The county council’s Commercial & Investment Committee meets this morning. As usual the most interesting decision is taken in private session at the end.

In public session, the committee discusses the disposal of land at Dullingham and Lode, for an expected return of above £500,000 each. We’re asked to agree that with the committee chair’s agreement the officers can dispose of these sites for a lower sum, though if it’s under £450,000 they’d have to come back to the committee for further discussion. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I disagree – I say this smells a bit like a fire sale, and we shouldn’t give the chair the right to agree a sale at up to ten per cent less than what we expect. We successfully persuade the committee of this, so the recommendation is altered and agreed, and the sale will have to come back to committee if we don’t achieve the full sum we hope for.

We agree unanimously on our preferred option for procuring a contract for water supply to the council. Though I support the conclusion, I’m less convinced about how the report lays out its reasoning for the decision, which I will take up separately with the officer. She and her colleagues are an excellent team doing some really good work for the council.

As for the discussion in private session, we’re waiting for advice on how much we can say about what was discussed and how the voting went. More soon. Maybe.