Agenda item

(Report to follow – This report is being prepared for the Executive meeting on 19 July and is, therefore, following Executive Committee timescales.  The report will be released to the R&R PDS Committee following completion of the officer review process.)

Report DRR17/029

Following completion of the development stage of the Regeneration Plan for Crystal Palace Park, Members were requested to consider the proposed steps to take the Regeneration Plan forward to delivery.

The report sought approval from the Executive of spend of up to £625k funded from Capital Receipts to progress the Regeneration Plan to the submission of the outline planning application by spring 2018.  A further £242.3k was requested from Capital Receipts to deliver the Crystal Palace Park café project with any unspent contingency being contributed towards the next phase of the Regeneration Plan scheme.

Due to its confidential nature, a detailed report on the outcome of the café works tender process was considered under the Part 2 section of the agenda.

In outlining the report, the Head of Culture, Mrs Lydia Lee, made the following representations:-

·  ‘The Regeneration Plan follows numerous unsuccessful attempts to regenerate the park. Including the 2007 Masterplan, valued at £100m to deliver, and the ZhongRong Group proposal in 2013.

·  In March 2015 the Executive agreed to a new strategy to the regeneration of the park

·  The agreed approach was to develop a regeneration plan for the park made up of three strands:

·  a capital scheme to regenerate the park in line with the vision of the Masterplan,

·  a new form of governance, and

·  a new park specific business model.

·  The development of the Regeneration Plan is now complete and this report seeks approval to progress to the first stage of delivery, which is to proceed to outline planning permission for the capital scheme by spring 2018 at a cost of up to £625k.

·  Although the business plan and governance strands have been progressed, as detailed in the report, the report recommendations are restricted to the progression of the capital scheme.

Capital scheme

·  The capital scheme development has been led by consultants AECOM through an options appraisal process.

·  The scheme has been required to meet set priorities for regeneration and certain criteria, such as working within the likely capital budget available and responding to the developing business plan findings.

·  As detailed in the committee report extensive consultation has been undertaken with sector bodies and the community to inform the scheme.

·  The report summarises the proposed capital scheme works, and appendix A to the report visualises the scheme.

·  The capital scheme includes park wide infrastructure improvements, such as lighting, and specific works to improve each of the park zones, including the restoration of the historic terraces.

Costs and funding

·  A cost plan for the delivery of the capital scheme has been developed in response to the estimated funding available.

·  Knight Frank has valued the enabling development housing sites in the current market at £24.84m.

·  In addition a successful Parks for People grant application to the Heritage Lottery Fund would realise £5m.

·  Therefore the total assumed budget, bearing in mind the original Improvement Scheme budget mainly funded by the Mayor of London, is £32.11m.  As set out in the table in paragraph 3.27.

·  The funding model at this time only includes £160k from the Council, previously agreed in 2015 for the improvement scheme, which is currently being delivered.

·  All other expenditure is expected to be funded from the future capital receipts from the enabling development and the lottery grant, therefore the Regeneration Plan has been designed to be self-funding.

Key issues and risks

·  There are key issues and risks in taking forward the Regeneration Plan, as detailed in the report.

·  Regenerating Crystal Palace Park is a highly complex project. The park is a multi-faceted site with a broad range of issues from leased buildings to historic assets.

·  However the plan offers the only identified holistic solution to the park’s regeneration and a sustainable future through the Regeneration Plan’s development of significant diverse income streams.

·  Additionally, during the development of the Regeneration Plan a previously unappreciated urgency to advance the plan now has come to light.

·  The most valuable of the enabling development sites, at an estimated £15.44m, is Rockhills where the Caravan Club is currently situated. The Caravan Club’s lease can only be broken every thirty years, and the 31^st December 2018 is the next date that the lease can be broken.

·  If the Council does not proceed with the Regeneration Plan now it will not be able to oppose the grant of a new lease to the Caravan Club and the courts could order the grant of a new lease for up to 14 years, which would prevent any redevelopment during that time. Therefore if the Council wishes to proceed with the Regeneration Plan the decision cannot be delayed.

Improvement Scheme

·  Separate to the Regeneration Plan, the Improvement Scheme is currently being delivered in the park. The Improvement Scheme has largely been funded by the Mayor of London with financial contributions from the Council and Historic England. The Improvement Scheme is made up of six capital projects all of which are either complete or the contract has been awarded (in the case of the skatepark), with the exception of the new park café.

·  The café tender process is detailed in the report. The outcome of the tender process is detailed in the Part 2 report.

·  Ultimately, the winning (and lowest) tenderer is £242.3k over budget.

·  Members are asked to approve the award of contract to the identified winning tenderer and approve additional spend of up to £242.3k, funded from capital receipts in order to deliver the Crystal Palace Park café project.

A solution to bring the scheme in on budget was rejected by the Mayor of London, the primary funder. Therefore so as to not lose the GLA grant monies it is proposed that the additional £242.3k required is underwritten by the Council, in the anticipation it can be recouped from future capital receipts from the park enabling development. This is shown in the table in paragraph 3.27.

Councillor Michael was informed that the maze on the north mound would be retained as part of the Regeneration Plan.  The former zoo was now Crystal Palace Park Farm which was operated by Capel Manor College and open to members of the public.’

Having visited the Park, it was clear to the Chairman that regeneration was required, particularly in regard to the café.  He congratulated officers on producing a well-documented and detailed report.

Councillor Allen welcomed the regeneration scheme which she considered was long overdue.  Referring to paragraph 3.10 (page 6), Councillor Allen commented on the usefulness of the existing Information Centre and urged officers to ensure that the building was either refurbished or re-provided but not removed.  In regard to the delivery of a new café, Councillor Allen was informed that this was the only project out of six which came in over budget and would be closely monitored going forward.  Detailed information on the budgeting aspect was contained in the tender report.  Redevelopment of the Rockhills site included nursery provision which would replace the One O’Clock Club currently operated by Mytime and was also the allocated site for re-provision of the community centre.

Visiting Ward Member Councillor Angela Wilkins, thanked Mrs Lee for all the hard work and effort she had put into the project.  Councillor Wilkins wholeheartedly supported the scheme and believed Crystal Palace Park should be the ‘jewel in Bromley’s crown’; this was a project which the community deserved.

Mrs Lee informed Members that six options for park regeneration had been developed; these were reviewed by Historic England, the Crystal Palace Park Project Executive Board, the Heritage and Environment Group, the GLA and the Shadow Board.  As Option 5 was assessed as the preferred scheme, the remaining five options were no longer eligible for consideration.

Councillor Auld stated this was a smaller scale project than those previously put forward, so the sale of the Rockhills site and gaining planning permission for its redevelopment was vitally important.

In regard to the National Sports Centre, it was reported that The Lodge Tower, an 11-storey building providing overnight accommodation for athletes and visitors to the NSC, located in the central area of the Park, was under the control of the Greater London Authority.

In summing up, Members agreed that Crystal Palace Park was very much in need of regeneration and supported Option 5 as the preferred scheme which  appeared to make the most of key spaces and would result in the least amount of open public space being lost.

RESOLVED that the report be noted and Member comments be submitted to a meeting of the Executive on 19 July 2017.