Special meeting arranged amid concerns over sale of Waitrose car park
AN EXTRA meeting of BCP Council’s scrutiny board will be held on Monday to examine the decision to sell a public car park in Christchurch to secure the future of Waitrose in the town.
A day before the deal for the site, off the bypass, is set to be given final approval by the full council, councillors will be given a chance to review the decision, following concerns raised by the town’s mayor, Cllr Lesley Dedman, writes Josh Wright of the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
At last week’s cabinet meeting Cllr Dedman said there were unanswered questions around the deal agreed with the landlords of Waitrose.
The deal was drawn up between the council and the owners of the supermarket building, a General Motors pension fund, after the chain warned it could pull out of the town without greater control of the car park.
Negotiations started under the previous Unity Alliance administration but approval of the deal was given by the council’s cabinet only on Wednesday.
But concerns about the terms of the sale, including a 10-year limit on a buy-back clause should the land no longer be needed as a car park, prompted the chair of the council’s scrutiny board, Cllr Stephen Bartlett, to call in the decision for further examination.
Cllr Dedman said a buy-back clause allowing the council to repurchase the site, if it were no longer be needed for car parking, lasted for only 10 years.
She has also raised concerns about the impact the deal could have on parking in the town centre, particularly with the now-approved police station site resulting in the loss of spaces nearby.
The decision to bring forward April’s full council meeting to 23rd March, a move made due to concerns it was scheduled too close to May’s elections, has required an extra meeting of the committee to be called.
It will now meet on Monday 22nd March to examine the car park sale. Its members could then make recommendations before the full council is asked to give final approval for the deal the following day.
