Land Transactions between the Council and Celtic Football Club Statement

[pete 2,499]

In April 2009 Glasgow City Council sold the former recreation ground at Westthorn in the Parkhead area of the city to Celtic Football Club ("the Club") for £675,000. Westthorn was part of a larger set of transactions under which the Club were able to consolidate their land holdings in the immediate vicinity of Celtic Park and the Council was able to acquire sites required for both the East End Regeneration Route and for the Commonwealth Games.

 

Westthorn lies on the south side of London Road and is bounded by a whisky bond to the east, Council allotments and the River Clyde to the south and the former Belvedere Hospital to the west. Westthorn is back lying, with the only access and egress restricted to an unadopted, narrow track running from London Road.

 

The Club proposed to use Westthorn as a training facility. The purchase price has been subject to adverse commentary that it did not reflect the market value of the land, and that this amounted to the Council granting unlawful State aid to the Club.

 

The issue of State aid has been independently investigated by the European Commission. The European Commission is the only body with the legal authority to investigate whether State aid is present in a measure. The Westthorn sale was also scrutinised by the Council's external auditors Audit Scotland, to ensure that a market value was obtained in the Westthorn sale. The European Commission investigation concluded that there had been no unlawful State aid given to the Club by the Council, while Audit Scotland concluded that a price in excess of market value had been obtained. The Council achieved the best price possible for the site in question.

 

In November 2013 the Council commissioned an independent valuation of the site from an international real estate service company. This was done for the purposes of the European Commission investigation into the land sales. The report concluded that, in their opinion, the Market Value of Westthorn could be fairly stated as £200,000 (pdf icon Savills report & valuation November 2013 [3Mb], pdf icon Savills report & valuation November 2013 Appendix [1Mb]). This figure is based both on benchmarking based on contemporaneous market evidence, less the significant abnormal ground condition costs at Westthorn.

 

The Council holds a number of geotechnical reports which describe the ground conditions at Westthorn. For example, parts of Westthorn are contaminated with chemicals, there is one mine entrance on, and one other in close proximity to, the land and the land is underlain with abandoned mine workings from coal seams at various depths. Decontamination of Westthorn will require removal of soil and capping. The mine entrances and workings will require 'grouting', which involves pumping inert material into the voids under the site in order to stabilise the ground. The site is also within the blast zone of a distillery and bonded warehouse meaning large parts of the site could not be used for residential development. These abnormal costs have been assessed by an external expert and verified by the Council's in-house experts. A guide to valuation methodology is provided below.

 

The Council has received a large number of requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 for information regarding the sale of the land to the Club, the surveys and other reports on the condition and value of the site, and for documents submitted to the European Commission and Audit Scotland in relation to their respective investigations. Given this continuing interest in this matter the Council has decided to publish the material it holds on this topic. This can be accessed through the related content area. For a comprehensive review of the history of the transaction as a whole we recommend reading the first item, which is the formal submission from the Scottish Government to the European Commission in respect of the alleged breach of State aid rules.

 

Information published here has been redacted (i.e. content removed or obscured) in two main ways. Firstly, some of the financial information within these documents is considered to be commercially sensitive and so it has been withheld on the basis that its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the financial interests of the parties it relates to. Secondly, we have generally redacted names of all individuals concerned with this matter, on the basis that this is personal data and disclosure of staff identities would breach the data protection principles.

 

The transactions between the Council and the Club have a long and complex history, so to assist understanding the context of this transaction we have also produced a chronology of significant events which can be accessed here.

 

We have also included some Frequently asked questions relating to this.

 

https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=20349

[pete 2,499]

Celtic overpaid council in 'State Aid' deal as true value of land at centre of case is revealed

NEW figures released by Glasgow City Council shows that the Parkhead club forked out THREE times the market value of the land to leave taxpayers quids in.

