Parish Council has to borrow extra £500,000 to complete new medical centre

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Alderley Edge Parish Council has agreed to apply to borrow up to an additional £500,000 to fund the completion of the new Alderley Edge Medical Centre.

This is on top of the £2 million loan which has already been arranged from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB), taking the total loan to £2.5 million.

The additional money is required to cover the cost of building the new entrance and toilets at the side of the festival hall, additional professional fees, security to satisfy Secure By Design and NHSE and fitting out the pharmacy and second floor in order to make them suitable for letting.

Speaking about why the additional £500,000 is required, Chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council Geoff Hall explained "The items that were missing from the original £2 million budget are £162,00 for the new entrance which was neither included in the medical centre nor in the refurbishment of the Festival Hall.

"As it has become necessary because of the construction of the medical centre it seems appropriate to include it with the medical centre but the fact it had not been provided for at all by the previous Parish Council means that it now needs to be allowed for.

"There was also an underestimate for the provision of professional fees and the top floor of the building, which is going to be let to third parties not to the doctors, was simply left as an empty shell. Now in order to secure the full rental value clearly that needs to be let with a minimum of toilets, washroom and kitchen facilities. The same applies to the pharmacy on the ground floor, NHS England won't allow them to use the toilet facilities in the surgery therefore they will need to have their own facilities.

"Potentially you could offer somebody a rental holiday in exchange for them paying for those things to be done but I think it would be pretty unusual. Clearly the pharmacy will pay to fit it out in the way that meet their needs but as a minimum we need to presume we will provide these basic facilities."

Councillor Hall added "So that's where the additional cost comes. We have tried to make sure we don't have any further nasty surprises, we are not obliged to take the further whole half a million if we find we don't need it. We know we have an additional £262,000 plus the cost of the toilets, washroom and kitchen.

"We also have the unresolved issue of a security fence around part of the site, which again the previous Parish Council said they did not want. We don't like the idea of it either but they also took it out of the budget which is not what I would have done myself, we therefore need to provide for some form of security for the building. We are now talking to Secure By Design about an alternative."

Work is well underway at the festival hall with the new medical scheduled to completed by March 31st 2016. Alderley Edge Parish Council has signed an agreement of lease with the doctors and agreed an annual rent of £135 ,000, subject to a three yearly increase of 8.25%.

Cllr Miles explained "In addition there will be a rental income from the ground floor pharmacy and the occupants of the second floor. There are a number of parties who have registered an interest in taking on the pharmacy and renting space on the second floor. Alderley Edge Parish Council has now employed letting agents with a view to securing occupancy and hence rented income on or soon after 1st April 2016."

He added "The conclusion is that the rental income will be a minimum of £4.8 million for the surgery, pharmacy and second floor over a 21 year lease period. A borrowing level of £2.5 million, using indicative figures supplied by PWLB, suggests that the total repayment costs will be £3.4 million leaving a surplus of £1.4 million over 21 years."

The new Parish Council has also faced challenges in relation to funding the Festival Hall refurbishment. Christine Munro commented "When the Hall reopens in October we will not have been able to complete all the work intended, as we simply don't have the funds.

"The main hall and bar will reopen, together with the new entrance area and toilets, but some of the things we also need to do at the back of the building will not. We will explain more about this at our next public meeting in September."

Tags:
Alderley Edge Medical Centre, Alderley Edge Parish Council, Festival Hall
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Vin Sumner
Saturday 1st August 2015 at 6:55 pm
I find this all astonishing and perhaps someone from the previous council can explain ....
There seems to be an error in the above numbers .. should 2.4 read 3.4 (Editor's note now corrected) .... would also be interested too see the actual cash flow, including maintenance and running costs, rather than simply big numbers spread into the future .... do we know what rental income is assumed from then 2nd floor ... there are a lot of offices around and about not occupied ... so perhaps something more innovative in terms of a drop in centre that could be used by SMEs and individuals on a membership basis ...
Stuart Redgard
Sunday 2nd August 2015 at 12:14 am
@Vin.

