St. Helier Pub Group - A co-operative pub for Morden: November 2011

Press Release

Campaign for Morden Tavern – Local Government Ombudsman Report November 2011

The Campaign has received the LGO’s final report following a complaint by Campaign Chairman Mr Smith on behalf of the Campaign for Morden Tavern.

The Campaign is pleased that the LGO has confirmed some of the issues which it had raised with them and the contradictory answers given by Merton council. We have summarised these points below:

The council clearly declined the offer to buy the leasehold or jointly sell the leasehold and freehold which would have raised significantly more value from the site than was subsequently obtained (para 7). The council’s response, point 8, is difficult to accept given its subsequent behaviour in agreeing to sell the Freehold.

The council also clearly declines an interest from a large property developer whilst at the same time encouraging and negotiating an agreement to sell the freehold to Reef Estates (para 10). Again missing an opportunity to secure a better value for this council asset.

The Ombudsman's statement then goes on to state that Reef Estates, "was the preferred bidder when discussions started between it and the council" (para 26).

This supports the Campaigns charge that Reef Estates Limited where given an unfair advantage by the actions of Merton council in purchasing the leasehold and that this in turn prevented pub companies from being able to outbid the developer. This is in direct contravention to Merton’s pub protection policy L16.

We charge that without council interference there would have been a significant likelihood that more pub companies and entrepreneurs would have taken interest in the Morden Tavern and that it would most likely have stayed as a public house serving the St Helier community. It is clear that Merton Council did not want this outcome.

The LGO confirms that ward Councillors were informed on the 30th June about the likelihood to sell the Freehold and that the decision was taken and signed off on the 1^stJuly, less than 24 hours later (para 18). 24 hours was insufficient for ward councillors to consider a full response or consult with local residents. Merton officers do not seem to have acted in a reasonable and transparent manner.

The LGO has found evidence that the Council did not follow correct process in handling the bidding for the Morden Tavern and gave Reef Estates preferential treatment. As a result, the Council has agreed a lower offer for the site than it might otherwise have done - perhaps by £1m less than the site is worth. The Campaign accepts the LGO’s decision not to further investigate the complaint against Merton Council given the limited remit which he has to justify such investigations. However, the Audit Commission has reviewed the facts and agreed that the charge is serious to launch a full investigation into the Council's behaviour.

The Campaign for the Morden Tavern

Central Road Morden SM4 5RL [do not write to this address] November 2011

December 8th 7pm Civic Centre

December 8th 7pm Civic Centre

Is the next Planning Meeting to consider the Morden Tavern application.

Deadline for registering your objection is:

2nd December 2011

Write or email Merton Council quoting 11P0815.

Tony Ryan, is the planning officer at

Tony.Ryan@merton.gov.uk

The ‘revised’ plans include a tiny proposed bar which will be out of place and is not guaranteed and will not last when surrounded by so many residential properties. To build the bar the oldest Tree on the site which pre-dates the Tavern will be cut down despite having a Tree preser-vation order on it. Another slap in the face for St Helier as we will lose the pub and large garden. Yet more green space gobbled up for corporate greed just like the Willows.

Own the Morden Tavern...

The closure of the Morden Tavern led to the birth to the Campaign for Morden Tavern, a growing group passionate about keeping a pub in St Helier and safe from conversion into flats. Reef Estates, the developer, does not own the Morden Tavern, the Council does on behalf of residents. If planning permission can be blocked, we can negotiate to buy the leasehold from the developer (and then potentially the freehold from the Council) to set up a pub for the peo-ple of Morden owned by the people of Morden. Free from ownership of the big PubCo's that lock landlords into expensive drink contracts, the new Tavern will be an attractive option to any potential landlord willing to re-establish a thriving community pub.

In the model of a number of other "cooperative" pubs that have rescued community pubs from closure, such as The Hope in Carshalton, we know that the pub will be cleaner, busier and serve better food than the old Tavern. Refurbishment will also see that the large gardens are properly used. We will offer the chance to become a part-owner of the Morden Tavern for as little as £250. Not only will investors get to ensure that the pub survives, but also to share in the profits!

The Morden Tavern is a commercially viable business and our business plan shows that with the correct investment, the pub's future will be assured. The forecast in our business plan for the first 5 years is to get an average annual 5% return on investment - far higher than any bank is pay-ing. We estimate that we require about £200,000 to get the remainder of the leasehold and refurbish the pub, but that could be raised by just 200 people contribution £1,000 each. If you are interested in investing, please send an email to tavern.development@virginmedia.com and mention the amount you would consider investing and we will keep your details on file until we have fought off the developers and can enter into negotiations to buy the lease-hold.

Bats – the on-going saga!

Our supporters will know that the campaign posted a video on You Tube (Morden Tavern Bats) to prove that there were Bats living at the Morden Tavern. We had received several communications from local residents next to the pub that a roost was present.

The video was posted after council officers had stated that there were no Bats living at the Tavern. They told the planning application committee on June 21st 2011 that a ‘survey’ had been carried out and this concluded there were no bats.

The campaign contacted the company (Arbtech) after the meeting and spoke to the director. He was clear in stating that they had only carried out a ‘scoping report’ and that they had recommended further surveys to be carried out as they could not determine if Bats were present or not just by a walk round the site. Additionally the report they pro-duced completely failed to mention the building in which the Bats were living. The site plan they had been given only had two buildings on it. We also obtained an email from the very ecologist who carried out the survey who stated “in order for the planning permission to be granted further emergence surveys are required (as stated in the scoping report)” and also reported that they had “…indicated that the building had potential for bats to be roosting”.