 

 

Celtic paid over the odds for a piece of land near their Parkhead Stadium (Photo: Daily Record)

 

 

GLASGOW City Council has revealed they managed to get Celtic to pay more than three times the true value for a piece of land at the centre of the 'State Aid' rammy.

 

The Parkhead club and the council were investigated by the European Union (EU) after complaints were made about the 2009 purchase of the Westthorn site – a piece of land around Celtic Park.

 

It was claimed Celtic had been sold the land on the cheap and that this was a form of 'State Aid', which is outlawed by the EU.

 

However, in November 2014 the European Commission dismissed the allegation that Celtic broke EU rules in land deals involving Glasgow City Council.

The council was forced to spend £280,000 of taxpayers' money defending itself in the case.

 

And council chiefs have now revealed that cash ate into the huge profit they made on the sale as the land was worth less than a third of what they got the Hoops to cough up.

 

Celtic forked out £739,500 with the council managing to get them to pay well over the odds for a piece of land worth just £200,000.

 

Despite being cleared by the EU, the council still find themselves having to deal with repeated requests for information relating to the land deal.

 

They have now put relevant documentation online along with a series of Frequently Asked Questions in a bid to further assure people of the transparency of the transaction and the fact the council got a great deal for taxpayers.

 

In their FAQ section the council state: "What did Celtic pay for Westthorn: The disposal figure was agreed at £675,000. When the sale was completed in April 2009, an inflationary uplift was added to this sum giving an actual sale price of £739,500.

 

 

"The retrospective independent valuation carried out in 2014 concluded that the site was actually only worth £200,000."

 

They also explain why they have uploaded the information. They state: "The Council has received a large number of requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 for information regarding the sale of the land to the Club, the surveys and other reports on the condition and value of the site, and for documents submitted to the European Commission and Audit Scotland in relation to their respective investigations.

 

"Given this continuing interest in this matter the Council has decided to publish the material it holds on this topic."

 

Another section titled "Specific clarification pointso" on their website says: "A number of erroneous comments have been made in relation to this transaction which, when taken out of context, allege that the Council had not secured market value for Westthorn or had ignored professional guidance.

 

Celtic reject claims the club benefited from state aid in land deals

 

"In response, this section sets out to clarify the actual situation in relation to the four main inaccurate comments which have been made."

 

The council then explores a number of spurious claims such as 'The site at Westthorn was worth £7,500,000' and explains why they are false.

 

Council officials hope that by publishing a large number of the relevant documents and by answering key questions online they can ease the workload of staff who have to deal with the queries of those who are still convinced Celtic were somehow given the land on the cheap rather than actually paying well over the odds for it.

[MacK1950 2,271]

Does this mean if the scum decide to convert it to a training facility they and nobody else will have to meet the cost of reinstating the land for safe use?

[the gunslinger 3,366]

What about how

Janesfield st which they bought for a quid

[StuGers 477]

Is it not true that they then used this land as a deposit against a loan? For a much higher value? Which then blows that valuation out of the water?

[pete 2,499]

Does this mean if the scum decide to convert it to a training facility they and nobody else will have to meet the cost of reinstating the land for safe use?

 

It is their land they can do what they want with it. The rest is a red herring.

[pete 2,499]

Glasgow council's independent survey 6 years after fact can be filed as a SFA independent survey into the cup final riot. How can anything be independent when one of the parties can choose who does it. Whyte and Duff and Duffer spring to mind.

[RANGERRAB 3,384]

Rather than the land I'd say it was the ultra soft loans from the basketcase Co-op bank which need investigated. Put simply it's not commercially viable for banks to offer loans to businesses at such low rates.

So who arranged these loans ? Reid ? Wilson ? Others ? Did they use their political influence here ?

[pete 2,499]

What about how

Janesfield st which they bought for a quid

 

To be honest They could have bought Rangers for a quid and got a UEFA top grade stadium and a state of the art training ground. I am sure Lloyds would have been happy to lend them 18 million.