Stockport Council responds to our petition

In an article in today's Stockport Express, headlined "Transparency call over Market Place hall deal", a council spokesman has responded to our petition calling on Stockport Council to reveal the deal with Steve Pilling for The Produce Hall, which has attracted 3,000 supporters. The council spokesman states that, "We are fully satisfied and can reiterate once again that the process to award the leases on both the Produce Hall and Blackshaws was fair, equal and transparent. We undertook a competitive selection process, in line with established commercial property practice, following which Steve Pilling was selected as the preferred bidder." "Details of the individual submissions are commercially sensitive, and it would be inappropriate and breach confidentiality to release information provided to us by third parties as part of this process. We can confirm they are in line with other arrangements we have in place with many other tenants across Stockport." It appears that Stockport Council have heard your calls for greater transparency on this deal and have responded with yet another refusal to state how much public money is being invested to support a private businessman in a public building. We will be formally presenting Stockport Council with our petition to reveal the deal with Steve Pilling for The Produce Hall next week and we expect a better response than merely hiding behind the standard excuse of "commercially sensitive" information. This is an important issue for the local community and the public deserves answers. Thanks again for your continued support. #RevealTheDeal