Statement to Cabinet about Shapley Heath Omnishambles

Statement to Cabinet as they Ponder Shapley Heath Omnishambles

Statement to Cabinet about Shapley Heath Omnishambles

As we discussed here, Cabinet meets tonight. On the agenda is how they respond to the Shapley Heath omnishambles. The proposal is that they spend even more public money to hold “an independently facilitated reflection (perhaps supported by the LGA) that recognise[s] both the positives as well as any short comings in the application of the governance arrangements associated with the project”.

We have submitted a statement, that it has been agreed can be presented to Cabinet as part of the Public Participation. The statement is reproduced below.

Statement to Cabinet on Shapley Heath Omnishambles

As you decide whether to throw more good money at a “facilitated reflection” after squandering over £800K of bad money on the Shapley Heath debacle, may I humbly offer some points for you to reflect upon:

  • You might consider whether it was appropriate to even start the project at all after the Inspector had rejected it, and your own bid documents for Government funding said the Garden Village was not necessary to meet our housing needs.
  • You might ponder why you ignored my warnings prior to and during the 21/22 budget meeting that the “bloated cost structure is completely indefensible” and that you were set up to fail because you had not secured enough funding to be successful.
  • You might contemplate why concerns about Governance raised by Hartley Wintney Parish Council and others were ignored by the project sponsor.
  • You might think about why you rebuffed questions about obvious budgeting and spending irregularities in July 2021.
  • You might consider whether your credibility is damaged or enhanced by claiming the project met its core objectives when the fact-checked audit report clearly states you didn’t meet a single milestone.
  • You might also review whether it is entirely appropriate to simply throw the officers under a bus, when it is clear that there were also significant Cabinet member failings.
  • Finally, you might contemplate whether it is appropriate for those involved to remain in office when despite repeated and accurate warnings, they have continued to squander our money on a totally unnecessary project that has delivered nothing of substance.

Let’s see how they respond.

 

Cabinet to Hold Facilitated Reflection on Shapley Heath Debacle

Hart Cabinet next meets on Tuesday 1st September. On the agenda is the response to the Shapley Heath debacle. The Cabinet has been asked by the Audit Committee “to provide a response to the management recommendations contained within the Shapley Heath Audit Review report, and to review the application of project governance, financial controls, and reporting for the Shapley Heath project and to provide a response to Audit Committee on lessons learnt”.

The paper they are discussing recommends that they delegate the the part relating to management recommendations to the interim-S151 officer. Their proposal to review project governance, financial controls and reporting is to hold

“an independently facilitated reflection (perhaps supported by the LGA) that recognise[s] both the positives as well as any short comings in the application of the governance arrangements associated with the project”.

In short, they are going to spend even more money on an independent facilitator to reflect on why they spaffed over £800K up the wall and delivered nothing.

We might suggest that the section on “positives” is kept rather short, because there are none.

The shortcomings were numerous and wide-ranging as we documented here. Four of the Cabinet members were also on the Opportunity Board.

 

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility - Cabinet Membership Of Opportunity Board

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility – Cabinet Membership Of Opportunity Board

In effect they are going to be reflecting on which of them was the most incompetent. Is it Councillor Cockarill, who was chair of the Opportunity Board? Or is it Councillor Radley, because the project took place as part of his his Corporate Services portfolio? Might it be Councillor Neighbour, who as Leader of the Council should have been keeping a close eye on such a big piece of expenditure? Or should it be Councillor Bailey who seems to have been missing in action for the whole time?

Blame Everyone Else for Shapley Heath Debacle

At the last Council meeting, Councillor Cockarill did his best to blame everyone else for the debacle even though he was chair of the Opportunity Board. This included blaming his Cabinet colleagues who also sat on the Opportunity Board and throwing the officers under a bus. If he continues to insist he did nothing wrong and insist the project met its primary objective, the “reflection” is not going to deliver any value.

There’s another item on the Cabinet meeting agenda, which we think might offer some insight into who the scapegoat is going to be. The paper’s purpose is to recommend to Council that they “should adopt on an interim basis a single CEO model”. In other words, sack one of the CEOs now, before they move to joint CEO arrangements with Rushmoor.

We sat on some of the Thematic Groups for the Project and had significant concerns about the project governance at the time. One of the JCXs was undoubtedly at least partly responsible for this. However, Councillor Cockarill himself rebuffed concerns about this in a letter to Hartley Wintney Parish Council.

We have been calling for a restructuring of the senior management team for some time. However, this call was rebuffed by Councillor Neighbour last November. It seems that now they have a problem with Shapley Heath, they are willing to recommend change because it gives them a scapegoat so they can avoid pinning any responsibility on themselves.

 

Shapley Heath Baseline Studies Fall Short of Cabinet Claims

In their defence of the Shapley Heath project debacle, Hart Cabinet have made a great deal of noise about the Baseline Studies produced by the developers as part of the project. The purpose of this post is to analyse the conclusions of those reports and come to a conclusion about their value.

The first point to note is that those reports have now been removed from Hart’s website. However, we did download them when they were available. Together they take up hundreds of MB of disk space. We have made them available here, on our Google drive for those who may wish to view them.

Summary of Results of the Shapley Heath Baseline Studies

Geo-Enviro Study

Low risk from past use, but calls for more detailed work. Glosses over landfill at Scotland Farm and Beggars Corner.

Transport

Proposes an impractical technocratic nirvana of bicycles, cargo-bikes and e-scooters with convoluted car journeys; Council should only consider “increases in highway capacity as a last resort”. Great way to wriggle out of infrastructure spending.

Landscape

Hundreds of pages of bumph, many simply repeating earlier studies in a massive appendix,  resulting in no conclusions except for a call for further work to “consider landscape value, sensitivity and capacity”.  In effect, totally useless.

Agricultural Land Classification

No specific report produced. One chart in the Landscape report. Was supposed to be extended into a detailed study, but apparently not produced.

Archaeological and Heritage

Concedes there would be harm to heritage assets, but claims “informed masterplanning” would avoid or reduce harm. More detailed work required.

Flooding and Drainage

Study concludes that there is a risk of fluvial (river), surface, reservoir and groundwater flooding across parts of the Area of Search. Recommends further work, particularly groundwater monitoring. Some pieces of evidence contradictory. Recommends areas prone to flood as “dry routes” out of the site.

Water Cycle/Management

No report produced.

Utilities

No report produced. It seems they’re ignoring the high pressure gas main and the high-voltage power lines.

Air Quality

Study admits the M3 is the biggest air quality constraint and that nearby SSSIs could be at risk. Apparently, air quality issues during the 16-year build phase are only temporary, so we don’t need to worry about them. Thankfully, they appear to have dropped the idea of building a tree-burning power plant.

Noise

Flawed study didn’t take account of increased traffic levels arising from the development. Admitted to needing an 80m buffer zone either side of the M3 and 20m from the A30 London Road. Concludes that “there are no planning or technical reasons with regard to noise to refuse the promotion of this site as a residential development”.

Contamination

No specific report produced

Ecology & Biodiversity Net Gain

Fairly useless report that documents the different habitat groups in the Area of Search and attributes biodiversity points to each one. Concludes with a statement of the bleeding obvious that to achieve a biodiversity net gain, there needs to be an increase in biodiversity. However, replacing any of the cropland or grassland with urban areas will automatically reduce biodiversity.

Ancient Woodland, Ancient and Veteran Trees

Useful report detailing all of the areas of ancient woodland and a schedule of 37 veteran trees. The report points out that development that might damage these areas be refused. It recommends buffer zones around the veteran trees of around 5m from the edge of the canopy and 15m from the ancient woodland.

Overall Status of Shapley Heath Baseline Studies

The Opportunity Board that took place in March 2021 promised no less than 14 Baseline Studies and showed the status of each at that time.

Status of Shapley Heath Baseline Studies as of March 2021

Status of Shapley Heath Baseline Studies as of March 2021

Despite claims by Cabinet that 10 studies have been produced, only 9 were published. However, one of them covered both Flood Risk and Drainage, so maybe we can say 10 of the promised subject areas were covered. It remains to be seen what happened to the other four.

Status of Shapley Heath Baseline Studies Falls Short of Expectations

Status of Shapley Heath Baseline Studies Falls Short of Expectations

Interestingly, Community Campaign Hart have gone on record saying the have not read the documents. So, obviously they are total experts on the content of the reports and are well placed to judge their value 😉.

Questions about Shapley Heath Baseline Studies to CCH

Questions about Shapley Heath Baseline Studies to CCH

Answers about Shapley Heath Baseline Studies from CCH

Answers about Shapley Heath Baseline Studies from CCH.

Now let’s go through the details of each report.

Topographical and Ground Survey aka Geo-Enviro Desk Study

This was published as the Geo-Enviro desk study. The document was produced by Wardell Armstrong and is dated January 2021, despite the March status report showing no work had started. Note this is a desk based study; no actual field work has been carried out.

Geo-Enviro Study Objectives Wardell-Armstrong

Geo-Enviro Study Objectives.

They conclude that “site is considered to present an overall low risk from past use” and “the site is suitable for the proposed end use of residential and or commercial development with associated infrastructure”.

