To consider the above report (Page 47)

Council considered approval of the addition of a £680k capital budget to the 2015-16 Operations and Customer Services capital programme as part of the financial mitigations for the Stafferton Way project, subject to approval by Cabinet on 28 April 2016.

Councillor Dudley commented that the new link road had transformed Maidenhead and taken traffic away from the town centre. Inevitably once works began new issues had arisen, for example dealing with the statutory utilities had been more difficult than anticipated. Given the magnitude of the project, once it had started it was important to get it right despite the increase in costs. The project had come in £1.25m over budget  However significant underspends (£445,000) in the Operations and Customer Services directorate in 2015/16 had been identified to mitigate some of the overspend. There was also a projected underspend of £125,000 on the LED Lighting project. Therefore an addition of £680,000 was required to fully fund the project.

Councillor Rayner explained that he had become Lead Member with responsibility for the project in May 2015. The consultant had made 150 design changes due to utilities and unforeseen issues. The road also had been built to accept the Waterways project, which had required design changes. The new road had transformed that part of Maidenhead. Councillor Rayner stated that he did not authorise any extra expenditure. He would be recommending to colleagues that neither Peter Brett Associates nor Balfour Beatty be used for future projects.

Councillor Werner commented that he was disappointed at the overspend and also the lack of detail in the report. He had not had sight of the review referred to at paragraph 2.7. If there had not been problems with the link road project, the underspend in Operations could have been used to undertake other projects such as a road safety scheme in his ward. He would not be able to support the motion due to the lack of information.

Councillor Brimacombe highlighted the need for a review to identify lessons for project management in future. Infrastructure echoed down the years therefore it was important to get it right for future generations.

Councillor Burbage commented that he had previously offered to meet Members of the Opposition to discuss the review findings. Detailed information was available in the Cabinet report for the meeting on 28 April 2016.

Councillor Jones commented that there was little detail about the revised estimates contributing to the £445,000 underspend in Operations. She asked whether there was any impact on other capital projects. She also asked where the funding for the £680,000 shortfall would come from and whether this would affect reserves or future capital projects.  Councillor Burbage commented that the information was available in the report to which he had previously referred. The Mayor suggested that Councillor Jones should come back if she was unable to find the information she desired.

Councillor D. Wilson commented that the project was long overdue; it had been talked about by Berkshire County Council as far back as 1967. Councillor Kellaway commented that the Corporate O&S Panel had fully debated the issue the previous week; Councillor Werner had been in attendance at the meeting.

Councillor Beer welcomed the opportunity to meet with the Leader and go through the details. He had been involved in such projects throughout his life as a Quantity Surveyor. Contingency sums were always included to deal with unforeseen issues and cost forecasts were issued on a monthly basis. He could not understand why these sort of processes were not in place in the borough for large scale projects. Members needed details of who authorised the additional costs.

Councillor Dudley encouraged Councillor Werner to come forward with a proposal for a road safety scheme for Pinkneys Green.

It was proposed by Councillor Dudley, seconded by Councillor Rayner, and:

RESOLVED: That Council approves the addition of £680k to the 2015/16 Operations and Customer Services capital programme subject to Cabinet approval of the financial mitigations report on 28 April 2016

(49 councillors voted in favour of the motion – Councillors Malcolm Alexander, Christine Bateson, George Bathurst, Hashim Bhatti, Phillip Bicknell, John Bowden, Paul Brimacombe, Clive Bullock, David Burbage, Stuart Carroll, Gerald Clark, John Collins, David Coppinger, Carwyn Cox, Judith Diment, Simon Dudley, David Evans, Dr Lilly Evans, Marius Gilmore, Jesse Grey Geoffrey Hill, Maureen Hunt, Mohammed Ilyas, Richard Kellaway, John Lenton, Paul Lion, Philip Love, Sayonara Luxton, Asghar Majeed, Ross McWilliams, Marion Mills, Gary Muir, Nicola Pryer, Jack Rankin, Colin Rayner, Samantha Rayner, Wesley Richards, MJ Saunders, Hari Sharma, Derek Sharp, Shamsul Shelim, John Story, Claire Stretton, Lisa Targowska, Leo Walters, Derek Wilson, Ed Wilson and Lynda Yong. 3 Councillors abstained - Councillors Malcolm Beer, Lynne Jones and Simon Werner)

Councillors C. Rayner and S. Rayner left the meeting at 9.02pm