Purpose

The project currently has a funding envelope
of £4,936,545 and following a value engineering exercise,
which saw extensive redesigns of the scheme, the proposed project
costs now stand at £6.2m.

The deadline for spending the funding is December 2025 and
currently the practical completion of the building also stands at
December 2025. By moving forward to submit planning and begin the
RIBA Stage 4 designs at risk, this would allow for circa three
months to be saved within the programme, now putting practical
completion September/October 2025 (subject to confirmation via the
soft market testing exercise).

Content

The Service Director for Economic Growth (in
consultation with The Leader of the Council), has agreed the next
steps to progress the delivery of the DRIIVe project:

a) That a full planning application is submitted for the value
engineered scheme, which is above the budget envelope at this
stage.

b) That RIBA Stage 4 is progressed at risk at the same time as the
planning permission is being determined.

c) That a soft market testing exercise is undertaken to attempt
test the project costings further.