To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-
https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1
The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday on Friday 14 March 2025 [midday 3 clear working days before the meeting].
The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday on Wednesday 19 March 2025 [midday the working day before the meeting].
The deadline for the submission of a petition is Thursday 6 March 2025 [10 working days before the meeting].
Minutes:
The following public issues were received:
Public Questions, Agenda Item 6 – Review of BCP FuturePlaces Limited
Question 1 – Mr Alex McKinstry
On 10 March 2022, this Committee heard some assurances regarding FuturePlaces' governance. The company was said to be governed by "a suite of legal documents", including a commissioning contract with the Council (which was never actually finalised); a resources agreement (also never finalised); and a shareholder's agreement (which was finalised, but was breached in several respects). Additionally, the company was said to have been "allocated a senior auditor", and audits of the company "built into" the Council's internal audit workplan (https://www.youtube.com/live/SaC1LlZBROg?si=hxzr0d-oU_eNyWHo&t=1h8m9s). How frequently were these internal audits carried out; what concerns were identified - were the above governance shortcomings known about, for instance? - and if concerns were identified, with whom were they raised, and what remedial actions were attempted? Can we also be told whether the internal audit reports survive, as they could greatly aid an investigation?
Response:
Internal Audit completed two assignments during BCP FuturePlaces' operational period of just over two years, both assignments concentrating on governance-related matters. Firstly, Internal Audit facilitated a 2022/23/24 review of governance arrangements for Council companies including BCP FuturePlaces, evaluating client-side and entity-side controls against best practice guidance issued by Local Partnerships, an in-house public sector consultancy jointly owned by the LGA, HM Treasury and Welsh Government.
Issues were raised with relevant officers and the work was reported to the Audit & Governance Committee as part of the Chief Internal Auditor’s annual report of 27th July 2023. The resulting Internal Audit Briefing Note was incorporated into the Corporate Director of Resources’ report to Audit & Governance Committee of 11th January 2024, agenda item 8. The Council’s decision to close the company in September 2023 meant that specific actions that may have been relevant to BCP FuturePlaces were superseded. By way of other resulting remedial actions, the Monitoring Officer’s report to Cabinet on 2nd October 2024 set-out a detailed governance framework for Council-owned companies to take account of lessons learned following the closure of BCP FuturePlaces, including establishment of a Shareholder Advisory Board and a Shareholder Operations Board and provision of Guidance for Councillors and Officers appointed to Outside Bodies. Secondly, Internal Audit coordinated the gathering of assurance work and evidence base for the production of the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2022/23 and 2023/24. This work culminated in BCP FuturePlaces governance arrangements featuring as a significant governance issue in the 2022/23 AGS. An action plan was reported and agreed by the A&G Committee on 27th July 2023, agenda item 16. The action plan was implemented during 2023.
All Internal audit reports are retained for a period of 6 years.
Question 2 – Mr Alex McKinstry
As stated in Appendix 1 (portfolio-holder decision record, May 2022): the FuturePlaces finances were restructured in 2022, and an £8,000,000 loan allocated to the company. At the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 16 June 2022, an officer explained that this £8,000,000 consisted of Public Works Loan Board borrowing, and was being borrowed by the Council and "on-lent" to the company at a commercial rate (https://www.youtube.com/live/8wlXqrZ3K5M?si=hVsUl_ut-ZZLTejN&t=22m14s). However, enquiries of the UK Debt Management Office reveal no PWLB borrowing by BCP Council during the whole of 2022. What, then, was the source of this £8,000,000; and if it derived from the three PWLB loans taken out in 2021 (totalling £42,000,000), what was the justification for reallocating any part of this sum to FuturePlaces, as I thought the 2021 borrowing was for Carter's Quay?
Response:
BCP Council’s actual external borrowing, be that from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) or other sources, is based on the overall Treasury Management cash position of the authority and is set out in detail in the quarterly reports to Audit & Governance Committee. Individual external loans for specific schemes and business cases although assumed are not normally undertaken. Therefore, any funding loaned to BCP FuturePlaces Ltd would have been managed as part of the overall internal cash balance held at that time by the Council and then lent to the subsidiary at a commercial rate.
