Council in talks over buying back Shrewsbury land wrongly sold for development
Lawyers acting for Shrewsbury Town Council are in talks with the owners of a piece of land wrongly sold for development with the aim of buying it back, its leader has confirmed.
The authority has set aside £614,000 for the re-purchase of part of Greenfields Recreation Ground, after a drawn-out legal battle ended earlier this year with the planning permission for homes to be built on the site being quashed by the Supreme Court.
The update was given at a meeting on Monday evening, after questions were raised about the apparent lack of progress and where any extra money would come from if it was required.
The land was sold for £550,000 in 2017 and the council pledged last June to buy it back, but, after taking legal advice, voted to wait until after the Supreme Court ruling to start negotiations.
Councillor Rob Wilson said he was “increasingly concerned about the lack of concrete news” and asked if a written report could be prepared ahead of the next meeting.
Council leader Alan Mosley said: “I can report that our solicitor and the developer’s solicitor have exchanged letters.
“Their solicitor has indicated a way forward and our solicitors have indicated a way forward.
“In view of the nature of those communications, I can’t say anything further.
“Our solicitor has also written to other people that were involved in the whole process and we are awaiting some replies to some questions that we have raised.”
Councillor Wilson asked if there was a timescale, but Councillor Mosley said there was not.
He said: “It depends how deep and how difficult those discussions are.”
Councillor Wilson also asked if any thought had gone into how additional costs would be met, if the re-purchase and legal fees exceeded the £614,000 budget.
Councillor Mosley said: “We have got what we have got at the moment. Clearly if there are additional costs that are going to be incurred as a result of the re-purchase, we would have to consider that under the usual process.”
He added: “We are planning to issue a newsletter to the residents of Greenfields with a synopsis of what has happened, and it reaffirms our commitment to re-purchase which we have said ever since the Court of Appeal.”
Councillor Alex Phillips, who represents the Bagley ward which includes the park, asked if “some of the more short-term” matters affecting the park could also be addressed, such as tidying the area up and arranging for interim access until the land is legally back in the council’s hands.
Councillor Mosley said this could cause issues around who would be liable if anyone got injured, but council officers said they would look into it.
The land was sold in 2017 for £550,000, but a judicial review brought by Dr Peter Day and Greenfields Community Group found it had failed to establish the legal status of the land as a public park before doing so.
The row ended in a sensational win for the campaigners at the Supreme Court earlier this year, when the planning permission was finally quashed.
The town council has apologised for its failings and put new procedures in place to ensure a similar mistake does not happen again.
