Polaska lease

Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[email address]

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Dear Thomas Richards

Freedom of information request - FOI/11891

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Polaska lease

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of
any exemptions. Where consideration is being given to exemptions the 20
working day timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable
depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases
you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be
indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the
earliest opportunity.

If we are unable to provide you with the information requested we will
notify you of this together with the reason(s) why, and details of how you
may appeal.

Please note that the directorate team may contact you for further
information where we believe that the request is not significantly clear
for us to respond fully. 

Kind Regard

Information Management Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

7th Floor, Zone B

Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[email address]

Dear Thomas Richards

Request FOI/11891

Further to your request received on 03/03/2025, I confirm that the Council
has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000. Specifically, you have requested the following information:

"Please provide me with a copy of the lease between the Council and
Polaska granted for the site of the former Purley Sainsburys in 1979, and
a copy of the revised lease agreed between the Council and Polaska in
2004.

I am also keen to see the specific lease between the Council and
Sainsburys for the supermarket, and the revised lease when it was sold to
Oriental City.

The 1979 lease might not be necessarily with Polaska, but it should be
easy to locate, not least as the site is subject to a major project and
recent planning permission."

The Council considers the cost information requested to be commercially
sensitive information and covered by the exemption provided in Section 43
of Freedom of Information Act.  This exemption applies to information
which if disclosed would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial
interests of any person, including the Council, as we are in commercial
discussion with Polaska for the new lease and the Council is currently
involved an ongoing tendering/purchasing for the service etc.

It is important to remember that when information is released under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, it is considered released to the wider
public. In deciding whether to apply this exemption the Council is
expected to balance the public interest test in withholding the
information against the public interest in disclosing the information.

Although there is always a clear case for transparency of council spend
and in informing the public how the council allocates taxpayer’s
resources, the information is considered, by the Council, to be
commercially sensitive as its disclosure would, or would be likely to,
prejudice the commercial interests of the Council, as it is considered
that if the information is disclosed to you it could potentially weaken
the Council ability to obtain value for money in respect of any future
purchases of this type.

The Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on its
online Disclosure Log. (Any request included within this log will be
anonymised appropriately)

To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit our website available
here:

[1]The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act | Croydon Council
(disclosure-log.co.uk)

If you are dissatisfied with the way the Council has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act, you may ask for an internal review.
This should be submitted to us within 40 working days of this response.
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint by:

Email:        [2][email address]

Writing:     Information Team

London Borough of Croydon

Bernard Weatherill House

Floor 3 - Zone E

8 Mint Walk

Croydon, CR0 1EA

Any requests received after the 40 working day time limit will be
considered only at the discretion of the council.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Information Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

Bernard Wetherill House,

Mint Walk,

Croydon,

CR0 1EA

[3][email address]

[email address]

References

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Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[email address]

Dear Thomas Richards

Acknowledgement: Internal Review in relation to request FOI/11891

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Polaska lease

Thank you for your request for an internal review of FOI/11891 - Freedom
of Information request - Polaska lease which was received on 18/3/25. 

As a result of your request, we will be carrying out an internal review.
An officer from our legal team, who was not involved in the original
decision, will reconsider your request for information and notify you of
their decision by 15/04/2025. 

Our colleagues from legal will be in touch with you as soon as they have
an update on your case.

Your email requesting a review has come into our Infreemation system that
we use for FoIs, and has automatically been given a new ref number. This
will be cancelled and this enquiry merged into the current request
F/11891. Please use this reference in any correspondence regarding this
request.

If you have any queries regarding this matter please do not hesitate to
contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Information Management Team

Dear Thomas Richards,

Further to your email dated 18 March 2025, in which you requested an
Internal Review of the Council’s response to your request for information
made under the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA), I have now concluded
this review, and I am able to reply as follows.

In your request for Internal Review, you asked the Council to reconsider
your request as you believed that you had not been provided with the
information requested.

In your request for information dated 3 March 2025, you requested the
following information:

“Please provide me with a copy of the lease between the Council and
Polaska granted for the site of the former Purley Sainsburys in 1979, and
a copy of the revised lease agreed between the Council and Polaska in
2004.

I am also keen to see the specific lease between the Council and
Sainsburys for the supermarket, and the revised lease when it was sold to
Oriental City.

The 1979 lease might not be necessarily with Polaska, but it should be
easy to locate, not least as the site is subject to a major project and
recent planning permission.”

The Council responded to you on the 7 March 2025 and provided the
following response:

“The Council considers the cost information requested to be commercially
sensitive information and covered by the exemption provided in Section 43
of Freedom of Information Act.  This exemption applies to information
which if disclosed would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial
interests of any person, including the Council, as we are in commercial
discussion with Polaska for the new lease and the Council is currently
involved an ongoing tendering/purchasing for the service etc…”

In your request for an Internal Review dated 18 March 2025, you stated the
following:

“I do not agree that disclosing a lease that is, at the very least, 20
years old prejudices anyones commercial interests. The cut and paste
nature of the refusal notice ignores the specific circumstances regarding
the lease (for example there is no impact on any future council
purchase).”

On receiving your request for an Internal Review, I contacted the Interim
Director of Commercial Investment & Capital, who has provided additional
information in answer to the issues raised in your Internal Review.

I have been informed that Council is currently in commercial negotiations
with Polaska and other parties in respect of the leisure centre and
swimming pool site development.  This includes consideration of the Lease
and its terms, which has recently been granted conditional planning
consent for the development, subject to the GLA agreement.

As such the Council considers that releasing the requested information
would prejudice the Council’s ability to conclude agreement on the Lease
and agree terms.  The Council, therefore, considers that the requested
information to be commercially sensitive information and exempt under
Section 43 (2) of FoIA, information whose disclosure would, or would be
likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any legal person.

While there is an obvious public interest in such matters this needs to be
balanced against the prejudice that would arise if such information were
to be provided, which would be likely to prejudice the commercial
interests of the Council and prevent the Council concluding negotiations
with Polaska. Thereby resulting in the Council being prejudiced in
successful concluding agreement of the new Lease and likely adversely
affecting the proposed development.

If you are not content with the outcome of the Internal Review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Howard Passman

020 8726 6000 ext. 27103

Resources Directorate

Legal Services Division

12th Floor
Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

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