Geo-Enviro Study Low Risk from Past Use Wardell-Armstrong

Geo-Enviro Study Low Risk from Past Use

However, they go on to caveat their conclusions by stating that more detailed geotechnical work is required about the appropriate foundation solution for parts of the site.

Geo-Enviro Study Potential contamination Geotechnical Assessment Wardell-Armstrong

Geo-Enviro Study Potential contamination Geotechnical Assessment

In the body of the paper they do note that Beggars Corner and Scotland Farm are former landfill sites, but gloss over the implications of this.

Geo-Enviro Study Potential Historic Landfill Beggars Corner Scotland Farm Wardell-Armstrong

Geo-Enviro Study Potential Historic Landfill Beggars Corner Scotland Farm

They also go on to note in their terms and conditions that they offer no guarantee  or warranty on their findings.

Geo-Enviro Study Potential No Guarantee or Warranty Wardell-Armstrong

Geo-Enviro Study Potential No Guarantee or Warranty

Shapley Heath Baseline Studies – Transport

Summary

The Transport Studies consist on seven “Topic Papers” delivered via email from the Steer Group. They are a triumph of technocratic idealism over common sense.

In their nirvana, everyone will ride bicycles or e-scooters so there’s no need to make a significant investment in roads.  The Council should abandon the philosophy of “Predict and Provide” and in favour of “Decide and Provide”, or rather don’t provide. They elaborate on this saying “user hierarchy putting pedestrians and cyclists first and motor traffic last, and design features including limited and well-placed car parking”.

This means that the Council should:

  • Simply “decide” the “preferred future” and provide for that future instead. SO, they can decide not to provide proper road infrastructure.
  • Actively seek to add “convoluted car journeys”.
  • Not try to predict the future traffic flows arising from 5-10,000 additional houses.
  • Only be “considering increases in highway capacity as a last resort”.
  • Include only limited parking facilities.
  • Assume everyone is going to cycle or take their lives in their hands on an e-scooter, instead of driving to do their big shop at the supermarket.
  • Not bother working out the costs of transport improvements.

In other words, they have decided that they will aim for an impractical technocratic nirvana so there’s no need to cost out a practical solution.

More Walking and Cycling Routes Plus Cargo Cycles

The aims of providing more walking and cycling routes are laudable. The roads around the proposed site notably lack pavements in  most places and there are almost no dedicated cycle paths.  However, there are some completely ridiculous ideas such as “freight to be transported by cargo cycles”. I don’t think any new supermarket would be happy to be restocked by a fleet of “cargo cycles”.

Shapley Heath Transport Study e-cargo bikes

Shapley Heath Transport Study e-cargo bikes

Convoluted Car Journeys

They also propose to “create more convoluted journeys for private vehicles thereby reducing propensity for short distance car trips”. In other words design the environment so it is difficult for cars to get in, through and out of the new development. This is a recipe for more congestion and poor quality of life. It is fundamental to economic efficiency and vibrant social life that it is easy for people to go where they want, when they want. The thing about private cars is that they promote freedom of movement and convenience. They seem to want to “Decide” that new residents should live the lives of Trappist Monks, never leaving the new town and not having visitors.

Shapley Heath Transport Study e-scooters and convoluted car journeys

Shapley Heath Transport Study e-scooters and convoluted car journeys

Better Public Transport

They also call for more busses. However, if the No. 7 bus service that already goes through Hartley Wintney is any guide, there is precious little demand for this mode of transport. By observation, these busses often have no passengers at all, and never more than a handful. It is difficult to see how this will change even with 5-10,000 extra houses.

The papers also call for more train journeys. However, they acknowledge that pre-pandemic the line was operating at maximum capacity. They outline a series of improvements that are planned for the Wessex line. However, it isn’t clear whether any of them will improve capacity or enhance services from Winchfield.

Ignoring EVs Eliminate Tail Pipe Emissions

Part of their rationale for strongly discouraging car use is to cut tail-pipe emissions. They fail to understand that by 2030 all new cars sold will be EVs, with no tailpipe emissions. Even now, hybrids are taking an ever increasing share of the market, so CO2 emissions are already falling in urban areas. It can be seen that their  rationale for reducing car usage  completely falls away.

No Costing

None of the Topic Papers addresses the costs of even providing footpaths and cycle paths. Of course they don’t address the cost of road improvements because they should only be “considering increases in highway capacity as a last resort”. In other words, they have decided that they will aim for an impractical technocratic nirvana so there’s no need to cost out a practical solution.

Landscape Character Assessment

The Environmental Dimension Partnership (EDP) have produced hundreds of pages of bumph resulting in no conclusions. Much of the report is a massive appendix of earlier work carried out for the Council. They conclude by calling for further work to “consider landscape value, sensitivity and capacity”.  In effect, totally useless. The work is nowhere near as good as the work carried out by Michelle Bolger on behalf of Winchfield Parish Council.

Shapley Heath Landscape Study Further work required

Shapley Heath Landscape Study Further work required

Archaeological and Heritage Study

This is an 87-page report produced again by EDP. The report concedes that heritage assets would suffer “harm” as a result of such a significant development. However, they contend that with “informed masterplanning, it may be possible to avoid or reduce harmful effects”. Note the “may”.

Shapley Heath Archaeological and Heritage Study

Shapley Heath Archaeological and Heritage Study – Harm to heritage assets

Of course, they say more work is required, including actually visiting the site! Got to keep those consultancy fees rolling in.

Shapley Heath Baseline Studies – Flooding and Drainage

The Flooding and Drainage studies were produced as one document by Wardell-Armstrong who also produced the ge0-enviro desk study. This is an 68-page document plus three appendices. One plus point is that the various flood events documented on this website are incorporated into the evidence base.

 

The main document shows that there is a risk of fluvial (river), reservoir, surface water and groundwater flooding across large parts of the site. It recommends further work to better quantify the risks and work out the mitigation.

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Additional Work Programme

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Additional Work Programme

In particular, a 12-month borehole study is recommended.

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study 12 month borehole study required

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study 12 month borehole study required

Given the project has been cancelled and no budget is currently allocated, it isn’t clear when or if this work will take place.

It is worth noting that significant parts of the evidence base are self-contradictory.

Surface Water Contradictions

The first point to note is that they provide a very low quality image of the parts of the Area of Search that are subject to surface water risk.

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Figure 10 Surface Water

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Figure 10 Surface Water

At first glance, it looks like pretty much the whole site is clear of surface water flood risk.

However, if you superimpose the Area of Search on Hart’s own map of surface water flood risk, a very different picture emerges.

Shapley Heath Surface Water Flood Risk from Hart Council Maps

Shapley Heath Surface Water Flood Risk from Hart Council Maps

Large swathes of the Area of Search is subject to surface water flood risk. An addendum to Hart’s own Strategic Flood Risk Assessment states that their various models of surface water flood risk underestimate the extent of flooding.

Models Underestimate Surface Water Flood Risk

Models Underestimate Surface Water Flood Risk

Clearly, more work is required on this subject.

Groundwater Contradictions

They use two different charts to illustrate the risk of groundwater flooding. The first shows high risk to the North East of the site and negligible risk across the central belt.

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Figure 11 Groundwater Flood Risk

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Figure 11 Groundwater Flood Risk

The second map shows high risk to the south, medium risk in the north east and low (note not negligible) across most of the rest of the site.

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Figure 12 Groundwater Flood Risk

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Figure 12 Groundwater Flood Risk

No wonder they called for the 12 month borehole study to work out what the real risks are.

Exit Route contradictions

As part of their mitigation strategy, they identify a number of “dry routes” out of the site. These include Taplins Farm Lane, Station Road, Bagwell Lane and Totters Lane. The very roads that we have documented flood frequently and often to such an extent that they are impassable. They even reproduced the graphic below in their own document.

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Allegedly Dry Routes

Shapley Heath Flood Risk Study Allegedly Dry Routes

Winchfield, Hook, Crookham Village Floods 3 January 2016

Winchfield, Hook, Crookham Village Floods 3 January 2016

Clearly, they need to think again.

Shapley Heath Baseline Studies – Air Quality

Wardell-Armstrong have produced another 15-page report. However, the report is next to useless because there are no monitoring stations within the boundary of the Area of Search.

They do have a section on potential air quality impacts. They dismiss concerns about any impacts during construction as only “temporary.

Shapley Heath Air Quality Study Temporary Impacts during 16 year construction phase

Shapley Heath Air Quality Study Temporary Impacts during 16 year construction phase

However, the bid documentation suggested a building trajectory of 16 years. This hardly fits most people’s definition of temporary.

Shapley Heath Housing Trajectory Sept 2020

Shapley Heath Housing Trajectory Sept 2020

They then move on to the “operation” phase, by which they mean the impact on air quality having built 5-10,000 extra houses.

They concede that there could be potential damage to nearby SSSI’s, although they do not mention the many SINCs within the Area of Search.

Shapley Heath Air Quality Study Potential Damage to SSSIs during operation

Shapley Heath Air Quality Study Potential Damage to SSSIs during operation

They also admit that the M3 is “the most notable constraint” regarding air quality.

Shapley Heath Air Quality - M3 Is A Significant Constraint

Shapley Heath Air Quality – M3 Is A Significant Constraint

Thankfully, they have given up on the idea of a tree-burning biomass power plant or CHP as they euphemistically call it. In a previous Sustainability Appraisal they used the potential of such a plant to rank Shapley Heath above other options. Heaven knows why, burning wood to produce power generates more CO2 and noxious particulate emissions than burning coal.

