THE leader of BCP Council has confirmed he did “formally suggest” that an external report on plans to sell off thousands of beach huts was not released to fellow councillors.

Cllr Drew Mellor made the admission at last week’s cabinet meeting following months of questioning from opposition groups and residents.

Poole People councillor Mark Howell first asked for the reports at a meeting in February, however, he and other members were denied access to them.

Last month BCP Council finally released three consultancy reports from KPMG, two of which related specifically to the beach hut special purchase vehicle (SPV) project.

While the most recent in time was from July of this year, the others had been received by the council in some format before the Conservative administration’s budget for 2022/23, which was underpinned by the beach hut sale, was approved.

At a special scrutiny committee meeting on September 2, Cllr Mellor said he did not have anything to do with the decision to withhold the KPMG reports from councillors, which included one on the SPV.

Bournemouth Echo: Cllr Drew MellorCllr Drew Mellor (Image: BCP Council)

However, emails seen by the Daily Echo from February show the council leader said that he agreed with the advice of monitoring officer Susan Zeiss that the reports were in draft form and it would be appropriate to release them wider when they are finished.

Speaking at cabinet on September 7, Cllr Mellor said: “I did formally suggest to officers that we were not in a position to release those reports.

“My understanding is we were not in a position to because those were external reports that we hadn’t had the permission to release them and that advice was supported by our senior officer colleagues and the monitoring officer.”

As reported, BCP Council is seeking permission from government to borrow £76million across the next three years, including £20million in the current financial year. This was after a minister torpedoed the local authority’s plan to sell the beach huts and use the flexible use of capital receipts regulations to fund transformation.

Giving an update on the financial challenges the council was now facing, Cllr Mellor said he had asked officers to look at a review of what “non-core” assets could be sold and work with government on “other financial mechanisms that are applicable to flexible use of capital receipt regulations”.

Deputy leader Cllr Philip Broadhead said he “couldn’t think of a better partner to be working with” in reference to new secretary of state Simon Clarke.

The deputy leader said the latest financial reports had “very big, very humbling” figures but added that the council is a “large, confident authority”.

Poole People councillor Andy Hadley said Cllr Mellor’s repeated references to a “low tax, small state” council would more accurately be described as “a high debt organisation with struggling and disintegrating services”.

Cabinet voted against recommendations from the scrutiny committee, which the leader described as “short-sighted”.

The council must present its plans for a balanced budget in 2023/24 to the government by the end of the month if it is to progress with its attempt to borrow money to plug the funding gap in the current financial year.