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Cabinet agreed to award the construction contract for the Greenmeadow Farm Rejuvenation project to Contractor Number 4, at a cost of £3,723,399.54. The decision was urgent because of programme timescales, so it was not subject to call-in, a process that lets councillors ask for a scrutiny review before a decision takes effect.
Executive Members (with Portfolios): Councillors: Anthony Hunt – Leader and Executive Member for Strategic Leadership Richard Clark – Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children, Families and Education Fiona Cross – Executive Member for Communities David Daniels – Executive Member for Adult Services and Housing Joanne Gauden – Executive Member for Economy, Skills and Regeneration Peter Jones – Executive Member for Corporate Governance and Resources Sue Morgan – Executive Member for Waste and Sustainability Mandy Owen – Executive Member for Environment Officers: Rachel Beale – Personal Assistant to Leader and Deputy Leader Louise Day – Communications Manager Niall Flack - Apprentice Democratic Services Officer Delyth Harries - Monitoring Officer and Assistant Chief Legal Officer Dave Leech - Strategic Director for Adults and Communities Bethan McPherson - Head of Communities & Renewal Stephen Vickers – Chief Executive
2.1 There were no apologies received.
3.1 There were no declarations of interest.
4.1 The Head of Communities & Renewal highlighted the key areas of the report and made the following comments: · The report sought approval to award the construction contract for the Greenmeadow Farm Rejuvenation project following the outcome of the tender process. The total value of the construction contract was £3,723,399.54. · Greenmeadow Farm was a much-loved attraction amongst the local community, however over the years had faced many challenges including decreasing visitor numbers which impacted on their income generation, which made the model became unsustainable and the farm became reliant on subsidisation by the Council. · An ambitious business plan supporting investment was approved in 2022 and was subsequently reviewed in 2023 with a further decision made by Council in September 2023 to approve the additional investment enabling the project to proceed and to deliver the ambition of an all weather all year commercially viable destination offer, bringing the total capital budget up to £3.738 million excluding external funding allocations. · In addition to the agreed capital budget there was a further opportunity to access Welsh Government grants to support low carbon green energy solutions for the site that would future proof the infrastructure, the funding was successful and brought the total project budget up to £5.472 million. · On the back of the investment the contract had been tendered via an open tender process on Sell2Wales. Four tenders were submitted in June and the tenders were evaluated on 60% quality and 40% price. · The Council’s Procurement, Legal and Finance Teams were consulted throughout the tender process, and it was recommended to award the contract to Contractor Number 4. · The contractor had proposed some cost saving measures that enabled them to come in on the budget submitted, the initial view was that the proposals were acceptable, but the Technical Project Manager and Quantity Surveyor would work through the proposals prior to any contracts being signed to ensure deliverability. · All of the bids submitted came in over the current anticipated 30 weeks, with the recommended contractor proposing a 36-week constructions period. However, there would be further conversations with the contractor post the decision from Cabinet to understand the timeline in more detail and to explore opportunities on how to ensure an April 2025 opening. 4.2 The Executive Member for Communities commented that this was a huge step in the journey the Council had been on with the farm and she was excited for works to commence. She gave personal thanks to the Head of Communities & Renewal for her incredible work on the project which had not been an easy challenge. She also wanted to thank Coley Hill and their vision which has enabled the Council’s values for the farm to become a reality. 4.3 The Leader thanked Officers for their hard work on this and also Councillor Cross for her leadership on the project. He also shared the excitement of the project coming together and looked forward to the day when young people were able to visit the farm again and to be able to provide them with a facility that had a real positive future. He stated that as with any capital project there were competing demands on Council funds, however without the investment the farm would have failed so he was pleased that the Council took the approach to invest, and he looked forward to the realisation. 4.4 The Executive Member for Waste and Sustainability added that it was reassuring to see that the score for the preferred contractor and the next possible one were quite close together because it showed that the tenders put forward were realistic. She stated that from looking at the calculations if there was a slight delay with the construction timeline that the farm would still be open well ahead of the end of the school term which was good to see. She concluded by thanking Officers for conducting a thorough procurement exercise. 4.5 Cabinet agreed that the contract for the Green Meadow Farm Construction element at £3,723,399.54 is awarded to contractor 4 following the outcome of the tender process. As this was an urgent decision due to programme timescales it was agreed that the decision would not be subject to call in.
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The minutes record no declarations of interest.
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