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13
Jul 2020
Council rejected site that could have saved £7m
In the third part of our investigation into the cost of Harrogate Borough Council’s civic centre, we examine how the council has publicly justified the decisions it made - and that cheaper options were set aside in favour of a town centre location.
HBC has always framed the new civic centre as offering good value to taxpayers. In this report, we will explore the way the council has justified the money it spent and reveal that another option it dismissed would have come in at around £7m less.
How the council justified Knapping Mount
In 2014, before the decision to move was made, a Conservative campaign leaflet stated that £9m was the gross figure and, following sales, the council expected the project to cost £5m.
The final sentence of Cllr Cooper's quote is particularly interesting:
It later emerged £11.5m was the value of the contract awarded to the builder.
HBC said that was always the ‘gross’ cost. The ‘net’ cost was £11.5m minus the income it made from selling its other buildings.
The leaflet distributed by the ruling Conservative party says otherwise.
What did the council sell to fund the move?
In moving to Knapping Mount, Harrogate Borough Council sold the following properties:
- Crescent Gardens - £4m
- Scottsdale House - £1.9m
- Victoria Park House - £1.2m
The total receipts for those came to £7.1m. So according to the council's argument, Knapping Mount actually only cost £4.4m to the taxpayer.
Yet the cost of any commercial project is always the cost of the build plus the value of the land. Regardless of what was sold, how it was funded or what they offset to make it look cheaper, HBC spent £11.5m on the build and used a site worth £4.5m.
Using their own logic, the council could have sold Knapping Mount with planning permission for housing and added that money to the pot, giving an income of £11.6m.
The alternatives
At the outset of the project, HBC commissioned a report into the options available. As well as staying in its existing offices, it considered buildings and sites around Harrogate.
However, the full details of those sites have never been released. A summary document was presented to the cabinet for consideration, referring to a number of sites and costs including:
- Hornbeam Park - £11.3m
- Beckwith Knowle - £9m or £17m
- Pannal - £20.5m
How these figures were calculated – and which specific sites or buildings they referred to – has never been revealed.
What is evident from the report, however, is that, alongside its aim of bringing all staff onto one site, HBC was determined to maintain a town centre presence.
The same report also recognised the high potential value of Knapping Mount, but HBC opted not to realise this. In recommending to build on the site, with an indicated cost of £13 to £13.7m, it says:
Read more on this investigation:
- Exclusive: Stray Ferret investigation reveals true cost of new civic centre
- Council chose round design to 'express nature of democracy'
£7m to stay in the town centre
Another site at Hornbeam Park was offered to the council in August 2014 – more than a year before work began at Knapping Mount – at a total cost in the region of £10.5m. Two hectares of land would have cost around £1.5m and a rectangular build of the same square footage as the civic centre would have been no more than £9m, even for a high-spec finish.
We would like to make it clear that Chris Bentley, from Hornbeam Park Developments Ltd, is a supporter of The Stray Ferret but has no involvement in any editorial decisions taken by this publication. For more information, click here. All information given to us for this report was assessed and included on its own merits.
Costed up by the council at the time, the Hornbeam Park option was put at £11.9m. Though the details of this total cost have never been made public, the higher value could include an allowance for retaining and refurbishing one of the council’s town centre buildings. The report on the investigation into this option says it “prevents a single site solution” and, being out of the town centre, “results in requirement for additional town centre customer service centre”.
The Hornbeam Park option only prevented a single-site solution because the council was absolutely determined that it needed to be in the town centre. Although high quality, the simple rectangular design would have been cheaper.
An office on the business park could have placed HBC adjacent to a railway station, giving ease of access for anyone using public transport. A bus route had previously existed between Hornbeam Park and the town centre, which HBC could have reinstated.
The proposal suggested up to 177 parking spaces – 82 more than the civic centre now has – for anyone travelling in a car. And the growing trend for working online means most residents will never have cause to visit the civic centre anyway, on foot or otherwise.
Harrogate Borough Council itself said in a 2014 report that visitor numbers were expected to decline:
Was being so central really necessary? Serving a district of more than 500 square miles, was it essential for HBC to be located in Harrogate town centre?
Using their logic and offsetting the income from the sale of all the sites, the council could have had £11.6m to put towards the new civic centre. At a cost of £10.5m, this would have left £1.1m in the bank.
Tomorrow:
- Is Knapping Mount delivering on promised savings?
- The problem of car parking at the new civic centre
Read The Stray Ferret on Tuesday morning for the full story.
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