Tomorrow evening(14th Oct) the Tory run Town Council will continue with their "what shall we do with this piece of land?" saga.
The story so far?
The previous Town Council had rejected purchase of this piece of land to the rear of the Town Hall due to all the rights of way across it. This Council bought it for over £300,000, borrowing the money over 50years, so there is a land cost of £750,000 before any build costs are added.
What is worse, is they had no idea what to use it for at the time. They did not research the planning conditions on it of which one is an archeological dig.It was totally speculative. It is being used as car parking for staff at present.
Since then: they have drawn a list of possible options with number 1 being an extension to the Town Hall for offices, just in case, we might get more powers under the Local Government Review but there is no guarantee of this.
I suggested that affordable housing should be provided on the site as it has planning permission for flats to be built on it. There is a clear need in the Town too. The Tories decided this should be preference number 3!
At Council, the recommendation from their committtee is to postpone a decision till we know the outcome of the Local Government Review in Febuary. If they had delayed the purchase, I wonder what price we would have got it for now in the current climate!
The taxpayer is still paying a 5 figure sum each year, on the loan, till a purpose is found.
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