Secret discussion planned as decision to knock down mystery building is called in

Eight years after a similar debate, the identity of Centre 67 as a building earmarked for demolition is being kept confidential.

A ‘special’ Customers, Performance, Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee tomorrow will likely move into a ‘Part 2’ secret meeting to discuss “Call In of Executive Board Decision of 14 January 2020 – Office Accommodation Review- Phase 3 – decision (iii)”

The call in notice is not public, with the contents entirely ‘restricted’. Such notices are often public documents as they contain the signatures of councillors who have joined together and stated they wish to review a decision.

The Executive Board meeting of the 14th had an item discussed in secret, which Cllr Marc Jones said in a public part of the meeting referred to a “building of significance” in the Grosvenor ward of Wrexham, and that could be subject to ‘demolition’.

The subsequent public decision notice on the outcome of that Executive Board debate reads: “(iii) That the property identified in the report be demolished and the land retained.”

It has been made clear in public that a building is being knocked down, with the only secret information being the identity of the building. It is however one of the worst kept secrets we have encountered ,with the building named as Centre 67 in Rhosddu by numerous councillors to us, and others, and also made public via several different routes.

The reasoning for the likely secret meeting is given as: “Agenda Item 4 – Not for publication by virtue of Paragraph 14 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The Proper Officer has determined in considering this report that Paragraph 14 should apply. Her view on the public interest test was that while she was mindful of the need to ensure the transparency and accountability of public authorities for decisions taken by them in relation to the spending of public money, disclosure of the information would give an unfair advantage to tenderers for commercial contracts. This information is not affected by any other statutory provision which requires the information to be publicly registered. On that basis she felt that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.”

A vote is held on if to move business to a secret discussion,  so the committee may decide to ignore Officer advice and hold the discussion in public.

Secret meetings and the identity of Centre 67 is nothing new, in one of our earliest articles we noted how then councillor Arfon Jones used an FOI request to get the detail out. As we wrote in 2012 “Gwersyllt councillor Arfon Jones was present at a meeting of Wrexham Council’s executive board where an item regarding the demolition of a building on Rhosddu Road was held in private.”

In that instance the reason for the report’s inclusion in Part 2 ‘secret’ section was that it contained figures relating to the demolition costs of the building, which we believe is one of the reasons used now in 2020. In 2012, Cllr Jones said, “On this occasion however I decided to test the basis to include this report in Part II by making a Freedom of Information request for this Part II report, but the request was made for the report with the parts considered confidential redacted.”

In 2012 having removed any grounds for refusal Wrexham Council had no choice but to provide the report in its entirety with only two figures redacted, and the name made public.

Councillors will meet tomorrow, and could appear for a matter of minutes on the council’s webcast facility.