Northampton Borough Council

The complainant has requested information about disposal of Council land in Northampton Town Centre (known as the Greyfriars site) and the selection process of the preferred developer. The Council supplied some information but withheld the remainder under regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR – confidentiality of commercial information. The Commissioner’s decision is that Northampton Borough Council is correct to engage regulation 12(5)(e) for questions 3, 7 and 18 of the request, and that the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. She finds that the exception is not engaged for questions 2 and 9. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose the identity of the bidders who responded to the Council’s stage 1 expression of interest for the Greyfriars site; disclose the identity of the bidders who submitted full tenders in response to the Council’s stage 2 invitation to tender for the Greyfriar’s site; disclose the identity of the company that withdrew from the bidding process.