Agenda, decisions and minutes

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Items
No. Item

18.

Apologies for Absence

To receive and record any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

19.

Declarations of Interests

To receive and record any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

20.

Disposal of former landfill site known as Brockhampton West pdf icon PDF 285 KB

Please note that annex 1 and appendices 2,3,4,5,6 and 8 to the report contain information that is classed as exempt under Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972.

 

If Cabinet wishes to discuss the detail of the exempt appendices it is recommended that the resolution at item 4 be passed to cease the public broadcast of the meeting, thereby excluding the press and public.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the item and gave some background to the site which had been unused since 1994.  In March 2020 the sale of the land had been approved in principle and both internal and external advice had been sought in respect of assessing the offers received in terms of achieving best value.

 

He drew particular attention to Appendix 7 of the report which detailed the criteria for best value and supported the recommendation contained within the report.

 

Ms Brooks was in attendance to deliver a deputation on behalf of Havant Friends of the Earth and the Havant Climate Alliance which had been published and circulated in advance of the meeting.

 

Cllr Pike was in attendance to deliver a deputation as the former Cabinet Lead.  He stressed the need for Cabinet to ensure that best value was achieved and urged that the decision be deferred to allow further work to achieve this and for the matter to be considered by scrutiny.

 

In respect of the urgency of the decision, he explained that this project had initially been brought forward to fund the implementation of the Regeneration Strategy.  He did not believe that this was currently the case but recommended that the capital receipt be earmarked for regeneration.

 

He believed that there was scope for further work to close the bids received in order to achieve a higher sale figure whilst also delivering the same benefits.

 

He understood that the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy had a strong need for revenue funding and he didn’t believe that the report sufficiently explored the options for how this site could be used as a revenue stream for the Council in order to help meet the future funding gap.

 

In respect of environmental improvements, he believed that a solar farm could be achieved, whilst also delivering a much needed employment site for the borough.

 

In order to discuss the exempt appendices to the report it was RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded from part of the meeting because:

 

(a)       it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during that item there would be disclosure to them of exempt information of the descriptions specified in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 shown against the heading in question; and

 

(b)       in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

 

Cabinet entered exempt session at 1:23pm

 

The public session recommenced at 2.19pm

 

Cabinet, having learnt that all options for the site had been explored and that the market conditions for disposal were favourable, was supportive of the disposal of the site as detailed in the officer recommendation. 

 

Whilst it appreciated that the capital receipt could not be ringfenced for regeneration, Cabinet requested that it instead be earmarked for regeneration.  To this end,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.