Decision details

To accept the fee proposal received from BDP (Building Design Partnership Ltd) to act as Building Regulation Principal designer (BE PD) for the redevelopment of the former Monkscroft School Site and for CBC to enter into a contract with them.

Since 2023 we have been working to appoint a wide range of consultants required to work to support the project and design team for Monkscroft School site's development with the intention of submitting a planning application for the site later this year.

With the introduction of the Building Safety 2023, clients are responsible for appointing a designated Principal designers who will be able to manage other designers and reach a consensus that design work is compliant with building regulations. They should be able to monitor identified compliance risks and assess gaps in other designers' competencies.

For the appointment of the Building Regulation Principal Designer, the project team explored a range of potential procurement options and frameworks and discussed appointments with CBC's Building Control team.

The advice we have obtained including traditionally appointment Principal Designer under CDM, Ridge, advises us that this role should be appointment directly by our lead architect. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) recommends that architects assume this role due to their expertise in both design coordination and regulatory compliance.

We approached our lead architect, BDP, and obtained a quote to cover the role of CBC's behalf from RIBA Stage 3 to hand over to our contractor after RIBA Stage 4a, when this is tendered.

We discussed this approach, and the conditions attached to such arrangement with Publica, who confirmed that Best Value fro Money can be demonstrated by the need to follow the professional advice of RIBA and the fact that we are already engaged with the architect. Publica stated that there is no value in going out to get additional quotes. We were supported to proceed with the single quote in this instance. Further support was obtained from One Legal.

The proposal is to enter contract wit Building Design Partnership Limited, following the described procurement process for the redevelopment of the former Monkscroft School site to provide new affordable homes to develop the site from concept design stage at RIBA Stage 3 through to RIBA Stage 4a - pre PCSA.

An alternative option would have been to procure the role via other architectural practices not linked to the project. However, this scenario was assessed, and with the guidance obtained this would not be a viable route for us to take considering the complexity and scale of the project.

We have worked with Publica and One Leal around the procurement process, and internal consultation within the development team and CBC's Building Control colleagues along with support from the externally-appointed Project Management team, TSA Riley.

We received feedback and support from Publica that value for money was demonstrated due to limitations tin appointment options, and advice given from the industry.