Agenda item

Further to Minute 101 of Cabinet, the City Council considered a report of the Executive Director of Place, which provided an update on the Coventry Station Masterplan.

The Coventry Station Masterplan programme was set to deliver transformational improvements to Coventry Railway Station. The Coventry Station Masterplan was developed in response to a 2014 study that looked at the city’s future rail needs. It was initially approved at Cabinet in March 2015, funded by Local Growth Deal. Since then, the scheme had developed extensively in terms of design and scope to meet the needs of an aspirational and growing city. This report submitted detailed the current proposals that had been developed over the last 18 months, in partnership with the rail industry and other stakeholders.

It was noted that Coventry Station had experienced the highest growth in rail passengers in the last 5 years outside of London.  It was one of the busiest stations on the West Coast Mainline, after London and Birmingham New Street, but since opening in 1962 it had seen little investment or updating.  It was given Grade II listed status by English Heritage in 1995, due to its modern architecture.  Apart from the generally tired nature of the existing buildings, there were genuine capacity issues and it was essential that a fitting gateway to the city be created to underpin the redevelopment at Friargate and the wider city regeneration.  It was also vital that a station be created that supported continued growth in patronage to underline the City’s case for the retention and enhancement of rail services post HS2.  The Station Masterplan was an integral part of the City Centre Area Action Plan and the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP’s Strategic Economic Plan, and was central to the City Council’s economic regeneration and improving connectivity to the wider region, including UK Central and HS2.

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The City Council, working with Friargate LLP, had established a collaborative approach between Network Rail, the Department for Transport, the wider rail industry and Coventry and Warwickshire LEP to develop proposals to meet these objectives. As a consequence of this work the scope of the scheme had extended and the total programme had increased to £82.4m, which included £11.8m contingency which was good practice for rail schemes.

Coventry Station Masterplan would deliver extra capacity, accessibility and a better first impression of Coventry, within the station through the following new infrastructure:-

•  A second footbridge connecting all four platforms and extended platform canopies;

•  A second station entrance building, facing outwards onto Warwick Road and providing step free access to platforms;

•  A 644 space multi-storey car park;

•  A bus interchange connected directly to the station building via a new access tunnel under Warwick Road;

•  Highway improvements;

•  Bay platform (NUCKLE 1.2)

The highway improvements would provide the bulk of the infrastructure required to deliver the Friargate Masterplan and make provision for future Rapid Transit services via the railway station. A detailed summary of the scheme changes and enhanced programme from March 2015 to date was set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

It was noted that the report had been considered by the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee at their meeting on 18th January 2017.  They had recommended to Cabinet that:

a)  Scrutiny be included in the reporting process relating to the Coventry Station Masterplan.

b)  The finances of the Masterplan are carefully monitored, including any additional proposed income streams.

RESOLVED that, subject to the outcome of ongoing commercial negotiation with Friargate LLP, the Council:

  i.  Approve the revised cost plan as detailed in section 5.1, give authority for prudential borrowing of £10.9m subject to final approval by the Department for Transport and authority to submit a funding bid through the WMCA Devolution Deal.

  ii.  Delegate authority to the Executive Director for Place to become the accountable body if successful and authorise the Executive Director for Resources to enter into the appropriate funding agreements with the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and West Midlands Combined Authority.

  iii.  Delegate authority to the Executive Director for Place following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration and Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources to effect any draw down resources from the programme contingency budget referred to in section 5.1, table 1.