Save SOBO Beach campaign update · Monday 19 October 2026
We’re still waitingfor answers.
Today, we’ve written to BCP Council Leader Millie Earl and Councillor Eleanor Connolly, Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee.
Whilst we welcomed the progress made at last week’s Full Council meeting, including the offer of another eleven months for SOBO and the commitment to independent scrutiny, our concerns about how this twenty-year procurement was designed, authorised and conducted remain unresolved.
The Council has provided responses and public assurances, but we’re still waiting for substantive, documented answers to the central questions and concerns that we’ve raised.
What are we asking for?
We’ve asked the Council Leader and the Chair of Audit & Governance to:
Support a further resolution ensuring that the independent review is completed and its material findings considered before the Council signs a binding twenty-year agreement.
A voluntary extension of the procurement standstill, to give the democratic and governance procedures time to progress.
Clarity on what the independent reviews agreed at Full Council will examine, who will conduct them, how their independence will be assured and how their findings will be reported.
The review needs to examine the whole process.
That includes the decisions made before the tender was issued.
Who determined the twenty-year lease structure, the tender requirements and their weightings? How did those decisions reflect BCP’s adopted Seafront Strategy, its commitments to public engagement and its own Financial Regulations?
We’ve identified specific Council requirements concerning social-value scoring, financial appraisals, procurement decision records and continuity arrangements.
We want to see the evidence that those requirements were properly considered and followed, including the assessment records, financial-assurance procedures and decisions authorising the procurement.
There are also questions about the Full Council meeting itself:
Were councillors given sufficient and accurate information about the available options, their implications and the proposed amendments before being asked to vote?
We believe a governance examination should look at when amendments were circulated, what information councillors had when they voted and the final adopted resolution.
We are asking the Council to account for how it managed a major public asset and followed its own policies and procedures.
These questions deserve proper independent examination.
The clock is ticking
Why the timing matters.
Full Council has agreed to independent scrutiny, which we welcome, but it has yet to ensure that the review’s findings can inform the decision before the Council becomes contractually committed for twenty years.
An independent review should allow the Council to examine and, where necessary, put things right before it signs the agreement.
We’re continuing to seek a constructive resolution with the Council and support from councillors across political groups.
Standstill ends
26 Oct
The published procurement standstill is due to end on 26 October, so the coming days urgently matter.
We’ll continue sharing the evidence, correspondence and outstanding questions as our work progresses, while respecting appropriate commercial and legal confidentiality.
We want to safeguard SOBO Beach’s future and ensure decisions about our public coastline are made properly, transparently and in the interests of the communities they serve.
Another summer counts, but so do the next twenty years.
In the coming days, we’ll be sharing the questions we’ve put to the Council, and how you can help us get the answers we need.
Thank you for your continued support.
Save SOBO Beach
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