Developer buys Manor Vale Depot at auction (From Gazette & Herald)

Developer buys Manor Vale Depot in Kirkbymoorside at auction

11:56am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News By Trevor Hayes

THE Manor Vale Depot in Kirkbymoorside was bought at auction last week by a buyer from Leeds who hopes to obtain planning permission for eight houses.

It is understood she paid about £155,000 for the site which was put up for sale by North Yorkshire County Council with a guide price of about £100,000.

She outbid an attempt by a local resident, who has not been named, who was prepared to buy the site in the interests of the local community.

Before the sale, members of Kirkbymoorside Town Council expressed their annoyance over the way the sale of the former county highways depot had been handled.

They claimed they were not properly informed by North Yorkshire County Council of its decision to put the site up for auction – a claim disputed by the county council – and that when they did find out about it there was little time left to take appropriate action.

Before the auction, the county council had been negotiating with a private buyer and a price of £175,000 had been mentioned, but that deal fell through after months of talks.

The town council had acknowledged that it did not have the funds available to buy the site itself but a local person had come forward offering to do so.

The town’s mayor, Coun Chris Dowie, said she was “very disappointed” at the outcome but thanked the local person for their efforts.

She attended the auction in Leeds with Coun Joe Coughlan and the local bidder.

It looked as if the local bidder would be successful until the Leeds bidder put in a last minute bid for the 1.4 acre site.

Concerns were expressed at an extraordinary meeting of the town council last week, just before the sale, by residents about the implications of any sale as there is a right of way through it to Kirkbymoorside Golf Club and nearby huts are used by the award-winning local brass band and the Scouts.

The band is concerned that if permission is granted for housing, anyone moving there might object to the sound of the band during rehearsals.

Coun Dowie and County Coun Val Arnold contacted the county council to see if it would agree to withdraw the auction and instead negotiate the issue with the town council, but the county council declined to do so because of the expense and time already incurred.

At the special town council meeting, concerns centred on reports of environmental pollution and that asbestos was present.

Coun David Turlington slammed the county council for being “disingenuous to the population of the town.

“It is appalling the way they have left this detritus to the town”.

Several years ago, the county council applied for planning permission for 10 houses but this was turned down by the district council and by a Government planning inspector when it went to appeal.

A website for the auction states that a development drawback provision will apply for up to 30 years and that if planning permission is granted which increases its market value then half of the increase would be payable to the vendor within six months of the permission being granted.