It is important to note here that the Campaign believes after extensive consultations with experts and English Na-ture guidance that if the planning application had been approved on the 21st July, the law would have been broken by Merton Council.

The scoping Report has additionally been evaluated by an independent bats expert (BSc Hons MSc MIEEM) and he has agreed that it is inadequate as a scoping report and certainly not a Bat Survey as required by the legislation. The Surrey Bat Group also agrees with his conclusion.

The developer carried out a full bat survey ‘proper’ on the 29th September 2011. This concluded that there were no Bats roosting on the site. Case lost you’d think, except that the September bat survey was carried out after an extensive cleaning operation of the Morden Tavern site during the last week of August. It is very likely that evidence of the Bat roost would have been removed at this stage and in fact the roost may itself have been disturbed or re-moved during this operation. Moreover, failure to protect a Bat habitat is a criminal offence.

The developer requires, for planning permission, two surveys ideally carried out between May and mid-August, the optimum period, although they can occur up to October if conditions are favourable. English Nature has confirmed to the Campaign that the developer has only carried out one survey to date. The planning department have been arguing that the first scoping report counts even when English Nature, the company who wrote the scoping report (Arbtech), the Surrey Bat Group and our own fully qualified ecologists’ say it is not.

It would seem that the Bats have become an inconvenient truth for both Reef Estates and Merton Councils planning department and their desire to rush this flawed and sorry plan through the planning committee. Ironically the coun-cil had ample opportunity to ensure that a full bat survey was carried out as we notified them that there were bats living on the site way back on the 2nd June 2010 yet the scoping report was only carried out the day before the July 2011 planning meeting.

It is clear that the law requires the planning application to be placed on ‘ice’ until a second full survey can be carried out next summer. Although the campaign fears that the roost has probably been lost forever.

If you feel strongly about this ‘assault’ on Merton’s wild-life please write to your local councillor and Tony Ryan to complain quoting the planning application number.

Valuations, petitions and the Audit Commission…

The Campaign organised a petition during August and September to have the Tavern independently valued. We obtained 1200 signatures and would like to thank all those who supported us.

We had discovered that Merton Council did not obtain an independent valuation for the Council owned Freehold of the Morden Tavern when it negotiated a value with Reef Estates Ltd and is in danger of contravening the 1972 Local Government Act in its duty of obtaining the best value possible for the property by undervaluing the property by £1m.

Documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Request indicate that the valuation was carried out by the same council officer who led negotiations for Merton Council with Reef Estates in meetings with no minutes recorded and who failed to take fully into account the additional value of the site if planning permission was granted.

The council responded thus;

“Thank you for your petition. We have highly professional planning and property specialists working within the coun-cil. Therefore, we are not currently considering an addi-tional independent valuation.”

The CMT posted the following response;

“The petition clearly asks for an ‘independent’ valuation and the council’s response uses the phrase ‘additional in-dependent valuation’, but…there hasn’t been an independ-ent valuation yet. The current valuation is compromised given the facts. The proposed purchaser was given pre-ferred bidder status by Merton during the leasehold sale and party to information not made public to other lease-hold bidders. Therefore there is a clear conflict of interest, agreeing a value ‘acceptable’ to the proposed purchaser to ensure they would be willing to buy. No minutes exist of the ‘negotiations that took place or how the valuation was agreed with the proposed purchaser.”

The process by which the Council arrived at its valuation and the murky bidding process that saw one party favoured and others excluded is now the centre of an Audit Commission investigation. We are expecting a report from the Commissioner shortly and we hope it will declare the contract with Reef Estates invalid.

The campaign approached St Helier Ward Councillor Maxi Martin (Labour) to request that she present the petition on behalf of the St Helier residents at a full meeting of the council. Maxi Martin did not responded to our request, but passed the request on to another Councillor. In fact, Maxi Martin has not offered to sign a letter of support or sign the petition on behalf of the campaign to save St Helier’s last pub. Fortunately, Councillor Dennis Pearce (Labour), who has supported the campaign from the start, has agreed to present the petition."

Local Government Ombudsman Report

The Campaign has received the LGO’s final report.

The Campaign is pleased that the LGO has confirmed some of the issues which it had raised with them and the contradictory answers given by Merton council. We have summarised these points below:

The council clearly declined the offer to buy the leasehold or jointly sell the leasehold and freehold which would have raised significantly more value, known as the ‘marriage value’ from the site than was subsequently ob-tained. The council’s response to this fact that it wasn’t time to sell in the report is difficult to accept given its sub-sequent behaviour in agreeing to sell the Freehold to Reef Estates weeks later.

The council also clearly declines an interest from a large property developer whilst at the same time encouraging and negotiating an agreement to sell the freehold to Reef Estates. Again missing an opportunity to secure a better value for this council asset.

The Ombudsman's statement then goes on to state that Reef Estates "was the preferred bidder when discussions started between it and the council".

We charge that without council interference there would have been a significant likelihood that more pub compa-nies and entrepreneurs would have taken interest in the Morden Tavern and that it would most likely have stayed as a public house serving the St Helier community. It is clear that Merton Council did not want this outcome and acted in a manner which prevented it.

The LGO confirms that ward Councillors were informed on the 30th June about the likelihood to sell the Freehold and that the decision was taken and signed off on the 1stJuly, less than 24 hours later. 24 hours was insufficient for ward councillors to consider a full response or consult with local residents. Merton officers do not seem to have acted in a reasonable and transparent manner.

St. Helier Pub Group - A co-operative pub for Morden

Sunday 27 November 2011

Objection guidance video - Youtube November 2011

Friday 25 November 2011

Press Release - November 2011

Tuesday 1 November 2011

newsletter - November 2011