Issue - decisions

Matter for Decision:

The City Council is leading the partnership project to provide the new Community Centre at Clay Farm. Other partners include the Primary Care Trust, the County Council; South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire Partnerships Limited. The Clay Farm Community Centre will be a high profile sustainable building of quality design.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Community Development and Health:

The Executive Councillor resolved to:

        i.      Note the programme to build a new Community Centre at Clay Farm.

      ii.      Approve that a Design Team be commissioned to design and oversee the delivery of the Community Centre and that a Contractor be procured to build the Community Centre.

    iii.      Delegate authority to the Director of Customer and Community Services to sign a contract with both the Design Team and the Building Contractor in liaison with the Director of Resources and the Head of Legal Services and in consultation with the Executive Councillor for Community Development and Health, the Opposition Spokesperson and the Chair of the Community Services Scrutiny Committee. 

Reason for the Decision:

The Community Centre Community Centre will sit on City Council land and the City Council is therefore leading the project to deliver the building. Analysis of the phased payments and current anticipated build rate of the new homes suggest that the optimal time to complete the Community Centre will be December 2014. For this to be achieved it will be necessary to start a procurement process early in 2012.  

Any alternative options considered and rejected:

Extensive discussions were held as part of the master-planning of the Southern Fringe about the need for a Community Centre to serve the new community. 

Scrutiny Considerations:

The committee received a report form the Head of Strategic Housing regarding the Clay Farm Community Centre.

Members asked for clarity regarding community engagement plans for both existing and incoming residents. The Head of Community Development outlined the plans his team were developing to engage both groups. Members welcomed the progress on the Community Centre which is seen as central to the new development and would be an exciting joint project offering high quality build standards.  The Council would also be working with the lead affordable housing provider to maximise their contribution to engagement.

 The Scrutiny Committee considered and endorsed the recommendations in the report by 6 votes to 0.

The Executive Councillor for Community Development and Health approved the recommendations.