LAND SALE VALUATIONS

THE council shutting out the public and the press, maybe to avoid public scrutiny?

However the press, and the public has a right to know about the discussions rather than a ‘family issue’ of the local Labour Party.

Behind locked doors in the offices of Halton Council these controversial land deals that take place shutting out the public and press, the question must be asked is our local family Labour Party selling off the sites at a discount ?

There is no restriction on asking how much they received for the sale of the land after the sale, and whether they got the right price.

If it was sold for below the market price then the council can be referred to the local government ombudsman, councils are ultimately accountable to their communities for their decisions.

It is therefore important that council meetings are open and can be attended by members of the community not locked out to hide behind commercial sensitivity because we have a right to know that they just don’t want us to.

Of course they might say its for ‘affordable Housing’ which is deemed affordable to those with a median household income, we should beware of our councillors and politicians talking about affordable homes.

New ‘ affordable’ housing is not actually that affordable.

Councils and housing associations have been told to replace social rented housing with a new product called, confusingly, affordable housing, affordable rent, simply not affordable to people on low incomes.

The background to the affordable rent policy is to build more homes for less public money.

Councils and housing associations bidding for funding to develop new affordable homes have to show that they are bringing in other resources to fund housebuilding.

That means selling off valuable land or property. So is the word affordable meaningless?

So what was the price for each plot of land sold and further more what have they spent it on?