Minutes:
Background:
The Cabinet accepted this exempt report as urgent to enable confidential negotiations to take place with appropriate authority.
This exempt report provided details of a proposal for acquiring commercial property.
On this occasion it had neither been practicable to provide 28 clear days’ notice, nor provide 5 clear days’ notice of this report coming forward to Cabinet, therefore, Rule 17 (Special Urgency) of the Access to Information Rules, as set out in the Council’s Constitution, had been complied with. As the position of Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee was currently vacant, the Mayor had agreed that consideration of this report was urgent and could not be reasonably deferred until the next Cabinet meeting on 5 March 2019 to enable confidential negotiations to take place with appropriate authority at the earliest opportunity. The Forward Plan was published on 5 February 2019 in accordance with this requirement and the report was published on 7 February 2019.
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. In this case, a call in would delay this matter at a sensitive point in the negotiations. Therefore, on this occasion it was proposed that the call in period be waived. As the position of Chairman of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee was currently vacant, the Vice-Chairman had agreed that the decisions proposed are reasonable in all the circumstances and to them being treated as a matter of urgency and to waive call-in.
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Decision number: |
Decision: |
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31/2019 |
The Cabinet approved the acquisition of the head leases of the property identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report and the freehold properties also identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report for a price within the tolerance provided by the professional valuation obtained from Knight Frank, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report. |
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32/2019 |
The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Chief Legal Officer in consultation with the Leader, the Portfolio Holder for Resources and the Chief Finance Officer to take all reasonable steps and due diligence to complete acquisition of the head leases of the property identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report and the freehold properties also identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report including obtaining necessary professional legal and tax advice and to complete all the necessary legal steps. |
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33/2019 |
The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Chief Legal Officer in consultation with the Leader and Portfolio Holder for Resources to carry out the re-configuration and improvement works to the property identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report, as detailed in paragraph 5.10 of the report. |
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34/2019 |
The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Chief Legal Officer in consultation with the Leader, the Portfolio Holder for Resources and the Chief Finance Officer to arrange management of the property identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report and the freehold properties identified after acquisition and to let, cease letting and sell premises subject to an agreed criteria within the property identified at paragraph 2.1 and the freehold properties also identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report. |
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35/2019 |
Cabinet recommended to Council that this acquisition, including the re-configuration and improvement works to the property identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report, as detailed in paragraph 5.10 of the report, is added to the Capital Programme. |
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36/2019 |
The Cabinet agreed that decisions 31-35/2019 are considered urgent and therefore should not be subject to call in. |
Reasons:
The head leases and freehold properties acquisition represents a good commercial return for the Council, enhances regeneration opportunities in the locality, opens up additional regeneration and residential property developments, provides the Council a stronger strategic position in the area and prevents development that is not in line with the Council’s aspirations for Medway.
Supporting documents: