CPOs may be needed to buy land for £33m business park

COUNCILLORS will be asked to approve drawing up and implementation of a Compulsory Purchase Order in order to secure land for a key £33.1 million business park near Brighouse.

So far the major owner and a minor owner of land which will be needed to develop Clifton Business Park – one of a number of Leeds City Region Growth Dean Enterprise Zones along the M62 corridor – are unwilling to sell their property in line with estimates, briefing papers for Calderdale Council Cabinet papers say.

But with the Clifton proposals heading to final business case status with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority – which will release cash to deliver the business park and future business rates income – an order needs to be prepared to enable the land to be compulsorily purchased if no deal can be reached.

The scheme, for land at Clifton Common, off Wakefield Road and close to Junction 25 of the M62 motorway, is seen by the council as key to increasing business growth in Calderdale.

Cabinet members will also be asked to approve an associated Side Roads Order to allow alteration of accesses to parts of the site, the realignment and improvement of highway and creation of new roads when they meet at Halifax Town Hall next Monday (March 16, from 6pm).

Councillors are asked to make the change subject to written confirmation of support from the combined authority. According to the briefing papers, there are three identifiable land interests, of which by far the largest is a company called Wharfedale Limited, who previously traded as Wharfedale Finance, who own almost 97 per cent of the land which would be subject to the order.

A final valuation report will be presented to Cabinet when it meets but two valuations, in line with relevant professional standards and including an independent valuation which took place in January, have given the land a value of £685,000.

To date, says the report, “despite the council’s repeated genuine efforts to engage in a commercial dialogue with the majority landowner in order to acquire the site on a consensual basis, the majority landowner still remains unwilling to sell the site for a price reflecting market value, even with a modest uplift.”

The report says that one of the other two parties, who owns just short of an acre of the site has also confirmed their objection to the selling of their land unless a significant figure is proposed, including other property in their ownership.

The third party involved is open to negotiate a deal for their land, says the report, and around 0.8 acres of land involved is “unknown without title” in terms of ownership.

With a number of funding sources covering some of the costs, including the combined authority’s granting late last year of £3.15 million to progress the scheme’s case to final business case stage, the council itself will prudentially borrow around £26 million towards the scheme which is estimated to come it at around £33.1 million when finished.