QUESTIONS have been raised over why BCP Council is planning to balance its budget by selling assets which are generating income over those which are not.
The local authority is pressing ahead on plans to address a £20million gap in the current financial year through a series of disposals.
Exactly which sites are set to go on the market has not been disclosed by the council due to “commercial sensitivity”.
Councillors on the corporate and community overview and scrutiny committee said they had doubts over why some sites had been chosen and whether civic leaders were being realistic in getting the sales completed before the end of the current financial year.
Liberal Democrat councillor Marcus Andrews said all of the assets suggested for disposal were incoming producing.
“I’m also bemused as who decided the list of assets,” Cllr Andrews said.
“We have been presented and it’s confidential information with some assets which are listed, but why not sell some assets which aren’t producing some rent because then we wouldn’t be losing the income.”
He added: “It is less than five months until the full council meeting on March 21. We have been told any asset over half a million pounds needs full council approval. We have got Christmas and new year between now and then, so we have probably down to four months.
“If it is going from a cold start, anybody who has bought or sold a house recently, not only the marketing, you have got the legal process.
"To succeed in selling those properties by the deadline of March 21 or the week thereafter there is not much time left.”
Conservative leader of the council Cllr Mellor said there was a “huge number” of regeneration assets which should be protected and developed, adding that he believed disposing of non-strategic sites was more appropriate.
Cllr Millie Earl, Liberal Democrat, asked why were there plans to sell assets which contributed income over those which were a “drain on expenditure”. She also asked if sales were already lined up.
Cllr Mellor said: “We do not believe we should sell revenue generating assets.
“We do not think that is in the long-term interests of any council but it makes much more sense for us to sell those assets than it does to sell assets that can be hugely beneficial to us in terms of regeneration, which are much more strategic.”
The council leader said the administration had a “degree of confidence” in completing the required disposals, but the option of borrowing £20million from government through a capitalisation direction was “moving forward and ready to go if we need to”.
Cllr Earl said the council leadership was looking to sell assets to avoid bankruptcy, which could be called a “fire sale”.
Cllr Mellor replied: “We’ve been really clear that we do not think that it is in the long-term interest of local government to be forced to sell its assets.
"We think if you develop the assets properly, use them properly over a longer period of time, that is how local government becomes long-term financially sustainability.
“We are so far removed from bankruptcy. If you look at all other upper tier local authorities who are publishing these figures, we are in such a stronger, stabler financial position.”
He added: “We do not believe we should be selling assets across the board."
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