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THE WINNER was ... John Hudson (left) and Councillor Alan Taylor (centre) with representatives of Wilson Bowden look at the Wilson Bowden plan in March this year
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Town centre plans back to the start
22/ 8/2008
THE selection process to pick a developer for the town centre is to be re-run to prevent a ‘costly legal battle’.
Following a test case in a European court involving a similar Greek development, Rochdale Council has announced that the bidding process for the £250M project will be held again.
The decision was taken because the council had not outlined which elements of the plan it considered the most important to the bidders.
The council’s town centre committee announced in 2007 that Wilson Bowden had been chosen as the preferred developer for the project.
Objections were initially raised by Sultan Properties, the owners of the Wheatsheaf Centre, which had also bid for the contract in partnership with Manchester-based developer Ask.
They complained that the council had not told them what its priorities were in the project.
Since then the European Court of Justice ruled in a Greek case that such priorities should be made public. The English High Court later made a similar ruling.
As a result of this, the council has decided to start the entire process again instead of facing a long legal battle with Sultan, which was pursuing legal action against it.
Sultan Properties has agreed to halt current proceedings following the announcement.
The cost of re-running the consultation is expected to reach £100,000.
Between £10,000 and £20,000 will be spent on another public consultation, which will be completed by March 2009, when the council plans to appoint a developer.
Work on the site is still expected to start in 2011, only one month later than was anticipated.
Council chief executive Roger Ellis said: "This has been a difficult decision for the council to make, but it has been taken with the best interests of the town centre’s regeneration and the people of Rochdale in mind.
"There is real momentum in our town centre plans, assisted by the recent news about Metrolink and the funding approval for the new bus station.
"A drawn-out legal dispute would have led to significant delays to the town centre redevelopment, as well as substantial costs to the public purse.
"This way we can re-run the process with the minimum delay and with the benefit of knowing the implications of recent case law."
Nick Richardson, managing director of Wilson Bowden Developments, said: "The decision taken by the council to re-run the developer selection process has been based purely on the legal implications of recent case law.
"We are, of course, disappointed that we are not being able to actively pursue this important scheme for Rochdale."
Rochdale Development Agency stressed that public opinions were taken into account by the panel who scored each design.
John Hudson, its chief executive, said: "It is unfortunate that we are having to re-run the developer selection procedure, but this offers the best way of avoiding a significant delay to our town centre redevelopment plans.
"We now have the benefit of the last selection exercise and the public’s response to help guide the new invitation to developers. We can also offer prospective developers even greater certainty this time, having secured the funding for the new transport interchange and with the council’s recent decision to go ahead with the new riverside council offices.
"Local authorities across the country are having to consider the implications of these recent legal cases for their own developer selection procedures. This has forced the government to issue new guidance on such procurement procedures. We will need to evaluate the new recommendations when we make the fresh invitation to developers in a few months’ time."
Rochdale MP Paul Rowen said: "I think this decision has been made to minimise any disruption. What the council needs to do now is ensure that everything is done by the book and that we can continue to move these plans on."
Labour party parliamentary candidate Simon Danczuk has fiercely criticised the way in which the process was handled, and accused the council and RDA, which has been working on the project alongside the council and English Partnerships, of not taking into account the views of businesses and residents during the first public consultation.
He said: "They are trying to hide behind obscure Greek case law when the real reason is that they are legally bound to publish the criteria on which they judged the bids. They haven’t done this because they failed to take into account the views of the public when selecting their preferred bidder."
Central Rochdale ward Councillor Ibrar Khan said: "I’m really disappointed that the wheels of change are grinding so slowly. It feels like we’re treading water and I’m worried that retail confidence in Rochdale is being damaged by the council’s dithering."
Click here for more on the plans for Rochdale town centre
Most recent 2 of 2 user comments
I suppose it has absolutely nothing to do with what all commercial planners, financiers and the stock market are saying about all over the top "regeneration" redevelopment schemes. The market is dead, liquidity dissapeared, the horse has bolted. Thank god they hadn't got too far down the road with this mad project.