See link to an earlier article by Lisa on the Medical centre project dated 13 January 2015

http://bit.ly/1BdOqAc

It would be interesting to hear what Mr Keegan and Williamson have to say now.
Nick Jones
Sunday 2nd August 2015 at 9:33 am
@ Vin......The silence itself speaks for itself......... Keep up the good work !
Mike Williamson
Thursday 6th August 2015 at 12:06 pm
The Medical Centre in Alderley Edge will be built on time because of the work completed by the previous Parish Council and with the unwavering commitment of Peter Jones, Chairman of Emerson. Without Peter Jones’ support, the project would have hit the buffers long ago.

Cllr Hall states that there are no toilets in the side extension; He is mistaken. Planning permission for the side extension, including toilets, was approved by CEC in August 2012 and toilets are included within the fixed price contract for the Medical Centre.

Professionals, appointed to represent both the Parish Council and the Doctors, have been working with Emerson and NHSE for many months prior to the signing of the Lease and Building Contract. It is hard to believe that these professionals would have missed something as fundamental as the provision of toilets, which is what Councillors are suggesting.

The second floor of the building, designed for future expansion, was included within the project at the insistence of the then Primary Care Trust and a lot of time and money was spent securing Planning Permission against strong objections by CEC. AEPC offered this space to both NHSE and the Doctor’s Practice but it was not considered appropriate at the time. Despite this, NHSE have imposed clauses within the Lease limiting the Parish Council’s options. Until that lease was signed, the Parish Council could not know which clients would come in and the floor space was retained as a blank canvas, able to react to different scenarios. The second floor is not part of the Medical Centre, it will have its own revenue stream; when Tenancies are agreed, toilets can be added – the main connections exist, it is the actual locations which are to be defined by new Tenants who may all have different security access needs.

The facts of the need for a borrowing requirement are:

The outgoing Parish Council have tasked the Emerson Group to deliver a completed Medical Centre, to a specification defined by NHSE, for a capped fee of £2m; NHSE will contribute £500,000 when the building is near completion.

The Borrowing profile therefore is £1,500,000 plus a small additional sum for professional fees. AEPC has already paid £170,000 in project costs, including £122,500 to Emerson and £46,000 in Legal and Professional Fees.

The only professional work still to be completed is the supervision of the build programme, so the final borrowing profile for the Medical Centre should be less than £1,500,000 in total. [ie the future costs should not exceed the £170,000 which has already been paid].

Given these facts, it is unclear why the Parish Council needs to exceed the borrowing limit which was set as high as £ 2 million as a cash flow contingency in case NHSE delayed their payment.
Claire MacLeod
Thursday 6th August 2015 at 8:16 pm
Mike Williamson,

Thank you for your explanation/ defence of the previous Parish Council. It does certainly appear from recent developments that one was due and it is appropriate that you, as former Chair, offers one.

However, having read it, I am curious. Are these words your own... or have they been provided to you by another former Parish Councillor (who wishes to remain nameless?) Perhaps the same Parish Councillor who was reported to have been knocking on doors only days before the election, telling ageing and vulnerable members of this community that if they didn't re-elect the existing Conservative Parish Council, then the new Medical Centre would not be built?

Given that the elections were in May and since then the new Parish Council has had to contend with some monumental challenges when they inherited the Medical Centre project, you have taken an inordinately long period of time to comment on them. You now appear (or your ghost writer) to be challenging the facts that have been presented by the existing Parish Council. I'm not quite sure what your (joint?) M.O. is here? Are you attempting to defend the previous Parish Council's financial 'planning'? If so, then are you also trying to refute the existing Parish Council's statement of facts? It appears that you (or the person you are speaking on behalf of) wish to challenge the position of the new Parish Council. Do you not think, given that you (as in previous Conservative Parish Council) were all ousted at the last election and that no-one (as far as I know, certainly not on this website) has questioned the accuracy and analysis of the in-coming Parish Council, in terms of their financial reporting, that you are treading on thin ice?

Are you (and perhaps your 'silent' former colleague/s) really so confident of your position that you are willing to open up this hornets' nest? From where I stand, it appears that the current Parish Council have been more than gracious in their dealings with their predecessors.

Perhaps firstly, you can confirm the words of the previous post are all your own?
Martin Dixon
Thursday 6th August 2015 at 9:39 pm
Mr Williamson

You seem to be as deluded now as you were when you were in office. Frankly Mike, I think you are doing yourself a huge disservice by posting this.

I believe that when you were voted out of office you offered the new PC your help, if they needed it. I personally thought that was very big of you and you gained my respect. I am so disappointed that you have decided to post this. The maths and the logic is flawed and it just further proves to me how incompetent the previous PC were to hold office.

