Union Terrace: Labour Group minutes 28th July 2011

In the interests of transparency the minutes of the Labour Group meeting, which decided not to include in the Councils forthcoming consultation exercise the option of not selling Union Terrace car/coach park, are reproduced below. Kersten England’s interpretation, of events leading up to James Alexander’s announcement on June 18th that the car/coach park was to be sold to St Johns, are disputed. (see next article)

Lab minutes page 1


Lab minutes page 2


Lab minutes page 3

Bayley apology

Hugh Bayley MP has acknowledged that he was mistaken when claiming that the Union Terrace sale had been under discussion for 18 months. He has promised to write again to all those who received his letter, containing the bogus information, clarifying what really happened.

Separately the St Johns Vice Chancellor has written to confirm our understanding of the timetable which led up to the matter being coded. He says in an Email to me,
“I am sorry, I think Hugh must have mis heard/understood me when we talked recently, my apologies if I wasn’t clear. I took up post in June 2010.
I first talked to council officers about the idea in the autumn of last year. Regular and detailed discussions took place from early this year between my colleagues at York St John and Council officers.
I also recollect we had a discussion in the spring of this year, can’t remember the event, where we touched on the subject of Union Terrace. This was , I think, our first discussion on the issue.
Hope this helps and apologies for any unintended misunderstanding”.