A businessman has accused Angus Council of being “disingenuous” over the authority’s claim it received no offers for town centre Forfar offices at the centre of an increasingly tangled web of controversy.
Following The Courier’s revelation that pub giant JD Wetherspoon could be set to land the three-storey property at The Cross for £50,000 less than the initial £400,000 it offered in a closed-doors deal last year, rival bidder Ken Parke has said a private report that went before councillors today is false.
The secret document says no offers were received by the December 12 closing date from either Wetherspoons or P Christie Ltd, the firm of Parkgrove crematorium owner Mr Parke, whose interest in the 150-year-old building sparked the council U-turn that saw the listed property put on the open market.
Mr Parke swiftly put an unconditional £450,000 offer on the table when news of the £400,000 Wetherspoon bid first emerged in September and said the authority then “changed the goalposts” with the decision to sell on the open market.
He has now confirmed to The Courier that his lawyer subsequently contacted council solicitors with an offer at the same level for the property but with a leaseback condition attached. It was swiftly rejected, said the businessman.
Mr Parke had hoped to turn The Cross buildings into a boutique hotel but dropped the idea following a survey of the building, although he said he had been willing to stick by his original six-figure bid.
“At the very start of all of this, they had the chance to take my unconditional offer, which was in writing, and they changed the goalposts.
“The council were then given the option of selling it to me for my original figure and leasing it back for 10 years,” he said.
“I don’t like the council saying (in the private report) that no offers were received by the closing date. It is disingenuous of them to suggest that is the case, when I had my solicitor contact their solicitor and ask if they would be interested in selling it to me and leasing it back,” said Mr Parke.
In his report for councillors, council chief executive Richard Stiff has said that if the authority does not sell to Wetherspoons for the “reasonable” sum of £350,000, it will face a £400,000-plus maintenance bill over the next three years, for which there is no current identified funding.
It is understood the maintenance burden would have fallen to Mr Parke as the new owner if his offer had been accepted.
However, moves are already afoot to move members and officers from The Cross, with indications in the private report of plans to use £200,000 of the cash for alterations at the nearby Town & County Hall and Municipal Building to accommodate the switch.
Wetherspoons intend to create a bar, restaurant and hotel at The Cross but their revised £350,000 bid remains conditional on planning consent and licences being secured.