23 October 2014 – 339.2014-15 – Freedom of information request – Costs to re-locate Police Headquarters to South Kilvington
Request
What has been the total expenditure associated with the ‘scoping out’ of the projected new NYP Northern base HQ at the prospective site at South Kilvington, from the very first enquires until your announcement on Thursday 30th July 2014 that the proposal has now been abandoned?
Your response should include a detailed accounting of every element of the process, including search fees, land acquisition, legal fees, and fees to external bodies, as well as all internal costs (including your own and all Officers’ time).
Response
Extent and Result of Searches
Searches were carried out within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) and with the Northern Base project team. The information you have requested is held by both the OPCC and North Yorkshire Police.
Response
Extent and Result of Searches
Searches were carried out within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) and with the Northern Base project team. The information you have requested is held by both the OPCC and North Yorkshire Police.
Decision
To date, £611,662.21 has been spent on the Northern Base project. The breakdown is included in the tables below:
Costs Relating to Pre-Planning Application Work
| Description | Cost |
|---|---|
| Legal charges | £12,865 |
| Legal charges – disbursements | £638.02 |
| Highways inquiry, land registry fees | £68.50 |
| National Land Information Service & search-flow fee | £52.59 |
| Land Registry fees | £6.00 |
| Land Registry search of the index map (SIM) fees | £4.00 |
| Agent’s fees for negotiations | £10,000 |
| Valuation of an additional adjacent piece of land | £1,100 |
| Additional agent’s fees for negotiations | £2750 |
Design Team Costs
| Description | Cost |
|---|---|
| Design Partner fees – RIBA Stages A & B | £96,117.50 |
| Design Partner fees – RIBA Stages C & D | £399,075 |
| Planning Consultant | £22,500 |
| Transport Consultant | £24,849 |
| Landscape Architect | £15,000 |
| Bat survey | £1,368 |
| Acoustic Consultant | £5000 |
| Arboricultural survey | £2890 |
| Ground Investigation and topological investigation | £9175 |
| Ecology Report | £5000 |
Other Miscellaneous Costs
| Description | Cost |
|---|---|
| Planning application fees | £1000 |
| Statutory investigations | £97 |
| Catering | £6 |
| Hire of South Kilvington School for community consultation event | £60 |
| Community consultation materials | £690 |
| Consultancy services for public consultation | £1350.80 |
The link below will take you to the Decision Notice published on the Commissioner’s website. The Decision Notice provides further detail about the decision to halt the plans to progress the Northern Base project as a result of emerging options. North Yorkshire Police had reached the point where they had gone as far as they should in preparatory stages and when the decision was taken to halt the project, only the work necessary to assess viability had been completed. The South Kilvington site was the preferred site for a number of months and prior to a planning application being submitted, work to assess the suitability of the site and the needs of North Yorkshire Police, was undertaken. The cost of completing this work should be balanced against the project budget of £26 million pounds, meaning that only 0.02% of the budget has been spent. At the stage it became clear that a saving of around £10 million could be achieved by pursuing the recommended alternative, the project was halted.
The Decision Notice is available here: