The meeting authorised the sale of Beckenham Public Halls to an unnamed purchaser. The meeting also agreed to end the lease with the current leaseholder, MyTime Active. Part of the meeting was held in private to discuss commercially sensitive information.

Sale of Beckenham Public Halls

The Executive discussed the sale of Beckenham Public Halls in Beckenham. The Halls had previously been identified as surplus to requirements and included in the council's asset disposal programme, which was agreed in November 2022. The report considered by the Executive updated a previous report considered at a meeting on 27 November 2024.

The meeting agreed to sell the freehold of the property to an unnamed purchaser, who was only identified as Offer C in the meeting minutes. The minutes do not reveal the identity of any of the bidders for the property, or how much money each of them offered for it. The minutes of the meeting state that Capital receipts generated through the Disposal Programme were to be used to part fund the capital investment being undertaken across the Council’s operational estate as set out within the Operational Property Review. It is not clear what capital investment is being referred to here, or what the Operational Property Review says.

The meeting agreed to end the lease of the Public Halls with the current leaseholder, MyTime Active, who describe themselves on their website as a registered charity and social enterprise. The minutes state that the lease began on 4 April 2019, but do not describe the terms of the lease. They also do not describe what will happen to the existing users of the Public Halls once MyTime Active's lease has ended.

Most of the details about the sale were discussed in a part of the meeting from which the press and public were excluded. The minutes do not record what was discussed in private.