Meetings between BCP Council’s political leadership and the government over the failed beach hut sell-off were ‘informal with no official minutes or records kept’.

A Freedom of Information request from a BCP resident has revealed that there are no records of any correspondence between the council and Secretary of State on the failed deal from part of last year.

The request asked: “I would like to see the correspondence between the council and the Secretary of State relating to the beach hut plan, for a period between April 2021 and September 2021”.

Read more: BCP Council beach hut sell off axed after government action

In their response, BCP Council said: “I have instructed the appropriate offices for the Leader of the Council (Cllr Mellor) and Deputy Leader (Cllr Broadhead) as well as the Chief Executive.

“I have been advised that searches of emails and data files have been conducted within the scope of your request, and they do not hold the information you have requested. Section 17 of FOIA states that where public authorities receive requests for information that they do not hold, they must issue a notice advising that they do not hold the requested information.

“Additionally, I have been informed that meetings between both the Leader, Deputy Leader and The Secretary of State have been informal, with no formal agenda or minutes produced.”

Read more: Minister's letter to all councils after blocking beach hut sale

At a meeting of the BCP Council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Friday evening, the leader, Cllr Mellor was asked about this matter.

He said “in depth” discussions had been had with former secretary of state Michael Gove and his team.

Those discussions “stalled” with the change in secretary of state this summer.

He said he did not go to a previous meeting of the committee on July 20, as despite a letter from minister Kemi Badenoch in June saying she had concerns about the proposal and the intended use, “we did not have clarity from government at that point”.

Cllr Sandra Moore said: “We were told that Government were supportive and it’s quite clear now that no decision had been made. There was no supportive announcement at all.

Read more: No record of BCP Council beach hut agreement with ex-ministers

“They didn’t change their mind, they never supported in the first place. That is my concern; the entire budget was predicated on government support which was not forthcoming.”

Chief finance officer Adam Richens said: “As we have seen from government, the government were very clear that the proposal was not prohibited by the regulations, however, after the government considered, I think long and hard, they came to the judgement it was not in line with the spirit and intent.”

Cllr Mellor said: “We never said that the government had signed it off we said that it fitted with the regulations as they were written. It was in line with the FUCR (Fixed Use Capital Receipts) regulations and subsequently they have changed it to work with us on a more preferable solution for us.”

In August, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said they had no record of any agreement between BCP Council and former ministers to support specific financial arrangements related to the now scrapped beach hut sell-off.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities confirmed its position following the collapse of the local authority’s contentious proposal at the end of July.