Save Princes Parade Email Update: Pre-Contract services commence

At last night's F&HDC's Full Council meeting we were disappointed, but not surprised, when Cllr Tim Prater's amendments to both the corporate plan and the budget failed. Cllr Prater's amendments were:

1. To remove the words 'at Princes Parade' from the corporate plan;
2. To remove the budget funding for the project.

The vote was 16 against the amendments and 13 for. All of the Conservatives, UKIP and Independents united to vote down the amendment, as they had done last year.

We would like to thank Councillors Prater, Meade, Keen, Fuller, Treloar, Whybrow, Martin, Wing, Wade, Shoob, Davison, McConville, Keutenius for their continued support.

The next step is to monitor the pre-contract services agreement entered into by F&HDC and their contactor BAM. The procurement was based on a two stage design and build contract. The first stage is the pre-contract services agreement which includes surveys, investigation and detailed design, it does not include any building works. The information gathered by BAM will be used to negotiate the price for the second stage of the contract. Two stage design and build contracts are notorious for cost increases, this is because they are used almost exclusively on projects with a great deal of risks and uncertainty.

Today, on the planning website, we discovered three documents relating to the pre-commencement conditions relating to ecological and ground investigation works. These documents can be viewed here:

http://saveprincesparade.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Cover-letter-re-ecology-condition.pdf

http://saveprincesparade.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Receptor-site-clearance.pdf

http://saveprincesparade.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/p210120-Ecology-Programme.pdf

It appears that work has already begun.

F&HDC are likely to try and keep any cost increases away from public gaze but we will be asking the Councillors who support us to ask for complete transparency.