Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Finance, Property and Transformation

Forward Plan Ref: 2025/151

Contact: Michael Smedley, Head of Estates

Michael.smedley@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Report by Director of Property and Assets

The information contained in the annex is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories:

Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person including the local authority

and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that there is an expectation that consultation and negotiation should take place primarily away from the glare of publicity and public scrutiny in keeping with employment law.

The Cabinet Member is RECOMMENDED to:

a)    Approve a Direct Award to enter into a site Promotion Agreement for the development of Guydens Farm, Northfield, Oxford, with existing Promoter of Brasenose College’s land, Catesby Estates Limited; and

b)    Delegate authority to the Director of Property and Assets to finalise, and enter into, the Promotion Agreement in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Head of Legal and Governance.

RESOLVED that the public be excluded for the duration of Item 5 since it was likely that if they were present during that item there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and since it was considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in Page 4 maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Head of Estates introduced the report.   The Chair said that he had concerns about relinquishing control over Guydens Farm, Northfield, Oxford in light of its controversy, and that his preference was for finalisation of, and entry into, the Promotion Agreement to be subject to delegated decision by the Cabinet Member. As such, he approved the first recommendation only on this occasion.

RESOLVED to:

a)    approve a Direct Award to enter into a site Promotion Agreement for the development of Guydens Farm, Northfield, Oxford, with existing Promoter of Brasenose College’s land, Catesby Estates Limited; but

b)    defer the decision to delegate authority to the Director of Property and Assets to finalise, and enter into, the Promotion Agreement in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Head of Legal and Governance.