Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The Council has been undertaking negotiations over terms and conditions from English Partnerships for over a year. Significant progress has been made during the negotiations and the final version has reduced the risks to the Council. However, some of the conditions are difficult to manage and the risk profile reported to Council previously has been remodelled to encompass these.

1.2 On 20^th January 2005, the Council resolved that:

`officers to continue to negotiate lower risk terms and conditions and delegates acceptance of these to the Executive, giving full authority to take all actions they consider necessary to reduce the risks to the Council including requesting the Executive Members for Resources and Economic Development to make representations at the highest level of government.'

1.3 Since that time significant progress has been made, and the Council is due to receive the final set of terms and conditions for the scheme by the 5^th April 2005, along with an offer of £154.6m towards the scheme (although it has not proven possible to get an appointment with the Minister).

1.4 There are still some concerns over the terms of the funding offer, and other issues which the Executive needs to consider.

2 RECOMMENDATIONS

The Council Executive is asked to:

2.1 Note the terms and conditions of the offer, and the implications for the Council thereof

2.2 Agree to accept the offer.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The Council will receive an offer of £154.6m for the project. This sum and offer will be a pre-tender offer, and a full review of the costs of the project and the funding requirements will be done when tenders for the main scheme are received. The terms of the offer will make it clear that there are certain costs associated with the project which are not eligible for funding under the Land Stabilisation Programme. These are currently estimated at £4-5m. This sum has been included in the Council's financial plan.

3.2 In addition, the risk assessment which identifies impacts to the Council (including the impacts of the proposed terms and conditions) has been reviewed. This remains within the figure of £8.3m reported to Council in January 2005.

3.3 Currently the budgets will only cover project costs up to the end of April 2005.

4 THE OFFER

4.1 Following negotiations on the details of the terms and conditions upon which the scheme would be funded by English Partnerships (EP) the Council will now receive a `final' offer of £154.6m. The terms and conditions of the offer are set out at Appendix 1 (this offer from English Partnerships will be issued by the 5^th April and will be forwarded onto Members).

4.2 The funding offer terms and conditions have been reviewed in detail by officers of the Council, by Eversheds (external legal advisors who have been appointed to advise on them), and by the Council's insurance brokers, Marsh (who will be advising on environmental liabilities).

4.3 Key Issues - these will be discussed in an update paper which will be issued to the Executive prior to the 6^th April.

5 RISK ASSESSMENT

5.1 A risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations has been undertaken, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

5.2 The risk register has been revised to reflect the latest situation with regard to the terms and conditions. This is within the envelope identified at Council in January 2005.

6 RATIONALE

See section 7 below.

7 RATIONALE AND OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

7.1 Previous reports have set out in detail the rationale for the project, and the various options which the Council has in relation to the mines, and their liabilities and duties.

7.2 The Council is not obliged to take funding on terms it finds unacceptable, provided that it acts reasonably. If the Project is not undertaken, any works carried out to date must not render the mines less stable than they were before the works were done.

7.3 If the Council were to decide not to proceed with the project, it would of course remain responsible for its own land and for the maintenance of the highways. It is not clear whether any government funding would be available if the Council were to decide to discharge these responsibilities without dealing with any of the land in private ownership.

8 CONSULTATION

8.1 Ward councillors and the Combe Down Stone Mines Community Association are regularly informed on general progress with the negotiations with English Partnerships.