Council leader says the £100m spent on Albion Square will be recouped
HE SAYS PLAN MAKES FINANCIAL SENSE
CITY council leader Daren Hale says investing more than £100m on the Albion Square development will be money well spent.
New images of the proposed project earmarked for a site in the city centre were released last week when the council also confirmed it no longer intended to include an ice rink in the scheme.
Yesterday, cabinet councillors approved an extra in-year allocation of nearly £2.4m to steer the project through the planning process.
Originally, only £419,000 had been set aside by the authority for spending on the development during the current financial year.
However, the additional funding is needed mainly because of the extra costs involved in securing listed building consent now the Three Ships mural has official grade twolisted status and is being retained as part of the development.
A new planning application for the site is now due to be submitted in the next few weeks.
The council is expecting to spend more than £100m on building the mixed-use development, which will include new homes, offices and retail space.
Speaking at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, Cllr Hale said: “There is no no-cost option in pressing ahead with this, but it’s probably worth stating again that doing nothing is not an option either.
“This has stood there for almost 40 years. It’s almost an admission of market failure. So we have quite rightly come up with a plan to do something about it that, ultimately, does not cost the council any money.
“We will get our money back from the housing offer and the rents from the office and retail space. All of the council tax from the residential will also come to us.”
Cllr Hale said the extra immediate spend was necessary because of the additional planning requirements linked to the mural.
He said: “I think it is really good news that we are prepared to put in this new allocation for Albion Square so we can move it forward to the planning stage.
“We need planning consent to start the demolition. If we didn’t, we would be stuck with a building that is full of asbestos and something that continues to be a drain on our revenue resources.”
He said keeping the current ice rink at Kingston Street for the time being made sense after a recent investment there had extended its operational lifetime by at least five years.
The rink is due to reopen to the public this weekend after being closed since March last year.
Deputy council leader Councillor Hester Bridges said: “It would be a travesty if we just left the old BHS building as it is. There is a lot of public support for our proposals and a real sense of excitement about what is going to be there.”