On 4th July 2007 the council (by a majority
of 1
Lib-Dem vote) agreed to sell the freehold of the
Town Office at 13 Clarendon Road to Beals
Independent Estate Agents for £272,000.
The
offices had been purchased in 2002 with a
special preferential loan from Public Money given
by the Labour Government to set up Southsea
Town Council to improve local democracy
In February 2008 Beals moved in and the value
of the building disappeared from the accounts.
We were told that the building had been sold.
Searches at the Land Registry show that the
building was NOT sold but leased to NM Pension
Trustees Ltd (a subsidiary of Liverpool Victoria)
for £260,000 (£12,000 less)
This was a surprise to the Councillors who had
never discussed leasing the offices or had been
told that they had been, but Cllr Man of Puny Stature
signed a lease on 22nd February 2008 without authority.
The
Mortgage issued by NatWest Bank to NM
Pensions
to buy the lease says that they are
not
to share the property with anyone.
How did Beals get in?
On 21st May 2008 Mr Chris Youngs (the puppet town
clerk appointed by Cllr Man of Puny Stature) decided
in the absence of Council permission, appointed lawyers
to GIVE the freehold of the building to Beals plus an
extra £5000 of your money to do repairs to the building.
But
the tenants in flats 13a and 13b Clarendon
Road had to pay £2000 each
What PO12BG would like to know is…what repairs?
What
happened to the missing £12,000?
In disposing of the Council office equipment there
are no records of who bought what. It is believed
that Beals paid £10 in cash for all of the desks
and some of the other office equipment.
What are the arrangements between Beals Estate
Agents and Cllr Man of Puny Stature (a property developer?
PO12BG
interviewed a Mr. Daniel Byrne Associate
Partner of Beals and he said “Man of Puny Stature got a
very good drink out of this deal.” He also said “we
moved because we saw it was a far larger
office than what we had.”
