Agenda item

(Report of the Director of Planning, Regeneration and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration). Cabinet will be asked to consider proposals to relocate the waste management operation from Ashley Road Depot to Marsh lane. Cabinet will further consider  plans to relocate  other Council services currently on this site.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration introduced the report requesting Cabinet to consider proposals to relocate the waste management operation from Ashley Road to Marsh Lane.  The proposals sought to create new homes, new sports facilities for the new school and a new state of the art waste management facility, the costs of which would be covered by the sale of the land at Ashley Road Depot.

In response to Councillor Elliot questioning the mention of lower level affordable housing in the report, it was explained that future proposals for relocating the recycling centre, which met corporate priorities to increase recycling levels, would impact the level of affordable housing on the site. 

RESOLVED

i.       That the outline plans, costs, and programme for relocating the Ashley Road Depot to Marsh Lane at a total overall budget cost of £16.3m be noted and that approval to proceed with the project along with plans to relocate other Council services, as set out in Appendix A, and currently located on the depot site be granted in order to achieve vacant possession;

ii.      That the valuation figures be noted for the full vacant possession of the land at Ashley Road Depot and the sale price of the land being sold to the Harris Federation and the contribution towards relocation costs from the Harris Federation set out in Part B of the report as representing a total estimated gross income of the site;

iii.    That the gross cost of the proposed relocation project is £16.3m and agree that this budget is added to the approved capital programme for the proposals set out in Appendix B and C of the report, be noted;

iv.    That the current estimated total disposal value of the whole site (including the land currently occupied by the Reuse and Recycling centre) could fully support the relocation costs and overall project budget, provided a lower level of affordable housing provision is acceptable on the remainder of the Ashley Road Depot  site (see Part B of the report) be noted;

v.      That the remainder of the Ashley Road depot site (being the land shown edged red on the plan in Appendix D) be declared surplus to requirements. On the basis that the waste management operation and other services are relocated to Marsh Lane and other Council sites and the future of the reuse and recycling centre is agreed (through a separate report to Cabinet) to be provided on another site or closed;

vi.    That the disposal of the Ashley Road Depot site be authorised (being the land shown edged red on the plan in Appendix D) and the authority to agree the final terms of the sale be delegated to the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Culture;

vii.          That the delivery approach for the relocation of the waste management services and other services to the Marsh Lane site  be delegated to the Director of Regeneration, Planning & Development after consultation with the lead member for Housing and Regeneration;

viii.        That the revenue savings of £230,000 be included in the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) from the assumed closure of the reuse and recycling centre and that the future plan for the reuse and recycling centre will be determined by March 2017 (through a separate report to Cabinet) when the savings plan is set to conclude.

Alternative options considered

Cabinet on 16^th September 2014 made a decision to dispose of part of the depot site to the Harris Federation.  The decision to locate a school on Technopark and the status of Tottenham Hale as a regeneration growth area therefore promoted a feasibility study to test whether it was appropriate and cost effective to relocate the entire depot to another site.

Option A - Consolidate the Depot on Ashley Road Depot

This scenario involves relocating and consolidating the existing services on the remaining depot land once the disposal to the Harris Federation takes effect. A feasibility study has been undertaken to establish whether there is enough space on the remainder of the site for this to be possible.

The study identified that there would not be enough room for all services to be accommodated on the reduced Ashley Rd footprint and that some services would need to be relocated to the Marsh Lane site in any case.  The total estimated costs for this option are prohibitive at circa £6.3m and would deliver a suboptimal solution. This would not offer the opportunity for redevelopment of the depot site in line with regeneration plans for Tottenham Hale.

The result of operating from two sites would also potentially incur an increase in operational and revenue costs for waste management operations. The current contract operator, Veolia, also raised concerns over the safety of operating Heavy Goods Vehicles on such a compact site.

Option B - Relocate the depot to another site

In the event of relocating to another site other than Marsh Lane it would require an alternative site to be identified in the current portfolio which is unlikely to be found. Another site would therefore need to be purchased which could prove to be very difficult and costly to acquire in the Borough.

This option with land acquisition costs is therefore expected to cost more than the Marsh Lane proposals.

A separate feasibility study and options appraisal will be undertaken to determine the future of the reuse and recycling centre.

Reasons for Decision

It is recommended that the relocation of the Ashley Road Depot operations to Marsh Lane and other Council sites is pursued. This would provide the opportunity to deliver housing on the depot site, deliver a new modern depot at Marsh Lane and enables the all through school to build a new sports hall and multi use games areas which will also be available for use by the community.

The costs of the project currently are weighed up against the potential value in the Ashley Road depot site for residential development which in turn shows a range of income dependent on the affordable housing element.

The options considered and presented in this report shows the Council could make a surplus on the basis that the housing development is purely private housing and there is no affordable housing element on the Ashley Road depot site.  In the scenario where affordable housing is provided via the development at 30% with Housing Grant there is an overall cost position for the council of £899k.  However there may be the potential for regeneration grant funding to offset this cost or for valuations to increase to allow the land sale receipt to fully cross subsidise the relocation costs.