Agenda item

Councillor Melvin Wallace, Cabinet Member for Culture & Community Engagement, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that the Assets of Community Value provisions in the Localism Act 2011 had come into force on 21^st September 2012. Since that time, local groups had had the right to nominate land or buildings (in any ownership) as assets of community value, provided that they met certain criteria.  Details of the scheme were set out in the report.

The Council had not, as yet, received any nominations and had accordingly not had to maintain a list of decisions.  In January 2015, however, the Leader had received a letter from the then MP Stephen Williams requesting that the Council added accessible information to its website about these community rights including how to make a nomination.  In order to do this the Council needed to put in place procedures and delegations, as set out in the report, to administer the scheme.

The provisions of the legislation were in two main parts – nominating and listing assets and the provisions concerning a proposed sale.  The Act also made provision for compensation to be paid to the property owner if losses or expenses were incurred as a result of the Listing.

The legislation aimed to provide an opportunity for local community groups to be informed when an important local amenity/building came up for sale and to provide an opportunity for local people to organise themselves so that they could bid to purchase the property - potentially preventing the loss of a facility that was considered important to that community.

It was proposed that the scheme be administered by Officers of the Council as it was highly procedural in nature.

Reasons for the decision:

The requirement to manage this process was set out in the Localism Act 2011 and the Council needed to have processes in place to handle requests as and when they were submitted..

Alternative Options Considered

Alternative delegation arrangements had been considered. This included delegating power to the Director of Asset Management Services to make decisions on listing etc. but this was not proposed as there could be a potential conflict of interest if a nomination were to be made in respect of Council land.

Cabinet:

1.            Approved the Council’s proposed approach to the implementation of the assets of community value provisions in the Localism Act 2011, as outlined in the report.

2.            Authorised the Group Director, Communities and Resources to implement those sections of the Localism Act (as set out in the report) which related to the determination of all applications submitted to the Council in accordance with the approved scheme, all reviews requested by property owners whose properties were approved for inclusion in the List of Assets of Community Value and in relation to claims for compensation.

3.            Authorised the Director of Asset Management Services to administer the compensation scheme associated with assets of community value.