Stockton Globe theatre renovation 'will come in on time and on budget'

The price tag of the Globe Theatre project on Stockton High Street rose to £26.75m last month, with the Art Deco theatre’s reopening date delayed until November 2020.

Despite criticism from the opposition, Stockton councillors narrowly voted to give the scheme an extra £6.5m last month – taking the money put in from the public purse to £22m.

A“call in” to send the project back to Stockton Council leaders failed by nine votes to six at a scrutiny meeting today.

But there were plenty of questions for project leaders at the four hour hearing.

Nick Corrigan, director of contractor Willmott Dixon, was asked how confident he was the existing scheme could be finished on time and on budget.

Mr Corrigan said: “How confident am I in my professional opinion that we have the right people to deliver this project on time and on budget? One hundred per cent.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t believe we couldn’t do it.

“We’ve got a team of people fully aware of the challenges contained within that building and the activities that need to be done to deliver on-time and to budget.”

Reports for the meeting revealed the entire cost of the Globe project to Stockton Council would come to £31.6m in the next 25 years.

Problems with the roof, steel work, scaffolding, getting machinery in and out, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lifts, plumbing, toilet layouts, asbestos, drainage and foundations have all delayed and added to the cost of the Globe project.

Globe project director Paul Dobson told councillors Jomast “gave it a real go” between 2002 and 2016 before Stockton Council took on the project.

He told the committee the council had not taken on the project for “commercial return” but to “add to the night-time economy” and boost the regeneration of Stockton.

Mr Dobson added: “The decision was taken that the amount of footfall from a broader catchment area coming into Stockton town centre, with a commercial operator at The Globe, is still estimated at £18m per annum.”

Council bosses are banking on the theatre bringing a boost of 200,000 extra visitors to Stockton every year – resulting in the £18m boost to the local economy.

Panellists were told the £18m was a “conservative estimate” and new figures forecasting what the Globe project will bring would be published in the coming weeks.

But Cllr Matt Vickers, Conservative group leader, had doubts.

He asked: “Are we right in thinking the average person who comes to watch a show is going to spend £90 now?

“We have not seen the business case, but what percentage of the tickets are we anticipating selling?”

The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is running the Globe Theatre and has signed a 25-year lease agreement with the council.

Councillors heard ATG’s business case for the Globe was “commercially sensitive” and therefore not in the public domain.

However, Mr Dobson said the business plan was based on “industry norms” which expected average ticket sales of 65 per cent.

He added: “Industry standards are 65 per cent – what I can tell you is ATG business plan requires them to be doing in excess of about 63 per cent.

“I think that’s sensible coming into a new market – that’s expected to be achieved by year five and they hope it will be far earlier than that.”

Meanwhile, Thornaby Independent Cllr Ian Dalgarno wanted to know whether there were penalty clauses in the contract if the project over-ran again.

He added: “Having spent 50 years in the construction industry, I’ve never seen a project grow like this both in cost and time. Is it not time we drew a line?

“You can imagine in the public eyes Stockton Council has lost a lot of credibility in this project – now we know what’s required, we should make this public to get a bit of credibility back with the public.

“The problem is if you don’t tell them anything, they read the bits they’ve got and make the rest up.”

Mr Dobson said there were penalty clauses – and when the final contract was signed a “significant amount of risk” would shift to contractors Willmott Dixon.

He added: “There are penalty clauses in the final phases of the contract which run at about £15,000 a week for the first week and £20,000 a week thereafter.”

After hours of questions, Cllr Vickers said he still didn’t buy the figures.

The Conservative leader said: “It’s a huge sum of public money – the numbers looked flawed. It has not been externally audited.

“We’re getting a report on the lessons learned after we’ve signed over the money – I just think we should not be signing it off.”

But Cllr Mick Stoker, Labour member for Billingham East, said both internal and external audits had no problems with it.

He added: “Just trying to delay and delay is keeping the contractors off the ball and going to cost us more and more money.”

Contracts for the Globe Theatre project will be signed off in the next 48 hours. It is forecast to reopen in November 2020.