Shapley Heath Air Quality - Given up on idea of a Power Plant

Shapley Heath Air Quality – Given up on idea of a Power Plant

Of course they need to do further more detailed work.

Shapley Heath Baseline Studies – Noise

Our friends at Wardell Armstrong have been busy again, this time on a 39-page Noise Assessment report. However, we believe this assessment to contain a very significant flaws:

  1. Study Timing.
  2. No account was taken of the extra traffic generated by the development.
  3. They assumed the development would be residential only.

Study Timing

First, the study was carried out in mid-June 2021. They assumed traffic levels were back to normal levels. However, some Covid restrictions were still in place up to mid-July 2021.

Shapley Heath Noise Study - Study period 9-14 June 2021

Shapley Heath Noise Study – Study period 9-14 June 2021

In addition, the study period was 9-14th June 2021. The 12th of June was a Saturday and the 13th was a Sunday. Weekends generally have lower traffic levels, so some of the readings they took will understate the mid-week noise levels.

Extra Traffic Ignored

The extra traffic that will be generated by the development was not considered in their work. They justify this by saying traffic volumes would have to double to generate a 3dB increase in noise levels.

Shapley Heath Noise Study - Will Not Consider Impact of Proposed Development

Shapley Heath Noise Study – Will Not Consider Impact of Proposed Development

For a road like the M3, that is justifiable. For the A30 London Road, that assumption is at least debatable as it is likely to be one of the major access points should the development go ahead. Therefore, traffic volumes will likely rise significantly. However, for the more minor roads such as the B3016, Station Road, Bagwell Lane and Taplins Farm Lane, this assumption is demonstrably false. There’s currently only a couple of hundred dwellings in Winchfield. Increasing that by 5-10,000 would likely increase traffic on these minor roads by at least an order of magnitude, far more than double. Yet, they have chosen to ignore this obvious fact, despite designing the place to have “convoluted” car journeys adding to congestion and noise.

Assumed Residential Only

Moreover, they also assume that the development would be residential only. However, Hart’s own Project Overview document made it clear that the development would be mixed use, with various employment sites, supermarkets/retail and schools. These types of development will add further to the noise problem.

Shapley Heath Project Overview - Mixed Use Community with Employment and Retail premises

Shapley Heath Project Overview – Mixed Use Community with Employment and Retail premises

Noise Mitigation Strategy

To mitigate the impact they recommend buffer zones around various roads and the railway. These include 80m from the M3, 20m from the A30 and 30m from the railway. We suspect the 10m buffer recommended around the B3016 will prove to be inadequate because traffic levels will rise very significantly.

Shapley Heath Noise Study - Road and Rail Buffer Zones

Shapley Heath Noise Study – Road and Rail Buffer Zones

However, as highlighted above, they have assumed zero extra traffic impact on Station Road, Bagwell Lane and Taplins Farm Lane. Therefore additional buffer zones maybe required. Such a buffer zone would reduce the land available for building, particularly on the parcel of land bounded by the B3016, the M3, Taplins Farm Lane and the railway.

They also recommend various other mitigation strategies such as 2m high fences, special glass in some windows near the major noise sources and “acoustic ventilation” so there’s no need to open windows.

The report concludes that if appropriate mitigation measures are put in place, “there are no planning or technical
reasons with regard to noise to refuse the promotion of this site as a residential development”. Of course, more detailed acoustic design will be required, to generate even more fees.

Shapley Heath Baseline Studies – Ecology and Biodiversity Net Gain

This is a 15-page report plus a 12-page appendix consisting mostly of maps. It was produced by a Ethos Environmental Planning. Overall it’s a chocolate teapot of a report because it concludes that in order to increase biodiversity, the number of biodiversity points need to increase, but it doesn’t say how.

Methodology

It starts by classifying different parts of the Area of Search into Habitat Groups

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity Habitat Groups

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity Habitat Groups

It then goes on to award “Biodiversity Units” to each group.

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity Units

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity Units

Biodiversity units are calculated using the Biodiversity Metric 2.0. The metric subjects the area of the habitats to a selection of multipliers which determine an areas biodiversity value. The multipliers are the condition of the habitat, its distinctiveness, its connectivity and its strategic significance. However, the report doesn’t explain how they assigned values to the various multipliers. They do caveat their results by making clear that the Biodiversity Metric 2.0 they used is a beta-test trial and the results maybe subject to change.

They go on to say that to enhance or maintain biodiversity, they need to retain high value areas and poorer areas “be targeted for removal”.

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity target areas for removal

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity target areas for removal

So, if you already live in the Area of Search, they’re going to target your house for removal.

Conclusions

They conclude with a statement of the obvious. To increase biodiversity points, you have to increase biodiversity points.  However, they offer no advice on how to do that. By combining their tables we have been able to demonstrate that replacing any of the grassland or cropland with urban development, biodiversity will be reduced. This is because the average biodiversity units per hectare are lowest for urban areas.

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity Points per Hectare

Shapley Heath Ecology and Biodiversity Points per Hectare

This is contrary to the expectations set in the Project Overview:

Shapley Heath Project Overview BioDiversity Net Gain

Shapley Heath Project Overview BioDiversity Net Gain

The Shapley Heath survey last year even suggested that “green spaces within garden communities are also opportunities to enhance biodiversity and the natural environment”. It isn’t clear how they came to that conclusion on the basis of their own survey.

Ancient Woodland, Ancient and Veteran Trees

This is a 39-page report with an 8-page appendix again produced by EDP. Overall, this is a useful report detailing all of the areas of ancient woodland and a schedule of 37 veteran trees. The report points out that the NPPF says that development which might damage these areas be refused, unless there are exceptional circumstances. It recommends buffer zones around the veteran trees of around 5m from the edge of the canopy and 15m from the ancient woodland. Note the results of the survey expire two years after it was conducted. This means that the survey will be useless after December 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility for Shapley Heath Debacle

At last week’s Council meeting, the Cabinet was determined to distance itself from the findings of the Shapley Heath Audit Report. Cabinet member for Place, Lib Dem Councillor Graham Cockarill was determined to say, in the words of Shaggy, “It Wasn’t Me”, despite being caught red handed screwing us all over with his mismanagement of the project and its finances.

Cockarill and Leader Dave Neighbour faced a barrage of 10 questions from Tory leader Anne Crampton and Councillor Spencer Farmer. Before we go through the detail of the questions and answers, the main summary points are highlighted below.

Summary of Main Points from Council Questions

Councillor Cockarill Refused to Resign over his Mishandling of the Project

When asked by Councillor Crampton if he would resign over the mishandling of the Shapley Heath project he refused. Councillor Cockarill said he was working on information available to everyone at the time. He said that “none of the information that I saw gave me cause for huge concern”.  He hadn’t been given a budget for the 21/22 year and no detailed project plan. What more would it take for him to notice something awry?

Outright Lies about the Criticisms of the Audit Report

The decision not to use Hart’s standard reporting templates was all Homes England’s fault. Councillor Cockarill lied when he said the Audit Report made no criticism of the project management and reporting processes themselves. In fact they made the following criticisms:

  • No evidence to suggest that the project was financially managed appropriately.
  • Little financial monitoring information presented to members and some of that was inaccurate.
  • The Project Management did not meet the required standards.
  • No formal records of meetings and emails subsequently deleted.
  • Project reporting in terms of frequency and content did not meet expectations.
  • Little oversight by the Oversight Board and none by the Cabinet.
  • Virtually non-existent risk management.

It would be quite remarkable if Homes England mandated that they should run the project in such a lackadaisical manner.

Cockarill Claims Project Met Primary Objective

Councillor Cockarill denied the Audit Report finding that the project had not delivered any of its milestones. He even made the extraordinary claim that the project had met its primary objective. We can think of no other words to describe this statement, other than outright lie. As a reminder, the stated objectives of the project were to “establish a vision for a Garden Community and evidence whether such a vision is both viable and deliverable”. Where’s the Vision? Where is the evidence to support viability or deliverability? They are relying on the 10 reports produced and funded by the developers. None of these are definitive as we shall demonstrate in another post. None of the £820K spent was used to produce those reports.

Cabinet Effectively Going to Mark Its Own Homework

The Audit Committee has asked Cabinet to “review the application of project governance and financial controls and reporting”. Four members of Cabinet, including the Leader and Deputy Leader sat on the Shapley Heath Opportunity Board. In effect, the Cabinet has been asked to investigate its own role in this debacle.  Despite appearances to the contrary, Councillor Neighbour insisted that they weren’t marking their own homework.

False Claim About Covid Impact

They didn’t hold the quarterly meetings of the Opportunity Board after March 2021 because of Covid. This is despite the Covid restrictions being gradually lifted through out this time. It should be noted that Full Council meetings took place in February, April, May and July 2021. Cabinet meetings also took place in February, March, April, June and July 2021. There is no Covid excuse for not scheduling the Opportunity Board meeting in July 2021.