You seem to be accusing the current PC of lying. It is of course your right to believe that. It is my right to believe that you are not being honest. You use the phrase 'borrowing profile' in your post; this is a phrase I would normally expect an accountant to use but not something that an air traffic controller might use. Bravo uniform lima sierra hotel indigo tango.
Fiona Braybrooke
Thursday 6th August 2015 at 10:00 pm
I can see that the puppet master has returned from his Australasian holiday.
Peter Watson
Thursday 6th August 2015 at 10:11 pm
I don't really think that Frank Keegan will post on this site, he is really not that brave. I think you are right Claire, he has just been using Mike W.
Martin Sinker
Friday 7th August 2015 at 10:13 am
How about celebrating the fact that all being well, within nine months we will have an absolutely splendid new Medical Centre at the heart of the village? This will be the outcome of years of effort by the Medical Practice, AEPC and others in negotiating a complex set of agreements involving NHS England, CEC and many others. Our Parish Councillors, past and present, are unpaid volunteers and were appointed by due democratic process. We should be most grateful to all concerned for past hard work, and for keeping the show on the road through the difficult transition following the May elections, and I do hope that current differences can be ironed out quickly. Unpleasant and hurtful personal attacks should have no place on a village website - let's see some positive enthusiasm for a great new asset in Alderley Edge!
Mike Williamson
Monday 10th August 2015 at 10:15 am
The statement which I submitted was written on behalf of all nine members of the previous council. It is appropriate that I, as past Chairman, speaks for the Council which I led.

I was intimately involved in every detail of the project, the facts and figures I have provided are correct. When I 'left office', contract negotiations were largely complete, there was no 'monumental challenge' for the incoming council. That is evidenced by how quickly the lease and contract were signed following the election. The contract is a fixed price one, with the side extension included in the cost.

Building the new Medical Centre was a project conceived by Jones and the Doctors and enabled by the Parish Council I was fortunate enough to lead. I am proud that I and my colleagues were able to overcome the obstacles and deliver that project; our record will stand for itself.
Jon Williams
Monday 10th August 2015 at 10:39 am
Very well said Mike !
Fenton Simpson
Monday 10th August 2015 at 4:35 pm
Mike Williamson you and the previous PC record does indeed stand for its self.

That's why you were voted out.
Nick Jones
Monday 10th August 2015 at 7:42 pm
looks like the 'shadow parish council' cant accept the ballot result.
Richard Fitzwilliam
Tuesday 11th August 2015 at 8:46 am
The record and achievements stand of the previous PC stand for themselves, some good some bad. It is clear that the new medical centre would not be underway without the previous PC’s involvement.
Mike, your posts clearly show you why you were voted out. You post as yourself and then only after questioning do you then come clean and say this was on behalf of the outed 9. Yet again, hiding the truth until pushed for an answer – the electorate have no other opinion to form than you have something to hide, are secretive and treat us like fools.
I suggest you watch the BBC Politics show very carefully where on the worlds most trusted new source you were labelled as out of touch and not listening to the electorate. Councillor leader Jones hit the nail on the head and was visibly embarrassed at how your campaign was run.
Stand by your words and offer constructive assistance to the new PC so the village can benefit from a new Medical Centre.
Pete Taylor
Tuesday 11th August 2015 at 9:21 am
@ Nick Jones: it does rather look like they are suffering from Mugabe syndrome.
Lisa Reeves
Tuesday 11th August 2015 at 11:19 am
Richard, just to clarify. The initial comment from Mike Williamson was emailed to me by Frank Keegan, who said "I attach a statement from Mike in clarification and I have inserted the finance details."

It was titled "Mike Williamson Statement in response to Alderley First” so I published it as a comment to the above article under Mike’s name - which I thought was the most appropriate place for it to be published and I emailed both Frank and Mike telling them this is what I had done.
Nick Jones
Tuesday 11th August 2015 at 4:14 pm
Thanks Lisa,
@ Pete.... Speaking Frankly...... Looks like a ghost writer alone is not enough... sad really ... and more smoke and mirrors was required.... as you alude even Tyrant Mugabe's woes of old are catching up with him yet it was he that said " There are things one must do for oneself "
Maybe that should have been 9-self ?
Carol Chadwick
Tuesday 11th August 2015 at 9:24 pm
Instead of the three GP practices in Wilmslow an Alderley Edge spending a fortune on extensions and new premises they should have built one building for the lot of them as has been done in Macclesfield.
Martin Dixon
Tuesday 11th August 2015 at 10:05 pm
So Frank Keegan sends in a post but it is attributed to Mike Williamson. The only contentious issue in the post is the figures, which are at odds with those of the current PC. Frank Keegan says in his submission "I attach a statement from Mike in clarification and I have inserted the finance details." There is also a gushing and unnecessary tribute to Peter Jones.

