By Alexis Hope

THE ROW over the sale of a council headquarters building in Forfar took another twist yesterday when Angus Council revealed it had received an offer of almost £2 million for the property.

The sum is just shy of three times the amount the council had considered accepting in a private deal to sell St James House building and car parks to a pair of developers.

When the council revealed the private sale in June, opposition councillors reacted furiously and condemned the deal, claiming that the £700,000 price agreed was far too low for a building the council bought for £1 million 10 years ago.

A meeting of the full council saw a major about-turn and the local authority decided to test the market after an £800,000 offer was lodged as the row raged.

The property was then put on the open market, and last month the council confirmed that 10 bids had been received from interested parties.

Yesterday it revealed that those offers range from just over £762,000 to £1.912 million for the sites in St James Road.

Now the authority’s resources and central services committee will consider the offers at its meeting on Thursday.

Committee convener Alex King said yesterday that, although at face value the offers on the table were far higher than the council had been advised to expect for the sites, all but one of the offers came with significant conditions attached.

“Deanway/AWG, the original company interested in developing the site, has submitted one unconditional bid of £715,000 for the St James House site,” he said.

“All of the other offers, including another from Deanway/AWG, come with strings attached, namely planning conditions.”

Councillor King added that the council, as seller of the property and the body that grants planning consent, would ensure that any planning applications were dealt with fairly and impartially.

He said the council could potentially be looking at a total capital receipt of £1.912 million for the entire site, but added, “There is still some way to go before the acceptability of the conditions attached to the offers can be determined.”

The report being considered by the committee recommends the acceptance of an offer of £102,000 for Broadcroft car park from Brechin Property Company, and an offer of £1.81 million for St James House from Deanway/AWG, subject to the attached conditions being satisfied.

The announcement was welcomed by Brechin independent councillor Bob Myles, who spoke out against the proposed private deal.

“This absolutely vindicates everything we said at the committee and just shows how foolish it would have been to let it go for the first figure offered,” he said.

“It does make you wonder how many other deals have been done that should have gone in the same direction. Obviously Queens Park in Brechin is one that springs to mind, but it’s too late for that.”