Issue details

On 25 February 2021 cabinet approved the following, towards the development of a new community hub in Ambition Lawrence Weston:
- Grant a new 35-year Community Asset lease to Ambition Lawrence Weston, with no capital receipt or rental income due to the Council.
- £1.15m (£1m from Community Infrastructure Levy allocation and £150k from the Port Communities Resilience Fund), as a contribution towards the development costs of the new community hub.
- £1,201,000 total Bristol City Council funding to support Ambition Lawrence Weston`s project including additional £51k from the enabling budget agreed by the Housing Delivery team.
In additional to the Council funding, Ambition Lawrence Weston also secured funding from Reaching Communities (part of the National Lottery) and direct funding from Ambition Lawrence Weston.
Recently Ambition Lawrence Weston has approached the Council with a request for additional funding to complete the construction of the new community Centre building.
Ambition Lawrence Weston advised the Council that due to change in economy, their original funding envelope has been exhausted, as a result of increase in inflation and material costs. Although value engineering carried out twice, but there are still a fairly large funding deficit to complete the scheme.
A failure to secure the additional funding quickly is going to lead to the contractor failing to place final orders for materials and delay, and additional cost;
- Ambition Lawrence Weston have raised significant funding themselves £200k and have also approached other funders for inflationary uplifts and have been successful with an additional £100k from the National Lottery;
- The new community centre is well developed and nearing completion, works are expected to complete by the end of October 2024.