Issue - meetings

The Sub-Committee was advised that planning permission had been granted for the Market House and agents had been appointed to secure a pre-let for the unit. Four contractors have been invited to submit a full tender to build the Market House. Officers advised that there were two strong contenders, one of which had already opened negotiations.

Marlborough who were the principle contractor for the utility works would be invited to undertake the Public Realm works.

The provisional programme for the works had been submitted and it was anticipated that everything would be completed by the week commencing 25 June 2018.

The Sub-Committee had concerns at the overall programme for improvement encompassing the East End, Market House and West End, car parking and public realm. They asked officers to indicate where the decision to proceed had been taken, together with full details of all the proposed works.

Cabinet at its meeting on 18 November had given an in principle approval to the proposals.  This decision had been called in and referred back to Cabinet for reconsideration.  At the meeting on 16 December 2015 Cabinet had reaffirmed its decision.

The Sub-Committee requested the Board to carry out an in depth review of the proposals with officers providing full details of all approvals showing clearly what proposals had been approved and by whom, a detailed Business Plan supporting the proposals and a detailed budget indicating clearly where funding had already been approved, this review to be undertaken before any tender was let for the building of the Market House.

Officers had prepared a tender specification for the development of a new market brand and identity and final preparations were being made to launch a tender exercise for the appointment of a marketing specialist.

The events which had been organised in the run up to Christmas had seen an increase in footfall and officers were preparing a programme of events for 2017 commencing with activity over Easter.

The feasibility of a Christmas Lights switch-on and provision of an ice rink over Christmas and New Year was being evaluated.

Having established a baseline which showed the average weekly footfall was 142,133 a growth strategy would now be developed in line with the vision.

A new Market Manager had been appointed in January who was focusing on a number of key transformational areas.  These included a trader incentive scheme to support recruitment and retention during the construction phase and developing an operational plan to accommodate and relocate existing permanent traders who would be displaced during the Market House build.

The Sub-Committee noted the report subject to the reservations set out above.