Concerns over 'secret letters' on 'key' Maidenhead Golf Course decision

Questions have been raised about ‘secret letters’ sent between the former administration and CALA Homes that could have changed the course of the Maidenhead Golf Club deal.

CALA Homes is planning to deliver hundreds of homes on the golf course, thanks to an agreement made with RBWM made under the previous administration.

For that to happen, Maidenhead Golf Club had to agree to surrender its lease of the land from the Royal Borough early, in exchange for payment.

But at the last full council meeting, a controversy began brewing over the long-stop date for the golf course deal.

The contract originally included details that would have allowed the Royal Borough to withdraw from the agreement without penalties after August 2023, if the golf club lease was not surrendered.

But in November 2022 the former administration agreed to a variation of the contract that pushed this date back.

This news created rumbles of discontent when it was revealed in a full council meeting in July this year.

The Royal Borough has since looked further into this – and new information shows that while the document was rubber stamped in November 2022, the authority to allow the council to enter into this variation was provided much earlier – in June 2021, by the council’s then chief executive Duncan Sharkey.

This is evidenced by a letter that the chief executive sent to CALA Homes at the time, the new administration said.

The chief executive did have the power to authorise the signing of the deed of variation with CALA Homes, confirmed Cllr Adam Bermange, cabinet member for planning, governance and asset management.

However, he said no officer decision notice – a formal recording of delegated decisions – was made.

Speaking about these discoveries at a full council meeting on Wednesday, Maidenhead resident Andrew Hill said: “In July [this year], officers informed you that six months before the last election, a secret £119million deal was done to extend the contract on the golf club, or we could just have walked away without paying any penalty.

“Tonight, you’re telling residents that in July, no senior officers around you were even aware of the existence of more secret letters that had been sent to developers 18 months before that.

“So we’ve got £199million penalty clauses, secret letters, no officer decision notices recorded, no key decisions at cabinet, no scrutiny panels – nobody knowing anything.

“Does that deal sound lawful to you, councillors?

“This wasn't on the council forward plan. Do you agree with me that this unlawfully bypassed the statutory key decision process that protects the public and councillors’ right to know?”

Cllr Bermange replied: “I hear the shock in your voice and I think I echo some of it.”

Officer decision notices ‘are supposed to be used’ under legal regulations from 2014, he said.

However, he noted that it was not common practice at the time to record many decisions in this way. Cllr Bermange called this ‘timid’ and ‘regrettable’.

He said that governance arrangements around recording officer decisions ‘has been strengthened significantly’ since then, within the new administration.

Key decisions should mean greater scrutiny – and Cllr Bermange said that, in his personal view, this variation to the long-stop date could be considered a key decision.

“But that’s not for me to [say],” he added. “It falls on relevant overview and scrutiny panel to challenge where they feel a decision that should have been treated as a key decision hasn’t [been].”

He said he would bring it up with relevant overview and scrutiny chair ‘and see if they wish to take matters further in terms of investigating’.