Issue - meetings

Appendix 3 to the report is in the private section of the agenda at Item 16.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on an opportunity for the Council to purchase a key strategic site, known as Welbeck Wharf, at the northern end of River Road, Barking. 

The site benefitted from significant frontage onto River Road and the River Roding and was a major gateway into the Barking Riverside Gateways Housing Zone and Barking Riverside areas.  In view of the potential benefits to the Council and Be First of securing such a site, Be First officers had entered into preliminary negotiations with the site owners prior to the site being offered on the open market.  The Cabinet Member outlined the indicative terms of the proposed purchase and lease-back arrangements, which were detailed in an exempt appendix to the report, and confirmed that the final terms of any deal would be subject to a number of factors.  Those factors included the commissioning of an independent expert to produce a flood risk strategy for the area and the findings of any land contamination studies.  The Cabinet Member also referred to the potential unlocking of a further 27 acres of development land in the area. 

The Cabinet Member stressed the importance of securing the Welbeck Wharf site on the proposed favourable terms prior to it being offered on the open market and confirmed that future reports to the Cabinet would set out the detailed options for the site. 

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Approve the acquisition by the Council of the Welbeck Wharf site, as shown in Appendix 1 to the report, on the terms set out in the report;

(ii)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, advised by the Investment Panel and in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services and the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing, to determine any short-term holding arrangements for the site and to enter into any necessary agreements to affect those arrangements;

(iii)  Approve funding ‘in principle’ for pre-development costs up to the sum specified in Appendix 3 to the report and delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, advised by the Investment Panel and in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services and the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing, to approve the release of the appropriate pre-development funding; and

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, to enter into all necessary agreements to complete the freehold purchase and lease back arrangements.