BOURNEMOUTH council spent almost £130,000 on a failed attempt to buy a prime town centre site – despite warnings they had “no chance” of succeeding.

A total of £127,353.11 was spent on a “high risk” bid to pursue a Compulsory Purchase Order for the NCP car park site at Exeter Road and on drawing up bus hub plans that were recently abandoned.

The council provided updated expenditure figures to the Echo under the Freedom of Information Act that reveal it spent £68,973.65 designing the planned bus hub, £53,997.85 on feasibility studies, £2,781.61 on a topographic survey and a comparatively modest £1,600 on legal advice.

However, our request to see copies of the legal advice provided to the council about the likelihood of the CPO succeeding was refused.

The council states this information is exempt from Freedom of Information Act because it is covered by legal, professional privilege.

The council decided to pursue a CPO for the NCP car park in June 2013 because it wanted to stop the construction of the West Central cinema and restaurant complex and put a publicly-subsidised bus hub on the site instead.

The council’s own initial risk assessment of the project deemed it “high risk” due to the increasingly-high cost of the scheme and the high-profile nature of the proposals.

The main risks identified were whether the council would be able to obtain a CPO, uncertainty around costs, potential delays and the risk of adverse media coverage.

Despite this and public warnings the CPO would not succeed, Bournemouth council leader John Beesley initially maintained they would not back down in their stand-off with NCP.

In January he said Licet were “very direct and quite aggressive” and questioned their claims they were ready to start work on the site.

“All I’m saying is I’m not certain that I’ve seen or heard anything in terms of documentary proof that they are in a position to proceed,” he said.

“I would have thought that their funders would have significant concerns about it (the CPO).”

However, in July cabinet members unanimously agreed to rescind the decision to pursue a CPO and instead give Licet a year in which to make significant progress with the West Central development.

They did this after being advised that a CPO could take more than a year and result in the council having to pay “several million pounds in compensation” to NCP.

‘Best possible outcome’

Cllr Beesley said their negotiations with Legal and General (Leisure) resulted in the council receiving £55,000 towards their costs, along with £200,000 for a small strip of council-owned land at Exeter Crescent and a £45,000 contribution to improve bus passenger facilities in Gervis Place.

He said: “At the time of starting the CPO process for the Exeter Road site we strongly believed that this was achievable at a reasonable cost. A feasibility study by planning consultants, Terence O’Rourke for a bus hub on this site concluded that the proposal was viable, affordable and would provide sufficient additional capacity to meet existing and future demand. However, as Licet’s development and lettings progressed on their leisure scheme this had a knock-on effect on the land value meaning that proceeding with a CPO became less and less viable.

“Therefore during discussions with Legal & General (Leisure) we managed to negotiate and secure the best possible outcome for Bournemouth residents.

“Reducing the impact of heavy congestion in Gervis Place so close to Bournemouth’s listed Gardens remains a priority for the council, and my hope is that the plans we can draw up and implement with this funding will go some way towards tackling that.”

CPO process was ‘flawed’

Bournemouth council’s decision was questioned by site owners NCP and West Central developers Licet, who claimed to be untroubled by the prospect of a CPO.

Chris Dymond, director of Licet Holdings, said last August that one of the UK’s top QCs had told them the CPO had “no chance of success and would be at huge financial risk and cost to beleaguered local taxpayers and council funds”.

And this view was echoed by rival developer Trevor Osborne who failed to get his Pavilion Gardens cinema and restaurant scheme off the ground in the face of competition from West Central. Mr Osborne warned councillors back in January there was a perception the CPO process was “flawed,” as shown by the fact both Legal and General and Odeon were confident enough to sign up to the West Central scheme.

Budget cuts

Bournemouth council spent £127,353.11 attempting to buy the Exeter Road site at a time when the council’s budgets are facing massive cuts.

Half a million pounds-worth of cuts were recently approved to the youth services budgets, which will result in 14 youth workers and advisers losing their jobs.

The Dorset Enterprises factory, which provided employment for disabled people, was closed at the end of March 2013 after the council said it could no longer afford to subsidise the service to the tune of £471,000 a year.

Changes to the charges for home help and day centre visits from April 2013 resulted in 20 per cent of users having to pay more.

Forty eight service users have had to pay an additional £100 or more a week.