AUDITORS have accepted that a Monmouthshire council meeting held to consider the £21 million purchase of Newport Leisure Park met legal guidelines – after previously highlighting the issue as a significant risk.

An investment committee meeting held on March 6 last year, where it was decided the purchase of the land should be approved by the council's cabinet, was attended by just two of its five members, with the other three giving apologies for absence.

Cllr Alan Davies - who is not a member of the committee - also attended, representing Labour group leader Dimitri Batrouni - this was within the rules of the committee, which allows for outside members to substitute to meet the minimum of three councillors for the meeting to be quorate.

Peter Davies, the council’s chief officer for resources, told an audit committee meeting on Thursday that internal auditors have accepted the explanation and that their report will be changed.

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The internal audit report had highlighted the issue as a significant risk and said decisions made at the meeting could be legally challenged.

Questions were raised by Cllr Tony Easson over the issue at Thursday’s meeting, who suggested more members should sit on the committee to avoid any future issues.

“I am concerned about the democratic process of the committee,” Cllr Easson said.

“It does not seem to be strong enough in terms of quorum at the moment.”

He said the committee “needs boosting up” to avoid potential issues in the future.

But Cllr Phil Murphy, who sits on the committee, said numbers have been kept low due to the commercial confidentiality of issues it discusses.

“There is a feeling that the more people you get involved in these discussions, the more chance of leakage there is,” he said.

“A lot of what we look at is dismissed. It is only the odd one that fully meets the criteria.”

The meeting heard that the leisure park has “performed well” for the council in generating income, though it was suggested that challenges may lie ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Debra Hill Howells, head of commercial, property, facilities and fleet at the council, said several tenants on the site will be directly impacted.

“We will work with our tenants on an individual basis to help them as much as we can through this period,” she said.

Meanwhile occupancy rates at CastleGate Business Park in Caldicot have fallen from 95 per cent, when the council bought it in 2018, to 88 per cent.

But an occupier for one of the vacant units has recently been secured, the meeting heard, and the position is “starting to improve.”