Builders in legal ultimatum to Shropshire Council
A building company embroiled in a legal row with Shropshire Council over building a business park has issued an ultimatum to the authority.
Contractor Matrix Construction and developer Redstart Construction built the first 43 units at the Tern Valley Business Park, near Market Drayton, before Shropshire Contract ended their contract this summer and announced it was "exploring its options".
The builders have claimed the council breached their agreement, and Matrix's managing director John Gwilliam said the company has now offered to finish the next phase of the park within an agreed time limit, or else it will pursue legal action against the developer.
James Evans of Halls GB, who has worked with the developers, has described the council's actions as "crazy".
Mr Gwilliam said: "We spoke with one of the council guys from the property department back in March, we showed him what our next intention was in terms of the next set of units – 89 units.
"He didn't say anything negative or anything like that so we took it away and we applied for planning permission. We spent probably £50,000 or thereabouts on the planning fees and our architects' fees.
'Not taking it seriously'
"Then we were told early July that our option to draw this land down had expired and the council didn't want to move forward with it. They said that they'd changed their policy.
"We can't get any answers out of the council as to why they won't extend it.
"We don't actually believe they're taking it seriously.
"We have two options. One is if the council is so minded that we've taken too long to build this, we have offered verbally and we are quite happy to do it legally, that if they allow us to build out [the next phase] in a set timescale, then we would legally be allowed to complete [the following phase].
"Our other option, because we did apply to draw this land down before our original agreement expired, is to go legal with it, and we've taken advice from legal counsel."
He suggested that the builders would be able to finish the next phase of 19,000 square feet of business units within 12 months, if electricity and water are available as agreed.
Shropshire Council has declined to comment. A spokesman said: "Shropshire Council is aware of the concerns raised by Redstart. This is a matter between the two parties and we are not in a position to comment at this time.”
