Ceredigion County Council will discuss plans behind closed doors to buy a significant property in Lampeter while selling off another five in Aberystwyth.

The council’s Cabinet members will be asked to exclude press and public from a portion of a meeting on 3 June to discuss the plans to acquire and sell the assets claiming the plans are "commercially sensitive."

The plans, veiled in secrecy with papers exempt and unavailable to the public on the council’s website, are understood by the Cambrian News to involve the council purchasing a large site in Lampeter using funding acquired via a Welsh Government loan.

It is not known what the intent of the purchase is, or how much the council will pay for the site.

It is also not known whether the discussion is connected to claims from campaigners attempting to safeguard the future of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David campus – reported exclusively in the Cambrian News - that Ceredigion County Council Chief Executive Eifion Evans had registered interest in acquiring that site after courses were axed this year and moved to Carmarthen.

Ceredigion County Council did not respond to questions from the Cambrian News on those claims.

Available meeting papers only say that the “Cabinet’s approval is sought for the acquisition of a new strategic asset for Ceredigion County Council, that aligns with each of Ceredigion County Council’s four Corporate Strategy Goals”, and that the “purchase of the asset will be funded via a Welsh Government loan.”

The paper says that “details of the sale, including the asset and its market value are currently commercially sensitive.”

Cabinet members will also discuss and be asked to sign off on the sale of five residential properties in Aberystwyth after the council received an “offer from a third party”.

The papers do not say where the properties are in the town, but that the offer was “significantly greater than the true value to the authority at present.”

The five properties are all vacant or partially vacant, documents said, and “the offer received is based on the remaining leasehold periods which vary and the desire by the external party to gain vacant possession of the buildings by acquiring the council’s freehold interests.”

“The Council’s interest is therefore diminished until the leases have expired and the freehold values can be realised,” publicly available documents said.

“Accepting the offer proposed, which is significantly greater than the true value to the authority at present and if the capital receipt is invested prudently the income benefits will be forthcoming much earlier than currently and in the future.

“These properties are encumbered due to the terms of existing leases and would be very difficult to place on the open market.”

A report to be put before Cabinet members said the “sale of the assets would represent a significant capital receipt for Ceredigion County Council.”

“There would be several options in relation to the future use of the associated capital receipts if approval is obtained to progress the deal,” the report added.

“Ultimately, the capital realised would be available to be reinvested into the council’s capital programme.”

While details of the sale - including the asset, its market value and the offer price – have been kept under wraps by the council for being “commercially sensitive”, documents said that “the offer, in the view of the assets team, represents good value for money.”

“The negotiations considered the condition of the properties, existing tenants, open market values of similar properties and for dealing with the properties as one transaction,” public documents said.