The following report was considered and was submitted with the agreement of the Chairman as an urgent matter pursuant to Section 100B (4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

In accordance with paragraph 17 of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee rules, a requisition signed by two Members representing more than one Group (Councillors Keith Darvill and Jeffery Tucker) had called in a decision of the Cabinet dated 7 November 2012.

Cabinet decided:

1. That thedisused land adjacent to Melville Road Allotments be declared surplus and authorisation be given for a disposal of about 1.53 acres and for the creation of additional allotment plots in respect of about 0.6 acres of land in accordance with the allotment waiting list requirements for the site. The disposal will be subject to obtaining any necessary planning permissions and other consents as appropriate. The Property Strategy Manager in consultation with the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) to be authorised to deal with all matters arising and thereafter to complete the disposal of the site identified. The disposal will be subject to the approval of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

2. To approve the principle that the land should be appropriated for planning purposes subject to the relevant statutory processes and that the Property Strategy Manager, in consultation with the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal & Democratic Services) be authorised to undertake these processes and for the Lead Member for Value to consider any objections received and whether to confirm the appropriation.

The report that Cabinet considered detailed that:

1.1         At various occasions over the last few years Cabinet approval had been given to the disposal of a number of Council owned sites that had been identified as surplus either as a result of specific projects or more general property reviews carried out by Strategic Property Services.

1.2       As the Council had pursued a policy of selling surplus sites for many years it became more difficult to identify new sites for disposal that did not pose challenges, either technically or in terms of planning, and especially in respect of objections to disposal that arise in many cases. Nonetheless, constant and ongoing appraisal of property assets to identify disposal opportunities was a requirement on all local authorities and at Havering was essential in providing capital receipts to fund spending to support and enhance Council services.

1.3       The report identified a site comprising of 2.13 acres of land adjoining Melville Road allotments that had remained unused for 24 years. It was recommended that the site would be re-used in part to extend the adjoining allotment site with the remainder being sold for residential development.

Reasons for Requisition:

The decision was requisitioned for the following reasons:

·         Before making the decision to appropriate land, change its use and dispose for development details of the borough wide and local/ward area demand for allotments (including current waiting lists) should be disclosed in the Cabinet report and be fully taken into account.

·         Subject to consultation with local allotment societies and the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners before such land is deemed surplus and available for disposal alternative community use of the land should be considered and form part of the report to Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member for Value informed the Committee that over the last few years Cabinet had considered several reports that dealt with the results of a number of systematic property reviews and service led projects that identified surplus property assets. As a result of this consideration, approval had been given to a number of property disposals.

The Council’s Asset Management Plan stated that land and property assets would only remain in Council ownership if they:

·         needed to be retained in Council control for the provision of services

·         were of great value to the Council, community and other stakeholders and were in need of the degree of protection from development or other uses afforded only by ownership

·         were investment properties providing a financial return that could fully satisfy relevant investment criteria

 Cabinet had agreed to dispose of the land in order to improve the efficiency of the Council’s portfolio of land and property assets and to generate further capital receipts it was important to ensure that surplus assets continued to be identified for disposal. It was also good practise to appropriate to formally acknowledge a proposed change of use for the site.

The Cabinet Member added that the demand for allotment sites had been taken into consideration as had the length of the allotment waiting list. Twenty new plots would also be created at this site.

The Committee sought and received the following clarification on the process relating to the decision to dispose of the land:

• In response, the Property Strategy Manager informed the Committee that officers and the Hornchurch and District Allotments & Gardening Society Limited who were responsible for the existing allotments had been in discussion on the Council’s plan for the site. He confirmed that there was no other alternative community use for the land.

• In reply to a Member enquiry, it was confirmed that the site to be disposed of was currently not part of the existing allotment. It was not attracting rubbish and was in fact a fenced up and over grown area of “white land”

Following this, the matter was put to a vote. The Committee voted unanimously not to uphold the requisition.