Mike Williamson then posts to explain the statement was not from him but from the nine previous member of AEPC.

If ever we needed proof that Frank Keegan will use and manipulate his eight other colleagues to achieve his ends I think we have it.

If Frank Keegan feels that his actions as a ward and Parish councillor were totally justifiable then he should post under his own name and stop hiding behind the coat tails of his accomplices. If he is not prepared to do that then he needs to cease his involvement.

Frankly I think that Frank Keegan showed total disrespect to the the people of AE and this site when he refused to give an interview on the run up to the election.
Mike Norbury
Thursday 13th August 2015 at 1:23 pm
even now they are out of power they still have an annoying way about them this mr keegan and mr Williamson double act. must say im glad theres been some quality honking done recently :-)
Nick Jones
Thursday 13th August 2015 at 3:20 pm
@ Mike N + Martin D….

As Sir Humphrey Appleby once said “ If the right people don't have power, do you know what happens? …..The wrong people get it ! “ ……
It appears the ‘Shadow parish council‘ hold this same position !. ...
( NB...AE1 are by no means the wrong people ! far from it !! )
BUT.....
What next from "The AE-9".....An organised 'Sit- in' at a village coffee shop ?....
A 'March' on the Medical Centre Building site.....A 'protest camp' on the Allotments......
This is farmore entertaining than any of Sir Humph's antics and deceit.....and this should be made into a Sit Com !....( I wont suggest 'who could play who' but Dara O'Briain...isnt bad at h political humour... just a thought !! )
Pete Taylor
Thursday 13th August 2015 at 9:16 pm
Martin Dixon said "There is also a gushing and unnecessary tribute..." but is not that what they do in their Circle?
Richard Fitzwilliam
Friday 14th August 2015 at 7:30 am
While I am no fan of the outed-9, I think Peter Jones has been an amazing asset the village and should be commended for his frequent and generous philanthropy.

The whole village will benefit from a new Medical Centre which would not have come about without his involvement and generosity.

There is a very nasty British disease of disliking people who have been successful instead of in other western cultures where they are applauded. There is nothing wrong with Jones / Emmerson earning a profit and personally I would much rather building works be done by a known and reputable builder who has more than a projects investment in our village.
Kirsteen Peel
Friday 14th August 2015 at 7:58 am
I see Victoria Wood involved in this sitcom in some way Nick - and relatively familiar ground for her, she did have a fixation with Mobberley in Dinner Ladies after all ;)
Pete Taylor
Saturday 15th August 2015 at 11:23 pm
I'm reasonably certain that all will be made clear when the auditors review the the AEPC accounts in the near future.
Perhaps; given the remarkable turn of events where, nationally, there was a considerable swing to the Conservative party yet, in Alderley, every single member of the previously 100% Conservative council was defeated, the auditors might be extra vigilant in their deliberations?
I'm sure that our MP would demand nothing less than a full scrutiny, given these unusual circumstances.
Ruth Norbury
Sunday 16th August 2015 at 10:16 pm
My Dad, who has Alzheimers, has just moved house to Alderley Edge to be near us. He's happy to be here where I can walk across the road to him, and vice versa.

I am happy that we will soon have a modern medical centre within walking distance of his house.

We on the Parish Council are doing our best to deal with the situation we have inherited.
We have acknowledged the work done by the previous incumbents and are also indebted to Jones for the work undertaken at risk.

The figures we are dealing with are actual committed costs, and the funding we need reflects those figures. As an entire Parish Council we all understand the situation we are in and we want the residents of Alderley Edge to know as much as we do.

We hope that everyone who has attended our Parish Council meetings, and our informal open meeting at the Scout Hut feels as informed as we are.

Please come to our meetings and ask questions if you need to. You will be made most welcome.
Cheers
Ruth