To receive any apologies of absence.

Apologies for absence were received by Councillors C Rayner (Chairman), Burbage (Vive-Chairman) and Quick.

Resolved unanimously: that Councillor Clerk be appointed as Chairman for the duration of this meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest.

Councillor Brimacombe declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in the item ‘Maidenhead Golf Club’ as he had property and business interests in the area.  He had taken advice and could debate the item but did not vote on the item.

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local

Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Chairman introduced the Cabinet report regarding the full OJEU procurement process that had been carried out to appoint a development partner for Maidenhead Golf Club development project.

The Chairman summarised the report and informed the Panel that:

·         Section four showed the potential benefits of the project.

·         Paragraph 2.5 informed that the Cabinet Regeneration Sub-committee on 27 June 2017 delegated authority to design and commence a process to procure a development partner for the Golf Course.

·         Paragraph 2.6 showed the stages undertaken since authority to proceed was approved by Council in October 2017.

·         Paragraph 2.7 informed that the set capital budget had been used to purchase properties in support of the proposed development.

·         The procurement process was explained that resulted in three submissions being received from the three shortlisted developers.

·         That the submissions were scored by Savills and officers of the Property Company and moderated by officers and Gowling WLG.

·         The moderated scores and recommendation to Council were shown.

The Executive Director informed that Panel that a full OJEU procurement process had been carried out to appoint a development partner for Maidenhead Golf Club. Approval was now sought to enter into a contractual relationship with the selected developer.

In October 2017 Council approved the procurement route to select a development

partner for the future development of the site. The development of the site would

provide a range of benefits including in excess of 30 affordable housing, education

provision, community infrastructure, public open space, and economic vitality. The

Council would receive £235 million that when you included CIL and S106 contributions would be £300 million.

The report outlined the selection process and ratings used and would be presented to Council on 19 July 2018. It was noted that Members had not been involved in the

selection process.

Councillor Brimacombe mentioned that he was disappointed that no Lead Member had attended the meeting to answer questions on this important report.  He also mentioned that the report should have highlighted that the agreement with the golf club was dependent on certain conditions and that one of these was the Borough Local Plan (BLP).  It had also been reported in the local press that the golf club had yet to agree to move.  Affordable housing was mentioned within the report but the authority was yet to introduce an affordable housing policy.

In response the Panel were informed that all legal agreements were conditional and that this report was about the appointment of a development partner.  With regards to the BLP this was a risk that the Panel had discussed in previous reports and accepted.

The risk to the council was low as they were putting forward land and not money; the retained the asset.  The development partner carried the risk as they were investing money to get to each phase of the development. If the development did not go forward the council would still own the land.

Councillor Brimacombe also mentioned that there was a lot of talk by the Government about social housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

To comment on the Cabinet report.