BRADFORD Council's decision to exclude the public and press from a discussion about the purchase of a "regeneration opportunity" has been criticised.

On Tuesday the Council's Executive voted to move ahead with the planned purchase. No details of the opportunity, other than that it is "in the Bradford District" have been made public, and the discussion was held in a closed session of the meeting that required any public or press at the meeting to leave.

The live stream of the meeting was also switched off during the discussion.

The Executive voted to move ahead, and to exempt the item from "call in" - meaning non Executive members will be unable to debate the decision.

The Council said a call in "may be prejudicial to the interest of the Council or a third party."

After the decision opposition Councillor Mike Pollard (Con: Baildon) said: “I criticised the proposal and raised significant questions, one of which related to the rationale for pleading ‘commercial confidentiality’ in this case.

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"I appreciate that which ‘interests the public’ is not necessarily the same as the ‘public interest’, but I saw no strong justification for not placing the specific matter discussed into the public domain.

"The decision not to do so won’t even spare the Labour controlled Council political embarrassment; it will merely defer it.”

In response to this criticism, Parveen Akhtar, City Solicitor said: "Councillor Pollard was present at the meeting when the matter was discussed in the absence of the press and public.

"He asked why the matter was not being made public and a full explanation was given.

"The explanation was clear – the Council is dealing with sensitive commercial matters directly affecting the future of businesses in the District’s economy.

"These matters are the subject of continuing negotiations with those businesses and other parties.

"They cannot be played out in public as no commercial organisation would consider doing business with the Council if that was to happen. Quite apart from the damage that might be done to the reputation and value of these organisations if the progress of negotiations should falter in public, the Council is similarly entitled to conduct negotiations out of the public domain to seek to ensure that the best value that can be achieved is secured for the people of the District.

"The Council is committed to transparency but only at the right time and in the right manner."