Falkirk Gateway Development Agreement

The Council intends to enter into two development agreements with Hargreaves Property Ventures Ltd. to lease / sell land at adjacent sites in Falkirk to the north-west and south-west of Westfield Roundabout. The development agreements follow a marketing exercise carried out in December 2017, a preferred developer being identified (the highest bidder in this case) in 2018 and Heads of Terms agreed in 2021. Developers were required to submit a draft masterplan showing the mix of housing and commercial development proposed and a price offer.

Because the development agreements as a whole impose no positive obligations to develop on the preferred developer, the Council does not consider that they are within the scope of application of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. A positive obligation does exist in relation to the site to the north-west of the two sites which is to construct a shared use pedestrian and cycle lane (the green corridor route). The estimated value of the works involved in the provision of the green corridor route as being GBP234,000, and therefore were that contract to be procured on its own it would not satisfy the value thresholds above which the Public Contracts Regulations apply. On that basis the Council's position is that the development agreement does not have the effect of awarding a contract that would be subject to the regulations. The development agreement also requires the developer to secure planning approval for the development in general prior to purification of the agreement.