Wilson Bowden are a good firm, perhaps a little too close to the RDA but that is to be expected after 5 years of planning the Kingway site together. Their major problem is that they were bought out by Barratt -for more money that the entire group ois now worth. hence the 90% drop in share price. Now Barratt is cancelling projects everywhere- look at the Artisan social housing development at the Arkwright Mill site in Wardleworth- a flattened pile of rubble.
The real danger is that with the commercial property recession many civil engineering firms will turn to vain local authority with deep pockets (of our money) to pour concrete on daft, overpriced schemes (Metrolink,Town Centre Impact Partnership/RMBC offices, Building for Schools, Kingsway lite).
The PFI experience will be bitter. They will tie weak local authorities up with draconian contracts and drain civic cash. Those in power will retire. Many then become non-exec directors or consultants so the truth about what poor decisions were made in the past become clouded with media spin and waffle.
Let me give one small example of why Rochdale Council and the RDA are failing our town. They justify their existence with big projects rather than concentrating on fine details and the "little stuff":
Example-
Yesterday we received many visitors to our splendid Esplanade and Town Hall square. RMBC had organised a Bank Holiday car boot sale. You can tell the outsiders, they are the ones that can't believe their eyes when they see our beautiful town hall, Post Office and gardens.
They will also never return if they were one of the many that received a parking ticket that day.
Why is this an example of PFI greed, lack of joined-up thinking and lack of vision for a successful future for our town? centre?
No doubt an RMBC spin doctor with suggest that the parking rules are clear. But, that misses the point. RMBC have sold its rights to collect town centre parking to the commerical company NCP. NCP want to make a profit they don't need to care two hoots about welcoming visitors to our town.
Rochdale Council and the RDA have wasted millions on glossy brochures, "Roadshows", fancy interactive presentations and spin doctors- all with embarresingly little to show for it (huge wages and pension provisons aside).
They have missed the "little stuff"- a few 70p tickets to welcome visitors to our town centre on a Bank Holiday. Instead NCP had at least 3 traffic wardens prowling waiting to pounce. Those £20 parking tickets will cost this town dear.
A bit of free parking? Hardly revolutionary but when you see these clowns spinning us a yarn the 'greek tragedy' that has halted the £250,000,000 white elephant for a month then heaven help us all.
26/08/2008 at 10:50
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What similar sized Greek development? A quarter of a billion pounds and only rubble to show for it? Don't tell me- the Parthenon.
So our grandees have pulled the plug to save the money of a 'costly legal challenge'. They are only costly if lost. Perhaps the real reason is that embarrasing documents would have to be disclosed to the court.
So instead we will have the 'bargain' of another £100,000 greasing the palms of the media specialists for another con-sultation.
As for the last farce, the were at least 15 million reasons why there wasn't a level playing field. Thats cash not M&S vouchers. Yet we are all supposed to blame the Greeks for this?
In all the celebratory PR comments published in happier times there was gushing praise from partner regeneration quango English Partnerships.
This weekend there was a programme giving an insight into an English Partnerships project. The consultation with the local community was astonishing. £1,000,000 was spent transforming a pleasant but tatty field into a concrete monstrosity. Headed by a 'visionary' American architect whose work fills the glossy magazines of Regeneration experts' office coffee tables, the centre piece included an 'iconic' (sound familiar) sculpture that the locals suggested looked like a crude insulting finger. The unveiling was a sight to behold, a dozen or so of the Great and the Good all suited and booted. The Housing Minister gushing all the regeneration buzzwords but... boycotted by the entire community, this project was supposed to serve. Apparently they felt "shafted" by the whole sorry saga- especially when secret plans emerged for a development of "sustainable eco houses".
A classic example of top-down patronising wasteful vain white lelephant rearing.
Sound familiar?
As for Rochdale Council/RDA project colleagues in English Partnerships... Last weekends business section of the Observer claimed the quango had a cash crisis of between £100 million and £200 million.
If the RDA and English Parterships were private companies funded wholly by shareholders and not bankrolled by our public cash, then after the farces we have seen in Rochdale- they would all be on the dole.
26/08/2008 at 18:07