Question 3 – Mr Alex McKinstry
Would it be logistically possible - no matter how time-consuming - to extricate emails from former councillors, former officers and former FuturePlaces staff dating back to 2021, when FuturePlaces was incorporated? Would these emails in theory survive, in 2025, on the Council's central IT system? (The position is complicated by the fact that FuturePlaces seems to have had its own email domain - "@bcpfutureplaces.co.uk" - as revealed in a few surviving LinkedIn and Indeed references.)
Response:
Yes and yes.
Public Questions, Agenda Item 7 – Carters Quay
Question 1 – Mr Alex McKinstry
The report for Item 7 states the Council began discussions with Inland Homes to acquire Carter's Quay (Phases 4-6) in 2021, and the matter was considered by the Council's "asset investment panel" that August. There are no clues however as to who came up with the initiative - nor in the Cabinet papers of 1 September 2021, which simply described the proposed acquisition as "an opportunity". Is there anyone still around who can recall who first came up with the idea of acquiring this site - i.e. who approached whom?
Response:
Inland Homes approached the Council.
Question 2 – Mr Alex McKinstry
Who sat - or who is likely to have sat - on the Council's "asset investment panel" in 2021, and are any notes or minutes likely to survive?
Response:
This was a hybrid advisory panel with representatives including the Leader (Cllr Drew Mellor) and the Deputy Leader (Cllr Broadhead) at the time and officers from legal, finance and regeneration.
Statements, Agenda Item 6 – Review of BCP FuturePlaces Limited:
Statement 1 – Ian Redman
FuturePlaces lost more than £5million in just 2 years.
At Full Council in November 2023, the then Leader Councillor Slade hoped Councillor Andrews and this committee would review what happened.
Almost 18 months later, this committee is having an “overview” of what happened.
That is a scandalous waste of time and an indication that this administration does not take this seriously. This has all the hallmarks of a cover-up.
In the private sector, an investigation into a million pound failure would have been completed within days, not years.
Losing £5 million could be due to negligence, incompetence or possibly even fraud or corruption.
Residents have a right to know. Councillors should know.
A suggestion, have a quick, light touch, external investigation, followed by a more detailed investigation if evidence of malpractice is detected.
Statement 1 – Alex McKinstry
There are so many unanswered questions surrounding FuturePlaces, entire micro-investigations could be devoted to the more perplexing issues. To take the staff bonuses, for instance, which totalled £110,476. These can be criticised on several fronts - exorbitance, or the fact that the 2022 bonuses were paid when the company hadn't seen one outline business case approved. But having studied all Council agenda papers re FuturePlaces - including exempt appendices, released under FOI - it transpires that no bonus scheme, or payment, was ever referred to (or approved by) full Council. This clearly breached Reserved Matters 39 and 40 of the shareholder's agreement. There were other breaches of the agreement too, and it is extraordinary that these took place when the then-leader and deputy leader of the Council, statutory officers, internal audit, and the company's own managing director, all had the company's governance within their respective purviews.
Statement 2 – Alex McKinstry
Separate enquiries are necessary regarding FuturePlaces' accommodation. The company paid zero rent for its original base, Poole Civic Centre annexe. When that building was decommissioned, the board, chaired by Cllr Broadhead with two statutory officers present, resolved to rent private offices at £54,000 a year. The freehold and rent-receiving companies both had a connection with a separate company, now dissolved, which had been pressing Mellor's Cabinet to purchase St Stephen's Church Hall for a homeless hub in 2021. This may have been declared, and deemed sound. It may be, too, that Cllr Mellor sought officers' advice before assuming sole directorship of the rent-receiving company on 5 May 2023. What remains unfathomable is FuturePlaces' decision to commit to paying £54,000 annual rent on 18 July 2022 - three days after Council applied for a £75,900,000 Government bailout, and when free Council office space was available.
Statement 3 – Alex McKinstry
Finally, there is the matter of disclosure. Graham Farrant observed, in September 2023, that access to reports and information had been "a point of tension" with FuturePlaces for eighteen months, while Ian O'Donnell found that "information was not shared, or not shared in a timely way". Another resident's FOI, meanwhile, suggests that documents were being kept in draft: of the 27 reports into Holes Bay commissioned by the company, 21 remained in draft. We need to know why, in 2024, a final settlement of £2,691,704.99 was paid for FuturePlaces' work, especially if much of it was in draft only; and, as the withholding of information breached 3.1.5 and 3.3 of the shareholder's agreement, we need to know what can be done, realistically, when a company persists in contravening its own governance protocols.