Agenda item

To consider whether to remove 25 areas of land from the Property Dealing Procedure in accordance with the list attached at Appendix A and to further consider the remaining 44 listed at Appendix B, following an initial review of the previous 69 areas of land over which the Property Dealing Procedure was initiated in July 2022.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)   approves the list of 25 sites put forward at Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.1) and hereby removes them from the Property Dealing Procedure based on their current status as safeguarded open space in the Local Plan;

(b)   in respect of the remaining 44 sites, as set out in Appendix B to that report, agrees to also remove them from the Property Dealing Procedure to enable resources to be allocated to other corporate projects requiring asset support; and

(c)   requests over time, when resources are available, that an assessment of the sites in Appendix B be undertaken by Officers with the Portfolio Holder for Assets to determine which ones, on a case by case basis, should be proposed for disposal to obtain a capital receipt or retained for council housing, with individual decisions.

Earlier on in the meeting as detailed under Minute 24 above, Councillor Chapman BEM had declared an interest in agenda item 9 (report A.1) insofar as it referred to plots of land in Brightlingsea and that she was a Ward Member for Brightlingsea.

Cabinet considered a detailed report of the Assets Portfolio Holder (A.1), to decide whether to remove 25 areas of land from the Property Dealing Procedure in accordance with the list attached at Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report and to further consider the remaining 44 listed at Appendix B to that report, following an initial review of the previous 69 areas of land over which the Property Dealing Procedure had been initiated in July 2022.

Cabinet was reminded that, as part of the rationalisation of the Council’s assets and in order to help address both the housing need in Tendring, as well as supporting the Council’s financial position, 69 separate areas had been identified and the Property Dealing Procedure initiated over them by Cabinet in July 2022 in order for them to be considered further. 

The Portfolio Holder for Assets had reviewed each of the pieces of land previously identified and certain areas had now been put forward to be removed from the Property Dealing Procedure.  Whilst the decision both to initiate the Property Dealing Procedure and to end that procedure would usually be a Portfolio Holder decision, due to the large number of areas identified and their potential scale and impact, the previous decision in July 2022 had been referred to Cabinet.  It was only right therefore that this decision to remove land from under the Property Dealing Procedure was also put before Cabinet.

Members were aware that the Council’s current Corporate Plan recognised the Cabinet’s priority to champion the local environment both creating and maintaining good quality and useable space for communities.  With this in mind, the initial evaluation of the 69 areas had looked at which ones were designated as safeguarded open space in the current Local Plan and the Portfolio Holder’s recommendation was to remove these 25 from the Property Dealing Procedure and retain them as green space for the present time.

Cabinet was informed that this would leave 44 areas of land that were still subject to the Property Dealing Procedure to be evaluated.  Cabinet’s priorities for this assessment were necessary to determine specifically the desired outcome.  The three main options were:-

1.   Capital receipt – identify the ones that could be sold with outline planning permission for development and bring one off funding into the Council to support other priorities;

2.   Council houses – identify the ones that could be developed or retained for potential development in the future;

3.   Do nothing – place resources into other projects and areas and also remove these 44 sites from the Property Dealing Procedure. This wouldn’t negate the previous work carried out and the Property Dealing Procedure could be initiated over individual sites in the future.

In order to:-

(i)     reduce the number of sites currently the subject of the Property Dealing Procedure in order to focus resource on evaluating those that remain; and

(ii)    set the Cabinet’s priorities for further assessment in order to efficiently reduce capacity required within limited resources;

It was moved by Councillor Kotz, seconded by Councillor Barry and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    approves the list of 25 sites put forward at Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.1) and hereby removes them from the Property Dealing Procedure based on their current status as safeguarded open space in the Local Plan;

(b)    in respect of the remaining 44 sites, as set out in Appendix B to that report, agrees to also remove them from the Property Dealing Procedure to enable resources to be allocated to other corporate projects requiring asset support; and

(c)   requests over time, when resources are available, that an assessment of the sites in Appendix B be undertaken by Officers with the Portfolio Holder for Assets to determine which ones, on a case by case basis, should be proposed for disposal to obtain a capital receipt or retained for council housing, with individual decisions.