Claims of “ulterior motives” were levelled at Perth and Kinross Council over the hastily agreed £10m deal to bring Pullar House under local authority ownership.
Chief executive Thomas Glen sent an email to officers on the morning of the buy warning of “chat” around hidden agendas regarding the purchase of the staff building.
Before taking ownership, the council was spending £3.2m a year renting the offices.
The deal was signed off by elected members at a full council meeting on September 4 with just hours to spare on a 2pm deadline.
At 8.26am that morning, Mr Glen, asked for further communication be sent out to decision makers.
He wrote: “Can an email be sent round all elected members this morning first thing to advise them of the structure of the meeting agenda to deal with a decision on the Pullar House element to be considered in advance of lunch to allow officers to serve the necessary notice by 2:00 today to the owners.
“Some chat that there are ulterior motives for this so we need to explain the rationale.”
The chain of emails, made available to The Courier through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, does not further explain what the ulterior motives may be.
Same meeting as Thimblerow controversy
Ahead of the meeting, the council’s head of legal Lisa Simpson emailed members to underline the urgency of the situation.
She told the chamber: “We need to serve notice with the landlord today if we are minded to exercise our right to purchase Pullar House and the adjacent car park.
“Legal are ready and prepared to go if that is the decision and will of the chamber.”
The purchase was signed off at the same council meeting the decision to build a watered-down leisure centre at Thimblerow – without a dedicated leisure pool – was taken.
The Pullar House deal came first in the agenda, with council officers referencing the time constraints on the decision.
Mr Glen started the meeting with warnings of a potential £11m worth of cuts coming over the next few years while finance lead Scott Walker said the council’s budget could “fall off the edge of a cliff” in the next 30 years.
However, the financial fears put forward as a reason for the watered-down PH2O were given short shrift by some councillors who pointed to the fact the proposal to buy Pullar House had been passed that morning.
Chief executive explains concerns
When asked by The Courier what the ‘ulterior motive’ concerns were, Mr Glen said it was because the deal appeared before councillors earlier than expected.
The chief executive said: “As the paper was presented earlier than officers had initially anticipated, there had been a question over the motivation for this.
“Members were not aware, at that time, of the need to trigger the one-year notice period to purchase Pullar House that required the decision to be made that day in order to serve the necessary legal documentation.
“An email was sent to all elected members later that morning and the rationale was also described at the start of the meeting itself by our strategic lead for legal and governance.
“She explained that a decision on whether to take up the option to purchase Pullar House had to be made in the early part of the session in order to meet the contractual deadline for notifying the current owner.”
Mr Glen said if there had been a delay in when the paper was considered that day the council may have had to pay more for the building on the open market.
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