Residents kept in the dark over council land sale

By Andy_Perkins | Thursday, November 10, 2011, 14:29

A local council has come under fire for selling off land without telling residents who are most affected. South Gloucestershire Council is selling a number of pieces of land by auction on 16th November. However, councillors in Kingswood have criticised the move after they discovered that the Council was proceeding with the sale of a garage site at Court Road and a piece of land at Wedmore Close without telling local residents.

Councillors Gareth Manson, Andy Perkins and Pat Rooney (Labour, Woodstock) said they had received calls from bemused residents who had found "For Auction" signs erected by a firm of auctioneers. They said;

"The Council formally decided to sell the garages as a going concern and land at Wedmore Close earlier this year. However, in neither case has the Council informed residents who neighbour the site or rent the garages from the Council."

South Gloucestershire Council had ruled out redeveloping the garage site at Court Road for housing 4 years ago. As part of that process, garages tenants had been consulted but since then tenants had heard nothing.

The councillors added;

"We assumed that when the Council proceeded with the sale of the garages that the tenants would be informed again as a matter of courtesy. However, that hasn't happened so we have insisted that letters are written."

At Wedmore Close, where the Council is intending to sell a small piece of land, the councillors had asked that neighbouring residents should be informed;

The councillors added;

"We felt that it was only fair that local residents should be told so that they didn't find out about the sale too late to bid for the land themselves. Despite our requests no letters were written and residents only found out again when "For Auction" boards were put up."

The councillors have complained to the Council's Deputy Chief Executive who has promised to look into the matter.

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Comments

in the World wide mess everyone is in at the moment no it's not a huge story marcus but just step back a bit and put yourself in those people shoes. What if there was council land next to you and you woke up one day to find for sale signs, imagine the mess/noise and the anger at not being told what is going on.

Andy, don't suppose it's worth chris skidmore being told this not many column inches in some council land being sold off.

By king1and at 19:18 on 13/11/11
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Is this really much of a story? I can pretty much support Becky Feather's sentiments above. Hopefully Mr Perkins will realise that it's the fake outrage over minor things like this that puts people off politics. Just looks like political point scoring to most of us as it clearly is a political point that is being made.

By marcusykings at 17:39 on 11/11/11
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I guess that there is no legal obligation on the council to notify neighbouring residents that they are selling off these scraps of land? I agree that people living next to these 'greens' should be offered first refusal. Realistically what could a developer do with the land, bearing in mind planning laws? Perhaps the council is following the advice of Eric Pickles, the Communites Secretary, who in the summer told the public sector to take a "good hard look at what they own" and sell off assets to avoid cuts? £2,000 here and there adds up.

By BeckyFeather at 16:44 on 10/11/11
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I guess the best and only thing that you can do here Andy is get some letters written and knock on those doors in the area. Gotta be a good political move...

Here's some of the sites going to auction... one has to feel sorry for the people living here
http://tinyurl.com/7r8cw46

By Richard34 at 15:01 on 10/11/11
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Without trying to make a political point, I think the fact that SGC is selling off all of these bits of land shows the extent to which cuts in funding from central government is affecting local councils.

There is no parish council in Kingswood and the local Area Forum doesn't have the power to deal with these things. [This may change in the future depending on the how government's so-called Localism agenda pans out, but only time will tell].

In so far as alerting local residents is concerned, we asked for people in neighbouring properties to be alerted so that a) they didn't wonder what was going on when a 'For Auction' board went up but also so that b) they had the opportunity of raising finance to buy the land themselves (if they were able) and were on a bit of a more level playing field with developers.

No advanced warning was given by the Council and I was told this very morning that the Council's idea of alerting local residents is for the auction house to put up a 'For Auction' board.

That is how SGC is treating its residents. Disgraceful.

By Andy_Perkins at 14:52 on 10/11/11
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