Council leader defends sale of abandoned sewage works site for £8,000 despite bid by new owners to build on it
Abandoned garages at a former sewage works site in Murrow were sold at auction off an asking price of £8,000. FDC leader Chris Boden insists they are not suitable for a building plot and denied ratepayers had been 'short changed'. Picture; HARRY RUTTER/FDC - Credit: Archant
Council leader Chris Boden insists Fenland Council was not ‘short changed’ when it sold three abandoned garages off an asking price of £8,000.
Cllr Boden was responding to criticism from a retired property expert that the old Anglian Water treatment works at Murrow could be worth £60,000 as a building plot
The exchange between Cllr Boden and Stephen Hodson, who worked in property for 40 years, is revealed in a series of emails.
It follows confirmation that the purchasers have withdrawn for now an application to build a three-bed home on the site in The Pigeons, Murrow.
Cllr Boden wrote: “Obtaining best value for surplus land held by FDC is especially important for the taxpayer.
You may also want to watch:
“I have ensured, since taking over as leader, that surplus land which is reasonably developable should be sold with outline planning permission so as to maximise sales proceeds.”
He said the land at Murrow did not fall into that category.
Most Read
- 1 Rough sleepers helped from tents pitched on private land
- 2 Frightened cancer patient with Covid relieved as hospital extend stay
- 3 Former Top Gear star Rory Reid spotted filming with Lamborghini
- 4 The Queen Elizabeth Hospital launches Covid-19 patient helpline
- 5 Cops 'cash and carry' raid nets 108 cannabis plants and £100,000
- 6 Council chairman urges people to have Covid-19 vaccine when offered
- 7 Care home 'requires improvement' after unannounced visit
- 8 Coroner records Wisbech teenager’s death as suicide
- 9 Environment Agency seize 52 illegal fishing devices from region’s rivers
- 10 Man charged with drink driving, possession of a knife and cannabis
Cllr Boden said outline permission was not obtained for the former sewage works because the site has a deep well and a drain running through it and access issues.
It was also felt planning would be refused and exploring this further would be an inappropriate use of public funds.
“This [application] withdrawal, however, backs up the reasoning for our selling without the benefit of outline planning permission,” Cllr Boden added.
Proposals for the house were submitted less than a year after the site was sold as being “suitable for garage/parking/amenity use”.
Mr Hodson said: “It seems to me that the rate payers of Fenland have been short changed here.
“Although the present house application has been withdrawn it is likely that a bungalow will be approved.”
He added: “The real value of a plot with planning permission is around £60,000 - quite a lot more than the sale price. Fenland should have at least have obtained outline consent for a plot.”
The new owners – all local – were told by environment officers that one if not all the garages may contain low levels of asbestos”,
Of the visual impact on the street scene as now envisaged “I do not consider that these demonstrate an acceptable character relationship,” a planning officer told them.