A DEAL to bring a “top quality” hotel to Basildon is close to being completed, it is claimed.

Basildon Council will be discussing a proposal to sell land next to Basildon Golf Course for a hotel tomorrow.

The council is keeping the details hidden claiming they are commercially sensitive and publication would put the whole project in jeopardy.

However independent councillor Kerry Smith has called for the meeting to be delayed or the documents to be made public - or he will release them himself in the public interest.

He claims the council plans to discuss selling fice acres of land - about the equivalent of three football pitches - for £1 and then spend half a million pounds on improvements to the road network.

Mr Smith claims the deal with a private company could cost Basildon taxpayers £1.5 million.

In an e-mail to Basildon Council leader Andrew Baggott, which has been seen by the Echo, Mr Smith requested the agenda item be removed otherwise he would share the papers claiming it is in the public interest to do so.

Basildon Council leader Andrew Baggott responded: “This administration, under various leaders, has been clear in stating its intentions to bring a top quality hotel to the borough, and now, after months of hard work, are close to achieving that aim.

“Releasing commercially sensitive information threatens that deal.

“Not proceeding in a timely fashion threatens that deal.”

Mr Baggott added: “This is not to protect politicians, or the council, but to protect the opportunity we have worked hard to create for the people of Basildon.”

Mr Baggott claimed publishing the details at this point would “sabotage” the deal the result “could be no top quality hotel in the borough, ever”.

He added publication of the details at this time would “threaten the reputation of the council in the long term and its ability to be trusted as a commercial partner, jeopardising potential future projects for years to come”

and risking “the loss of substantial investment to the borough”.

Councillor Smith said: “If it goes through, it could be the deal of the century for developers.

“Of course the proposal may be the best deal that could or can be reached.

“But if so both the deal and the process leading up to it will stand up to a wider scrutiny.”

Mick Toomer, chairman of the Friends of Basildon Golf Course, said: “It’s possible this is the best deal available to us.

“I haven’t been involved in the process.”

Basildon Council will hold a meeting of its planning, oversight and strategy committee at 7pm tomorrow in St George’s Street, The Basildon Centre. The item on disposal of land next to the golf course off Clayhill Lane and the nine page report will be discussed in private.