John Stevens · @pzj_1
4th Jun 2015 from TwitLonger
Lennoxtown now for the truth
Following on from a previous post on this very document http://library.nhsggc.org.uk/mediaAssets/library/Report%20to%20Chief%20Exec%20and%20Dir%20of%20Finance%20of%20GGHB%20-%20Proposed%20purchase%20land%20at%20former%20Lennox%20Castle%20Hospital%20by%20Celtic%20FC.pdf
A document that gave us all a great insight into what really went on during the sale negotiations when Celtic PLC purchased Lennoxtown.
It is the very last paragraph which I want to look at in this post. Here is the part that is very telling. The quote is from the then CEO of the Greater Glasgow Health Board.
''On the Friday 18th March I received the letter from the Club CEO (Peter Lawwell) Setting aside the inaccuracies, the erroneous planning assumptions and the justification for the proposed purchase price''
He then finished with this ''I propose to instruct our legal advisers to respond in terms which leave the club (Celtic) in no doubt of the Boards position, that the offer price is unacceptable and one which could not be considered''
Let me outline that the offer proposed by Celtic PLC was £42,000 pounds. A joke and the most insulting offer that made the Greater Glasgow Health Board respond to them in the strongest terms that this was unacceptable.
But what I want to draw attention and which is very illuminating is the words The Greater Glasgow Health Board CEO made about Peter Lawwell and his assumptions.
''Setting aside the inaccuracies, and the erroneous planning assumptions and the justification for the proposed purchase price''
What did the Greater Glasgow health Board CEO mean by this?
Lets us try and get an insight. The Football Tax Havens posted this and please read carefully https://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/questions-on-lennoxtown-delegated-powers-valuations-planning-approval-professional-valuers-and-why-no-marketing/
Now Lennoxtown was valued by the property adviser Pollock and Buchan on the basis as being ''a little over agriculture value'' https://footballtaxhavens.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/pollock-buchan-comment-developers.png
Basically the very lowest value you can get. But as the Football Tax Havens pointed out the value and the method of valuation for Lennoxtown was based on an Agriculture basis prior to East Dunbartonshire Council Planning giving Outline Planning Approval, on 21st December 2005, and Detailed Planning Approval, on 20th April 2006.
At that point another valuation should have been immediately commissioned on the Lennoxtown land.
So Lennoxtown was valued at rock bottom, then received Planning approval from our friends in the EDC and yet no other valuation was commissioned.
Now let us look at our friend from the Greater Glasgow Health Board once more and his statement concerning Peter Lawwell and his derisory offer of £42,000 pounds.
Lawwell offered this and no doubt stated to the Greater Glasgow Health Board that the land was valueless and designated ''agriculture' Basically he worked the ticket. That is very clear in the words of the Greater Glasgow Health Board CEO ''and the justification for the proposed purchase price''
Our friend in the Greater Glasgow Health Board replied that Lawwell should set aside his inaccuracies and his thinking on the matter of what exactly Lennoxtown land could be designated ''the erroneous planning assumptions'' made by Lawwell, who as I have stated was working the article and was told to quit trying to ''justify his proposed purchase price based on inaccuracies and erroneous assumptions''
.
Yet despite this when it is very clear that Lawwell and Celtic were trying it on, and despite the Greater Glasgow Health Board's own guidelines about when land sold should be ''off market'' rather than exposed to the open market, ''''when it is proved there is explicit agreement between the property adviser and the independent valuer that an ''off market'' sale will deliver a clear advantage over an open market sale'' this deal still proceeded.
Incidentally the Independent Valuer Inglis stated this in his report ''‘it being assumed that the property (lennoxtown) is publicly offered to the market’
So what was the Greater Glasgow Health Board CEO trying to convey to Peter Lawwell in his ''set aside the inaccuracies and the erroneous planning assumptions''?
It appears very self evident. The little more than agriculture land was quickly giving Outline Planning Approval, on 21st December 2005, and Detailed Planning Approval, on 20th April 2006.
This meant that the 'brownfield' Lennoxtown could have been granted a complete and different designation depending on who submitted the application.
It also ties in with what the Independent Valuer stated https://footballtaxhavens.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/inglis-comment.png
''That is was an inevitability that there would be a future change in planning designation (one month after his report actually) and that is why Developers would be prepared to expose themselves to a degree of risk''
In the light of all this how can anyone in Public Office even begin to justify this sale?
It is very clear the Greater Glasgow Health Board broke their own guidelines ''''when it had to be proved there was explicit agreement between the property adviser and the independent valuer that an ''off market'' sale will deliver a clear advantage over an open market sale''.
As already shown Inglis the Independent Valuer stated in his report ''‘it being assumed that the property (lennoxtown) is publicly offered to the market’
So there you have it, The CEO of Greater Glasgow Health Board explicitly reminded Lawwell that he was both inaccurate and erroneous in his thinking, he was also reminded him that his offer was totally unacceptable, despite this everyone still felt that this was worth proceeding with and that it offered a greater advantage than selling Lennoxtown exposed to the open market!!!