Ealing Council has defended its decision to secretly purchase a former YMCA building for £1.7m.

The Bond Street building is adjacent to the Empire Cinema site, the development of which has stalled for over a year.

The decision to purchase the site was made at a Cabinet meeting in January, but was kept secret until this week, when news of the deal leaked out.

Residents’ groups were angered by the timing of the purchase, as the development team were in Cannes selling council buildings, including a number of community centres.

Vice Chair of West Ealing Neighbours, Eric Leach, said: "It seems extraordinary to be buying property."

Council Leader Julian Bell, however, defended the move.

"This is a key town centre site which has been boarded up for months. The council bought the site to improve access between Bond Street and the sites further along the Uxbridge Road, including the cinema site," he said.

"In the short term the council can use the site of the former YMCA as an active shop front.

"The site acquisition could prove to be crucial in unlocking the Empire Cinema site as it increases the development potential."

According to Lib Dem group leader Councillor Gary Malcolm, the Council made the decision in secret and used a third party to buy the site to prevent the price from being driven up.

The cabinet were told that £1.8m would be a ‘good deal’, and all three party leaders agreed to the purchase.

Mr Malcolm said: "It’s very low risk. If you sold it on to anyone, you’d make a profit on that alone, but if there’s a development that’ll push the price up."

However, Empire has so far denied any involvement with the deal, which Mr Malcolm described as a 'negotiating ploy'.

Mr Malcolm said the purchase was a separate issue to the cuts and would be a good deal for Ealing.

"It can do two things at once, make a bit of money and engineer the private company to get off its backside to regenerate central Ealing," he said.