Eastney beach and QuinetiQ

30/07/2010 by Suzanne.

Duncan Heenan is a shareholder of QuinetiQ - he went to the AGM.
This is his report.
I attended the AGM of QinetiQ Group Plc today, to represent the views of Eastney Beach Liaison Group and Naturist Action Group in the dispute over QinetiQ’s blocking of access to the beach. I did this by asking the following question when shareholders were invited to put questions to the Board (the question had been drafted in consultation with the groups represented, and comments from BN)

“Are the Directors and shareholders aware that Company staff have mishandled a simple sale of land, at Fraser Range, Portsmouth, so spectacularly badly that local residents & the local council are increasingly united in opposition - to the extent that senior members of that council’s cabinet referred to QinetiQ in open session as ‘blackguards and corporate bullies’? 
This incompetence and antagonism of the local community has cost the company dearly in that the land could have been sold at a handsome profit, but is rapidly becoming a liability and an embarrassment. Land and property prices have dropped significantly during the avoidable delays and now money is being further squandered on never ending legal costs, plus security guards for an otherwise empty stretch of beach. The Company’s reputation is at rock bottom in the Portsmouth are, as well as in the City of London.
Will the Directors please take immediate action to control Company staff in this matter for the good of all. ”

The answer was given by the relatively new CEO , Leo Quinn. He held strongly to the company’s public stance, that it owned the land and was merely defending its rights and maximising the development value for shareholders. I was not allowed a follow up question.

At the short reception after the AGM, I managed to button-hole Quinn, to see if he would unbend at all off the record, but he would not. He said they were determined to take the legal battle ‘all the way’, and he blamed Portsmouth Council for spending Council tax Payers’ money on opposing them. He accepts that they have no rights over the beach below the high water mark, and says people are welcome to walk along the beach from below that level for access. He would not undertake even to review the Company’s stance on the issue, and he seemed to accept what he is being told by his staff and advisors without question. Even if he had doubts, I don’t think he would have shared them with me, least of all in this forum, but at least I made our view known to all listening. There were several people present who looked as if they could be journalists, but that is only my speculation.

I also spoke to 2 of the non-executive directors, both retired admirals; Sir James Burnell-Nugent (UK) and Edmund P.Glambastini Jr (USA). The former knew of Fraser Range but did not know any of the details of the dispute, the latter did not even know of Fraser Range! I appraised them of the issues and pointed out (as I had done to Leo Quinn), that a policy of confrontation and antagonism towards Portsmouth Council and local people could count against the Company in the future, and even if they won a legal battle, the victory could be phyric, and cost the company heavily in the longer term. I encouraged them, in their non-executive capacity of ‘oversight’ to try to get a review of the Company’s approach with a greater degree of objectivity, and a more conciliatory and compromising approach. I expressed the view that allowing the traditional access to the beach would not harm the development value of the land, and would be more likely to find favour with the Council’s planning committee.

I will follow up my meeting with letters to the 3 directors I spoke to individually, to put the conversations on the record, in the hope that it would encourage them to do something about it.

QinetiQ are a company with a lot of commercial problems, currently making 300 people redundant at a cost of £20m, with another 300 announced to be needed to go. They need cash so the development of their properties will be a high priority, though they have no scope for ‘goodwill’ gestures if it costs them anything. This did not stop the directors getting a share option/bonus incentive deal which will make them all multi-millionaires if they can turn the company around (and no penalty if they don’t) – as usual in the City !

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