I was a member of Northampton Borough Council when it signed its "historic" deal with Legal and General and as leader of the Independent group I was shown the details within the contract, Because of a commercial confidentiality clause I was prohibited from revealing the details, however I can still express an opinion without having to divulge the figures.
I have already intimated in public that I believe that the price paid by Legal and General for the Bus station and surrounding land packages was far too cheap, yes this deal was done in the height of the recession, but the over eagerness of the politicians to do a deal at any cost in my mind gifted the land and property to L&G at a price they could not refuse.Moreover the deal as we now have had revealed, left the cost of moving the Bus Station and the cost of it's replacement together with the cost of paying off the existing tenants at the bus station (Stagecoach) solely with the council, and ultimately you and me, local taxpayers. Why Stagecoach were ever given such a long and rewarding lease in the first place is a complete mystery to me, after all I remember when they sold there own bus station on the Bedford road for housing development and then turned up overnight to park their buses at the councils bus stations as squatters with no rights at all. But now we must pay them £5.5m to move out!
If any new Labour Cllrs at the Town Hall want to make a name for themselves I suggest they submit the following questions to the Council:
What is our current surface and multi-storey Car Parking land holding in Northampton Town Centre?
How much of that is included in the sale of Land to Legal and General?
What is the current annual income from those car parks proposed to be transferred to L&G?
What annual income will the Council recieve from these car parks thereafter? and:
Who will make up any difference in revenue?
So overall in my view L&G seem to have done very well out of the council, a knock down price paid for the land, the taxpayer picking up all the costs of moving the bus station, a potential new income from car parking, not to mention the new rents from any new stores attracted into the new build (hopefully not from the existing high street) But I still fear a further twist, what's the betting that what is finally delivered is but shadow of what was originally proposed? A scaled down version of all of those iconic plans so far revealed?
It is my view that the both the last Liberal Democrat and the current Conservative administrations at the Town Hall have both been so blinded by the desire to deliver something, that they will in fact accept anything. It is also my belief that we the taxpayer will in the end pay the most for their weak negotiating skills.
I suggest to both groups that if they want to prove me wrong then we can always examine the deal line by line in an open scrutiny committee so the public can judge for themselves whether we are getting value for money from this whole fiasco.
I have long held the view that in any multi million pound negotiations that if both parties say that they are so much in agreement then in reality only one party is actually doing the thinking and as a consequence only one party will come out on top.
On that score I guess I should congratulate Legal and General on their adeptness and savour-faire and commiserate with the public for having to pick up the bill.
Absolutely right Tony, I would add a further question to L&G.Much of the development is predicated on a arge and well known store becoming the 'anchor' of the development.
ReplyDeleteIf their plans are so advanced they must be able to indicate who will take that role.
Forget John Lewis and other large players,they are already in MK or Birmingham.
So is it an expanded House of Fraser(once Beatties) or a relocated Debenhams or The Store With No Name?
L&G are laughing all the way to the bank,as are Stagecoach.The losers? NBC of course!
if all these comments are true why is the public not aware of such costs and the powers that be not being able to come up with a finacial deal for the new premises that is within the countys budget and will leave the people of northampton alot more satisfied than they are at current times.the problem we have with todays business deals too many brown envelopes .would like to know who brokered the deal ,what there pay was ,who else was involved and where the money has gone and who will pay in the long term
ReplyDeleteAnon, I don't trade in untrue comments, everything above is true and most of the figures are in the public domain. It is the politicians from the three main parties at the Borough Council together with officer who drew up the deal, in my mind not for brown envelopes as they are not corrupt, but for political gain as they all want the quodos of saying we saved the town centre irrespective of the cost.
ReplyDeleteBut by only dealing with the above in small seperate chunks i.e. should we have a new bus station they fool the public and hide from them the bigger picture