Officers Spent Without Authority and to Blame for Not Supplying Key Documents

Councillor Cockarill blamed Hart Officers who did not circulate the FY2021/22 budget as promised after the March 2021 Opportunity Board Meeting. However, it is clear that he made no attempt to intervene when said documents were not forthcoming. He therefore cancelled the scheduled July 2021 meeting. At no point was the 2021/22 budget and project plan approved by the Opportunity Board. In effect, it looks like the Officers continued spending despite having no formal authority to do so and Cockarill did nothing to stop them.

Opportunity Board Members to Blame for Project Continuing Without Proper Authority

Councillor Cockarill claimed that nobody from the Council or the Opportunity Board raised any issues about the project with him. In effect, he as chair of the Opportunity Board is absolved of responsibility because nobody told him to take action. Three of those Board members were his fellow Cabinet members (as well as three other Councillors, two Tories and one Independent). As a result, all of the 2021/22 expenditure was incurred without authority being granted by the Opportunity Board. We can’t speak for the actions or inaction of Councillors. However, we did warn before and during the Budget Meeting in February 2021 that the “bloated cost structure is completely indefensible” and that the project was set up to fail.

Dodgy Claims About the Level of Spending

Councillor Cockarill claimed that £298K has been transferred back to reserves from the Shapley Heath project, despite the latest financial report for 2021/22 showing that £367K was transferred from the Shapley Heath earmarked reserves. He had no evidence to support his claim and could not produce a report of the time spent on the project by each officer involved, so they still do not have the full picture of the costs incurred by the project. He also claimed the total spend on the project was £752K, not the fact-checked >£820K reported in the Audit Report.

Shapley Heath Project Stopped Because They Ran Out of Other People’s Money

Councillor Cockarill claimed that they stopped the project because the Government had decided not to continue financial support. In other words, they stopped because they ran out of other people’s money. They didn’t stop because the project had spent all of the allocated budget and not delivered anything of substance. They didn’t stop because of the overwhelming opposition to the project expressed in the survey results. The implication is that if they had convinced the Government to continue supporting them, they would have pressed on despite strong opposition and despite not delivering anything.

Details of Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility for Shapley Heath Debacle

We have to extend our thanks to Joanne Balchin for creating the videos below and the transcripts. The draft minutes have now also been published.

Councillor Crampton Questions 1 and 2

Crampton Q1:

Thank you Madam Chairman, my first question is – The Shapley Heath external audits says the Governance arrangements were appropriate and adequate but these were not actioned throughout the project. Specifically there was lack of any reports to cabinet between March 2020 and November 2021. Meetings were not held at the required frequency, even post pandemic. The lack of annual review of the Opportunity Board’s terms of reference and a lack of a review of objectives and priorities as required by the terms of reference. Who made these decisions and with who’s authority and in the absence of of Governance arrangements, how was it expected that those who had the obligation to scrutinise the project would be able to hold the project to account?

Neighbour:

It’s quite a long answer and I apologise. Err, the Shapley Heath project was curtailed in November of 2021 when Government funding failed to meet the levels that MHCLG had advised Hart to expect. It has however delivered 10 informed baseline reports which will underpin any future local plan view and help advise the council of a viable option to meet future housing need.  This evidence base has a real intrinsic value that will benefit the people of Hart should the Government allocate the area a substantial increased housing target.  The project delivered very real and positive outcomes.

The Audit Report did identify a number of deficiencies in the way the project had been managed.

These did not have a material influence on the outcome of the contract tendering, nor in the quality of material produced. However, the failure to follow Hart’s meticulous internal processes is clearly recognised.  We learn from mistakes made regarding the Governance and procurement of this project..

Interruption..

I welcome the work done by the Audit committee and apologise to the people of Hart for these failings. We will provide appropriate training to ensure such things don’t happen again.

Meanwhile, the projects 10 baseline reports are saved for local plan review and will join the output of other housing options studies we are undertaking.

[Note: At no point did he actually answer the question of who made the decisions to bypass the governance arrangements.]

[Note: He makes a lot of the 10 Baseline Studies. These will be the subject of another post]

Crampton Q1 Supp:

The 10 reports that were produced by the Developers, they weren’t key milestones though were they?

Neighbour:

I have to be honest and say I don’t recall what the key milestones were off the top of my head so, I’m guessing that these reports are part of one of the milestones? Possibly more than one, er, so I can’t honestly either way. Certainly not many of the key milestones of the project.

[Note: The Leader of the Council does not know what they Key Milestones were on the biggest revenue project that has just been eviscerated by Internal Audit]

Crampton Q2:

My second question, the management of the Shapley Heath project did not meet the Council’s required standards and did not follow the council’s standardised project structure. As a result, standard internal reporting processes were not used. How was this allowed to happen and will those responsible be held to account?

Cockarill:

Thank you for the questions, I’ll probably answer most of them but the leader will jump in for one or two.

So the project referred to as Shapley Heath was our bid to the Governments Garden Village Community program. So project management and reporting processes, which were setup, were those prescribed under the rules of the Garden Village Community program which is run by Homes England.

It required the use of standard reporting templates, supplied by Home England. The issue of using Home England supplied reporting templates had no impact on the project outcome. [Note: It’s all Homes England’s fault].

I believe both Cabinet and full Council were aware that this was the case when we agreed to enter the project, as was the Overview and Scrutiny Board who discussed the membership of the Opportunity Board. [Note: Now it’s everyone else’s fault].

The internal audit report made no criticism of the project management and the reporting processes themselves.

[Note: This is an outright lie. The Audit Report made the following criticisms:

    • No evidence to suggest that the project was financially managed appropriately.
    • Little financial monitoring information presented to members and some of that was inaccurate.
    • The Project Management did not meet the required standards.
    • No formal records of meetings and emails subsequently deleted.
    • Project reporting in terms of frequency and content did not meet expectations.
    • Little oversight by the Oversight Board and none by the Cabinet.
    • Virtually non-existent risk management]

Councillor Crampton Question 3

 

Crampton Q3:

The interim head of Corporate Services set out a timetable for improvement of processes going forward, how will what has happened be highlighted in the report being investigated? By whom? And how will it be demonstrated that those responsible for the project do not mark their own homework and dismiss this simply as a project management shortcoming.

Neighbour:

Er, so Audit Committee has asked Cabinet to provide a response to the management recommendations contained in that report. It has also asked cabinet to review the application of project governance and financial controls and reporting and to provide a response. [Note: 4 Cabinet members were on the Opportunity Board, which itself reported to Cabinet. How can Cabinet effectively investigate itself?

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility - Cabinet Membership Of Opportunity Board

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility – Cabinet Membership Of Opportunity Board

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility - Shapley Heath Governance Structure

Hart Cabinet Denies Responsibility – Shapley Heath Governance Structure

End Note]

In addition, Staffing Committee is also asked by Audit Committee to review the exercise of officer management control, financial reporting and oversight of the project.

The outcome of these review will be shared with all members. [Note: What about the public?]

Councillor Crampton Question 3 supp Plus Q4

Crampton Q3 Supp:

Therefore you are saying that Cabinet, members of Cabinet who were responsible for this omnishambles are going to actually investigate their own messes?

Neighbour:

No, that’s not what I am saying. Ah, Cabinet have been asked by Audit Committee to look into the improvement plan and to make sure it takes place.

Any issues to do with the Governance related to Staff will be covered by the Staffing Committee.

To make it quite clear, I do not believe that anyone is marking their own homework.

[Note: This contradicts the minutes of the Audit Committee which say the decision is as follows:

Hart Cabinet Denies Respsonsibility - Decision of Audit Committee

Hart Cabinet Denies s- Decision of Audit Committee

Cabinet is to “provide a response to the management recommendations contained within the Shapley Heath Audit Review report, and to review the application of project governance, financial controls, and reporting for the
Shapley Heath project and to provide a response to Audit Committee on lessons learnt.” Staffing Committee is to look at Officer conduct. [Note: So the answer is “Yes”, the Cabinet is marking its own homework.]

Crampton Q4:

In cancelling the July 2021 Shapley Heath Opportunity Board meeting, what regard did the officers who advised him or the Portfolio holder for Place (Cockarill) himself take of the Board’s obligation to meet a minimum of once a quarter, particularly as there was outstanding business arising from the March meeting.

As the 2021/22 project plan and the costings had not been endorsed and none of the financial information against which to scrutinise the project had been provided.

Cockarill:

Thank you Madam Chairman yes this is definitely a question for me.

So quarterly meetings of the Opportunity Board SHOULD have taken place but unfortunately we were hit by a global pandemic, which caused a nationwide lockdown. [Note: This is nonsense, apart from a small gap, Council, Cabinet and other Committee meetings took place pretty much as normal, albeit virtual throughout the pandemic].

As the Council went into emergency mode the plan schedule of meetings was put aside to allow to deal with the health emergency. The March 2021 Opportunity Boarding meeting did have a briefing on the impact of Covid upon the project. It was my view that the July 2021 meeting of the Opportunity Board would not have had all of the requested information, er, to hand. [Note: The main issue is that the promised documentation had not been provided, surely this was reason enough to call the meeting to hold the officers to account].

Therefore, I considered it better to wait for the next scheduled meeting to provide a full post Covid update. I had requested that the Board a budget by email so that questions could be asked. I do not understand why the Officers did not circulate the updated 2020-21 2022 project plan and costings, with the detailed budget information, as promised to all Board members in the Officer’s email dated 2nd July 2021. [Note: Officers thrown under the bus.]

