Issue - meetings

Decision:

(1)   That a new procedure for the Council to follow when considering and, where appropriate, approving the acquisition of strategic and/or operational property assets, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Executive, be adopted, subject to the amendment to the ‘Affordability’ criterion set out in the Supplementary Information Sheet.

(2)   That the transfer of £5 million from the provisional capital programme (scheme no. PR371 – strategic property acquisitions) to the approved capital programme be approved.

(3)   That the Director of Strategic Services be authorised, in consultation with the Head of Asset Management, the Director of Resources, and the relevant Lead Councillor with portfolio responsibility for finance and asset management, to approve strategic and/or operational property acquisitions within the set parameters of the new procedure.

Reason:

To secure the funding of various prospective property acquisition for strategic/operational purposes and apply a robust and streamlined approach for future acquisition of operational and strategic property assets.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

None

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the lead or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None

The Executive considered a report requesting the transfer of £5 million from the provisional capital programme to the approved capital programme to allow for strategic operational property acquisitions.

The sum was a part of the £30 million Strategic Property Acquisition Fund approved by full Council as part of the 2016-17 capital programme. The objective of creating the Fund was to acquire property that enabled site assembly for future potential re-development projects in the area of the town covered by the unadopted Town Centre Masterplan and also in support of the Council’s emerging regeneration strategy.

The decision to acquire property assets for operational and strategic purposes currently rested in all cases with proposals approved either by delegated authority or by the Executive. The report proposed a new delegated authority process to be applicable in such circumstances that would speed up the acquisition process.

The report also proposed the Council adopt a new procedure to be followed in these circumstances in order to provide a consistent approach to decision-making. This procedure set out a series of challenges to be applied as well as a number of scoring mechanisms resulting in a decision that was represented as a numerical value. The Executive noted the correction to the ‘Affordability’ criterion within the scoring mechanism, details of which were set out on the Supplementary Information Sheet.

The Executive

RESOLVED:

(1)     That a new procedure for the Council to follow when considering and, where appropriate, approving the acquisition of strategic and/or operational property assets, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Executive, be adopted, subject to the amendment to the ‘Affordability’ criterion set out in the Supplementary Information Sheet.

(2)     That the transfer of £5 million from the provisional capital programme (scheme no. PR371 – strategic property acquisitions) to the approved capital programme be approved.

(3)     That the Director of Strategic Services be authorised, in consultation with the Head of Asset Management, the Director of Resources, and the relevant Lead Councillor with portfolio responsibility for finance and asset management, to approve strategic and/or operational property acquisitions within the set parameters of the new procedure.

Reason:

To secure the funding of various prospective property acquisition for strategic/operational purposes and apply a robust and streamlined approach for future acquisition of operational and strategic property assets.