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FOI request (FOI-66387357)
Sale of land at Bexhill Road Recreation Ground - district valuers reports
Requested Mon 22 January 2018
Responded Mon 05 March 2018Valuation of the freehold of land at the lower tier of Bexhill Road Recreation Ground for housing development.
On the 04/12/17 HBC Cabinet discussed the sale of land at Bexhill Road Recreation Ground for 158 homes as part of the three site Sports Village development. The report to Cabinet stated that the District Valuer had originally assessed the value of this site as £3.7million and the developers have offered to pay HBC £2million.
Following the Cabinet meeting it has been stated that the District Valuer has revised the land value estimate down by £7.45m to -£3.75m. The developers are still committed to paying £2m.
Could you please supply copies of the 2 district valuation reports. The one quoted prior to the Cabinet meeting and the one quoted afterwards.
Response
NOTICE OF REFUSAL
Under Environmental Information Regulations the information requested above exempt under Section 12(5)(e) 'Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest'
We have considered the following:
- Is the information commercial or industrial
- Is the information subject to confidentiality provided by law
- Is the confidentiality protecting a legitimate economic interest
- Would disclosure adversely affect the confidentiality
Section 12(5)(e) is subject to a public interest test. This means that a public authority can refuse to disclose information under these exceptions if in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Factors for disclosure:- Transparency and accountability
- The Scheme to which the valuation report applies is not concluded. To allow financial information relating to the Scheme in the public domain would prejudice any further negotiations between other parties involved in the deal. This would prejudice negotiating tactics and affect maximum/minimum acceptable values.
NOTICE OF REFUSALUnder Environmental Information Regulations the information requested above exempt under Section 12(4)(d) 'Information in the course of completion, unfinished documents and incomplete data.- Draft documents are unfinished even if the final version has been produced (in this instance a final has not been produced)
Factors for disclosure:- Transparency and accountability
Factors against disclosure:- Safe space. This will be affected by whether the process in question is complete
- Chilling effect. This will depend on what discussions would be affected by the chilling effect
- Should the information be disclosed it would give a misleading or inaccurate impression
For the reasons provided above the factors against disclosure outweigh those in favour therefore the council will not be providing you with the 2 district valuation reports for Bexhill Road Recreation Ground. -
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