Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18^th June 2007, having been printed and circulated, were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Environment which outlined the substantive issues raised in the comments received in the recent pre-planning application public consultation exercise.  The report also sought advice on how the project team intended to respond to the issues as the agreed response would form part of the published report on the result of public consultation.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(1)                    the contents of the report be noted; and

 

(2)          the report on the results of Public Consultation be published at the earliest opportunity.

The Sub-Board considered:

 

(1)            whether Members of the press and public should be excluded from the meeting of the Board during consideration of the following items of business in accordance with Sub-Section 4 of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 because it was likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be considered, exempt information would be disclosed, being information defined in Section 100 (1) and paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972; and

 

(2)            whether the disclosure of information was in the public interest, whether any relevant exemptions were applicable and whether, when applying the public interest test and exemptions, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed that in disclosing the information.

 

RESOLVED: That as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business in accordance with Sub-Section 4 of section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 because it is likely that, in view of the nature of the business, exempt information will be disclosed, being information defined in Section 100(1) and paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Environment which proposed funding arrangements to enable advance purchase of land required for Mersey Gateway and sought authority to commence negotiations with affected landowners, subject to specific qualifying conditions, that could lead to the acquisition of land and property by agreement in advance of Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) procedure.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(1)              the Mersey Gateway Project Director be authorised to commence negotiations with affected landowners which, subject to affordability constraints set by the approved project budget could lead to the Council acquiring land in advance of the CPO process based on following policy:-

 

a)                 cases that would qualify for Statutory Blight;

 

b)                 circumstances where a market sale was not available and failure to sell the business is resulting in severe hardship for the vendor; and

 

c)                  where advanced purchase presents a favourable opportunity for the Council to save money, where the case has been approved by the Chief Finance Officer;

 

(2)              where possible the Council would negotiate an option to purchase land interest instead of agreeing to an outright purchase of property;

 

(3)              the Mersey Gateway Project Director be authorised to enter into negotiations with the administrators for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund with the aim of establishing an acceptable agreement where the fund would acquire property affected by the project prior to transferring the interest to the Council at a later date; and

 

(4)              the prudential borrowing required to support a programme of advanced land purchase, as a contingency should the arrangements with Greater Merseyside Pension Fund fail to come to fruition be referred to the Council for agreement and that such agreement will establish the affordability limits referred to in recommendation (1) above.

MINUTES ISSUED: 21^st November 2007

CALL IN: 28^th November 2007

Any matter decided by the Executive Board may be called in no later than 28^th November 2007