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| Town Hall admits land sale ‘cock-up’
at estate |
THE Town Hall has said it has no intention of buying back land
at a Highbury council estate which was sold off by mistake.
A leaked email of correspondence between senior Highbury East Lib
Dem councillors Terry Stacy and Laura Willoughby reveals a senior
council officer’s fears that it would have cost Islington Council
a “grossly inflated” figure to buy back the land at the
Parkview estate.
Part of the estate was sold in error by the Town Hall for a sum
believed to be about £100,000 when the deeds were included
in the sale of an adjacent piece of land.
The unnamed developer who bought the land is now said to be asking
at least £200,000 for the plot.
In the emails Cllr Stacy says the council should admit the mistake
– described by him as a “cock up” – and adds
that “we should also offer to fund something else on the estate”.
The email includes correspondence with assistant director of property
services David Lewis, who wrote on August 30: “The position
here is that following negotiations it became apparent that the
new owner has a grossly inflated view of the land that we wanted
to repurchase (circa £200k).”
Brian Potter, chairman of Islington Leaseholders’ Forum said:
“I’m worried about the quality of a council that can cut
down the wrong trees, sell property it shouldn’t be selling
off and allow consultation to be reduced to zero. It worries me
about what they intend to do next.”
Cllr Stacy said yesterday (Thursday): “It was a mistake. The
piece of land on the Parkview estate shouldn’t have been sold.
We have thoroughly investigated how this happened and put in place
mechanisms to make sure this never happens again.
“We will be making improvements to the estate and discussing
with residents what can be done to compensate for the loss of this
land.”
The millions raised from the sale of the two parcels of land at
the estate would be used to improve council housing, he added.
The Tribune has learned that £40,000 due to be spent on a
football pitch on Parkview estate has been cut to £20,000. |
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