Conditional Missive with Flamingo Land: FOI response (reference 0547)

23 September 2024

09 October 2024

1. When does this Missive of sale expire with Flamingo Land and what made you sell the land conditionally to them? 
2. Should you not have had concerns regarding the road infrastructure given the type of company they are? 
3. Why can you not give it back to the community?

1. In August 2014 a competitive tender exercise was undertaken to appoint a commercial property marketing agent specialising in tourism related leisure development for SE’s site at West Riverside in Balloch. In October 2014 GVA were appointed as SE’s national marketing agent. In spring 2015 an open marketing process was undertaken. Following a closing date for interested bids on the 31st July 2015, 5 bids were received and analysed in accordance with pre agreed selection criteria. As a result of this open marketing exercise and assessment of the bids against the selection criteria, the highest scoring bidder was Flamingo Land Ltd, which was thereafter identified as the preferred developer.

    

   Scottish Enterprise could have elected to sell the land unconditionally. However, SE intentionally adopted a sale mechanism that is subject to detailed planning consent to ensure that the statutory planning process is fully respected including community consultation by the proposed developer as part of the planning application process.

    

   For context, Exclusivity Agreements and Conditional Missives are commonly used as preliminary agreements to property sales, usually to allow the proposed buyer the opportunity to carry out investigations into the title and the property (due diligence) and to complete negotiations for the sale. An Exclusivity Agreement between SE and Flamingo Land was considered appropriate at the time principally because development of the land is heavily constrained by several factors such as ecology, flooding, and possible contamination from previous uses.

    

   The expiry date of the conditional missive is commercially sensitive and therefore withheld under regulation 10(5)(e) of EIRs. It is SE's view that the release of the information would, or would be likely to, cause substantial harm to the legitimate economic interests of the developer, Flamingo Land (FL) and SE itself.
   
   
2. As part of the planning process the developer was required to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment Report which is inclusive of Traffic and Transport concerns. This is available via the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park planning portal. A link to the application has been provided below. In addition, you will also find a response from Transport Scotland, the national transport agency for Scotland in relation to the proposed development.
   Application
   
   
3. Scottish Enterprise is engaged in early-stage discussions with community groups with regards a community Asset Transfer Request under the terms of Community Empowerment (Scotland ) Act 2015. At this time, Scottish Enterprise has not received an Asset Transfer Request, nor did we receive any expressions of interest from the community during the original marketing period in 2015. We would also advise that SE’s consideration of any Asset Transfer Request for the west riverside site would be impacted by the final planning decision in respect of the Flamingo Land Proposals, including the possibility of appeal by the developer to the Scottish Government.