Robust reports call on civic schemes

“INADEQUATE” oversight on Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s two major regeneration schemes, the leisure centre and The Crescent, could threaten the success of future projects according to auditors.

A report says there is a divergence on both ambitions as to what was originally expected and what is now being delivered.

For the £15 million new swim, sport and leisure complex a main issue is that gym membership is a third lower than anticipated.

For The Crescent, a £60 million retail hub, inability to fully let the councilowned Block C units is a problem. Both have implications financially for the authority, say auditors Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC).

The issue, according to a report, from PWC, is that because performance monitoring has not been as vigorous as it might have been when faced with future developments councillors may find it difficult to make fully informed decisions and there is potential for any mistakes made to be repeated.

While highlighting the risk to the council’s own checks and balances, PWC did praise the authority’s commitment to regeneration and bold attitude.

The report said: “There is no doubt that both of these developments have been highly successful, in that significant investment has been brought in, people have new and attractive facilities and the council has new revenue.”

However, PWC’s review findings do not shy away from possible negative implications.

Referencing the leisure centre the report said: “Best practice and lessons learnt identified from well-governed projects are not shared on a timely basis with the wider authority potentially leading to future projects suffering from risks that could have been avoided.”

And with regards to The Crescent PWC said: “We concluded while the scheme had been a success the information and monitoring process is not sufficiently comprehensive or robust for members to be confident at every stage that the scheme would deliver its business case.”

PFP were given the contract in January 2014 to design, build and run the new swim, sports and leisure complex in Argents Mead on a 20 year term with a promise of a £4 million payback to the council over that period.

Anticipated take-up for gym mem- bership was put at 3,000. A year on and membership sits at around 2,000.

Development of The Crescent has been many years in the making and only went ahead with Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council agreeing a £4.5 million investment to take on Block C - featuring Cineworld and restaurant units. PWC were concerned while units remain unlet, lease revenue is not forthcoming and marketing costs are being incurred.

In response a borough council spokesman said: “PWC did raise a medium level risk recommendation around documenting the overall benefits gained from projects and the lessons learned along the way.

“This was to help to inform the future governance of such schemes as well as confirming to members that the schemes had delivered as expected.

“While auditors acknowledged that officers and members were aware of any issues from regular meetings, their report recommended this could be further improved by combining the various current reporting strands together into one regular report.

“Many of the current reporting processes were listed in the report.

“It was agreed that a report would bring all the existing information into one document later in the year.” Inadequate oversight of schemes