The Assistant Director of Lower Thames Crossing and Place Delivery advised Members the planning application for phase 1 station had been submitted and was due to be presented to the Planning Committee on the 11^th of February. She continued to advise designs for phase 2 The Transport Hub had been submitted for pre-application feedback, with the aim to have the final application for planning permission submitted in late spring.

The Committee further heard that invitations for tenders were due to be sent out later this month, the budget and program of the project were on track. The Assistant Director of Lower Thames Crossing and Place Delivery then took Members through a presentation of the possible designs for project.

Councillor Allen Chair of the Committee, thanked the Assistant Director of Lower Thames Crossing and Place Delivery for her report commenting he felt the design was better than the original. He continued by enquiring as to whether there would be a separate taxi drop-off point at the station or if taxi’s were to use the bus turnaround hub as well. It was explained that officers were unsure if there was to be a taxi drop-off point, however this could be checked with the design team for the project and feedback to Members.

Councillor Kerin commented that he had concerns due to the lack of figures noted within the report, stating Members only seemed to get the figures on costs when seeking them at committees. He therefore asked the Assistant Director of Lower Thames Crossing and Place Delivery if she could confirm the specific budget and how much the project would cost. The Assistant Director of Lower Thames Crossing and Place Delivery commented the original budget envelope was around £16 million, this was then increased to £19.6 million and confirmed that officers had not spent the budget envelope on the project, although she didn’t have a breakdown of the figures of the overall project in front of her. She continued by stating the team had been instructed to design the scheme with a clear scope  to design to the available budget it was not until they were able to test the market and receive the returns on the tenders that they would have more information in terms of the cost to deliver the project.

Councillor Kerin continued to reference paragraph 3.5 within the report and enquired the following questions when the estimated cost of valuation was to take place, where the two checkpoints were, when was the final design due to be approved, and when was the benchmark to evaluate the tender submissions due to take place. It was clarified the first of the high-level estimated project cost evaluation exercises had already been undertaken, with the second being part of the tender exercise. Officers would then evaluate the tenders when returned, Members were advised an independent estimator would be instructed to do a quality check on the tender pricing which would support the tender evaluation exercise. Councillor Kerin then queried when with the final design approval would be agreed. Members were informed if the planning application was to be approved at the meeting on 11^th of February, the next stage was detailed design drawings to inform the tender process, of which all tender documentation was prepared, the tender process would have a six week return date following this project officers would carry out the evaluation exercise which could be around April 2021.

Councillor Anderson thanked the Assistant Director of Lower Thames Crossing and Place Delivery for her report and positive presentation. He commented it was important to include input from all stakeholders including the resident steering groups to ascertain views of local residents.

During discussions Members raise concerns as to the different height levels of the land on the project site. Officers assured the Committee this was to be looked at by the design team and more detail would be provided when known, as for the number of car park spaces there would be at least the same number of parking spaces currently for the station if not more.

RESOLVED:

That the Planning Transport Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee notes and comments on the information provided relating to the Stanford le Hope Interchange project.