an update on the review methodology for the 5 year approved capital programme from 2020/21 – 2024/25 totalling £600.615m, which had been has been reviewed and split into four categories: major projects, medium/smaller projects, routine maintenance/rolling programmes and projects nearing completion or substantially complete except for retention payments. It was noted that schemes in categories 1 and 2 with a value of over £1m were reviewed.

The evaluation methodology for major projects had been agreed in consultation with Executive Members in line with COVID Emergency decision making powers and each review considered the Strategic Business case, the financial Business Case, delivery and an assessment of future options when deciding whether to continue, pause, review or stop the projects.

Members were asked to consider the review process for Guildhall and York Central and their input was sought on the review of Castle Gateway to feed into Executive decision making at the Executive meeting on 1 October 2020.

Guildhall

The Assistant Director Regeneration & Asset Management outlined the strategic review, financial business case, status review, and progress review of the Guildhall project.

Following her update she was asked and confirmed that:

Soft research on the office market had been undertaken with agents for restaurants and commercial contracts for office space. This indicated that a more agile and flexible approach to office space may need to be taken.

The information on the contracts for a third party managing the space were commercially sensitive and would be included in the report to Executive.

Officers were in the process of substantiating the risk associated with the restaurant space. There would be a revised financial protection if there was no interest in the restaurant.

York Central

The Assistant Director Regeneration & Asset Management outlined the strategic review, financial business case, status review, and progress review of the York Central project. During the update on the progress review, discussions took place regarding the for the council review project governance arrangements with the partnership and Members were advised by the Corporate Director Economy and Place that the Terms of Reference would be part of the oversight for the York Central Partnership.

Members discussed the funding arrangements for York Central and the Corporate Director Economy and Place confirmed that £77m had been awarded by government for York Central. Clarification was given on the repayment of costs incurred by the council for the project and it was suggested that oversight of this could be referred to the Audit and Governance Committee.

Members sought and were provided with an update on the housing mix and theAssistant Director Regeneration & Asset Management noted that there was a need for smaller units and that the housing mix had been set within the parameters of the outline planning application.

Castle Gateway

The Head of Regeneration Programmes gave an update on the Castle Gateway project. He provided an overview of the aims of the Masterplan and the aims aligned with COVID-19 priorities. He then outlined  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.