Issue - meetings

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) that sought the approval of updates to the Coventry Station Masterplan Programme.

The Coventry Station Masterplan was approved by the Cabinet in March 2015 (minute 126/15 referred). It aimed to meet the needs of a fast growing City and create a fitting gateway to the City. An updated masterplan was approved by the Cabinet on 24^th January, 2017 (minute 101/17 referred), with further approvals granted for the proposed procurement strategy on 28^th November, 2017 (minute 80/17 referred) and land acquisition on 13^th February, 2018 (minute 119/17 referred).

The Coventry Station Masterplan would deliver a new footbridge, extended canopies, bay platform, a new station entrance onto Warwick Road with shops, a multi-storey car park, bus interchange and new highway infrastructure. Following the award of City of Culture 2021, the project programme had been reviewed with a view to accelerate completion from summer 2021 to autumn 2020 to ensure the new station was ready to welcome visitors during 2021.

The recent tendering exercise for the footbridge and canopies had demonstrated significant inflation in the rail sector. In response to this an exercise had been undertaken to review the cost estimates for the rest of the programme, with a focus on scrutinising construction costs to benchmark against current market rates in order to provide an updated and robust cost overview. The report included the proposed measures to manage cost and de-risk the programme to ensure the masterplan could be delivered within the approved £82m funding envelope.

The change in programme would result in 385 rail parking spaces being taken out of use during construction of the car park and bus interchange.  To reduce the compensation claim from the car park operator, Virgin Trains, for loss of revenue, a temporary car park with 196 spaces was proposed south of Westminster Road. Cabinet approval was sought to add this car park to the Council’s off street car parking order and to approve the proposal for reimbursing Virgin Trains for loss of revenue. The car park could be delivered within the £82m funding envelope and would provide an opportunity to generate income to reduce cost risk.

In order to further de-risk the project, the southern section of the proposed western link road connecting Central Six Retail Park to the Ring Road had been omitted from the scheme. This removed the risk of potential objections to the planning application from key stakeholders, a lengthy Compulsory Purchase Order process and a potentially significant compensation claim, which would be outside of the available project budget. The link road would be completed in a future phase of the Friargate Masterplan.

Cabinet approval was sought for the addition to the masterplan programme of the extension of the pedestrian boulevard up to the front of the existing station entrance, which could potentially be funded from the contingency budget if funds allowed, or alternatively additional funds would be sought.

Other value engineering options were being explored: the Bus Interchange  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19