MEMBERS of Luton Borough Council’s executive formally agreed last night to take the Drill Hall site of the authority’s list of assets for sale.
The executive had already agreed at a secret meeting in December to scrap the sale of the site to the Shia Muslim Masjid-e-Ali group for £1.5 million, and to use the site for housing instead.
The council continued its silence following the December 12 meeting, and only revealed its decision nine days later when documents for Tuesday night’s meeting became public on its website.
At the Town Hall meeting the executive rubber-stamped the move by approving the removal of the Drill Hall from the list of assets to be disposed of.
Council leader Hazel Simmons told the meeting: “As you know, we looked at two options that were considered and we went for the option to do housing provision, a mix of affordable and private dwellings.
“There will be a formal report that comes back to the on how to take that forward.”
Lib Dem group leader David Franks took the opportunity to put on record his unhappiness with how the Drill Hall saga was dealt with publicly by the council.
He said: “I do understand that we took the original decision in private. I understand that some of the information could have prejudiced the council’s position in the future with what we want to do with the land.
“But given the sensitivity of the issue and the comments from the scrutiny board I do think it’s regrettable that we didn’t issue a statement immediately following the meeting.”
Councillor Simmons said she and Councillor Franks would have to “agree to disagree”.
She added: “We did say that we accepted some of the points that were made by the scrutiny board and regret the difficulties that it caused for the Masjid-e-Ali.”
The council says it will take all reasonable steps to help the Masjid-e-Ali, currently based in Moor Street, find alternative sites.