Council responds to legal action over town centre re-development

Date published: 11 April 2008

Rochdale Council has responded to the news that one of the developers that lost out on the contract to re-develop the town centre is to take legal action against the council.

Sultan Properties are seeking an injunction to prevent the council from signing a £250m contract with winning developer Wilson Bowden because they believe that the competition to find the best developer did not comply with EU rules.

A statement from Rochdale Council reads: "Rochdale Development Agency (RDA) and their professional advisors have, on behalf of Rochdale Council, provided the Ask/Sultan team with a de-brief on their own submission and a clear explanation of the rigorous evaluation process leading to the final selection of Wilson Bowden Developments as the preferred developer for the Rochdale Town Centre scheme.

EU procurement rules have been followed in a fair, open and transparent manner. Both the national regeneration agency, English Partnerships and DTZ, one of the world's leading property and regeneration consultancies stated that this has been one of the most thorough and robust developer selection competitions they have been involved in."

Andy Zuntz, Executive Director at Rochdale Borough Council, said: "Ask/Sultan made a sufficiently good submission to be short-listed as one of the three prospective developers for the town centre redevelopment scheme. However, Wilson Bowden Developments were the unanimous choice of both the Council and English Partnerships. We are very disappointed that Sultan Properties are seemingly taking this action and suggesting that our selection processes did not comply with EU procurement rules. We strongly contest any such suggestion."

Diane Goodwin, Senior Regeneration Manager at English Partnerships, said: "English Partnerships has been involved and supported the Council throughout this rigorous and detailed process to select a preferred developer and we are very surprised that Sultan Properties has decided to pursue legal action after the Ask/Sultan joint submission was not selected by Rochdale Council."