Agenda item

Mr R W Gough, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Supporting Independence; and Mr S Gibbons, Head of Rural Regeneration, Environment and Regeneration Directorate, will attend the meeting at 12 noon to answer Members’ questions on this item.  A representative of the Friends of the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale will also attend the meeting to give evidence.

The Chairman agreed to take this as an urgent item because it had only recently come to light that the Cabinet Member had submitted comments to DEFRA on this matter on behalf of the County Council, and the Minister’s decision was expected to be taken within the next few days.

Mrs P A V Stockell declared a prejudicial interest in this item as a Director of East Malling Research and left the room for the entire discussion.

(1)       Mr R W Gough, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Supporting Independence, and Mr S Gibbons, Head of Rural Regeneration, Environment and Regeneration Directorate, attended the meeting to answer Members’ questions on this item.  Mr A Hillier, owner of the Brogdale site, and Dr Joan Morgan, representing the Friends of the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale, also gave evidence to the Committee in support of the principle of keeping the National Fruit Collections at the Brogdale site.  Dr Morgan also submitted a written statement which was circulated to Members at the meeting.

(2)       Mr Gough explained that, in January 2007, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) put the future curation of the National Fruit Collections, currently located at Brogdale, Faversham, out to open competition.  The original closing date for bids was in May.  The published criteria against which the bids were to be judged did not include the views of local authorities, other interested parties or the public.  As the closing date for bids approached, few details of any of the bids were available but it appeared that some may have proposed removing the Collections from Kent.  Mr Gough was very anxious to try to ensure that the Collections stayed in Kent but felt that simply telling DEFRA this would have no effect whatsoever, and he was concerned that if DEFRA eventually selected a bid that removed the Collections from Kent, the County Council would be criticised for not having done enough to prevent this.  He therefore felt that the only way in which KCC could have any influence, and even then it would be very marginal, would be by supporting a particular bid on grounds which related to the published criteria.  Mr Gough had details only of one bid.  This was the bid submitted jointly by the Brogdale Horticultural Trust, Imperial College and East Malling Research, which proposed relocating the Collections to East Malling.  This bid appeared to have a sound scientific basis, thus meeting one of DEFRA’s criteria, and Mr Gough therefore wrote to DEFRA on behalf of the County Council supporting this bid on 10 May.  Mr Gough was aware that various interested parties wished to retain the collections at Brogdale but had received no details of any bids which might have proposed this.

 (3)      Subsequently, in August, DEFRA had re-opened the tendering process but did not inform the County Council of this at the time.  Mr Gough said that he only found out that the tendering process had been re-opened some time later.  In early November, following discussions with a representative of the Friends of the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale, he considered whether to re-examine the view he had previously expressed to DEFRA.  On being contacted, DEFRA made it very clear that, while the County Council was welcome to make further representations, these would not have any effect on DEFRA’s choice of bidder.  Mr Gough therefore decided not to make any further representations. 

(4)       Mr Gibbons added that the latest information from DEFRA was that a recommendation as to which bid should be accepted had been passed to the relevant Minister, Lord Rooker, on the previous day.

(5)       Mr Hillier, as owner of the Brogdale site, said that he was anxious to preserve the Collections at Brogdale but he had not sought to support any individual bid.  He saw keeping the Collections at Brogdale as a key part of the Swale Regeneration Initiative and was baffled that KCC could support moving the Collections away from Swale, particularly when they had not examined the three bids which proposed retaining the Collections at Brogdale.

(6)       Dr Morgan, representing the Friends of the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale, explained the international importance of the Collections and that they had originally been located at the Brogdale site some 50 years ago because of its ideal soil and climatic conditions.  She explained that moving the Collections in their entirety would be extremely difficult, expensive, could take up to 5 years, and would break the continuity of those records which related specifically to the Brogdale site.  There was therefore a danger that, if one of the non-Brogdale bids was accepted, the Collections might be rationalised or dispersed, or some varieties would just be cryo-preserved.

(7)       Members’ questions covered the following issues:-

Status of Decision

(8)       In answer to a question from Mrs Dean, Mr Gough explained that, because this was a matter over which KCC had very little influence, he felt that his decision to write to DEFRA in support of the East Malling bid was a matter of routine business, which did not require a formal Cabinet Member Decision.  However, he did accept that he could and should have consulted more with the local Members concerned before he sent his letter of 10 May 2007 to DEFRA.

Scientific Advice

(9)       In answer to a question from Mrs Dean, Mr Gough confirmed that he had not sought any expert scientific advice before writing his letter of 10 May 2007 to DEFRA.

Conclusions

(10)     RESOLVED that:-

(a)       Mr Gough, Mr Gibbons, Mr Hillier and Dr Morgan be thanked for attending the meeting to answer Members’ questions;

(b)       a letter be sent on behalf of Committee to the Minister as a matter of urgency urging that he select a bid which would allow the Collections to remain at Brogdale;

(c)        Cabinet be recommended to urgently reconsider the Council’s position on the future location of the National Fruit Collections, with a view to advising the Minister as a matter of urgency that, in the light of further information that had only recently become available, the Council now urged that the Collections should remain at Brogdale;

(d)       a reminder be issued to Cabinet Members and Managing Directors of the constitutional requirement to consult local Members before taking decisions under delegated powers or when preparing a report for consideration by the Council, Cabinet, Cabinet Member or a Committee; and

(e)      in issuing the reminder in (d) above, Cabinet Members and Managing Directors be requested to interpret the term “local Member” widely, so as to include, as appropriate, Members who represented neighbouring divisions, or divisions whose residents made significant use of the facility concerned.