Over the last three plus months, the Isle of Wight council has been negotiating with the Hambrough Group after the council selected them as their Preferred Bidder for the Winter Gardens back on 20th April 2011.
Some of the results of that negotiation have now been made public. A two-page document entitled ‘Best and Final Proposal of Robert Thompsons’ Hambrough Group’ (that we’ve embedded below for your convenience) was part of the official paper work issued by the council yesterday.
VB thought it would be helpful to interpret the legal wording of the document, to give readers an idea of what it contains. Feel free to read the document below to come to your own interpretation.
“Satisfactory Planning Permission”
One of the key phrases in the document is “Satisfactory Planning Permission”. The whole deal hinges on this. Without it being granted, the deal doesn’t complete.
Looking at the documents that have been released, for the public, it really isn’t clear what this could mean as it isn’t defined beyond planning consent “that is satisfactory to the purchaser”.
Conditions
There are a series of conditions that the Hambrough Group must comply with …
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The auditorium to be “used for a minimum period of 10 years”, “primarily for arts, cultural, educational and entertainment activities.”
(Other areas of the building aren’t legally detailed, so it’s unclear if the Ventnor community would still have open access to those.)
- A box office.
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The times that the auditorium can be used is detailed, saying that “local community groups and organisations” can use it between 10am and 10pm, for an average of 20 hours a week.
Next is the section whose meaning isn’t completely clear to us. It says this usage will be “over consecutive 26 week periods”. This isn’t clarified, so it’s open to various reading, perhaps it means that it will only be open for community use for six months of the year.
- A yearly report has to be made showing the conditions have been met.
What happens if they don’t spend the promised £1m?
There’s a section called “Option to Purchase” which says that if the Hambrough Group don’t spend all of the agreed money (around £1 million) on the building within 18 months of being granted their planning permission, the council have the options to buy back the WG but have to pay the Hambrough Group any of the money that has already spent on it, presumably up to the £1 million.
“A satisfactory structural survey”
The whole deal also might not proceed if the Hambrough Group doesn’t have what they call “a satisfactory structural survey.”
(Did you know? – You can view the document below at full-screen simply by clicking on the left-most graphic, to the right of the Scribd logo, on the left of the grey bar at the bottom of each document.)
Best and Final Proposal of Robert Thompson’s Hambrough Group for Ventnor Winter Gardens
