WAVERLEY councillors agreed to invest more than £1 million taxpayer’s cash in an “income generating” property during two behind-closed-doors meetings on Tuesday last week.

It comes after Waverley Borough Council’s decision-making executive committee signed off a new ‘investment strategy’ in October to invest millions of pounds in property to help offset the funding shortfall caused by cuts to the council’s government grant.

This decision was reached despite objections by the leader of the council’s opposition Farnham Residents party, Jerry Hyman, who questioned the wisdom of turning the council into a property investor.

On Tuesday last week, a special meeting of the executive was called to discuss an “economic development property acquisition opportunity” identified by Waverley’s new investment advisory board set up in the wake of October’s decision.

This discussion took place after the exclusion of press and public from the council chamber in Godalming. However, the draft minutes for the meeting reveal councillors agreed to recommend the opportunity to a meeting of the full council later that evening, which signed off the proposal.

In October, the council delegated the decision to bid for properties up to £1m in value to the executive with any value above this requiring full council approval - indicating the current investment opportunity is worth in excess of £1m.

A Waverley spokesman said: “Waverley’s new investment advisory board is seeking approval from full council to bid for a commercial property that is on the market.

“This is part of the council’s plan to promote economic development and generate future income, through investment and expanding its portfolio, to ensure the council can carry on delivering its vital services to the community.”

The council is permitted to exclude the press and public from otherwise-public committee meetings if it can demonstrate “the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information” to be discussed.