The Committee will receive a verval update from the Council’s Regeneration Officer.
Minutes:
The Interim Project Manager provided members with a presentation update on the regeneration of the Regis Centre, Bognor Regis as had been requested by the Committee.
The Interim Project Manager outlined that a lot had happened since the last meeting of the Committee. The points covered by the verbal presentation provided have been summarised below:
· Public consultation had been undertaken on 17 March 2023. A website had been opened 2-3 weeks following the event so that comments and feedback could be provided.
· 400 people had contributed into or had attended the consultation event.
· This had confirmed overwhelming support for the scheme with many other ideas coming forward. These had been collected and collated.
· A “You Said – We Did” document had been released on 5 June 2023 and this had been emailed to all Councillors detailing what ideas had come forward; what had been progressed and what and why some had not been progressed. These had been incorporated into the Stage 3 design that would lead to a planning application.
· A further public information event had been held at the theatre at the beginning of June to showcase the changes to the design following the consultation.
· On 29 June 2023 the planning application had been submitted. This had since been validated and was now going through the process of statutory consultation.
· It was hoped that the application would be submitted to the Planning Committee at its meeting to be held on 6 September 2023.
· The Council had taken possession of Brewer’s Fayre on 15 May 2023 with Whitbread taking a long lease for the hotel site and fire station.
· The Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Shopmobility had been successfully relocated.
· The tender for the main contractor had been progressed through a procurement framework in June 2023. There had been three interested parties; two bids had been submitted with one withdrawing.
· This process was progressing with the assistance of Hampshire Procurement.
· There was a recommendation from Hampshire Procurement to proceed with a Design and Build Contractor tender but as the stand still period had not been reached this could not be announced yet. Once announced, that company would agree a pre-contract service agreement with the Council so that they could complete all of the detailed design necessary to construct the refurbishment to the theatre and the new build elements.
· The Council’s consultants [Mace Group] would supervise that and it was confirmed that there were theatre specialists on board looking at the finer details.
· Once the Stage 4 design was complete, then the construction cost could be fixed for the project with demolition planned for November with a planned completion for around May 2025, subject to planning approval.
Questions from the Committee focused on the relocation of Arun Arts where it was explained that this was still under negotiation.
Other comments made were around the area formally known as the Royal Hall. It was hoped that this space would be brought back to what it used to be in providing Bognor Regis with conference and event space which were desperately needed. It was felt that there was now real opportunity to restore this area and fix the major roof problems that existed. It was explained that the Economy Committee had instructed the Officer team to produce a brief and costings to turn the existing pub back into what the Royal Hall used to be. This work was progressing and formed part of a project that was separate to this project.
Finally, questions were asked about solar panels and if these would be included in the project and if another 150 seats would be provided in the theatre. In terms of the provision of solar panels, it was explained that this would be subject to cost but that every effort was being made to attach solar panels to the roof. It was hoped that the Council would be successful in securing funding before the end of the project to fund this cost which was around £200k. £45k had already been secured so the confidence was there that this would happen.
The Committee then noted the update provided.