The project was halted in September which meant that the next scheduled meeting of course didn’t happen. Now in hindsight, I should have sought to intervene AND have the July meeting go ahead to provide the Board with at least limited information that was available. [Note: Finally an admission of some culpability].

It was not my intention to restrict the ability of members to scrutinise the project. Now I apologise to members if I inadvertently gave them that impression.

Councillor Crampton Q4 Supp and Q5

Crampton Q4 Supp:

As the Portfolio holder responsible for this project, would you resign?

Cockarill:

The answer, No.

Er, the slightly lengthier answer for the benefit of Council is that I was working on the information that was available to myself AND Opportunity Board Members at the time.

None of the information that I saw gave me cause for huge concern and I will point out that there were no concerns raised to me directly or indirectly by any of the other Opportunity board members during this time. [Note: In this case, the complete absence of information should have been cause for huge concern, but he didn’t act.]

Had there been so, and I failed to act on those concerns, then the situation might be different!!!

Crampton Q5:

My final question. The Shapley Heath project audit review outlines a series of significant failings by the Council.

Does the leader of the Council agree with me that the issues raised in the review cannot simply be described as project management short comings, but instead represent a far more deeply rooted example of mismanagement, questionable competency and accountability which must be investigated further.

I’ve asked this before, and I don’t like the idea that Cabinet’s doing it but again, who will carry out that investigation? When and how will it be fed back to members?

Neighbour:

Thank you, apologies. I don’t recognise all the points raised in the question, they go well beyond the actual findings of the audit review.

Nevertheless, I am determined to abide by the high standards of Governance, unfortunately in this case, I have to agree the project governance in this case is unacceptable.

As I said earlier, Audit Committee has asked Cabinet to provide a response to the management recommendations contained in the report. That is our process. I must also ask cabinet to review the application of project governance and financial controls and reporting, and to provide a response to them. So it will go to the Audit Committee, it will be them that mark the paper, not Cabinet.

In addition, the Staffing Committee has also been asked by Audit Committee to review the exercise of Officer Management and Financial Controls and oversight over the project. The outcome of both these reviews will be shared ALL members. [Note: What about the public? Are they going to have more secret meetings so we cannot see what is going on?]

Councillor Crampton Q5 Supp

Crampton Q5 Supp:

Could I have a timeline for that please Councillor Neighbour?

Neighbour:

Not tonight, you cannot have a timeline.

Er, we will need to prepare, erh.. various information streams that we will need to put both of these in place.

I certainly can’t speak for Staffing Committee, that’s up to them to determine their own timeline.

But, this meeting took place on Tuesday, today is Thursday, I am answering your question the best I can, at this moment in time. As soon as we have a timetable, it will be publicly made available and will all [inaudible].

Councillor Farmer Q1 and Supp

Farmer Q1:

Thank you Madam Chairman. Ok the first question.

Why was an audited 2020/21 never circulated to the Opportunities Board and because the costings were never supplied how was it expected that the budgeted spend for 2021/22 be scrutinised?

Particularly, as the 2021/22 project plan was never endorsed. Who therefore approved the 2021/22 work stream?

Cockarill:

Thank you Madam Chairman. Er, so I believe I gave the full answer to a similar point earlier. But for clarity, the intention was to bring budgets to the Opportunity Board, initially in July but deferred to September of 2021.

But decisions regarding the future of the project meant that the September meeting was subsequently cancelled.
I had requested that the Board be supplied with the budget by email so that questions could be asked. I did not understand why the Officers did not circulate the updated 2021/22….. 2021/22 er project plan and costings plan with the detailed budget information as promised to ALL board members in the Officers email dated 2nd July 2021. [Note: Officers thrown under the bus again, note also he did not chase for this material to be sent].

That update was never provided and that clearly hampered the ability of the Opportunities Board to properly scrutinise the projects…the projects..finances! Albeit, this was not an issue that was raised to me by any board members at the time. [Note: Not only did Cockarill not chase, but then goes on to blame other members, including his Cabinet colleagues, for not reminding him that he should be chasing. However, in the next statement he mentions that the Board did ask for more detailed Budget/Costings].

However, I believe that the Opportunity board did see a high level project plan in March 2021 and raised no objections to the principle of the program albeit the Board did indeed, ask for a more detailed Budget and Costings to be provided before it received final sign off. [Note: Contradicts himself in this sentence].

So as I said earlier, in hindsight I should have sought to intervene and have the July meeting go ahead and provide the Board with at least limited information, er, available. Thank you very much!

Farmer Q1 Supp:

Yes, I’m not sure I got a full answer as to who approved the 2021/22 work stream, whether high level or not, the full work plan did not come to the Opportunity Board, as I think has been agreed.

Therefore the Opportunity Board were not able to fulfil their obligations, so this supplementary is, where in the agreed Terms of Reference did it permit the 2021/22 work stream project plan or project budget be approved, without referral to the Opportunity Board?

Cockarill:

Very simple answer Councillor Farmer, it didn’t. This is the problem that the project has run into and it is precisely the sought of issue and the sort of question that the work streams that have been outlined this evening will undoubtedly want to know the answer to. I cannot explain the answer because like you, I don’t know where that authority came from. [Note: He was Chairman of the Board and took no action when it was obvious the project was proceeding without any authority].

Councillor Farmer Q2 and Supp

Farmer Q2:

I mean I’ll probably come back to that point but it was noted that since 2018/19 in excess of £650,000 has been spent on the Shapley Heath Project up to March 2022. I quote obviously from the Audit Report, taking into account the latest forecast for 2021/22 this may well lead to a reported number in excess of £820,000 of which £544,000 is Hart District Council money.

Unrecorded Staff Costs, such as Officer Resources used to support all the work streams need to be assessed, therefore, what is the true cost of the project when such factors are taken into account?

Cockarill:

Thank you Madam Chairman, er that will speed things up a little bit.

Yes so Audit Committee has now received the final updated figures for the project expenditure over the last 4 years broken down in appropriate detail. The Actual expenditure incurred is significantly less than that initial audit forecast. More in the region of £725,000, er… sorry £752,000 without account of having been taken a miss coding. [Note: Where is this document, it is not part of the public documentation for the latest Audit Committee?]

It must also be recognised that a substantial portion of the budget was actually used by Officers working on other projects and on the emergency response to Covid. It should be noted that the £500,000 drawn down from reserves £298,000 of this has recently been put back.

[Note:  As we noted here, the latest report on overall finances showed the project overspent for 21/22 and that £367K was transferred from the Shapley Heath Reserve. So, we are left in the dark about where Councillor Cockarill got his information from].

Thank you!

Farmer Q2 Supp:

Yes, I mean talking down the costs I’m not sure is going to be entirely helpful and also the numbers were stated £820,000 and £544,000 in the Audit Report and I would have thought any direct documentary proof of those staff allocations with reported costs would have been provided to Auditors.

There was a period where there was a fact check of information and the report has obviously published the numbers that it has published. Should the actual accounts have been different then presumably they would have been reported differently in the first place outside of the audit.

Also the reasons for asking this question, the second MHCLG Bid document stated as an example that the joint chief executive had spent considerable time on the Shapley Heath project and we know that various Officers had participated and became representatives of some of the forums that were established.

So with this in mind, when will you provide a full list of Officers that have participated in the Shapley Heath project and a detailed breakdown of the reported Staffing costs for the project so that we can clearly see which Officers have been fully accounted for in the Costs?

Cockarill:

Detailed Supplementary questions is what we like Councillor Farmer!

Obviously I am not able to give you that detailed…er…er..detailed answer this evening.

Farmer:

Can you say when Councillor Cockarill, rather than an explanation this evening?

Cockarill:

I noted that you said when, Councillor Farmer. I did notice that. Um, I will go back to our Officers and ask them to supply that information. As soon as they give me some indication of how long it would take to draw up that information together then I will let Council know.

Councillor Farmer Q3 and Supp

Farmer Q3:

Sorry Madam Chairman, slightly longer one but some important facts. A fund of £500,000 was allocated to the Shapley Heath project approved by cabinet and approved by full Council in February 2022. However, there were no details of the expected overall expenditure of the project, no breakdown of expenditure over the 3 year period or any indication of items that would be covered by such expenditure.

80% of the expenditure is attributable to staff costs or recharges and no key milestones have been achieved at the time of concluding the project. Day to day financial monitoring did not follow the standard template documentation, I quote from the Audit Report and was found to be significantly inaccurate in recording actual expenditure.

Particularly Staff Costs, and recharges and calculating available resources and further it did not correlate with the project plan documents such as it was. There was also no evidence to support the project having been accurately and appropriately financially managed. How did this happen and who is responsible?

Cockarill:

Thank you! Madam Chairman.

So as I’ve just said Audit Committee has now received the final updated figures for the project incoming expenditure over the past 4 years, broken down to the appropriate level.

Furthermore, a substantial portion of the Budget was used by Officers working on other projects and on the emergency response to Covid and I repeat that of the £500,000 drawn down from reserves we put £298,000 of those back in.

But it’s the nature of major projects such as Shapley Heath that we often start without budgets as the exact scope of works and timescales needed to achieve the projects aims are themselves forecasts!

Full Council agreed, prudently in my view to allocate a reserve fund of £500,000 over 3 years to provide some certainty over the councils financial liability for the project.

