Agenda item

The Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager introduced the report and advised that since the report to Full Council in February 2022 there had been a spike in inflation which had not expect to be so severe.  The current costings from the contractor offered the most certain price for the project.  The Project Board had requested the contingency for the projects was no less than 12%, which was generous.  He noted that this was the third time additional funding had been requested for the project and he said the Scrutiny Committee had sought assurance this would be the final time, however, as inflation was still rising, officers believed that even a 20% increase would now be within the project contingency.  The project was a phased refurbishment and if an unforeseen cost arose there was scope to reduce further phases.

The representative of Yeovil Without Parish Council advised that the debate by the parish council for the additional funding for the crematorium project had been robust and strong concerns had been expressed.  He said it was crucial that the project board were provided with a QS report predicting labour, material and fee costs to have a benchmark. He noted the project had risen from £4.9m to £5.7m and he hoped the additional £185,000 would not be required as it was part of the contingency funding.  He concluded that he was uncertain what the Parish Councils position would be if there were any further requests for funding. 

During discussion it was requested that the funding remaining in the Corporate Capital Contingency Fund be reported to the Executive and it was agreed that this would be provided.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee noted that the majority of their questions were answered at the meeting, however he did ask two questions to which the Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager responded that there had been a saving of £17,500 in not needing to replacing the base of the cremator and that would become part of the contingency budget.  The original contingency budget remained but it would be reduced by the cost of the build so the request for additional funding would replace it.

At the conclusion of the debate, the Chairman thanked the representative of Yeovil Without Parish Council for attending the meeting to update them.  She proposed the recommendations and they were seconded and unanimously agreed by the Executive.