Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached

The Executive considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which informed Members of requests to increase the capital programme, sought approval for those schemes that could be approved under authority delegated to the Executive and asked the Executive to recommend to Council proposals that required specific Council approval.

The proposals which did not require Council approval and only required Executive approval were those which were funded by the use of external resources, use of capital receipts, use of reserves below £10.0m, where the proposal could be funded from existing revenue budgets or where the use of borrowing on a spend to save basis is required.  The following proposals required Executive approval for changes to the City Council’s capital programme:-

·                Private Sector Housing – West Gorton Balconies. A capital budget increase of £0.350m in 2022/23 is requested, funded by HRA Reserve for essential work of making 40 balconies safe following the failure of a balcony ceiling which presented an immediate Health and Safety Issue.

·                Growth and Development – Our Town Hall (OTH) Visitors Centre. A capital budget increase of £0.077m in 2024/25 was requested, funded by OTH reserve to account for significant changes in market conditions, including increases in preliminaries, to fully cost and deliver the full visitor experience.

·                Highways Services – Auto Bollards Additional Funding. A capital budget increase of £0.123m in 2022/23 was requested, funded by Parking Reserve to account for several contract variations that had been submitted by the contractor due to change requests that had been reviewed by the project team. These included, but were not limited to, civil engineering work to establish power connections not included in original tender price and a redesign of static bollards due to improved design to ensure disabled access

·                Highways Services – Chorlton Area 2 Cycle Scheme Additional Funding.  A capital budget increase of £1m in      2023/24 was requested, funded by External Contribution to cover additional costs identified due to delays and contract termination.  The delays were attributable to the contractor being unable to access the whole site in the first instance and following several issues with delivery, there was a protracted but sensible contract termination.

The report highlighted that there had been increases to the programme totalling £1.794m as a result of delegated approvals since the previous report to the Executive on 14 September 2022.

Approval had also been given for the following capital budget virements:-

·                £3.0m to be allocated for Pioneer House High School from the Unallocated Education Basic Need budget. This project would increase the pupil capacity at the school from 128 to 168 places for SEND pupils aged 11-19 with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP).

·                £2.6m allocated from Education Basic Need funding for William Hulme’s Grammar School. This project would create an additional 18 places of resource provision and rebuild 12 which are currently located in temporary classrooms. The places would be available exclusively for pupils with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP).

Decisions

The Executive:-

(1)      Approve the following changes to the Council’s capital programme:

·                Private Sector Housing – West Gorton Balconies. A capital budget increase of £0.350m, funded by HRA Reserve

·                Growth and Development – Our Town hall Visitors Centre Additional Funding. A capital budget increase of £0.077m, funded by OTH Reserve.

·                Highways Services – Auto Bollard Additional Funding. A capital budget increase of £0.123m, funded by Parking Reserve

·                Highways Services – Chorlton Cycle Scheme. A capital budget increase of £1m, funded by External Contribution.

(2)         Note the increases to the programme of £1.794m as a result of delegated approvals.

(3)          Note the virements in the programme of £5.6m as a result of virements from approved budgets.