By the end of that 3 year period the aim was to have collated enough information for cabinet to decide whether a garden village was desirable or feasible be it at Shapley Heath or elsewhere.

Because the Governments financial commitment to the project fell substantially below that which was expected Cabinet realised that Hart’s financial liability would increase to an unknown limit. But because of the work undertaken during the project, which has given the council the information it needed to assess the er, new settlement option against other potential housing options in a future review of the local plan, Cabinet agreed to halt the project. [Note: Exactly which information is this then? No comparative information has been produced. Moreover, when and why did the Government pull the funding, is it because they had spent all the money and not delivered anything?]

There are, as I have acknowledged issues over how the finances of the project were managed and reported. These are the issues that both Staffing Committee and Cabinet will need to address and resolve.

Thank you

Farmer Q3 Supp:

Yes, back on Governance I’m afraid. The agreed Governance process for Shapley Heath and project was agreed in principle by the cabinet in November 2019 and then fully approved by Cabinet in February 2020.

In both instances the papers were submitted in the name of the Portfolio holder for Place [Cockarill]. The terms of reference were subsequently agreed by the Shapley Heath Opportunity Board on 17th February 2020, a meeting chaired by the Portfolio for Place.

Given that the Governance was clearly defined, understood and fully agreed by both the Cabinet and the Opportunity Board, why did the Portfolio Holder for Place not ensure that it was followed?

Cockarill:

Thank you Madam Chairman. The failure to make sure that, that er…. that… er…occurred was partly due to the fact that Covid did throw a…And you can use that expression Councillor, er…. and I can see you, you…., you think it’s an excuse. It is a reason not an excuse.

For a number of years, ……a number of months…. we had NO MEETINGS AT THIS COUNCIL in person or virtually. [Note: This is simply not true. Meetings, albeit virtual were held by the Council throughout the pandemic]. During that period work was going on by Officers under emergency protocols.

I was not, during that process approached by any member of the Opportunity Board or any other member of this Council to ask what was happening with regards to the Shapley Heath project.

As I indicated in one of my earlier answers to Councillor Doctor Crampton had such concerns been raised with me, either by Officers or Members and I had deliberately failed to act upon those concerns then I think the Councillors questions might be pertinent. But as that never happened I’m afraid I’m not going to stand here and take er an undeserved hit, as it were.

[Note: – Cockarill is the leader of the project, but not will to take any responsibility. It’s all everyone else’s fault].

Thank you.

Councillor Farmer Q4 and Supp

Farmer Q4:

Meetings were taking place remotely I might point out from the middle of 2020 but I’ll move on.

Despite spending all this tax payers money, not one milestone was achieved. Who will take responsibility for this failure by the administration?

Cockarill:

I must respectively disagree with my colleague, that the project did not achieve any milestones. [Note: The Audit Report clearly states it did not achieve milestones, this is another outright lie].

At the time the project was closed it was on track to deliver it’s program outcomes. [Note: Delusional].

As I explained in an earlier answer a first phase project was simply to evaluate the potential of a Garden Village as an option for housing growth. We have enough information from that evaluation to enable an assessment to be made on the suitability of a new settlement, compared to other housing options. [Note: Where is it?].

When we come to review our local plan. The project has therefore met it’s primary objective. [Note: This is another outright lie. The stated objectives of the project were to “establish a vision for a Garden Community and evidence whether such a vision is both viable and deliverable”. Where is the Vision. Where is the assessment of viability or deliverability?]

Farmer Q4 Supp:

Thank you Madam Chairman. Um, the Audit Report was clear that not one key milestone had been achieved when the project was concluded, despite all the money having been spent, I quoted directly from the Audit Report.

And the Press Release, if I can call it Press Release, the note on the website published yesterday as a background seeks to claim 10 Baseline Reports as an output of this project. The audit was an audit of the Governance, Financial Control and the Management of the project, in particular the Council’s spend. These baseline studies are not a consequence of the £820,000 spend, subject of this audit.

The report also clearly states that the Council did not contribute financially towards the cost of any of these studies, they were funded by the Developers under a collaboration agreement.

Councillor Radley has quoted that residents should expect full transparency in the operation of the Council and it did not happen in this project. Councillor Neighbour, Leader of the Council said that you will learn from your mistakes.

By attempting to claim Developer Funded Studies as an output of this uncontrolled spend, when this Council didn’t contribute one penny towards them, how can residents believe that you are now being transparent and that you are learning from your mistakes?

Cockarill:

Well firstly, Councillor Farmer, I have to take a slight issue with inference in the way you have phrased the question.

It was always clear that the funding from this project came from 3 streams. Government, Council and Developers putting their money where their mouth was, as it were, in terms of helping to decide whether or not their er…. um… ideas were going to to fly.

So it’s quite right for us to be asking the Developers to provide a detailed technical reports that if we had done would have cost a lot more than the £800,000 we’ve spent. [Note: – He now admits they had spent £800K].

So I think, in that respect Councillor Farmer, you will have to accept as a member of the Opportunity Board that was perfectly reasonable. [Note: – that was not Councillor Farmer’s question. No attempt to answer the real question about public trust].

Myself and the Leader have given our explanations as far as we are able to this evening of why we believe the Financial Management of this project was not the standard it should be and I would respectively ask that you wait for further updates that will happen before you make any greater judgement about whether or not we have moved on from this er episode and have improved our procedures. [Note: Attempt to kick this into the long grass and wait for yet another report to tell them how dreadful they have been, or whitewash the complete disaster].

Councillor Farmer Q5 and Supp

Farmer Q5:

My final question Madam Chairman. The Shapley Heath Audit report found that the procurement rules have not been properly followed as prescribed with multiple documents not signed, lack of an audit trail for panel evaluation of contracts, and incorrect sending of contract notification and an approximate 9 month delay in publishing contract award results, why was this allowed to happen and who is responsible?

Cockarill:

Thank you Councillor Farmer. Right so public procurement rules, particularly concerning large and complex projects are necessarily detailed both to protect the public purse and to ensure against impropriety.

There is no excuse for Officers not to have complied with Council’s standing orders, albeit there is no suggestion anywhere in the Audit Report that the failure to follow these rules to the letter amounted to improper decisions being taken. [Note: Officers thrown under the bus again].

The failure to publish the results of the procurement process in the correct timeframe had no material impact upon the process nor indeed to the project.

It is important, however that the procurement rules are followed to the letter and Cabinet will ensure that Officers are reminded of and trained in the proper procurement processes, as necessary.

Farmer Q5 Supp:

It’s my most succinct Madam Chairman, but when you are spending tax payers money, let alone close to £1m pounds. Procurement rules are there for a reason. In the project the rules weren’t followed.

So why does the Portfolio Holder for Place believe that it is essential that mandated rules of procurement should be followed?

Why are those rules important Councillor Cockarill?

Cockarill:

Thank you Councillor Farmer. Well they are important because it is an act, it is one of the first rights of local Government to make sure that we are spending our tax payers money and that is our money as well because we pay taxes in a prudent manner.

And we are spending them properly as I said in my previous answer and the fact that the Procurement processes were not followed as they should have been in this particular instance is not acceptable . Er, ah, you know…As I said in my answer, all Officers will be reminded of the reasons for that and need follow those rules and will be trained where necessary to do so.

 

Shapley Heath Audit Report Reveals Omnishambles

And now we know what was going on behind the Shapley Heath curtain. Nothing good. In fact, it’s an omnishambles of institutional incompetence on an epic scale. The people involved have demonstrated that they would struggle to run a bath and couldn’t even deliver pizza.

The Council have been shamed into publishing the Shapley Heath Audit report. It was discussed on Tuesday night behind closed doors and finally published in a news item yesterday. We have uploaded it to this website here, in case it “goes missing” from the Hart website.  The findings from the audit report are quite devastating:

  • Despite spending ~£820K in total, no project milestones were achieved.
  • Most of the tangible outputs produced were by the developers at their own cost.
  • No evidence to suggest that the project was financially managed appropriately.
  • Little financial monitoring information presented to members and some of that was inaccurate.
  • The Project Management did not meet the required standards.
  • No formal records of meetings and emails subsequently deleted.
  • Project reporting in terms of frequency and content did not meet expectations.
  • Little oversight by the Oversight Board and none by the Cabinet.
  • Virtually non-existent risk management.
  • Procurement rules not fully followed.
  • Contradictory information given to FOI requests. Email trails deleted.

We will cover each of these points in more detail below. However, given the damning summary, let’s look at what the consequences ought to be.

Shapley Heath Audit Report Consequences

First, let us remind ourselves of the background to the project. They commenced the project knowing that Shapley Heath had been removed from the Local Plan at the behest of the Planning Inspector. He had said that the new town was not required to meet our planning needs. The project wasn’t necessary.

Now we find that they have squandered hundreds of thousands of pounds and delivered nothing of substance.  They claim that some baseline studies have been produced, but as the audit report makes clear, these were funded by the developers. The actual public money has delivered nothing other than a now defunct website and a survey. The results of the survey showed overwhelming opposition to the project.

Now let’s move on to who were the key players. The project was managed under “Corporate Services” and covered material that included “Place”. The chair of the Opportunity Board was Councillor Graham Cockarill, portfolio holder for Place. Of course, Deputy Leader James Radley is also the portfolio holder for Corporate Services, including Finance.

