Decision details

The Cabinet considered the report of the Executive Director which provided details of proposals to make a commercial acquisition within the Borough and sought the relevant permissions accordingly.

Decision Made: That

(1)       the recommendations set out in the Business Case, appended to the report, be approved;

(2)       it be noted that the proposal was a Key Decision but had not been included in the Council's Forward Plan of Key Decisions. Consequently, the Leader of the Council and the Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Skills) had been consulted under Rule 27 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of the Constitution, to the decision being made by the Cabinet as a matter of urgency. The basis for this decision is that it is impracticable to defer the decision until the commencement of the next Forward Plan. It did not become clear to officers until the end of March 2017 following a comprehensive due diligence exercise that a recommendation could be made to proceed to make this strategic acquisition. Having reached such a conclusion and in line with the Heads of Terms agreed between the parties, officers are seeking permission from Cabinet to proceed to negotiate with the vendors; and

(3)       it be noted that the Leader of the Council and the Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Skills) had given consent Rule 46 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules for these decisions to be treated as urgent and not subject to "call in" on the basis that they cannot be reasonably deferred because of the commercial nature of the transaction. In addition the Heads of Terms, to which the Council had committed to conclude the due diligence process included a specific timetable with which the Council is expected to comply.

Reasons for Decision:

The reasons for the decision are detailed in the Business Case appended to the report.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

A detailed options appraisal is set out in Appendix 1 to the report.