Fury at buildings left undeveloped

THE Government blocked a bid by Halton Council to buy a Department For Education (DfE) building in Runcorn whose controversial closure ejected hundreds of jobs from the town, the Weekly News can reveal.

Cllr Rob Polhill, leader of the local authority, revealed the attempt had been made as he added his voice to a chorus of unease over three monolithic empty offices ‘blighting our areas’ in the same neighbourhood.

He said the council tried to buy Castle View House, which Land Registry deeds show was later sold to private buyer Craig Blackwell And Consortium for £900,000 with planning permission then granted to Rally Century Ltd to convert into 188 flats, 77 of them ‘studio apartments’.

Nearly a year has passed since councillors opted not to oppose the plans.

The DfE claimed that closing the office would save it £500,000 a year.

However, the building is one of three in the immediate area with planning permissions in place for 700 flats, many ‘studio’ style.

The other projects are at East Lane House (ELH) and Grosvenor House with neither resulting in completed homes ready for sale despite them receiving the go-ahead more than a year ago and being earmarked as part of the NHS Healthy New Towns scheme, which was backed by Halton Council and was based on creating urban environments specialised to deal with health challenges such as dementia and obesity.

He said it seemed that ‘one government department isn’t talking to another’.

Cllr Polhill said that having a dense concentration of vacant derelict buildings was ‘depressing’ and at odds with Healthy New Town goals.

He added that the rated values of the types of properties permitted under the plans would be exempt from paying council tax even if they went ahead.

In November, the lack of progress to develop at ELH prompted Halton Lea ward Cllr Dave Thompson to write an highly critical letter to planning minister Gavin Barwell.

Cllr Polhill said the council predicted such problems might arise because of a lack of demand for onebed studio flats but had its hands tied by rules relating to applications to convert offices into homes and the block on the council buying Castle View House.

He said: “We always knew this would happen – they’ve got permitted development rights to convert offices into flats. And the Government gave them the right.

“We had big concerns over that. First of all, how serious are the developers?

“They come in and say they’re very serious but it never materialises.

“They come in and put it on the market to make a quick profit when they see there’s work to do.”

He added: “We don’t think there’s a demand for this kind of studio flats.

“We’re not in that business, we have to go by the rules but we are very concerned that these are blighting our areas.

“We have written to the Government.”

Attempts were made to contact owners and project applicants.

The Weekly News contacted Graham Evans, MP for Weaver Vale, which includes Halton Lea ward, for comment.

A spokesman for Mr Evans said it was ‘primarily’ a local authority matter.

The Weekly News also contacted the Department For Communities And Local Government for comment.