Ultimately, elected members should be accountable for the failures in their respective portfolios. It is clear that between them Councillors Cockarill and Radley did not ask the right questions and did not convene the right meetings to keep on top of (the lack of) progress. Accordingly, given the shocking failures in project management and the colossal waste of our money, we believe both these Councillors should resign their positions. The situation is so serious, given the amounts of money involved, that we believe the Leader of the Council, David Neighbour should also consider his position.

The Chair of the Audit Committee, Councillor Axam also resisted the audit of the Shapley Heath project. This shocking lack of curiosity and desire to understand how their biggest project was performing shows he is unfit to lead the Audit Committee and he should resign too.

The relevant officers should also consider their position. Ultimately, JCX, Patricia Hughes was directing the project on a day-to-day basis. It is unthinkable that she be considered for the position of Chief Executive of the joint working between Hart and Rushmoor. The project manager running the project should also consider her position.

We can’t have a situation where nobody takes responsibility for a failure on such a massive scale. Institutional incompetence barely covers the scale of ineptitude.

Project Spending Out of Control

There are a number of points made about the level of spending. Most notably, total spending is expected to be over £820K and no project milestones have been achieved.

Shapley Heath Audit Report: Project Spending £820K

Shapley Heath Audit Report: Project Spending £820K

The auditors could find no evidence that this huge level of spend had been financially managed appropriately.

Shapley Heath Audit Report:No evidence the project was financially managed appropriately

Shapley Heath Audit Report:No evidence the project was financially managed appropriately

All of the baseline studies were procured and funded by the developers. This means that none of the £820K was spent on these reports. Most of it was spent on internal resources and recharges. In summary, they have squandered £820K, delivered nothing and were not properly managing the finances.

Developers to procure and fund baseline surveys

Developers to procure and fund baseline surveys

Little meaningful financial information was presented to members and some of that was inaccurate.

Financial Reporting Inaccurate

Financial Reporting Inaccurate

Inadequate Project Management Standards and Reporting

They did not meet the Council’s own project management standards. No standard documentation of risks, issues or budgeting were used.

Shapley Heath Audit Report: Management Did Not Meet Required Standards

Shapley Heath Audit Report: Management Did Not Meet Required Standards.

No formal records of meetings were kept, including meetings with the developers and Homes England. Emails have been deleted in line with the Council’s retention policy. Perhaps they were hoping they would be exonerated of wrong-doing if all the evidence had been deleted.

Shapley Heath Audit Report: No formal records of meetings

Shapley Heath Audit Report: No formal records of meetings

The standard of reporting was limited in terms of frequency and content. There was very little oversight at the Board level.

No oversight and inadequate reporting in terms of frequency and content

Inadequate oversight and limited reporting in terms of frequency and content

Note also that the board was chaired by Councillor Cockarill and Councillors Radley and Neighbour were in attendance. The senior leadership of the Council were clearly not doing their jobs properly.

Shapley Heath Opportunity Board

Shapley Heath Opportunity Board. Chair Cockarill with Radley and Neighbour in Attendance

There was no internal Project Board reviewing risks or issues. The oversight of risk management by the Corporate Project Board and Opportunity Board was insufficient throughout the project. Nobody took responsibility for managing the risks of spending so much of our money.

Insufficient Risk Management

Insufficient Risk Management

Shapley Heath Audit shows Procurement Rules Were Not Properly Followed

The report showed that the procurement rules were not properly followed. Multiple documents had not been signed. There was a lack of an audit trail for evaluation panel and delays in publishing contract award results.

Did not Follow Procurement Rules

Did not Follow Procurement Rules

FOI Responses Gave Contradictory Information

They gave contradictory responses to FOI requests and email trials have been deleted. Surely, the email retention policy should not mandate the deletion of all emails older than 1 year. The Council will have no record of long running disputes with suppliers and so on, which would limit its evidence base in the event of legal action.

FOI Responses gave Contradictory Information

FOI Responses gave Contradictory Information

It’s time for heads to roll.

Shapley Heath Audit Report Shrouded in Secrecy

Shapley Heath Audit Report Kept Secret

Shapley Heath Audit Report Kept Secret

The long awaited Shapley Heath Audit Report is being kept secret. Apparently, the report is available to members but has not been made public. The discussion about it at next week’s Audit Committee will exclude members of the public.

Shapley Heath Audit Report Kept Secret

Shapley Heath Project Review Report Restricted

We must admit that we don’t really understand why it isn’t been made public. Unless of course it contains some material that is embarrassing for either officers or councillors. We think the public ought to be able to see behind the curtain and the report should be published forthwith.

This latest hiccup comes just after it was revealed that they overspent on the Shapley Heath project yet again last year.

Shapley Heath New Settlement Overspent in FY21-22

Shapley Heath New Settlement Overspent in FY21-22

The £69K overrun comes despite the project being cancelled last September. It’s quite a feat of management to overspend your budget in only half the planned time.

They have also closed the fund they had set aside for Shapley Heath. They have transferred £367K from reserves earmarked for the New Settlement.

New Settlement £367K Transfer from Reserves

New Settlement £367K Transfer from Reserves

 

Shapley Heath Audit Report History

The whole idea of auditing the Shapley Heath project has been controversial for some time. Last August, Tim Southern tried to get the Audit Committee to review the project but was rebuffed.  In a rambling response, Councillor Axam refused and audit, saying:

I can understand that people might want to look at it in terms of in depth, I don’t think anyone should be worried about that but I am not quite sure you can build it into an audit plan in the way you would normally audit most other things. I just don’t think it, at this stage I don’t think at this stage it lends itself so easily to that…

Unless I am being naive here, everybody who is working on Shapley Heath knows that they have a budget and what it is and they are engaging in going through a process.

We asked questions at Council in September. Initially, the Audit Committee chairman “didn’t recognise our numbers”. However, they relented after we emailed the whole Audit Committee with our evidence. Then, in a remarkable U-turn, CCH sponsored the paper calling for the Internal Audit of Shapley Heath.

Now they seem to be blocking publication. Hopefully, we will be able to see the report in its entirety in due course.

 

Impact of Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill on Hart

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - RIP Shapley Heath

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – RIP Shapley Heath

Earlier this week, the Government launched the long awaited Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. The full Bill, all 338 pages of it, can be found here. A summary of the proposed measures can be found here. The interviews carried out by Michael Gove and the Bill itself had a number of potential impacts on Hart.

  • National Housing Target
  • Five-Year Land Supply
  • Neighbourhood Plans
  • Duty to Cooperate
  • Enhanced Environment Protection
  • Mandatory Infrastructure Contributions
  • Regeneration

On first examination, these look to be positive proposals for Hart, particularly in that they appear to weaken the case for Shapley Heath. The proposals also strengthen powers to drive regeneration of town centres, which should be good news for Fleet and its businesses.

Let’s go through the detail.

National Housing Target

Michael Gove gave a number of interviews about the new Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. On BBC Radio 4, he was repeatedly asked about whether the Government was sticking to the national housing target of 300,000 new dwellings per year. He refused to give a clear answer each time he was asked, saying he didn’t want to be “tied to a Procrustean bed”. Yes, we had to look that up too. Essentially, it means an arbitrary target. He also said that that while “arithmetic is important”, he was not “bound by one criterion alone”.

On the face of it, the Government is backing away from this target, which means that Hart’s housing target should fall from the current 286dpa.  However, the Telegraph reported that a Downing Street spokesman stressed the target remained – while saying it was important to build the right sort of houses.

So, this is not something we can bank on yet. However, the current Local Plan calls for 423dpa. We are currently building far more than that. It seems unlikely to us that the current target of 286dpa will rise, so the upcoming Local Plan review ought to relieve pressure into the future. This will make the claims that Shapley Heath is required even more difficult to sustain.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – Five-Year Land Supply

Related to the housing target, the new Bill proposes to scrap the requirement for Councils to maintain a five year land supply.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - Five-Year Land Supply Requirement scrapped

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – Five-Year Land Supply Requirement scrapped

However, this is conditional upon the Local Plan being up to date. By this they mean adopted in the past five years. To benefit from this proposal Hart will have to have an updated Local Plan in place by April 2025. Our current Local Plan is front-loaded, with completions falling below target beyond around 2026/27. This proposal should help with that problem.

At the very least, this Bill should scupper CCH’s “suicidal” plans to build Shapley Heath at a rate of 500dpa.

Neighbourhood Plans

The summary of the proposals says that neighbourhood plans will be strengthened to have equal weight with other planning documents.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - Neighbourhood Plans given equal weight

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – Neighbourhood Plans given equal weight

On the face of it, this is a positive development because is inconceivable that Winchfield Parish Council would include Shapley Heath in their Neighbourhood Plan. However, this must be tempered by statement in the full Bill that seems to prohibit Neighbourhood Plans reducing the amount of housing a Local Authority can deliver.

Neighbourhood Plans Cannot Cut Housing for the Authority

Neighbourhood Plans Cannot Cut Housing for the Authority

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – Duty to Cooperate

The current duty to cooperate requirement will be repealed and replaced with a more flexible alignment test.

