Agenda item

With reference to article 56 of the minute of the meeting of 27 September 2009, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure which provided an update on negotiations with the Aberdeen Branch of the Royal British Legion (ARBL) in relation to their vacation of the car park in the centre of Golden Square.

Members were reminded that the Committee had previously approved the proposals and agreed that officers continue discussions with the ARBL on a range of issues arising from their traditional (but informal) involvement with parking arrangements at this location and to report back on these, but otherwise to prepare a bid for capital funding from the 2010/2011 capital plan on the basis of a spend to save to cover the cost of carrying out works to allow the enforcement of a traffic order.

Since that decision, officers had continued discussions with ARBL to ascertain various details around income levels, costs, allocation of donations and phasing of payments.

In terms of the phasing of payments to ARBL, officers had explored options for the as set out in the original report, based on a five year phased reduction and staying within the overall limits of 200,000 Euros.  Appreciating that the exchange rate fluctuates at any time a preferred option based around an overall income level of £160,000/year has been set out to ARBL to meet these requirements.  The preferred option for payments was as follows:-

During the course of discussions representatives of ARBL had asked if it was possible to establish a level of payment beyond the five year period.  It was believed they had conveyed similar requests to senior elected members.  Given that it was unclear what the Council’s financial position would be in 2015/2016, officers agreed that they would propose to Committee that such a request would be considered as part of the budget process at that time.  By entering into discussions with ARBL in year four of the agreement the direction public finance was moving in at a national level and how this impacted on the available funding within the City should be clearer.

Subject to the Committee making a decision it was envisage that the Council would take over the running of the Car Park during July 2010, which would allow time for the operation to be established on a clear legal footing.  While it would be desirable to have a legal agreement formed between both parties prior to the Council introducing its operations, it was not absolutely necessary.  The contents of the agreement would include much of the detail within this report but could also include any specific information that Councils would wish to see to ensure they were following the public pound e.g. details of where the monies provided had been used to ensure they were supporting local charities and ex-servicemen.

Appendix 1 to the report provided a briefing note provided by ARBL for members’ information as to what the organization did and how it supported ex-servicemen and their families and other local charities.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to approve the proposed levels of donations to ARBL in lieu of their income from charitable donations for parking within Golden Square for a period of five years;

(ii)        that in year four officers commence discussions with ARBL as to the future of funding arrangements as the position regarding public finances would be clearer at that time; and

(iii)       to instruct officers to conclude legal agreements to this effect and to establish the car park operations as soon as resources permitted.