Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Council Housebuilding, Placemaking and Development considered the report which sought approval to rectify an error made in the contract award report approved by Cabinet in October 2021.  The previous report requested that the contract be awarded to Hawkins Brown Ltd, which was not the name of the company that was the preferred bidder that submitted the tender for the contract.  The correct company is Hawkins Brown Design Ltd.

Assurances were provided to the Cabinet Member that the content of the report had not changed, and that the contract itself had been award to the correct company (Hawkins Brown Design Ltd).  The purpose of this decision was to amend the mistake in the original report only, and not to change any other element of the contract award.

The Cabinet Member RESOLVED

1.            To approve, in accordance with Contract Standing Order 9.07.1d, the revised award of the contract for RIBA stages 2-6 design services for the Civic Centre refurbishment project to Hawkins Brown Design Ltd instead of to Hawkins Brown Ltd for the maximum sum of £3,110,999.89. 

Reasons for decision

Cabinet confirmed their commitment to the Civic Centre project in January 2022, approving the project business case and design development up to Planning Application stage.  Revising approval of the contract award to confirm that the approval should have been to award the contract to Hawkins Brown Design Ltd and not to Hawkins Brown Ltd will allow the formal contract to be concluded with the appropriate company and allow design development to continue, as per Cabinet’s wishes, with the formal contract in place.

The decision taken by Cabinet to invest in the Civic Centre provides for the quickest delivery of high-quality Council Civic headquarters in Wood Green. This decision was made in the context of the Civic Centre’s listing and the need to spend a significant sum on the building in any case to protect it. Concluding the Hawkins Brown Design Ltd contract and progressing the remaining RIBA Stages will allow the Council to realise this ambition.

The report recommends approving a revised award of the multi-disciplinary design services contract to Hawkins Brown Design Ltd for RIBA Stages 2-6, which was the intention in October 2021. Cabinet approval in October 2021 of the award to Hawkins Brown Ltd was done based on an error in the drafting of the report to Cabinet.  The Council has progressed work on future working styles and locality presence which helped inform the decision taken in January 2022 to continue with the project to refurbish the existing Civic Centre and develop the former car park site. The decision to approve the revised contract award will allow the Council to progress the true intentions of the October 2021 report and allow the Council to work to outcomes of the January 2022 report.  

Alternative options considered

Following the decision in January 2022, to restore, refurbish and extend the Civic Centre and bring the building back into use by the Council as its new Headquarters and Civic Centre functions building, design development work has continued. Other site use options have been tested but not progressed further because the combined uses do not work well on the site and the number of housing units which could be delivered on site is lower than originally envisaged and the start of a housing project would need to be delayed until after the Civic Centre project.

The alternative to the Civic Centre design services contract award approval being revised to correctly identify Hawkins Brown Design Ltd as the company meant to be awarded the contract would be to retender. This would require significant amount of Officer time to retender the services listed in Section 6 - Background Information. After Cabinet’s decision to approve the award of the contract in October 2021, Hawkins Brown Design Ltd were allowed to proceed with the work and to invoice and be paid for it despite the error in the terms of Cabinet’s contract award approval.  The Council is happy with the quality of services provided by Hawkins Brown Design Ltd to date and there is no guarantee that any other consultancy will provide the same standard of service.