Cabinet received a report of the Section Head of Facilities Management / Buildings & Projects about the development of the town hall.

Introducing the report, the Managing Director explained that developing the town hall site would bring a number of benefits: establishing a public service hub, including the co-location of Hertfordshire Constabulary on a long term lease; removing the single storey modular building “The Terrapin”, which was beyond its life expectancy and no longer financially viable; and improving current parking provision with a part single/part double storey vehicle parking deck over the town hall and leisure centre car parks.

Subject to Cabinet approval of the current project proposal and the capital funding required to undertake the development, a planning application for the new four or five storey building would be submitted towards the end of 2017.  It was envisaged that construction work would begin in spring 2018 and be completed by the end of 2019.  These timescales were consistent with the requirements of Hertfordshire Constabulary.

In parallel, the Managing Director confirmed that work had been undertaken with Hertfordshire County Council (Highways Authority) to develop a transport strategy to support the new access requirements for the building and to assess the potential impact on surrounding roads.

Costs for the proposed scheme would be paid back over a 15 year period and would thereafter generate income to Watford Borough Council.

Cabinet welcomed the proposal, particularly the decision of Hertfordshire Constabulary to co-locate to the proposed new building which represented a significant benefit to the safety of the town.  This would be particularly welcomed by residents, who were concerned about the potential loss of a permanent police building in Watford.

It was hoped that, once vacated by Hertfordshire Constabulary, the Shady Lane site would provide an opportunity to ease current affordable housing constraints in the town.

Although there were concerns about disruption during the construction phase, it was acknowledged that dialogue was being maintained with the Colosseum and Central Leisure Centre, as well as with the council’s existing tenants, to mitigate any impacts.

There followed a short discussion about the Colosseum’s capital maintenance programme, which required some significant work to be undertaken on its building.  It was reported that discussions were underway with the Colosseum to investigate whether this maintenance work might coincide with the council’s own development to keep overall disruption to the public to a minimum.

RESOLVED –

That Cabinet:

1.      approves the project

2.      recommends to Council to approve the capital funding required to undertake this development.