Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Bannister, Fear and Mrs Hambleton.

To receive declarations of interest from Members on items included in the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To consider the procurement and financial aspects of the tender process undertaken.

The Executive Director, Resources and Support Services introduced a report regarding Keele Golf Course which considered the process to procure a new tenant to manage, develop and maintain the facility. As part of the scrutiny process the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinating Committee and the Active and Cohesive Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered the issue in relation to their specific interests in the process. It was before the Transformation and Resouces Committee to be considered in relation to the procurement and financial aspects of the process. The Council’s Head of Finance and Business Improvement Manager were in attendance to answer more detailed questions regarding the financial and procurement aspects of the process respectively.

Stage one of the process involved Expressions of Interest preparation and evaluation criteria being set. Advertisements were placed in key publications and websites, with three Expressions of Interests received. After financial and health checks all three parties were invited to proceed to the next stage, where the parties were invited to bid and from which two submissions were received. These were evaluated by a multi-disciplinary evaluation panel of six officers, who scored the bids against the evaluation criteria. From this, points of clarification were raised, which were addressed and satisfied at meetings with the bidders, chaired by the Executive Director, Resources and Support Services. The Executive Director, Resources and Support Services provided a critical friend role to the evaluation panel scoring, with his scoring of the bids broadly in line with that of the multi-disciplinary evaluation panel.

The Committee considered the procurement aspect of the process first. Members questioned whether the market rental value, as referred to in the draft Cabinet report, had been independently assessed at any stage. The Portfolio Holder advised that other local golf providers had been questioned with regard to the systems in place at their courses, in order to ensure the same values as them and market testing was undertaken. Members further questioned whether there was a baseline or target when ascertaining the market rental value and whether an average market value rental value had been ascertained. The Business Improvement Manager advised that the baseline was the historical information relating to how the course had been run previously. A Member considered that it might be more accurate to state that a reasonable market rental value had been established compared to the previous activities at the course. The Portfolio Holder advised that the market rental value was what the market was willing to pay, and although it would be desirable to achieve more than similar providers across the community, the value was what had been put forward by the bidders. Another Member was of the opinion that due to the recent history of decline at the course, it would not be fair to compare the course with others that had different levels of standards than Keele Golf Course. The Portfolio Holder concurred that it would have been difficult to find a course similar to Keele or to take an average figure across  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To resolve that the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following appendix to the above draft Cabinet report regarding Keele Golf Course because it is likely that there will be disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was consideration of the confidential appendix to the Cabinet report.

There was no urgent business within the meaning of Section 100 B (4) of the Local Government Act 1972.