The Chair advised the Committee and the witnesses that were in attendance that, at its meeting held on 14 October 2010, the Cabinet had considered a report of the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management, which informed Members of the current position with regard to The Sail Project in West Kirby and sought approval to conclude negotiations with the proposed developer. The report set out the background, the present position and contained additional information.

After a vote, the Cabinet (minute 160 refers) –

“Resolved (6:3) – That Cabinet recognises that:

(a)  the primary purpose of the Sail Project has always been the re-provision of the existing Sailing School in a high quality building that responds to the regional and national importance of the Marine Lake;

(b)  Carpenter Investments have worked diligently to develop a scheme that would deliver this outcome through enabling development consisting of a high quality boutique hotel on the Dee Lane Car Park, which would bring in excess of £5m of inward investment and create over 50 jobs;

(c)  economic circumstances beyond the control of either Carpenter Investments or the Council would lead to a revised development scheme which created a significantly increased net loss in car parking in the vicinity; and

(d)  the development has become highly controversial within the local community, which would lead to Carpenter Investments being asked to develop a Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

Cabinet considers that;

(a)  despite the endeavours of Carpenter Investments there appears to be little realistic prospect of a resolution of the car parking issues to our satisfaction;

(b)  making further efforts to resolve this issue may be likely to delay the possible improvement of the Sailing School;

(c)  in these circumstances, it would not be reasonable or appropriate to expect Carpenter Investments to expend further monies on striving to resolve this issue; and

(d)  similarly, it would not be reasonable to require Carpenter Investments to refine and implement its Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

Accordingly, the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management be instructed:

(a)  to express the Cabinet’s sincere appreciation and thanks to Carpenter Investments for their considerable commitment to the Sail Project since 2007, but to inform them that the Council will not proceed further with this development; and

(b)  following consultation with the Director of Technical Services and the Director of Corporate Services, to report back to a future Cabinet meeting with options for securing the future enhancement, or retroversion, of the Sailing School, without involving any material net loss of public car parking in the vicinity.”

The Cabinet decision was subsequently called in by the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor S Foulkes and Councillor P Davies.

The Chair referred to additional documentation that had been circulated, which included three Cabinet reports (9 April, 23 April and 24 September 2009), two of which were exempt and had been redacted by the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management. In addition, he provided to Members copies of a number of e-mails that he had received from local residents. He outlined the call-in procedure and commented also that he had consulted with Councillor P Davies and with Councillor A Hodson (Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning Strategy) in order to agree the order in which witnesses would be called to give evidence. In view of the number of witnesses that had been called, he asked that, if possible, witnesses restrict their address to three minutes and to try to avoid repetition.