To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors: RC Hunt; G Lucas; DB Wilcox, and Mr P Sell.

To receive details of any Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee.

Councillor J Stone substituted for Councillor RC Hunt

Councillor AM Atkinson substituted for Councillor G Lucas

Councillor JW Millar substituted for Councillor DB Wilcox.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

7. Urgent Agenda Item - Call-in of Cabinet Decision Concerning the Variation to the Retail Quarter (Old Livestock Market) Development Agreement.

Councillor JG Jarvis, declared a personal non-pecuniary interest as a member of the Hereford Futures Board.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meetings held on 3 October 2012 and 12 October 2012.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meetings held 3 October and 12 October 2012 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

(There will be no discussion of the issue at the time when the matter is raised.  Consideration will be given to whether it should form part of the Committee’s work programme when compared with other competing priorities.)

No suggestions for future scrutiny were made.

To note questions received from the public and the items to which they relate.

(Questions are welcomed for consideration at a Scrutiny Committee meeting so long as the question is directly related to an item listed on the agenda.  If you have a question you would like to ask then please submit it no later than two working days before the meeting to the Committee Officer.  This will help to ensure that an answer can be provided at the meeting). 

The Committee received a number of questions in relation to the urgent agenda item – Call-in of Cabinet Decision Concerning the Variation to the Retail Quarter (Old Livestock Market) Development Agreement.  The full questions, and responses currently available, were circulated at the meeting. Written responses would be forwarded to the Members and contributors.

The Chairman thanked the contributors for submitting their questions.

In accordance with the Constitution at 4.2.6.1 the Chairman of the meeting may consider that for reasons or special circumstances, an item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

The Chairman considered that for reasons of special circumstances set out below, the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

The Chairman explained that Cabinet had treated the matter as urgent because this was a major commercial transaction which had been subject to negotiation for some time and had required a resolution by 31 October 2012. I was appropriate therefore to treat this business as urgent today.

The Committee reviewed the decision 2012.CAB.084 (Variation of Retail Quarter (Old Livestock Market) Development Agreement, made by Cabinet on the 31 October 2012.  The Decision Notice and the report to Cabinet with its appendices had been made available as a supplement to the agenda for this Committee.

Councillor JG Jarvis, Leader of the Council, declared a personal non-pecuniary interest as a member of the Hereford Futures Board.

The Chairman commented that members of the public had submitted questions before the meeting and answers in writing would be made available as soon as possible.  Questions and responses currently available were circulated at the meeting.  A copy has been appended to these minutes.

The three signatories to the call-in (Cllrs: A Seldon; EPJ Harvey & GR Swinford) elaborated upon the reasons for the call-in as set out in the agenda report at paragraph 3.  An additional comment was made that this decision should have been considered as a stand-alone decision and not as a follow on from the decision taken in April 2012.

The Chairman reminded Members of the Committee’s recommendations made 13 April 2012, copies of which had been circulated, when the Committee had called-in a previous Cabinet decision concerning variations to the development agreement.

The Assistant Director Law, Governance and Resilience explained why the matter was not a key decision and circulated a note setting out his reasoning.

The Leader of the Council commented in relation to the previous Cabinet decision on 5 April 2012 and how the two decisions interrelated.  He assured the Committee that Cabinet Members had been fully briefed on the risks and mitigation measures prior to the Cabinet meeting 31 October.  The key decision question had been made clear in relation to urgency. He also commented that he had been convinced that there had been a significant risk that the deal was likely to fall through should the decision not be made by Cabinet on 31 October.  He had only known the latest position concerning the financial negotiations on the Friday before Cabinet.

In overall terms the variations (£500,000 reduction in the capital receipt and amendment to the required number of pre-lets) were of a minor nature in the overall scheme considering the economic and other long term benefits that would be accrued from the development.

The Chairman made reference to requests for minutes of Hereford Futures and referred to recent comments made by M Hodge MP and N Raynsford MP concerning the need for accounting records of public companies delivering public services to be open, so that the tax payer can see that proper  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.