Council: cutting corners for property partners?

THE local Council might do well to reflect on the closeness of its relationship with property developers; it seems often to lead to trouble.

From time to time, our Council engages with property developers and strikes deals with Partners which, for one reason or another, turn out to be unsatisfactory.

One such "partner" was Firoka (Alexandra Palace) Ltd. – AKA Firoz Kassam – which was described repeatedly as the council's "preferred bidder" and "development partner".

The Saturday's Times newspaper (10 days ago) carried an article about Mr Kassam's purchase of an estate on Bishops Avenue with a "guide price of £25 million", or possibly 16 times more than the council was going to charge their partner for our Trust's main asset, Alexandra Palace. The council might like to note Mr Kassam's financing arrangement for his latest project:

At the moment I am funding this out of my own resources as I don't do partnerships.

Ain't that the truth!

The status of Mr Kassam's brazen attempt to sue our Charity for £6,200,000 is uncertain. The Trustee of course, is Haringey Council. The Ally Pally deal had been shrouded in secrecy and short cuts were taken. The sale attempt was later found by the High Court to have been unlawful.

Currently, Haringey is hell-bent on ramming through another big property development in another part of the Borough (by Seven Sisters tube station). This looks to be ending up – for the second time – in the High Court. Has the council again cut a corner or two, this time at Wards?