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  The problem is not about either Rix or the Town Clerk. It is about the play off between probity & transparency and 'commercial confidentiality'. What I chose to do with my own money is my own business [U]but[/U] if I am spending other peoples money which has been stolen from them through tax I should agonise over every pound spent knowing that I will be called upon to account for my spending.
  
  There are various models which I can cite on how good practice can and should be used when looking at neighbourhood improvement schemes (outside compulsory purchase which brings in all sorts of problems about correct valuations).
  
  Councils can buy entire properties at auction. If a council wishes to buy a property they should keep quiet about their plans and get a ringer to bid on their behalf (otherwise the vendor may get a bidder to push the price up beyond its 'true' vale). After the auction the council has honestly bought the property at the true market price. i.e. what the highest bidder will pay.
  
  An alternative is to pay for improvements to property owned by others.
  
  There are two models normally used. Say you own a property valued at £200,000. We then spend £50,000 on improving the property. If you sell immediately you owe council £50,000. After a year £45,000 etc tapering away until after 10 years you owe nothing.
  
  The second (and much better way) is you own property valued at £200,000 and council 'invests' £50,000 in home improvements BUT then owns 20% equity stake so will get 20% of sale price whenever sold.
  
  [U]Because[/U] of the secrecy involved in the LoveHoney purchase even AFTER the transaction has been finished it is no wonder that the town and the blogosphere are full of rumours of back-handers and dirty dealing.
  
  If everything is as good as Rix says and somehow his business acumen has got us all a real bargain please tell us. We'd all like to know how he did it (we might even pick up a few tips?) and it's what we're all [U]obliged[/U] to do when we are given the responsibility of spending other people's money.
  
  Hopefully we'll all be watching young Wiggins' 'Ghosts of Dover' on the lazer display fountain rather than the 'Ghosts of Poulson and T Dan Smith' played by local characters.

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