Legal bid to halt £1.6m sale

A solicitor will be employed to check whether there are any additional covenants or restrictions which would prevent or restrict development on or the sale on High Street.

The Community and Business Centre, which is owned by Wyre Council, is currently up for sale.

Preferred developer Keyworker Homes North West has already made a £1.6m bid on the site.

But the Town Council has unanimously backed Coun Alan Cornthwaite’s call for legal advice. They agreed to allocate up to £1,000 – which they estimated to be the cost of five days’ legal work – from monies previously set aside for the Centre.

It is the latest twist in the long running saga of what will happen to the Community and Business Centre, which is owned by Wyre Council and is up for sale.

The Community and Business Centre is located in the former Wyre and previously Garstang Rural District Council offices. It is currently the home of Garstang Town Council.

In a report to the Town Council Coun Cornthwaite noted: “The Town Council has received, from Wyre Borough Council, various deeds and plans relating to the council offices and car park.

“I believe it would be in the best interests of both the Town Council and the community charge payers of Garstang to seek independent legal advice on the deeds and plans received to ascertain if there are any covenants or other restrictions which may prevent and/or restrict the sale and/or development of the council offices and car park. Additionally the Town Council should also ascertain that there are no other deeds in existence which relate to the land, in particular any deeds pre-dating the ones we have received from Wyre Borough Council.”

There was stormy debate earlier in the meeting over the future use of the Centre site and parking with some local residents still hopeful it could be retained for community use.

There has been a hold up in the developer submitting plans for public consultation and Wyre Council approval because of the existence of two covenants affecting access rights to the site.

It has also delayed Wyre Council’s planned allocation of £150,000 to the proposed new Community hub at St Thomas’s part finished church hall, with a decision on the cash transfer now deferred to September 9.