Cabinet, on 16 November 2022, resolved to:

1.      Delegate authority to the Executive Director (Development) in consultation with the Head of Financial Services/Section 151 Officer, the Head of Law and Governance and the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, to agree and enter into contractual terms with Oxfordshire County Council for £2.8 million of additional funding from the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal Funds (OHGDF) and an amended collaboration agreement to cover revised project delivery arrangements including fees and programme;

2.      Delegate authority to the Executive Director (Development) in consultation with the Head of Financial Services/Section 151 Officer, the Head of Law and Governance and the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery to enter into contractual terms with a contractor for the pre-contract stages of the Oxpens River Bridge by signing a project order for providing detailed design, programme and 100% market tested estimate for the bridge, subject to the Council’s normal procurement procedures;

3.      Delegate authority to the Executive Director (Development) in consultation with the Head of Financial Services/Section 151 Officer, the Head of Law and Governance and the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery to agree and enter into contractual terms with a contractor by signing a delivery agreement to build the bridge and carry out associated works, subject to the project being deliverable within the funding available and compliant with the Council’s normal procurement procedures; and

4.      Delegate authority to the Executive Director (Communities & People) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, the Head of Law and Governance, the Head of Financial Services/Section 151 Officer and the Head of Corporate Property to enter into a legally binding agreement(s) with OxWED to enable the bridge to be constructed from its land and over land to the rear of the ice rink and to undertake enabling works if appropriate to facilitate the delivery of the bridge.

To amend the collaboration agreement with Oxfordshire County Council to: enable the County Council to provide additional funds of £2.8million (minus funding retained for County Council costs); change the completion date; vary the allocation of design funding within the budget; and allocate more of the design funding to staff costs as set out in the Cabinet report.

Construction costs have increased rapidly.  The programme for the development has been progressed, and this has led to the need for the funding and amendments to the existing funding agreement.

The option of not accepting the funding was considered but rejected as it would have prevented the delivery of the walking and cycling link across the river.

Decision taken by Tom Bridgman, Executive Director (Development) in consultation with Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services; Marcia Ecclestone, Deputy Monitoring Officer; Carolyn Ploszynski, Head of Regeneration and Economy; and Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery.