Agenda item

Further to Minute 41 of the Cabinet, the City Council considered a report of the Executive Director of Place, which sought authorisation of a new and additional Public Realm programme of works and to enter into Local Growth Deal funding agreements.

Since 2011 the City Council had delivered over £33M public realm improvements in Coventry City Centre.  Schemes such as Broadgate, Council House Square, Gosford Street and the route from Bull Yard to the railway station had transformed the city’s environment, provided more green space and created a more attractive city for residents, businesses and visitors to enjoy. Phase 3 of the public realm improvements was completed earlier this year, using European Regional Development Fund and Local Growth Deal grant, along with some private investment to deliver improvements, including to the route between Coventry University campus and the city centre, Far Gosford Street, Lidice Place, Belgrade Plaza and Whittle Arch.

The impact of this work had been significant, attracting developers to invest in the city such as Shearers Property Group who cited the improvements to Broadgate as part of the reason they took the decision to invest to transform Cathedral Lanes into a vibrant restaurant quarter, with plans for further investment for phase 2 which was set to commence shortly. Broadgate continued to host popular events, from farmers markets to concerts and exhibitions which attracted visitors into the city centre. An increasing number of the city’s bars and restaurants were taking the opportunity to provide more outdoor seating areas to enable people to sit out and enjoy the newly improved urban and green spaces. Footfall in the City Centre during the evening was up 23%, well above the national average.

The Council had successfully secured £1.9M Local Growth Deal funds from Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) to deliver Phase 4 of city centre public realm improvements. The investment would focus on delivery of high quality schemes as per previous schemes in the city centre within the funding available.

To ensure that the public realm programme could be delivered within the available budget, a priority order for the schemes was proposed. A pipeline of public realm schemes had been established in priority order for investment, and these were detailed in the report.

Separately, Local Growth Deal had also been awarded for infrastructure improvements to the A45/Leamington Road and A46 Stoneleigh Interchange. £0.75M had been awarded to the A45/Leamington Road to reduce road traffic congestion during peak periods and improve safety for all road users at the busy road junction on the A45 Kenpas Highway at its junction with the B4113 Leamington Road and B4113 St Martin’s Road. A further £1.1M had been awarded for scheme development for the A46 Stoneleigh Interchange improvement. The scheme, being led by delivery partner Warwickshire County Council with support from Warwick District Council would improve access to the University of Warwick and the adjoining science and business parks, as well as provide a basis to access a number of proposed major developments in the area including HS2.

Taken with the investment reported in the Highways and Transport Capital Programme reports, the total additional investment in the city for 2016/17 was over £23M. The public realm works would help bring forward future investment in the city centre. This investment would also help strengthen the case for Coventry’s City of Culture 2021 bid.

In addition, two business cases had been submitted for Local Growth Deal 3 (LGD3) funds to deliver a further package of major public realm improvements and infrastructure improvements. This included further developing and delivering schemes which had been reported to the Cabinet previously, including de-culverting of the River Sherbourne at Palmer Lane and improvements to a number of ring road junctions to improve connectivity between the city centre and outer ring road.

A strategic outline business case was being prepared for the next package of public realm and infrastructure projects. This development work was being funded by the Integrated Transport Block Scheme Development Fund. Bids were being submitted to the West Midlands Combined Authority for Devolution Deal funding and Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership for Local Growth Deal funding.

The Growth Deal 3 funding announcement timescale had not been confirmed, although an announcement was anticipated in the autumn. Consequently there was an element of at-risk expenditure for business case development.  This was estimated to be no more than £0.1M.  It should be noted that none of this work would be abortive as it would be helpful to have ‘schemes on the shelf’ ready for future bidding opportunities.  If unsuccessful these costs would need to be underwritten by the Highways and Transport Capital Programme.  If successful, a further Cabinet report would be submitted for approval of the detail of these schemes.

RESOLVED that the City Council:

a)  Authorise the new and additional programme of works, as set out in Table 5.1, for Public Realm Phase 4 totalling £1.9M, A45/Leamington Road £0.75M and A46 Stoneleigh Interchange scheme £1.1M to be added to the approved capital programme for 2016/17 and 2017/18 as per the priority order set out in the report.

b)  Grant permission to enter into Local Growth Deal funding agreements if bids are successful for public realm city centre infrastructure improvements and approve the submission of Strategic Outline Business Case to the West Midlands Combined Authority to match fund these schemes.

(NB: Councillor Ridley left the meeting during consideration of this item.)