To approve, in principle, the allocation of land and resources to enable the development of proposals to maximise the benefits of public sector land assets in Central Hereford.

The cabinet member for contracts and assets introduced the report. He stated that the potential to work with other public sector organisations was an exciting prospect. The construction of the city link road would provide opportunities for significant regeneration and redevelopment of historically underused land.

The strategic property manager spoke to the report. He highlighted the alternative option to the one public estate (OPE) approach would be to deal with sites on a piecemeal basis as and when they were released. The OPE approach would maximise opportunities through a planned and co-ordinated strategy and leverage national funding and technical support. The OPE programme would take a medium to long term view of how best to realise the council’s overarching objectives and those of its partners. One Herefordshire was a group of public sector organisations comprising Herefordshire Council, Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Wye Valley NHS Trust, West Mercia Police and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service.

Initial funding of £285k had been awarded to support technical and feasibility reports on potential projects within the county. The report sought approval to progress and undertake this work in relation to a number of key potential developments within Hereford city.

The cabinet member for financial management and ICT asked if further funding might be made available in future years for either the potential schemes set out in the report or other schemes which might arise. The strategic property manager responded that the £285k was an initial tranche and that the council could bid for future OPE funding. There were usually two windows per year for bids.

Group leaders were invited to comment on behalf of their group.

The group leader of the Herefordshire Independents group commented that:

·         it was an interesting proposal and his group supported a number of the sites being explored, in particular the use of land at merton meadow car park for a joint public service hub and the creation of a transport hub at the railway station;

·         the land at the bus station should be used for a multi storey car park to support hospital parking;

·         the council should seek to get value for money from its sites.

The leader of the It’s Our County group commented that the joint service hub at merton meadow was a sensible proposal but that care should be taken that there should be no detriment to other proposals for that wider site. He also commented that while there may be support for the GP hub from the CCG and from GPs, many residents were upset at the potential loss of their local facility.

The cabinet member for contracts and assets commented that the feasibility studies to be undertaken would examine the options for each site in detail and that future reports would set out the preferred development options.

Resolved that:

(a)          Detailed consideration is given to the allocation of land under the One Public Estate (OPE) programme for development each of which will require business case assessments. The identified sites are as follows:

·                     Land at Merton Meadow car park (identified at A in appendix 1) for use as a joint public service hub

·                     Land adjacent to Hereford rail station (identified at B in appendix 1) for use as a GP facility

·                     Land adjacent to Hereford rail station (identified at  C in appendix 1) for use as a transport hub

·                     Land at  either Station Approach or the Bus Station (identified at  D  in appendix 1) for use as key worker/student accommodation or a multi storey car park

(b)          the director economy, communities and corporate be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary, utilising the £285k One Public Estate grant funding and other approved budgets, negotiating with partners to progress option appraisal and feasibility work necessary to inform the development of detailed business cases on these sites.