Letter: Would the Council Be Able to Purchase the North Street Site?

Published on: 5 Sep, 2023
Updated on: 5 Sep, 2023

A developer’s view of how the North Street frontage of the Friary Quarter could look.

From: Ben Paton

In response to: Letters From R4GV Members Concern Me

I thank Robin Horsley for the link in his letter to the Lib Dem commentary, which I have studied.

The relevant statement made by the Lib Dems on their website is: “If the developer loses their appeals, or decides to give up on the site and walk away, then the council would have the right to buy the North Street site for its market value. If that happened the council would then have to either pay to develop the site itself or find a buyer to develop the site on its behalf. This process would likely take at least one or two years.”

The Lib Dem statement does not make it clear whether the council has a contractual right to buy the entire site from St Edward ie a right of preemption with priority over any other possible buyer.

If the borough council has a contractual preemption right it might be in a legal position to force St Edward to sell the site to it. That is what Mr Horsley implied in his comments.

But if there is no legal right of preemption then the council is not in any position to force St Edward either to sell the site to it or to develop the site itself.

Either way, it is misleading for the Lib Dems to write “the council would then have to either pay to develop the site itself or find a buyer to develop the site on its behalf”.

It is more likely than not that the council does not “have … to pay to develop the site”. The council probably does not “have to” do anything. Moreover, given its financial position the council is not in a position to do anything. There’s a significant risk that the council’s finances will be taken over by central government. In that circumstance, local councillors’ views (and those of local residents) may rank rather low in the pecking order.

Nor would any developer be developing the site “on behalf of the council”. The legal and commercial reality is that any owner of the site (or strictly c 85 per cent of the site) will be in a position to call the shots and will inevitably act in its own best interests and not the council’s.

Given the “viability” rules, it does not appear that the council has any power to force a developer to build a higher proportion of “affordable” flats – not that affordable flats do anything to solve the substantive problem – the lack of social (aka “council”) housing.

Does the council have any preemption rights? The public should be informed. Neither the Lib Dems nor Mr Horsley have clarified whether this is so.

Mr Horsley appears to have uncritically repeated (not quoted) what he has read or learned from the Lib Dem website without carrying out a critical analysis of his own.

If the council has no preemption rights the proposition that the council could develop the site itself is at best tendentious and at worst false and misleading.

Responses to Letter: Would the Council Be Able to Purchase the North Street Site?

David Smith Reply

September 6, 2023 at 7:06 am

I think the council has demonstrated that they are unable to develop sites independently and in a timely manner. How long has the Guildford Park Road site been empty now?
Wayne Smith Reply

September 6, 2023 at 8:08 pm

Ben Paton writes: “Mr Horsley appears to have uncritically repeated (not quoted) what he has read or learned from the Lib Dem website without carrying out a critical analysis of his own.”

Yet in his recent letter to The Guildford Dragon: Letters from R4GV Members Concern Me
https://guildford-dragon.com/letter-letters-from-r4gv-members-concern-me/#comment-354773

Mr Horsley says: “I went to great lengths during my campaign to ensure that I evidenced all the information I conveyed and to ensure that I was campaigning on a sound legal basis.”

Are we to conclude that his evidence checking goes as far as – it’s on the Lib Dem website, therefore that’s good enough for me?
- Robin Horsley Reply
  
  September 7, 2023 at 12:37 pm
  
  What makes Wayne Smith think the Lib Dems are lying? I haven’t seen the contract – I gather it is “commercially sensitive” but I think that’s questionable.
  - Wayne Smith Reply
    
    September 7, 2023 at 7:59 pm
    
    I don’t have any evidence that the Lib Dems are lying but Mr Horsley is the one who’s portraying himself as the saviour of Guildford and has stated that he went to great lengths to ensure that the information he conveyed was evidenced. Without sight of the contract how did he “evidence” that particular statement?
    
    I suppose we should actually be reassured that he hasn’t had sight of the contract because that would raise an awful lot of questions.
  - Ben Paton Reply
    
    September 8, 2023 at 12:07 pm
    
    Mr Smith did not say that the Lib Dems were lying. Mr Horsley puts “thoughts” into other people’s heads – and then implicitly criticises them for thoughts they have never had. That’s what the “Thought Police” do.
    
    As for the reliability of political statements it is generally accepted that these should not necessarily be taken at face value.
    
    A good example in Guildford is the Lib Dems’ declaration that they will be build 3,000 social houses. There’s no law against dreaming the impossible dream. But equally there’s no presumption that the electorate has to believe everything at face value.