Lichfield Council to hand over more than £100k to developer

Thursday, 13th May 2021

MORE than £100,000 of taxpayers’ money is set to be handed over to a developer by a Staffordshire council as part of an agreement to cancel a contract.

Lichfield District Council’s leader has admitted mistakes were made when the authority’s previous administration agreed to sell off public open space at Leyfields and Netherstowe to Bromford Housing without consulting residents first.

Plans were put forward to build affordable homes on the open spaces. But dozens of people objected to the land disposals, for reasons including loss of green space, too much development in the district and the impact of more homes on existing infrastructure

Now the council’s cabinet has agreed to cancel the land sale contract with Bromford. It has also recommended to the full council that planning application fees of more than £13,000 should be refunded and a further payment of more than £103,000 be made to Bromford.

Council leader Doug Pullen, speaking at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, said: “Back in 2018 the-then cabinet decided to sell two sections of public open space to Bromford for affordable housing.

“In September 2020 I raised the issue of lack of public consultation regarding that decision with our chief executive, who agreed the former cabinet ought to have been informed at the time by the relevant officer of the requirement under the Local Government Act 1972 to undertake a meaningful consultation prior to any disposal of public open space taking place. That requirement was not brought to their attention and a contract was subsequently entered into with Bromford.

“This cabinet has been clear that selling off public open space for housing is not our desired course of action, and indeed we have prevented other such sites from coming forward. However, a contract was signed by an officer, based on that cabinet decision in 2018.

“Given the lack of meaningful public consultation and this cabinet’s desire not to pursue the sale of public open spaces for housing, I am bringing forward this evening four recommendations, which will delegate authority to finalise the agreement with Bromford which will cancel the contract in its entirety, meaning no houses will be built on Leyfields and Netherstowe. These recommendations will reimburse Bromford for their reasonable costs and will amend the MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy).

“As well as cancelling the contract, a number of other key actions are taking place, including an external investigation. We’re also determining if a claim is possible under our professional indemnity insurance, we have already drafted a disposal policy to ensure correct processes are followed in the future for such transactions and a further cabinet report will come here to detail how we will prevent such issues occurring in the future.

“Mistakes have been made. The lack of public consultation has led to distress for members of our community, we’ve wasted time, money and energy for ourselves and our valued partner and our residents.

“As an organisation – and personally – this is deeply and genuinely regretted. We’ve dealt with this now openly and transparently and drawn a line under it.”

A Google Street View Image Of The Land At Netherstowe Lichfield District Council Has Agreed To Dispose Of

A Google street view image of the land at Netherstowe that Lichfield District Council has agreed to dispose of.

Deputy leader Iain Eadie said: “I fully recognise the points you have made, that in essence this cabinet does not want to see properties built on public open space.

“The decision that we came to comes at a cost to the council, both in terms of money and the time and effort that has gone into it. It also comes at an impact for the district in terms of the homes that would have come forward.

“We’re looking to draw a line under it and learn lessons. How do we ensure that a situation such as this does not happen again?”

Cabinet members were told that work was taking place internally to make sure processes and governance “don’t fall over in such a way again”.

Councillor Andrew Smith, the cabinet member for innovation, commercialisation and corporate services, said: “I find this extremely regrettable and extremely unacceptable that we are in this position. However, I can see that we are in a position where this is very much our only real option to move forwards.”