THE value for money of Bournemouth Development Company is to be reviewed in a study commissioned by BCP Council.

Questions about the financial deal the council gets as joint owner were raised by councillors on Monday during a discussion about its Durley Road car park scheme.

Council chief executive Graham Farrant revealed a review of the value for money of the partnership with Morgan Sindall was in the early stages of being agreed.

The decision to approve the sale of the Durley Road car park to the company was brought before Monday’s meeting of its scrutiny board by its new chairman, councillor Stephen Bartlett.

It followed concerns raised by property developer Richard Carr who said the value of the sale was significantly below that of an offer made by his company Fortitudo.

The council is planning to sell the site for £366,000 for redevelopment into 44 flats. He said his Poole-based firm had offered more than £1.5 million for the same project.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Carr said he “understood” carrying out development at larger sites, such as the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth, through the company because it gave the council “strategic input”.

But he said it did not make sense for smaller schemes and questioned whether the partnership was providing the best value for money.

Council director for regeneration Bill Cotton said the scheme was part of the existing agreement with Bournemouth Development Company and so would not be given to other developers.

“People make all sorts of offers all the time on various sites,” he said. “This site is being considered as part of the options agreement and is not for sale.

“It’s not open to offers from other people so it was valued based on its use as a car park and market conditions around it.”

Chief executive Mr Farrant added that the terms of the agreement with its partner Morgan Sindall through Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) were being reviewed, however.

“If this discussion is intended to be about value for money of BDC and its efficacy then I have no problem with that being looked at in its widest sense and indeed we are commissioning a value for money review of the BDC arrangements to date,” he said.

“We are using Local Partnerships – a partnership between the Local Government Association and the Treasury – to do that for us.”

He said the details of what the review would look at were still being agreed but that it would be completed “early on”.

But he added that financial considerations were not the only ones made by the council, “it’s not a straight number of pounds wins,” he said.