‘We have no alternative but to go into secret session’ say councillors deciding on sale of Milton Keynes fire station

    Councillors said they had no option but to consider the sale of a fire station site behind closed doors.

    The Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority is in the process of selling the site of the Great Holm Fire Station as part of their move to the city’s new Blue Light Hub.

    At a meeting this morning (Wednesday), members of the Conservative-led fire authority were asked to vote on a motion to exclude the press and public because they don’t want potential buyers of the site to know the value they have put on it.

    The local democracy reporter was allowed to speak before the councillors, who come from across Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes, took their recorded vote.

    The members represent the political balance of the Bucks and MK area as a whole and include Labour and Lib Dem members.

    And they all have access to secret background reports, which are printed on pink-coloured papers.

    MK Council leader Pete Marland (Lab, Wolverton) agreed with that stance. “There is a huge risk to this authority if the pink papers become public.”

    He added that as a council leader he faced the dilemma about going into private session for important decisions.

    But he asked that the implications of the decision for the people of Great Holm and Loughton be made public.

    “People do have a right to know what’s going to happen to this site. It’s not right if the the first thing they know is through the planning system,” he said.

    Milton Keynes Lib Dem leader Cllr Douglas McCall (Newport Pagnell South) said: “I have seen the pink papers and I think going into private session is the correct decision.”

    MK Conservative Cllr Keith McLean (Olney) said: “The impact is going to be high, whatever we decide.”

    But he said the authority could lose its “commercial high ground” if the decision was made in public.

    Graham Britten, the authority’s director of legal and governance, said the papers could be published after a “number of weeks” but not straight away after the meeting.

    And the Conservative chairman Cllr Lesley Clarke OBE (High Wycombe, Abbey) agreed that the public should not have to learn about what is going to happen to the site first through the planning system.

    She added that an important issue had been raised and that they would be discussing “how we can put any information into the public domain.”

    The eight councillors voted unanimously to consider the matter in private and with that the YouTube live stream was switched off.

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