Members considered the report which outlined the Council’s plans to redevelop the former Swanley Working Men’s Club site and adjacent car park at Bevan Place. 

The Strategic Head of Commercial and Property advised that paragraph 4 of the report should be altered to read as: “The proposed scheme included up to 93 homes.”

The scheme would also incorporate retail uses along the High Street, a communal garden and landscaped surface car-parking for residents. The scheme would include the highest environmental and sustainability standards possible to ensure the scheme was not only an exemplar benchmark scheme for Swanley, but would also enhance residents’ well-being.

Officers were seeking approval to progress the scheme, applying for planning permission and procuring a lead design contractor to deliver the scheme subject to obtaining all the necessary statutory consents. Practical completion was expected by 2024.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance & Investment advised that the Finance & Investment Advisory Committee and Housing & Health Advisory Committee had considered the same report. Members of the Finance & Investment Advisory Committee had looked in detail at the information detailed within the exempt appendices. There were concerns expressed over the financial projections of the proposals as a longer-term ambition. The Committee agreed that Cabinet needed to satisfy themselves with the robustness of the assumptions and the robustness of the mitigations for the risks, and the case for locking in the current rates for borrowing and include its findings.

Public Sector Equality Duty
Members noted that consideration had been given to impacts under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Resolved: that

(i)           the development of a new residential-led scheme on this site which would deliver up to 93 new homes, retails uses, communal and public garden, resident car parking and highway improvements to Bevan Place, be endorsed;

(ii)         the viability challenges this site and scheme presents, be noted and the delivery of this scheme using an income-based financing model (rent model) that will result in the Council retaining housing and retail stock to generate income to repay the cost of the development, be approved;

(iii)        it be recommended to Council that the provision of £26,575,836 in the 2022/23 – 2024/25 Capital Programme to deliver the scheme within the parameters set in Section 57 of this report, be approved and that this was in addition to the previously approved amount of £730,000 in the 2021/22 Capital Programme for this project, be noted;

(iv)        the acquisition/inclusion of the adjacent West Kent Housing Association land and buildings, known as 1-12 Bevan Place, Swanley, be approved and to enter into a development agreement with West Kent Housing Association that will result in 14 residential units being transferred to West Kent Housing Association on a leasehold basis, the terms of which were outlined in the draft Heads of Terms in the confidential Appendix C and delegates authority to the Strategic Head of Property and Commercial Services and the Chief Officer Finance and Trading following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance & Investment to agree and finalise necessary agreements with West Kent Housing Association;

(v)          it be recommended to Council that officers be authorised to acquire any outstanding legal interests that may not be in the Council’s ownership, which may include using its statutory powers, such as the use of compulsory purchase orders;

(vi)        Subject to Council’s approval of the capital provision of £26,575,836 in the 2022/23 – 2024/25 Capital Programme, Cabinet delegate authority to the Strategic Head of Property and Commercial and the Chief Officer Finance and Trading, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance & Investment to undertake further detailed design and feasibility work and to proceed with the scheme subject to final scheme viability and in accordance with financial parameters set in Section 57; and

(vii)       Subject to Council’s approval of the capital provision of £26,575,836 in the 2022/23 – 2024/25 Capital Programme, Cabinet delegates authority to the Strategic Head of Property and Commercial in consultation with the Chief Officer Finance and Trading and the Head of Legal Services to submit a planning application and to enter into any necessary contracts to facilitate the development and construction of the proposed scheme in accordance with the Council’s Contracts Procedure Rules and for the disposal of the residential units to be developed.

(viii)     Subject to Council’s approval of the capital provision of £26,575,836 in the 2022/23 – 2024/25 Capital Programme, Cabinet delegates authority to the Strategic Head of Property and Commercial following consultation with the Chief Officer Finance and Trading and the Cabinet Member for Finance & Investment to prepare appropriate contractual arrangements to set up an appropriate delivery vehicle for the scheme and to return to Cabinet at a later date to approve the appropriate delivery vehicle.

(ix)        That it be recommended to Council that Council notes the proposed development scheme and financial model and approves the provision of £26,575,836 in the 2022/23 Capital Programme to deliver the scheme within the parameters set in Section 57 and detailed in Appendix D; and

(x)          It be recommended to Council to authorises officers to acquire any outstanding legal interests that may not be in the Council’s ownership, which may include using its statutory powers, such as the use of compulsory purchase orders and return to Cabinet or Council to resolve invoking such powers if needed.