Duty to Cooperate Repealed

Duty to Cooperate Repealed

This is a positive development, because the current Local Plan includes an allowance to build housing for Surrey Heath. This allowance was already under question because the housing target for both Surrey Heath and Rushmoor has been reduced. Rushmoor is building far more than it is now required to do and could easily take any unmet need from Surrey Heath. However, the requirement to build houses for neighbouring authorities appears to fall away. This is good news in that it reduces Hart’s housing target.

Enhanced Environment Protection

The Bill also seeks to enhance environmental protections.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - Enhanced Environmental Protection

Enhanced Environmental Protection

We know that parts of the Shapley Heath contain significant areas that are at risk of flooding. On the face of it, these proposals will make it harder to build in such an area. Moreover, the area contains SSSIs, SINCs and other protected areas. Enhanced environmental protections ought to help fend off proposals for Shapley Heath.

Mandatory Infrastructure Contributions

The Bill proposes changes to infrastructure funding. A new mandatory infrastructure levy is proposed to replace S106 contributions and Community Infrastructure Levy.

New Mandatory Infrastructure Charge

New Mandatory Infrastructure Charge

On the face of it, this seems to close the loophole where developers converting office blocks under permitted development rights were able to avoid infrastructure contributions. This should help the council adopt a better attitude to brownfield development.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – Regeneration

New compulsory purchase powers are proposed in the Bill. These should help Councils rejuvenate town centres and regenerate brownfield land.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - Strong Support for Urban Regeneration

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – Strong Support for Urban Regeneration

Taken together, these proposals should finally end the ridiculous proposals for a new town at Shapley Heath. There will no longer be any excuses for Hart not to come up with bold new plans to regenerate Fleet, Blackwater and Yateley. These urban centres should be the focus of the updated Local Plan so we can make Hart an even greater place to live.

CCH Commits “Political Suicide”

A CCH Councillor has said that it would be “political suicide” to impose more housing on Hart than is needed.

Political Suicide to Build More than Needed

Political Suicide to Build More than Needed

However, the same Councillor has also outlined her party’s plans for Shapley Heath that amount to the very same “political suicide” she mentions.

Katie Davies 5000 over 10 years

Katie Davies 5000 over 10 years

Let’s go through how CCH commits political suicide:

Shapley Heath Not Required

CCH as a party are still pushing the very same development that was removed from the Local Plan by the Inspector because it was not required to meet our housing targets out to 2032. In their bid for Government funding they even claimed they would deliver Shapley Heath “in addition to” the requirements of the Local Plan.

Shapley Heath in addition to Local Plan

Shapley Heath in addition to Local Plan

CCH Propose Faster Build Rate than Required

Moreover, Councillor Davies has proposed a far faster rollout for Shapley Heath than was proposed in the Council’s bid for funding. The plan they put forward then ran for 16 years from 2024 to 2040, with a steady state run rate of 360dpa.

Shapley Heath Housing Trajectory Sept 2020

Shapley Heath Housing Trajectory Sept 2020

CCH are now proposing the development takes place over 10 years. Simple arithmetic would indicate an average build rate of 500 dpa. The pace of this single proposed development is nearly twice the latest Government target of 286dpa.

Government Housing target climbdown: New targets Hart Rushmoor and Surrey Heath

New targets for Hart, Rushmoor and Surrey Heath

CCH Not Addressed Inspector Concerns

They have said that they will “explore all options”. However, they have spent over £700K on Shapley Heath since FY19/20 and delivered nothing of substance. They have not formally considered any other option.  This is in direct contravention of the Inspector’s findings:

I am of the view that a significant level of further supporting work would be required for Policy SS3 [Shapley Heath] to be found sound in its current form, which would need to include appropriate and proportionate area/site assessments, infrastructure considerations, viability testing, evidence in support of deliverability and further SA work, which would need to be done in an impartial manner with sufficient evidence to support its findings and comparisons with alternative options

Summary

They are proposing to consult on the same proposal that:

  • Is not required to meet our housing needs
  • Was rejected by the Inspector
  • Will deliver housing at nearly twice the rate required

They will do all this without properly considering any other option. Political suicide indeed.

 

Virtue Signalling Council Refuses Help for Hard Pressed Families

At Council last week, we asked a number of questions to challenge the budget for next year. One of those questions asked what specific deliverables would be produced from the £250K they have set aside to “tackle climate change”. The answer revealed that they didn’t have the faintest clue what they were going to spend it on or what they were going to deliver with the money. The supplementary question asked if they wouldn’t be better to keep the money in reserves to balance future budgets or offer a rebate on council tax to help families struggling with the cost of living rather than signalling their virtue with other people’s money.

The full exchange can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/sa2I5KxdmsM?t=3809

This accusation caused offence to the Leader of the Council. We’re sorry if the truth hurts. Remember, climate change is supposed to be their “top priority”, but they have no plan. During the debate about the budget many of the Councillors got up to virtue signal express their outrage at such a suggestion. As they expelled lots of hot air containing 40,000ppm CO2, not one of them came up with a single idea to reduce emissions or improve the environment. The Conservatives proposed a motion to remove that item from the budget and instead offer a council tax rebate to the poorest households in the district. This amendment was rejected.

Among the critics of the amendment was Saint Councillor Peter Wildsmith, who asked for the £250K annual budget to be extended indefinitely to tackle the problem. Again, he didn’t come up with a single idea on how to use the money effectively. Now he has taken to social media to describe as a “disgrace” anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him.

The budget was eventually passed with a small amendment to offer a welcome £10,000 grant to Fleet Food Bank.

6 Ideas to Improve Hart’s Environment

We are very concerned about waste at Hart Council. Over £700K has been splurged on the doomed Shapley Heath project since FY19/20 and nothing of substance has been produced. They squandered ~£140K on planters and signs for the disastrous Fleet pedestrianisation project. Now it appears they want to create a permanent £250K/yr climate slush fund to parade their virtue and produce nothing but CO2-laden hot air.

We think if we criticise the Council we should offer some alternative ideas.

  1. The Council has substantial capital reserves. They should invest some of this to insulate better the social housing in the district. This would reduce emissions and reduce residents’ soaring energy bills.
  2. They have been talking about the “green grid” for a long time now and delivered nothing. They should accelerate this project to encourage and enable more walking and cycling.
  3. The Council offices are far bigger than they need. They should move to smaller, better insulated premises and reduce their own energy consumption.
  4. Apply for one or more of these grants to support planting trees in the District.
  5. End support for their disastrous plan to build 5-10,000 unnecessary houses at Shapley Heath. Construction alone would emit 1m tonnes of CO2 and destroy valuable habitat and carbon sinks.
  6. Extend the range of items that can be recycled in the blue bins.

Readers should also note that earlier iterations of Shapley Heath pushed the idea of a locally-sourced biomass energy plant. This is essentially chopping down the wonderful trees in the district to produce electricity. Burning wood produces more CO2 per unit of electricity generated than burning coal. At Drax, it also produces more particulate emissions than burning coal.

The Council declared a Climate Emergency last year. Since then the committee has met several times and produced nothing but hot air. None of the ideas above would require a single penny of the £250K they have allocated to be spent, but would help Hart residents directly and improve the environment. It’s time for the Council to stop the hot air and start acting.

 

 

 

Hart FY22-23 Budget Good News

Hart FY22-23 Budget: Good News

Hart FY22-23 Budget Good News

This is the first of three posts covering the Good, the Bad and the downright Ugly parts of Hart’s proposed FY22-23 budget.  The really good news is that they are not budgeting to spend anything on the New Settlement. The New Settlement is also known as Shapley Heath or the Shapley Heath Garden Village (SHGV).

We can see this from the proposed budget for the service area. The full document can be found on Hart’s website. However, there is a history of these documents changing, so we have also uploaded it to this website, here.

Hart FY22-23 Budget: Good News

Hart FY22-23 Budget: Good – No funds allocated to Shapley Heath

As you can see, no funds at all are allocated to FY22-23. The bad part of this is that we can now calculate the full costs of this disastrous project since FY19-20.

  • Net actual and budgeted spending: FY19/20-FY21/22: -£30,361 + £186,126 + £149,167 = £304,932
  • Add grant funding and transfers from reserves: £150,000 + £130,000 + £130,000 = £410,000
  • Total Actual and Budgeted spend: £714,932.

Aside from some pretty inconclusive reports (which were funded by developers), nothing of any substance has been delivered for this eye-watering sum.

Changes to the FY21-22 Budget

There is also some ugliness contained in this report. They have changed the budget for the current year yet again. The original budget for FY21-22 was published in February last year. The part related to SHGV is re-produced below. This shows a total budget of £279K, with no contribution from Government grants.

HASETT - Shapley Heath New Settlement Budget Original FY21-22

HASETT – Shapley Heath New Settlement Budget Original FY21-22

In July, the budget had been changed in the Final V2 version of the budget. A £130K Government grant had been added.

HASETT - Shapley Heath Final Budget FY21-22

HASETT – Shapley Heath Final V2 Budget FY21-22

As you can see in the image above, that same £130K Government Grant has been moved to FY20-21. This is the year the money was received. Now for FY21-22 the grant has been replaced by a £130K transfer from reserves. We should add that we are unaware of any public process that has authorised either of these changes to the budget.

Call us old fashioned, but once a budget is set, we believe it should remain fixed and any variances reported against the budget.  The budget should not be changed during the year.