Agenda for Overview and Scrutiny Board on Tuesday 2nd June 2015, 6.00 p.m.

Agenda and minutes

Overview and Scrutiny Board - Tuesday 2nd June 2015 6.00 p.m.

Venue: The Council House, Burcot Lane, Bromsgrove. View directions

Contact: Amanda Scarce 

Items
No. Item

1/15

Election of Chairman

Minutes:

A nomination for Chairman was received in respect of Councillor L. C. R. Mallett.

 

RESOLVED that Councillor L. C. R. Mallett be elected as Chairman for the ensuing municipal year.

2/15

Election of Vice Chairman

Minutes:

A nomination for Vice Chairman was received in respect of Councillor K. J. May.

 

RESOLVED that Councillor K. J. May be elected as Vice Chairman for the ensuing municipal year.

3/15

Apologies for Absence and Names Substitutes

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors C. J. Bloore, B. T. Cooper and L. C. R. Mallett with Councillors M. Thompson, H. J. Jones and M. Buxton attending as substitutes respectively.

4/15

Declarations of Interest and Whipping Arrangements

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest or whipping arrangements.

 

5/15

Minutes pdf icon PDF 163 KB

Minutes:

As there were no Members present who had attended this meeting it was confirmed that the Minutes of the meeting held on 13th April 2015 would be deferred until the next meeting of the Board.

6/15

Disposal of Council Assets at Hanover Street Car Park and George House pdf icon PDF 165 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented a report on the subject of the Disposal of Council Assets at Hanover Street Car Park and George House.  During the presentation of this report the following points were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

 

·         The focus of the report was on the outcome of the marketing exercise for the Hanover Street Car Park and George House site; the process that had been followed by the Council, the preferred bidder’s identity and further information about the bid.

·         The Council had a legal obligation to dispose of assets at best value. Best value did not necessarily mean the cheapest price as it could also involve assessing the contribution that might be made to the community.

·         The District Valuer had been referred to as an independent adviser to ensure that the Council achieved best value for money.

·         There had been 16 applicants to develop the site and 7 applicants had been shortlisted.

·         The shortlisted applicants had been assessed in relation to a scoring matrix by elected Members, relevant Officers and a representative of GJS Dillon Property Consultants.

·         The two highest scoring applicants had been invited to the Council to deliver presentations on the subject of their proposals.

·         There had been key considerations when assessing each bid:

-       Deliverability and achievability.

-       The extent to which the bids corresponded with local policies including planning policies.

-       The potential for employment opportunities to be made available through the scheme.

-       The contribution that would be made to redevelopment and regeneration in the area.

-       The overall benefits that each scheme would bring to Bromsgrove.

·         The car park had 121 spaces and an income of just under £119,000 per annum.  This income would be lost from April 2016 if the preferred bidder’s proposal was approved.

·         The District Valuer had advised that the Council would not achieve value for money from a deal with the preferred bidder unless the car park was included in the final agreement.

·         Higher offers than that which had been proposed by the preferred bidder had been received from other companies; however, the District Valuer had concluded that these proposals were not achievable.

·         The preferred bid would release the Council from obligations of approximately £18,000 per annum for maintaining the building and business rates at George House.

 

Following presentation of the report a number of points were discussed in detail:

 

·           The timeframes for completion of the works, subject to the agreement of a preferred bidder by Cabinet.

·           The approach that would be adopted by the Council to communicate the timetable for the development to the public.

·           The scoring matrix and how this matrix was used to assess each development proposal.

·           The questions asked as part of the scoring process and the amount of information that had been provided about this questioning process.

·           The role of Overview and Scrutiny in assessing the process that had been followed by the Council to identify a preferred bidder.  Members debated the extent to which they could assess whether the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/15

7/15

To consider any other business, details of which have been notified to the Head of Legal, Equalities and Democratic Services prior to the commencement of the meeting and which the Chairman, by reason of special circumstances, considers to be of so urgent a nature that it cannot wait until the next meeting.

8/15

To consider, and if considered appropriate, to pass the following resolution to exclude the public from the meeting during the consideration of item(s) of business containing exempt information:-

 

"RESOLVED: that under Section 100 I of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, the public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it/they involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act, as amended, the relevant paragraph of that part, in each case, being as set out below, and that it is in the public interest to do so:-

 

Item No.

Paragraph

 

9

3

 

 

9/15

Disposal of Council Assets at Hanover Street Car Park and George House