Issue - meetings

The report seeks approval from the Economic Committee to appoint the construction contract for the delivery of the regeneration works to Littlehampton Town Centre and to give delegated authority to the Director of Place (DOP) for all approvals within the allocated budget as well as providing authorisation for the DOP to enter into a letter of intent to enable ordering of materials to be met by the same budget.

          The Director of Place provided members with an overview of the report before them and advised that the Committee were being asked to appoint the construction contract for the delivery of the regeneration works to Littlehampton Town Centre as well as to delegate authority for all approvals within the budget of £3,416,295.00 and to enter into a letter of intent to enable the ordering of materials, to the Director of Place. Further explaining that there were currently nationwide delays when ordering construction materials and that he was currently given a 20 week wait from the point of ordering the materials. He stated that the letter of intent was vital in terms of the decision the Committee was being asked to make at this meeting as without this authority the order for materials could not be placed. He confirmed that the earliest works would start would be after the Christmas period due to the wait time. He then confirmed that the issue that had been raised regarding the Lime Tree outside of the arcade has been reviewed and the Tree Officer has relooked and reconsidered his previous approach and the tree was now worthy of a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and therefore it was now for the Committee to decide if they wished to retain the tree or not.

          The Chair opened the debate where the following points were raised:

§  The lost section of improvement work by the railway was disappointing and the Leader of the Council was intent on finding money to complete this work.

§  Questions were asked regarding further design consultation with members. It was confirmed by the Director of Place that we were now at the delivery stage of the scheme and there was no further opportunity to make changes to the designs.

§  Concern was raised regarding the 3 telephone boxes that were stated to be kept as data-hubs, it was felt that these were not needed and ultimately not used for that purpose. It was asked what the cost would be for removing all three, the Director of Place confirmed that the quote received for removal of all three telephone boxes was £35,000. It was also advised that it was more cost effective to leave them in place, as the cost to remove them was now outside of the budgeted plans.

§  Discussion was also had regarding the trees outside the Dolphin pub and Peacocks. Where is was confirmed that there was planned work for the, but they were not being removed.

§  There was a consensus amongst the Committee that the Lime Tree in place outside the arcade should be awarded a TRO and kept.

§  Discussion regarding the street furniture was had and it was confirmed that discussion with Littlehampton Town Council (LTC) was being had and that where possible items that could be re-used would be.

The Chair then read out a statement on behalf of Councillor Northeast who could not be in attendance at the meeting so that the Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178