Agenda item

To consider a report from the Assistant Director City Development.

The Assistant Director City Development presented a report which responded to a Devon County Council request for £1.3m Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) match funding towards the delivery of a new railway station at Marsh Barton.  The new railway station would form an important part of the transport infrastructure package needed to accommodate development growth in and around Exeter.  However, funding for the station needed to be cost effective and balanced against other identified priorities.   

The Council’s published list of Regulation 123 infrastructure, included funding for the Marsh Barton Railway Station. The cost of the project had now risen from £4m to £7.4m.  Devon County Council was keen to start the project in September, and it had been proposed that the funded package would be made up of £3.5m from Government funding and £3.9m to be split equally between Exeter City Council, Teignbridge District Council and Devon County Council. 

The Assistant Director City Development invited the Transportation Manager for Devon County Council, Jamie Hulland to attend the meeting and comment on the project.  He referred to the unusual position of building three new railway stations in Exeter in a relatively short space of time and of the experience of finding that the estimated costs changed once a clear price had been established. They had dealt with a number of legislative challenges within the rail industry, particularly around the evaluation of risk and assessment that had to be addressed, as well ongoing negotiations over the fees due to Network Rail. Although a contingency was built in through an increased optimism pricing arrangement, it was appreciated that this would be insufficient funding when the detailed design stage of Marsh Barton Station had been reached. There were issues relating to access to the site, which was behind the Viridor waste plant as well as limited opportunities in which to carry out  the work on the mainline track. He added that there may be the opportunity to apply for further new station funding to help reduce the cost, despite already having received funding for Cranbrook Station, they were in a unique position of being ready to go with the project.

A Member welcomed any opportunity to alleviate congestion on Marsh Barton.

In response to a Member, the Transportation Manager replied that the budget had increased significantly for the recently opened Newcourt Station, by 50%, and he anticipated the same figure for Cranbrook on its completion. However the measures being taken to protect the costs for Marsh Barton Station would allow a greater opportunity to manoeuvre.  He felt that they had learnt from the experience and had agreed to meet with the range of partners including Network Rail, to discuss the Newcourt and Cranbrook Stations projects. They also remained in discussion with Network Rail and had appointed a quantity surveyor to look at some aspects of management of the projects. He apologised to a Member for not having some detail in relation to the First Great Western operator fees.

Scrutiny Committee – Resources noted and requested Executive to recommend approval by Council to ensure that £1.3m Community Infrastructure Levy would be available for investment in the new railway station at Marsh Barton on the following basis :-

(1)        that no funds to be made available until adequate Community Infrastructure Levy had been collected and funding for city centre major infrastructure investments has been secured in line with the resolution of Executive on 10 February 2015;

 (2)       of the £1.3 million funding:

that £660,000 to be committed specifically for Marsh Barton Station; and

the other £640,000 to be available for Devon County Council to deliver infrastructure needed to serve development at South West Exeter, which could include Marsh Barton Station; 

(3)        City Council CIL funding for the railway station to be conditional on ‘claw-back’ provisions whereby the Council would be an equal-proportion recipient of any project cost savings, and

(4)        authority be delegated to the Assistant Director City Development to finalise an agreement with Devon County Council that accords with these recommendations.