Reporter 9/5/02: Reports of the Council on the construction of a new building for the University Farm for its Centre for Agronomy and of residences, a nursery, and shared facilities at West Cambridge: Notice

Reports of the Council on the construction of a new building for the University Farm for its Centre for Agronomy and of residences, a nursery, and shared facilities at West Cambridge: Notice

6 May 2002

The Council have considered the remarks made at the Discussion of the above Reports on 12 February 2002 (p. 547) and have referred the remarks to the Finance Committee and the General Board for their comments.

In both these Reports the Council recommended that the Treasurer be authorized to accept a tender for the proposed works: Dr Evans believed that the Treasurer should not be permitted to accept tenders without some form of 'supervision'. The Finance Committee have informed the Council that by the time a capital project reaches the stage at which a tender needs to be accepted, it will have gone through a lengthy process involving approval of the concept, clarification of available funding, and detailed procurement procedures set out by the Estate Management and Building Service. At this stage of the contracting process the officers in the Finance Division prepare the appropriate warrant (based on committee authority, from the Resource Management Committee, Planning and Resource Committee, or Finance Committee as appropriate), while the officers in the Estate Management and Building Service confirm that the procurement processes have been carried out properly. The Treasurer checks that funding is in place, that the necessary procurement processes have been carried out, and that all Committee approvals are properly documented before accepting the tender. The Council are satisfied that the procedures in place are appropriate.

Dr Evans also referred to planning applications and the authority for submitting these. Under the general regulations for University property: sites and buildings (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 897) Regulation 3 provides that 'it shall be the duty of the Finance Committee of the Council:

(a)	to consider building proposals submitted to them by the Council;
(b)	to advise the Council whether a site and funds both for the estimated capital cost for the recurrent costs of maintenance and use are likely to be available for a proposed building;
(c)	to arrange for the planning of buildings in such order of priority and within such estimates of cost as the Council may determine;
(d)	to supervise the erection of any new building or the alteration of any existing building.'

Approval by Grace of the Regent House is specifically required for any proposal for the erection of a new University building or for the demolition or substantial alteration of an existing University building (Regulation 4). The Council have therefore agreed to submit a Grace to the Regent House for the approval of the recommendations in their Report on the construction of residences, a nursery, and shared facilities at West Cambridge (Grace 1, p. 739). They will consider further the recommendations in their Report on the construction of a new building for the University Farm for its Centre for Agronomy in the light of Professor Leigh's comments and those of the General Board in response.

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