Egbert Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 Is Eric Pickles right to demand that councils publish a list of all the property they own... and if they do, are we likely to be surprised at some of the property Warrington Borough Council owns? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlady54 Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 Quite possibly! If we pay our council tax then we should have the right to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 I'm a bit twitchy now after reading about it here http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/05/councils-publish-lists-assets It says "Councils and other public bodies in England will be forced to publish lists of assets they own - from sports grounds and bingo halls to pubs and cafes - showing which can be sold to save money and protect day-to-day services from cuts. It wants new public registers of such property in the latest stage of government plans to make councils work harder to justify their council tax levels, save public money and open up opportunities for community organisations to buy land and buildings and secure more sites for new homes. It also says that "the communities department has developed a website on which council tax payers can identify some of the 180,000 assets listed so far." Go to this link http://publicassets.communities.gov.uk/ type in 'Warrington' and it shows all the current ones listed on a map and you can click to 'pins' to see details of buildings/land owned by the various Public Sector Organisations in the area. It's a demonstration wesite but does hold live data although no entries for many of the actual council owned buildings/land as such yet. I was very suprised to see how much of Appleton is owned by the Homes And Communities Agency though (they are orange) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlady54 Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 I wonder if those properties are the ones that used to be owned by the Defense people for housing service people? I know they owned a lot of the properties on the Cobbs because of the airfield etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 It's not simples - we've had an example in the private care sector, of an organisation "selling off it's assets" then renting them back. Ownership (of land) for example, provides the ultimate and most effective form of planning control, and an astute Council could make £ions with a land management strategy, by aquiring (ransom strips for example) and selling at a profit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 I wonder if those properties are the ones that used to be owned by the Defense people for housing service people? I know they owned a lot of the properties on the Cobbs because of the airfield etc. I zoomed in and the Homes and Community 'pins' seem to mainly be on areas of land and roads rather than actual homes and a lot of the houses round here are new anyway. I'm confused for the 3rd time in one day now, I knew I shouldn't have looked Pitty there isn't a satelite view on the map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 Obs.. haven't our council recently sold quite a lot of their random strips of land at auction for not a lot of money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 Probably - I did use the word "astute" Council though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 ahh yes... sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 We'd all be a fair bit richer if WBC hadn't just gifted over a billion pounds worth of taxpayer built property - and the land it sits on - to their cronies at Golden Gates Housing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 Personally I can't see the point in the council owning a golf course when there is a private one across the road..... maybe selling off the golf course to a builder would generate loads of dosh plus a regular income from the additional poll tax! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 A point which we could apply to ALL sports - including RL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 I'm a tad confused YET AGAIN. The Haliwell Jones Stadioum is down as being Warrington PTC, fair enough as I knew they had something to do with it. But all that I believed to be council owned such as leisure centres are down as 'sport england .org) as are places like Victoria Park, Bank Park, Part of William Beaumont Community School sports facility etc etc etc etc etc.... infact most things marked as blue are. So do WBC council actually still own these building and/or areas of land in reality or what Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 Perhaps they've already sold them on, on the QT or it's somekind of creative accounting?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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