Ups and Downs of Heeley Road Sale
The latest turn of events at Heeley road has left Fylde Borough Council with a dilemma.
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The latest turn of events at Heeley road has left Fylde Borough Council with a dilemma and an opportunity as the sale leaves a hole in plans to provide supported accommodation for the homeless but also increases capital funds available for other projects.
This week, Town Manor Developments honoured their agreement to secure a deposit on the sale of the site on Heeley road after they requested an extension to their payment deadline. The site was to be sold to Muir Housing as part of a scheme that would fulfil the Council’s responsibility as a provider of accommodation for the homeless. The site will now be developed by Town Manor Developments once the sale is complete later in May.
A spokes person for the Council said “The developers will now have the opportunity to build what they like on the site as long as they go through the relevant planning permissions. However this leaves us with a dilemma of where else we might be able to find a site to build the scheme we had planned with Muir. There is still a need to deliver this much needed accommodation.”
“We have a statutory obligation to provide this type of supported accommodation and with the economic downturn more and more people are at risk of losing their homes so the demand for such accommodation could increase. We therefore need to be seeking alternative sites that could be developed in the same way as proposed for the Heeley Road site, ideally in the same general area. However, this may take some time but officers will be working to fill this gap as soon as possible.”
On the flip side the sale of the land has resulted in greater capital funding. Initially the sale would have generated £250,000 of capital funding that the Council had set for various programmes such as the refurbishment of existing assets or for regeneration projects. The sale has boosted this pot of money by an extra £150,000 meaning more can now be done.
The spokesperson continued: “Now we have more money in the pot, a review of the proposed programmes can be undertaken with a view to make the most of these new capital resources.”
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