Issue - meetings

Background:

This report requested the Leader to grant delegated authority to the Chief Operating Officer to authorise requests to grant Guarantor and Parent Company Guarantees, on behalf of the Council, in order to enable exchanges to progress on a number of sales.

The report set out that Medway Development Company (Land and Projects) Ltd. was developing several residential led projects, as part of wider regeneration initiatives being implemented by the Council.

It was noted that property development and transactions sometimes required Guarantor and Parent Company Guarantee requests and that it had been established that the Chief Operating Officer required express approval in order to agree such requests and that the exchange of sales could not progress without this.

The report noted that the urgency provisions were set out in the Constitution (paragraph 2.2 of Part 3 (Responsibility for Cabinet functions) of Chapter 3 (Responsibility for Functions) of the Constitution).

The Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed that the taking of these decisions was urgent and could not be reasonably deferred until the next Cabinet meeting on 10 May 2022, in accordance with Section 11 (Cases of special urgency) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements)(Meetings and Access to Information)(England) Regulations 2012 and Rule 17 (Special Urgency) of the Access to Information Rules (Part 2 of Chapter 4 in the Constitution). This was to enable exchanges to progress on a number of sales. The sales undertaken on the Garrison Point scheme being delivered by Medway Development Company (Land and Projects) Ltd. had progressed at pace and this decision was needed to complete exchanges as soon as possible.

Additionally, and in line with rule 15.11 of Chapter 4, Part 5 of the Constitution, call-in could be waived where any delay likely to be caused by the call-in process would seriously prejudice the Council’s or the Public’s interests. The Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed that the decisions proposed were reasonable in all the circumstances and to them being treated as a matter of urgency and to waive call-in.